I was always very skeptical about hypnotism. It was always about dodgy tv shows and humiliating people by making them walk around like chickens or perhaps those people were actors faking it instead. If not that then it was about making you part with lots of money in order to give up smoking etc. I knew people who tried that but it never worked for them.
That all changed when I was in a room of people who were all hypnotised at once. It turned out I was very susceptible to it. I was listening to the suggestions thinking it’s something I could stop at any point so I wasn’t worried. I’d heard you can’t be forced to do something you don’t want to do which put my mind at rest, although that made me wonder about those chickens on TV. It was only when they told us we wouldn’t remember any of the things we’d been told to do in the last five or ten minutes. I thought that was ridiculous, of course I wouldn’t forget that. We had…we had…I can’t remember what we had done at all, I felt like I had cotton wool in my head! And that genuinely scared me.
That said I did look into having hypnotism instead of an anaesthetic when I went to the dentist. I react badly to anaesthetic so I’d do anything not to have a drastically swollen face and nausea. However, it just wasn’t to be, my dentist moved away and the new one wasn’t prepared to listen to me. In the end I learnt there was no need for anaesthetic for most fillings anyway.
As for erotic hypnotism, it’s not something I want to try to be honest. I think it can be quite dangerous and I wouldn’t want to give it a go with someone who isn’t trained or someone I didn’t trust. Whilst I trust my partner, he isn’t trained so I think we’ll give this one a miss.
Mrs Fever
I think, as you say here, that suggestibility is a factor. When I was in college, I had to do a sort of…guided meditation(?), which is essentially following the same “listen to my voice” principles as hypnotism…and I remember not being along for that ride AT ALL, but also being completely horrified that the rest of my group was basically following along with everything the guy said, puddy in the hands of a total stranger. It was scary. And no, not anything I’d be willing to trust another person with.
Zebra Rose
I believe it does work….but not on me. I’m apparently just not susceptible (probably because my concentration span is tiny and my mind is always buzzing around so fast, I’ve been distracted by three or four thoughts between one word and the next. I like the idea of erotic hypnosis though
Molly
I have always been hugely skeptical about it but I do know someone who used it to give up smoking and said that it totally worked.
Mollyx