Can people really be hypnotized?
Well… The answers are yes, yes and yes. But… I’m guessing your understanding of what hypnosis is differs quite a bit from the reality of it. To start with, people go in and out of trances all the time. When you read a book, and start to get caught up in the plot you’re in an altered state. Similarly, when you are online chatting to someone, and you’re fully involved in the conversation you are too. Watching TV, daydreaming, long distance driving, are also all examples of situations where people drift off into trance. In fact many people believe that a person is in some level of altered state, all the time. Even things like deep trance phenomena have waking state analogs. For example, have you ever played sports, taken a knock and it not hurt at all? Or ever discovered a bruise on your body and have no memory of where it came from? Hypnotic pain control uses these very same principals. How about hypnotic hallucinations? The classic example in day to day life is losing your keys, loo
