Has anyone had any experience with hypnosis?

It’s a complex issue. What exactly would you like to know? I’ll try to answer as specifically as possible.

I have issues of self control and procrastination especially in regards to eating right and exercise. Would hypnosis offer any help?

hypnosis can’t make you do anything you’re not willing to do yourself.

It might be helpful in a conscientiously applied program of mental hygiene, and regular mental care.

I was always skeptical whether or not it worked, but one time when I was in my late teens I went to an event with a cousin and his (now ex) wife, and while we were there, we happened upon a hypnotist/comedian doing one of those shows where they pull people out of the audience and make them do outrageous things under hypnosis. I always kind of suspected these things were rigged, they had plants in the audience and such. But my cousin’s wife, who I KNOW was not a plant, was called up on the stage and did all the outrageous things he asked her to do, so I suspect that hypnosis is real, as for how well it works, I can’t say.

@dalepetrie Same thing happened with my college roommate. He got pulled on stage and did all kinds of crazy stuff. He definitely wasn’t a plant. When I asked him about it, he said that he felt an overwhelming compulsion to do whatever he was told.

@drdoombot @dalepetrie The “hypnotist” is simply giving the audience members a somewhat plausible way to remove their own inhibitions. “It’s not me doing it, it’s not my fault”, therefore they’re willing and able to do whatever “outrageous” thing they wouldn’t ordinarily do due to social morals or norms or taboos. He’s not “making” them do anything.

@dalepetrie Same thing happened at my high school grad party. The guy had 20 of my classmates up there doing a bit of everything, and they remembered nothing. One guy was ready to fight another for saying he did some “gay things” and he didn’t remember lol

Back in the 70s, I went to hypnotist for habit breaking. Her method of putting me into the trance included telling me to imagine I was going down an escalator and as I went down I was getting more and more relaxed, and when I got to the bottom, i would be asleep.

The bad offshoot was that for decades after than I could barely stay upright on down escalators. I had to hold on. I felt like I was falling forward and could topple at any minute. It took a long time and a lot of very conscious work to get to where i can go down an escalator normally.

@Facade they remembered everything, I assure you. I participated in one of those things in high school too. I “walked like an Egyptian”. I remember it all. I even remember telling one of the non-hypnotized witnesses that were called on stage “I’m not really hypnotized”. You do it because you’re led to believe nothing you’re doing is your responsibility, and because we have an innate instinct to follow the orders of anyone seeming to be in a position of power.

I’ve been hypnotized, but not in the way you were thinking. This was in psychology class and in front of a crowd of people and I picked up my shoe and answered it thinking it was a phone. It was just…weird…felt like I had gone to sleep and dreamed it because I didn’t really remember what had happened, but people told me I was quite funny. :)

@MrItty

Maybe most people remember it, but for some reason in my case, it was really blurry afterward like I had just woken up from a dream and I remembered doing things in the dream, but it was vague and people had to tell me what had happened to help clear it up.

@MrItty Forgive me if I believe them over you.

@Facade <shrug> You’re welcome to believe anything you want.

@MrItty and @Facade I think whether one remembers of what one remembers is a function of the suggestions given by the hypnotist. It can be either way.

I was hypnotized at a show once… and then made to do embarrassing things. And it was all videotaped! And my mother bought a copy! (sigh)
Anyway, even after the show I still felt a bit weird. When my mom and I went up to the hypnotist after the show he kept looking at me and asking me questions. It took me a while to respond to them and then he snapped his fingers and I was out.
So yeah, it works on some people, but not everyone. You have to be someone who is susceptible to hypnosis in order for it to work. There are little tests a hypnotist can perform on you to see if you can be put under.

A psychologist tried to hypnotize me. A stage magician tried to hypnotize me. And a Hare Krishna society member tried to hypnotize me.

I am not deliberately resistant to it. I don’t want to prove against it. But it never worked on me. It causes me to wonder if it’s not real. And maybe in cases where it works, it’s only because the subject is trying to please the authority, which is a real, proven phenomenon.

Yeah, I was really skeptical and what I used to think was akin to what @MrItty said about being succeptable to suggestion and feeling they were given “permission” to do these things, but it just plain didn’t seem like that. Essentially we were all discussing it and we all decided to volunteer for the sole purpose of showing the crowd that the whole thing was bullshit, and we all figured that since none of us was a plant, he would never pick any of us, but lo and behold he did. We all sat back waiting for her to do something to make him look foolish, but then suddenly she started making herself look foolish, and just like everyone else said, she didn’t really remember any of it, it was all sort of dreamlike. So, I don’t know…maybe she was working undercover for the guy and I didn’t know it, but it just seemed like it was real, and I’m not a big believer in things like this, so who knows?

@Kraigmo

I was really nervous and afraid before I did it, but I was also excited. Maybe that’s true, but I’ve seen instances of hypnosis where people reveal things that were concealed in their subconscious prior to the hypnosis, things they had forgotten.

Also, about the dreamlike state that a lot of people seem to experience when hypnotized: I remember hearing someone say that being hypnotized is like when you’re driving and distracted and do not remember driving a certain distance. It seems like you just teleported because you were thinking of something else. I’ve heard that analogy used to described what being hypnotized is like.

I have been hypnotized. It was in front of an audience.
I remembered it all very clearly. Better than the audience remembered the details.
You are concentrating very hard on what the hypnotist says, every word and action. When “your signal” is given, whatever has been told to you that you will do, you do it without thinking about it. I don’t believe you could be made to do anything against your will.
It was about ten years ago, to this day I still have the same reaction to a certain signal.
Perhaps the driving analogy is close, you react and do things without thinking about them.
During the hypnosis, I did remember a detail from my childhood that I had forgotten about. It wasn’t anything big, just a fun memory.
I think it could be useful in therapy if you were susceptible and willing.

I defer my guess-answer to other people’s experiential answers.

I reserve judgment on hypnosis until I see rigorous scientific studies. I have never seen it, and find it slightly unlikely that the hypnotist is in that much control. I think people can be suggestible, and may do things they ordinarily wouldn’t, but I don’t put much faith in hypnosis. I also wonder if stage hypnosis is at all the same thing as hypnosis as a form of therapy. My mom tried hypnosis to quit smoking, failed miserably.

The one and only time a proffessional hynotist tried to hypnotise me it didn’t work. I didn’t go under and apparently it was because I couldn’t relax into t (don’t know if that’s true or not). My brother saw the same hypnotist and he went under without a problem. My brother is a lot more laid back and relaxed than I am generally.

@Kraigmo: I have had a couple licensed therapists try to hypnotize me, and also to do things like regression therapy… but my brain does not seem to go there. The same for meditation… I can relax my body, I can quiet my mind and I am very intuitive in some ways, but it seems very difficult for me to reach an ‘altered state’.

I believe that like everything else in life, somethings are easy for some and more difficult for others. For some it comes naturally for others it takes practice. I still practice meditation and am working on developing my visualization skills.

Hypnosis works best on those of relatively high intelligence, Thats a fact.

I underwent hypnotherapy for stress reduction during a bad divorce some years ago.

The therapist ( clinical psychologist with hypnotherapy certification ) was very interested in my experience ans told me that the more intelligent people were the best subjects.

My experience was sublime!

I was walking on clouds for days and still utilize the self hypnosis she taught me.

If you are open, willing, intelligent and serious about overcoming whatever, hypnosis is extremly effective.