Hypnotism?

[insideontheoutside]

So I'm on vacation and at night I've been zoning out in front of the tv, which I usually don't do. I caught this show on Discovery channel with this hypnotist guy that was a total trip. So it got me thinking, has anyone every tried hypnotism as a therapy method? Like on the show this guy was able to give the person hypnotized a "suggestion" and basically "plant" stuff in their subconscious. What if someone were hypnotized and given a suggestion to, "be the man you are inside" or "be ok with your body" or not having fully functioning junk or whatever? Because so many of us struggle all the time with various things that we just find difficult to overcome in daily life. I used to think all the time about how much easier life would be if I could just "be ok" with certain things.

I know there are hypnotherapists out there but I usually hear about them working with trauma victims or helping with addictions.

Anyway, just wondering about that tonight as I sit here in a desert hotel room!

[Sephirah]

I have some experience with hypnosis and hypnotherapy and I highly doubt such a process will work to convince someone to do something on a personal basis. Not in any permanent way. Hypnotherapy doesn't plant suggestions so much as allows the person undergoing it to enter an altered state of consciousness whereby they can discover parts of themselves, rather than the hypnotherapist telling them what to think. And you have to be careful when guiding someone to lead them only where they are capable of going.

You could tell someone to do what you said, that part is very easy to do, and for a short time it will have the desired effect, but people will always wake up, as it were.

The problem with it is, just like the body rejecting a foreign organ in a transplant, the mind does the same eventually, with foreign thoughts or suggestions.

[Alasdair]

Things like thoughts, ideas, behavior and certainly addictions since you mentioned that specifically, are not compartmentalized in the brain. (It takes billions of neurons firing just to smile.) This is one of the basic and more important reasons hypnosis doesn't work like it did on Sally Jesse Raphael when I was growing up. Obviously and unfortunately we cant target neurochemicals, hormones, brain structres, etc with hypnosis. The most success that can be credited to hypnosis is relaxation or meditation.

Then there's the question of what is hypnosis, can everyone be hypnotized, are there different levels of "being under".... you get the idea.

[bcv]

i don't think there are any "miracle cures" for anything. ultimately nobody can pull anybody's head out of their ass for them... but i think we all have the inherent power to pull our own head out of our ass and sometimes the paths to getting there can involve getting help from various forces... hypnosis, lifestyle change, whatever... if you feel like you have a blockage in your thinking that is making it hard to unstick yourself but you are motivated to overcome it, then it could be worth trying? i know one lady who has had a lot of success using hypnosis to confront repressed memories associated with post-traumatic stress disorder and i know one guy who used hypnosis to quit smoking and it worked for him... i can't say i've tried it personally, though.

[Adio]

Actually this can work to a certain extent.  Derren Brown has does that several times ("planted" or suggested thoughts) with success.  Most memorably (for me) was in one of his specials--"Messiah."  He converted a group of atheist/agnostics to Christianity by a sort of hypnotism.  Youtube "Derren Brown Messiah" and it should be parts 3 and 4.

There have also been several cases where therapists have planted false memories through the use of hypnotism and amobarbital.  So I don't see why other things couldn't be suggested as well.

[Radar]

One word- inception.

[Mika]

First of all, I in no way advocate illegal behavior. I only share these experiences to make a point about altered-mental states.

If this post is against the rules, I will promptly delete it, and I apologize.

But I do believe altered states of consciousness (potentially including hypnotic states) can help tear down some mental walls, if only temporary. I have personally experienced at different times "losing my gender," forgetting that I am not male-bodied, framing my female body in a male way, and accepting my body the way it is. All of these instances were temporary, and had no lasting therapeutic effect other than a pleasant memory of what it felt like. I experienced this at different times with chemical aids, most of which I will not name to avoid legal trouble or allowing some one to replicate my experiences which may or may not be legal in their jurisdiction. I also, however, experienced this from smoking then-legal damiana/JHW-018 (no longer produced and recently scheduled in the US), prescribed Seroquil (I had a strange, unintended reaction), prescribed temazepam (hypnotic, anti-anxiety tranquilizer) and from non-drug induced dissociative as well as meditative states.

While I think drug-induced altered states have the most biochemical potential for radically shifting cognitive processes and removing emotional/mental barriers, in my experience non-drug induced states have had the most lasting impact on my gender dysphoria. I suggest meditating to trance beats, breathing cycles, different forms of meditation, fasting, and for at least exploring hypnosis (something which I haven't experienced). And now I've outed myself as a bit of a psychonaut and an anarchist in the same week on Susan's...lol. I hope it isn't time to find a new community.

[Alasdair]

First of all, I in no way advocate illegal behavior. I only share these experiences to make a point about altered-mental states.

If this post is against the rules, I will promptly delete it, and I apologize.

But I do believe altered states of consciousness (potentially including hypnotic states) can help tear down some mental walls, if only temporary. I have personally experienced at different times "losing my gender," forgetting that I am not male-bodied, framing my female body in a male way, and accepting my body the way it is. All of these instances were temporary, and had no lasting therapeutic effect other than a pleasant memory of what it felt like. I experienced this at different times with chemical aids, most of which I will not name to avoid legal trouble or allowing some one to replicate my experiences which may or may not be legal in their jurisdiction. I also, however, experienced this from smoking then-legal damiana/JHW-018 (no longer produced and recently scheduled in the US), prescribed Seroquil (I had a strange, unintended reaction), prescribed temazepam (hypnotic, anti-anxiety tranquilizer) and from non-drug induced dissociative as well as meditative states.

While I think drug-induced altered states have the most biochemical potential for radically shifting cognitive processes and removing emotional/mental barriers, in my experience non-drug induced states have had the most lasting impact on my gender dysphoria. I suggest meditating to trance beats, breathing cycles, different forms of meditation, fasting, and for at least exploring hypnosis (something which I haven't experienced). And now I've outed myself as a bit of a psychonaut and an anarchist in the same week on Susan's...lol. I hope it isn't time to find a new community.

Intersting perspective Mikah. Glad you posted your experience and thoughts. I agree with though drug (LEGAL) induced states can act most dramatically on any thought/opinion/ behavior, it is with practices like meditation or hypnosis if you will that will be the most long lasting and ultimately the most successful.
We'll keep ya!

[skakid]

This is a bit unrelated, but I also have a hypnotist question.  Tomorrow my school is having a senior banquet where all the graduating seniors have dinner together and celebrate and stuff before graduation.  Every year they have this hypnotist guy come and hypnotize kids and make them do stupid stuff.  I really want to see if I can get hypnotized, but I'm afraid if he tells the boys to do something and then tells the girls to do something else that I could out myself.  Has anyone ever done anything like this before or have any insight on the situation?