001 - What the Hell is Hypnosis

I still remember a friend doing a demo of mesmeric techniques vividly, and they hit me with this knowledge bomb straight out of left field:

Hypnosis is a ritual of suggestion.

-Wordweaver - Blog Here

When I first heard it, I chuckled to myself. “Heh - that’s edgy and cool,” I thought.

… And over the next few weeks - I thought about just how right it was.

Defining Hypnosis - Again

Definitions of hypnosis are like assholes. Everyone has one - and they’re rarely peer reviewed.

Hypnosis is hard AF to study - not in small part because of its scientifically dubious history. Hell, it took an entire board of members (Division 30 of the American Psychological Association) to nail it down to this little soundbite.

A state of consciousness involving focused attention and reduced peripheral awareness characterized by an enhanced capacity for response to suggestion.

-Yapko, Michael D; Yapko, Michael D.. Trancework: An Introduction to the Practice of Clinical Hypnosis (p. 7). Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.

By this definition, wouldn’t DDR count as hypnosis? That’s a little loose. Let’s go back to the ritual explanation.

In hypnosis - you:

Agree that you’re being hypnotized and work with your hypnotist.
You follow suggestions.
You ‘leave’ hypnosis.

Rituals are a part of daily life. Here are some examples:

Brushing your teeth and showering in the morning, doing it the same damn way every time.
Prayer - where we give focused attention.
Mask work - in acting where you’re ‘possessed’ by a big scary mask and you let it take over.
Voodoo rituals - where but belief is a core component of its effectiveness.

When we agree to let someone coach our experience, we’re performing a ritual. So we can split this up into two ways we can pull this thing apart:

Ritual Components. A hypnotist does an induction, our brain goes oogabooga for unknown reasons, and we can have fun with it. This also includes things like NLP. Despite being brutally discredited, we still find ourselves deeply affected by its techniques - not because of their scientific soundness, but because we can use it as a framework to give any type of suggestion.
Phenomena. In more modern research, interest has shifted from hypnosis to phenomenological control. It’s much more straightforward to investigate our responses to suggestion, rather than putting them inside of an ambiguous ritual. In practice - this looks like street hypnosis. Sticking someone’s hand to their leg doesn’t require a ritual or a trance - just a shift in perspective.

Wait - hypnosis isn’t real?

Of course it is! Hypnosis is full of things you can truly experience, right on the edge of what science can begin to explain. Nobody in the academic community argues whether someone’s subjective experience of trance or automatic response exists - that’s been observed time and time again. They argue about what causes these responses.

As a Ritual

Okay - let’s do an underwhelming exercise. Are you ready? I’m going to hypnotize you. Follow this script:

You’re now in a state of hypnosis.

You’ll find yourself thinking of pineapple on pizza.

AWAKE!

Aha! Possibly your first hypnotic response!

… Why do you look so disappointed? Unless you’re a contrarian, I literally just made you think of pineapple on pizza.

Let’s explain this and make my bullshit useful.

Starting with “you’re now in a state of hypnosis,” I did the most weak-ass induction known to man. However, we defined the start of the ritual, and I attempted to secure compliance.

“You’ll find yourself thinking of pineapple on pizza.” This is what we would call a suggestion. While this is a variation on “try not to think of pink elephants,” you’ll likely respond to this automatically either with an internal image, a thought, or just disgust at the idea. Maybe you’re weird like me and actually like a delectable Hawaiian slice of sweet and savory.

“AWAKE!” This is mostly a bookend to the ritual, letting you know you can stop responding.

Okay - that all sucked - right? Let’s try something a little more fun in the next section.

As Phenomena - A Demo

We’re going to drop the ritual and social context, and if you have time to try this out, let you experience something hypnotic. You’ll be in complete control of the experience at all times and get a taste of how a component of this works. Sound good?

You’ll have to work with me here if you want the maximum effect - working through text isn’t great. Pick which arm you’d like to ‘hypnotize.’ If you’re on your phone, hold it in your ‘non-hypnotized’ hand. If you’re on your computer or laptop, leave your free hand somewhere that you can scroll. Clear out any distractions for the next five minutes.

One…

First - I’d like you to place your ‘hypnotized’ arm on your leg with the two surfaces flat against each other. You know that thing you see people do on a long highway drive - where you lean back, relax, and irresponsibly leave one hand on the wheel with the other arm resting on your leg? Do that.

First - notice your reading and your to-be-hypnotized arm, and become aware of how they feel.

Really, just take a moment. I’ll be waiting.

Two…

Now - imagine what it would be like for your hypnotized arm to merge with and stick to that leg. Maybe there would be feelings of heaviness and weight. Some people imagine an iron rod running through their elbow down to their hand, making it heavy. Maybe there’s some Acme glue sticking it down - and as it dries, you’d feel it grip down. Or - perhaps it’s like when you’re taking in more groceries in one trip when you should - when you grab an extra bag and put it on your wrist.

Let your mind pick one of those experiences - or find your own! Give yourself a few moments to imagine that. Let your arm relax, close your eyes and go into that experience. When you’ve taken a few seconds to do that - come back.

Three…

Back - great? Whatever you settled on - be it your arm weighed down by lead, sticking with magnets, drying glue, grocery bags - imagine that increasing. How would you add more weight to it? Would the magnets become stronger if they were electromagnets, gradually increasing in intensity? Did you forget a few bags of groceries and decide to put two or three more on your wrist?

Pause, letting that feeling sink in. Close your eyes and take as much time as you need.

Four…

Cool. Now, leave that arm there for now - you can almost certainly move it, but I don’t want you to do that yet. Just compare the difference in how your arms feel. There’s something different in the ‘heavy’ arm, isn’t there? How does that feel as compared to when we first started? Is that feeling moving, growing, or are you just becoming more aware of it?

Don’t move that arm. I know it’s yours. You don’t need to move it right now.

Slowly, increase the weight. You might find that this is something you can control directly… or it feels heavy… perhaps noticing it start to lock in place. Or you might find that the more grocery bags / heaviness you imagine, the heavier your arm seems.

Seriously. Close your eyes, play with it. The feeling might fade in and out, but it’s up to you to generate that feeling. I can’t make it happen for you. Make it as strong as you can before you open your eyes again.

Five…

Back, good?

Move both your arms - just stretch out for a moment. Did that feel funny? What differences did you notice?

… Did you notice during this experiment, I went through all the same steps as the ritual listed above?

If you didn’t notice much, that’s fine! You might respond much better when working with a live hypnotist. It’s your active engagement that makes the suggestions work, not the words themselves.