Support NeoGAF

[Grildon Tundy]

Something I've always wondered, and also always wondered why there doesn't seem to be a definite answer.

Saw this on Twitter, and it brought it up again:



I had a stage hypnotist come to my college. One participant was told he would pop out of hypnosis once he left the archway to the theater we were in. So most of us audience members waited for him, and the moment he hit the archway, it's like he regained consciousness and ran off in embarrassment. He was either a surprisingly good actor, or it was real.

What do you guys think?

 

[p_xavier]

I did it once, fake.

 

[AJUMP23]

I think Hypnosis is real, but I would never go under it.

 

[Sticks]

Just as real as magic tricks

 

[Grildon Tundy]

I did it once, fake.

So what happened? Did you play along?

 

[p_xavier]

So what happened? Did you play along?

Yeah I mean you have kinda pressure to fake it. It would be embarrassing for everyone really.

 

[Rentahamster]

 

[jason10mm]

Yeah I mean you have kinda pressure to fake it. It would be embarrassing for everyone really.

That's my experience as well. Tom Deluca came to my college and I got picked. It's an interesting experience but it was a lot more of coerced playacting than any kind of movie-style mind control.

I think those guys are just really good at knowing how far people will go and push the ones who are more open to doing silly things. But Deluca didn't really do stuff like make people stiff as a board and get walked across, lay on a bed of nails, hold an ember of coal or anything like that from what I remember.

 

[bitbydeath]

Yeah I mean you have kinda pressure to fake it. It would be embarrassing for everyone really.

Why go along with it?
Do you get paid?

 

[jason10mm]

Why go along with it?
Do you get paid?

Because after the show chicks will come up to you to ask you questions about it.

And for at least an hour you can blame "post-hypnotic suggestion" for any misdeeds you might commit

 

[p_xavier]

Because after the show chicks will come up to you to ask you questions about it.

And for at least an hour you can blame "post-hypnotic suggestion" for any misdeeds you might commit

But this.

 

[SirKicksalot]

The video looks like that chicken fear response.
Showmen can trick people into many things but I doubt this extreme response is real.

 

[Rentahamster]

So what happened? Did you play along?

Similar effect to faith healers and martial artists using energy blasts.

 

[poppabk]

Fake as shit. This looks like a plant even, not just someone enjoying their 5 minutes in the spotlight.

 

[Wildebeest]

People are different. Some people might be suggestable and be chill with it but others might just be very self conscious through the whole thing and play along because they are embarrassed and don't want to ruin the party.

 

[Lunarorbit]

Its real. You have to be accepting of being put under or it's not going to work. My friend and I just went up on stage during college when the perverted hypnotist came to UMass.

Several people had no idea where or how they had gotten back stage when he brought them back.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

I think there's a small cohort of people who actually are highly susceptible & suggestible where it truly "works" in that they go into an altered mental state, others who want to play along, and people like me who probably wouldn't volunteer in the first place and would be too self-conscious to play along if I did.

 

[SidViscous]

If it were real you would have crimes mentioning it, you don't, so it's fake.

 

[rkofan87]

Something I've always wondered, and also always wondered why there doesn't seem to be a definite answer.

Saw this on Twitter, and it brought it up again:



I had a stage hypnotist come to my college. One participant was told he would pop out of hypnosis once he left the archway to the theater we were in. So most of us audience members waited for him, and the moment he hit the archway, it's like he regained consciousness and ran off in embarrassment. He was either a surprisingly good actor, or it was real.

What do you guys think?

fake af

 

[clarky]

Got up on stage once on a night out with the lads. Didn't work, just ended up laughing my ass off at the dude.

 

[RJMacready73]

was at one years ago in a pub and the dude got the audience to do a few things beforehand which i took as figuring out who is the most susceptible to suggestion and eventually it ended up with locking your fingers together and those who couldn't pull them apart were invited up onto the stage, i was desperate try it so played fully along but alas i pulled my hands apart, i noticed a few ordinary people from various groups get up and he made an absolute laughing stock out of them, one fella got up and pulled his G/F from the stage due the shennanigans and there's no way all could be plants and theres no way ordinary punters are gonna make an absolute dick of themselves in front of their mates and strangers in a local pub, so i'm err'in on the side of yes it's real that some humans are just fucking simpletons that can be easily manipulated

 

[Trilobit]

I think in a therapeutic setting it can work, but not like when you make some dance like a chicken. We have blocks and filters from our subconsciousness and I guess hypnosis can help lower them for a moment, sort of like with some drugs.

But I'm not dogmatic about it.

 

[dave_d]

Surprised nobody posted this yet.

 

[AJUMP23]

When you look at stage stuff I do wonder how people become hypnotized in seconds.

 

[Trogdor1123]

I've read a number of justifications when I was in school.

First of which is the power of suggestion, it's massive and definitely real. Then there is conformity, it's why they do several at the same time.

Last of all is that it actually works, at least to some degree. It's not reliable though in any way.

We had the same in my university dorm, a guy showed up, pulled some kids from the crowd and did a show. The kids were legit students and it was remarkable. It didn't work on all of them, but 80% or so it did.

He did an interesting one where he made the entire crowd hold their own hands together and "glued" them together. It work on most people. Not on myself but over 50% for sure.

It's not magic though.