What do you think when someone mentions hypnosis? Do you think of a gaunt figure with long limbs, a cloak, and polarized eyes that attract submission? For many, the mere expression of hypnosis is all it takes to see a sinister figure with captivating eyes, a mysterious wand, and the ability to turn people into slaves with the blunt phrase: “Look me deep in the eyes.” In reality, this mystical creature wielding a pocket watch is nothing more than a false stereotype. This representation bears no real resemblance to hypnotism. In fact, what some call hypnosis is actually an amalgamation of its genesis, animal magnetism, combined with what some foolishly call the modern mythical aspects of hypnosis.

Hypnosis has taken on many meanings over the past two centuries. Its roots extend deep into the culture of the ancient Greeks and their worship of Hypnos, the god of sleep. In the 18th century, Franz Anton Mesmer captured popular culture by injecting his concept of animal magnetism, a process involving magnets, into society by successfully demonstrating, most of the time, that his theory improved the body by ridding it of paralysis, toothache and depression. and urine retention.

Furthermore, Mesmer’s influence on hypnosis did not end with the introduction of his treatments. In 1778, Mesmer left Vienna for Paris, where he was given more freedom to develop his theories which evolved into a form of musical theater, which was quite popular and attracted large crowds. Mesmer dressed in flowing gowns and touched people with his wand “urging them to surrender to the magnetic fluids that surrounded them. He exhorted them to heal if they could only focus on the heavenly powers within their diseased bodies.”

A couple of centuries later, George Kresge changed how many would see hypnosis. Kresge, known to many as The Amazing Kreskin, is a mentalist, animator, practical psychologist, and student of hypnosis. Kreskin added cohesion to Mesmer’s premise, which was based on belief coupled with the use of magnets to cure various ailments.

Through a myriad of stage performances, television interviews, and published work, Kreskin explained the power of suggestion and autosuggestion as the real means behind what many call hypnosis. Furthermore, Kreskin believes that everyone is prone to suggestion without the appearance of a trance. An excerpt from his book reflects this thought: “What I believed was called ‘hypnosis’ and passionately promoted the concept of trance. Now I tell the audience that my references to ‘hypnosis’, both historically and as I practiced it , they are in the frame of the past. That is why I also use quotation marks when dealing with the subject. “

The power of suggestion is demonstrated through Kreskin’s theatrical performances. Begin by inviting fifty to sixty volunteers to the stage with only twenty chairs to sit. With the psychological conditioning already seeded and the strength of the participants in numbers relieved, he fills the chairs with viable themes while leaving the rest of the volunteers on stage. Now, most hypnotists believe that their subjects need to be relaxed to respond to suggestion, Kreskin shows otherwise.

With a wave of his hand in front of the subject’s face, Kreskin begins by asking questions like, “Are you awake?” Or “Are you in a trance?” After Kreskin has asked a reasonable number of identification questions, he turns to the audience and announces that he can make people who are not under a hypnotic trance even forget his name. He does this by asking a series of interrelated questions such as, “Where do you live?” And, where do you work? “After some carefully chosen questions, he changes inflection while proposing:” What’s your name? “Mysteriously, the subject has no answer.

In the early 1970s, Kreskin officially declared: “I am convinced that no person under ‘hypnosis’ has ever been asleep unless they have been sent into that happy non-trance state by the hum of the guide’s lullaby. I am convinced that there is no such thing as a specific state, condition, or trance, call it something with a semantic twist, which can be considered ‘hypnosis’ “.

Kreskin backed up his claim by offering $ 25,000 to anyone who could disprove his theory and illustrate the existence of the “hypnotic trance.” Using the EEG and polygraph to prove that subjects who were supposedly in a hypnotic trance compared to those who were awake did not have any changes in brain waves, Kreskin refuted everyone who tried to accept his challenge.

In the 1980s, Kreskin increased the offer to $ 50,000. It was unsuccessfully contested in 1983 and then in 1985. The latter led to a judicial process, which was ultimately dismissed for lack of evidence. The following year, Kreskin raised his offer to $ 100,000 and thus followed a second court appearance, which was soon dismissed for lack of evidence.

The following is Kreskin’s challenge verbatim:

“I now offer $ 100,000.00 to any psychologist, psychiatrist, or hypnotist who can conclusively prove, under scientific conditions, that I will delineate and clearly define a specific condition, trance, or state called ‘hypnosis.’ Second, the challenger must clearly demonstrate that what can be done in the so-called state cannot be reproduced without that state. Yours really does not know any such special phenomenon.

After going through the legal ramifications of what was a pending trial, it is only justice that in the future, in addition to the plaintiff complying with the conditions that I will detail, he will also agree to sign a statement that, if not proven, and fail. To win the $ 100,000 they must pay all the expenses I incurred in the legal preparation of such a challenge. I think this is just justice. “

If Kreskin succeeded in showing that the healing qualities of hypnosis have nothing to do with a trance-induced state, then what are the healing qualities so fiercely attached to hypnosis? The answer is autosuggestion. Kreskin illustrates the use of autosuggestion in his book The Amazing World of Kreskin. He refers to autosuggestion as something that must be preceded by self-conditioning, which is a series of mental relaxation exercises.

After entering a passive state of mind, you melt mentally and unleash your imagination. The following sequence will help you relax:

1. Sit in a deep chair or lie down, make yourself comfortable.
2. Reflect for a few seconds on a time and place where you were deeply relaxed: a quiet afternoon at the beach, falling asleep in front of a fireplace after a walk in the snow, lying in the shade on the bank of a river. Remember as vividly as you can the total experience.
3. Close your eyes and think of a soft, tender color like blue or green, or the pinkish hues of roses.
4. After a few seconds, take three deep breaths; hold the third and deepest, and mentally repeat the color image three times.
5. Exhale and let your whole body relax. Don’t make any effort to move a muscle. Just stay relaxed and count backward, mentally, from fifty to zero, very slowly. When you get to zero, count up from one to three. Then open your eyes.

This routine takes about five minutes and relaxes the body for autosuggestion. Obviously similar to the meditation process, Kreskin doesn’t take credit for this process. He emphasizes this procedure as one that if practiced a few times a day over the course of a couple of weeks, a person will recognize the change in which he is ordering, such as the ability to overcome smoking habits, dietary or related problems. with stress. pressures.

One last point, although some see hypnosis as a kind of special state of consciousness in which a trance is induced in order to rectify previous mistakes, alleviate pain or overcome unpleasant habits, those who do not want to be hypnotized will not be hypnotized. . The ‘hypnotist’ does not have any special powers, such as the ability to move mountains, and cannot make people do anything against their will, in the words of B. Richard Bugelski and AM Graziano:

“When hypnosis is defined as a high state of suggestibility, it implies that we are in a special state. In reality, we cannot be more suggestible than we are, once we have abandoned the safeguards that would normally prevent us from doing whatever it is. lets do. tells us to do. If we have agreed to let someone hypnotize us, we have agreed to cooperate and follow instructions. We are not in a different state of suggestion; we are just less critical. Those who care about all the harm that hypnotists can because they are losing their worries. There are enough persuaders around to cause all the trouble we need. Popular leaders like Hitler could make others do all kinds of horrible things without relaxing them and telling them they are falling asleep.

All they had to do was promise to satisfy the strong desires of their followers. The followers wanted to believe, and that’s why they believed. In the same way, the hypnotized subject wants to believe; he or she does not dispute or argue, and does what he or she is told to do. However, there is nothing you can do that you cannot do without the help of hypnosis. If someone wants to quit smoking, for example, they can. If the subject does not want to quit smoking, a hypnotist might make him believe what is essentially true and what no one can deny: that smoking is an unclean habit, that it promotes disease, a public nuisance, etc. Additional support for the belief can help the individual to quit smoking. “

Those who claim to have lost track of time because they have sat in front of a television or been engrossed in a novel have not experienced a mind-altering hypnotic trance any more than those who carry nicotine into their bodies are captivated by cigarettes. The purpose of hypnosis is to control the thoughts, emotions, and physical properties of the body controlled by the mind. Although a hypnotist can act as a guide by leading the subject through the trance state, commonly known as hypnosis, it is a fallacy because we already have the answers to the questions the body seeks without having to go into a trance. – all we have to do is look for the correct question to the answers we already have.

Sifting forage fallacies until next time …