Have you ever been hypnotized?

[tatertop]

I never have. I have always wondered what it's like.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Go read Free Republic. 'nuff said. I'm just sayin'. nt.

[aquart]

2. Yes. For past life regressions. What do you want to know?

[tatertop]

9. Did it work? Were you always in control?

When you came out of it did you feel a sense of desolation
or emptiness?

[aquart]

16. Desolation? Hell, no. Just more questions.

I was hypnotized in a group which was asked a set list of questions already asked of groups all over the nation. The responses had been statistically analyzed. There are two books out on it. We were able to compare our own responses to those in the books.

I was conscious. Control. Hmmm. I would see according to the questions. But everyone in the group was seeing something individually different. The hypnotist also inserted a release command, if at any time you want to break the trance, lift your right arm. A few days later, I took codeine after some dental work and began to slip into a trance, seeing past life stuff, I used the right arm release and broke it.

The statistics were because the common argument about the regressions is that everybody was Cleopatra or Napoleon or somebody famous. Someone wanted to see if that was true. In my case, whenever something interesting or important was happening in the world, I was somewhere else.

As for whether I believe anything I saw? I dunno what that was. Every now and then something comes up that relates to those four sessions and I get really startled. I saw myself being married in one of them, in Ceylon, and I was wearing a yellow dress. Yellow. The groom wore white. His jacket was heavily trimmed in silver. I asked around, what religion wears yellow wedding dresses? Nobody I knew knew in those pre-internet days. Forward a decade or so and I'm surfing my color TV and come upon a wedding taking place in India, where the bride is in yellow and the groom in white.......okey dokey.

The other thing, even though I was seeing according to the hypnotist's questions, my mind kept up a very conscious running commentary. Some of the early commands in the session were for orientation: mentally fold your arms across your chest (one way to see if you're a woman) or start by looking at your feet and feeling your leg, what are you wearing? In the Ceylon one, I remember mentally yelling, Silk! I'm wearing silk!

[Ron Green]

3. I don't recall. But I've been acting strangely for the past few years, so

it could have happened.

:P

[Dolomite]

4. cluck cluck cluck BuhKAAAAAAWWWW!!!!!!

.

[Itchinjim]

8. LOL!

[Dolomite]

10. Whatever! At least I was able to quit smoking!

cluck!

[Salviati]

13. And I bet the eggs come in handy too!

[laruemtt]

5. here also for a past life regression.

back in the 80s. not sure what i think about it now.

[Carni]

12. Me too when I was in a *new age* mode in the 80's

I wasn't all that impressed then and didn't feel particularly hypnotized


Now I'm just in an *old age* mode lol

[aquart]

17. Yup. That was when it was.

[Itchinjim]

6. Yes , to quit smoking.

I lit one up in the parking lot on the way out.

[Mojorabbit]

7. Yes and I took a 6 mon course in self hypnosis

for pain control. Worked great.

[tatertop]

11. can you tell me about the method used

[Mojorabbit]

20. First there was the relaxing the muscles one by one

starting at the scalp. Then counting backward from a hundred while visualizing the numbers.
I always come to a door which I unlock with a key and never know where I will end up from there if I asm doing it for fun. For the pain control though I always end up in the same place.

[ClintonTyree]

14. No, but about half the population of this country has......

the "not quite half" half that voted for bush. I prefer to think of them as hypnotized rather than just being plain stupid. It doesn't hurt so badly that way.

[RevCheesehead]

15. No, but I have been "Hypno-Toaded"

:evilgrin:

[Salviati]

23. ALL HAIL THE HYPNOTOAD

[Deja Q]

18. I'm immune.

Nobody's perfect. :D

[bleever]

19. This thread is terrific. It's much better than "Cats". I'll read it

again and again.

[EstimatedProphet]

21. Yes, and not intentionally either

When I was studying philosophy the teacher once was trying to explain some metaphysical stuff, and he started talking about how if you close your eyes and slowly bring your hands together, open and palm first, you will begin to feel a force pushing back. the closer you bring your hands together, the stronger the force is, and you won't be able to touch them together. It worked, and I could feel the force. Years later I went to a hypnotist's show and the guy did something very similar, and I realized that the philosophy teacher must have had someone hypnotize him in a similar way, and never realized it wasn't true.

[catmandu57]

22. Yes

It was a group thing, I haven't drank alcohol since then (twenty years) nor have I ever wanted to. I've practised self hypnosis since then, I can slip into a trance so easy, that I have to keep an eye on it.

[swag]

24. Only by poozle,

but there are good stories in this thread.

[tigereye]

25. well

I've done some with colleagues who are trained hypnotherapists, so I guess so. It was very relaxing and interesting.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

27. Do you (or your colleagues) think self-hypnosis is risky?

[tigereye]

29. I guess I think of what they did as more like auto suggestion

mixed with relaxation or guided imagery. Most of the people I know use it for positive and therapeutic purposes.

I think people tend to think of hypnosis as being like the sterotypes of it, such as loss of personal control, which isn't really possible.

I suppose that some people who are not very comfortable with possibly intense feelings or imagery might find some aspects of it unnerving....

[sakabatou]

26. Me too

The thing is, if you don't waant to be hypnotized, you can't be hypnotized.

[Twist_U_Up]

28. Yep,first time I saw my wife

:loveya:

[bridgit]

30. no, but hubby was as part of an acting class that he attended...

with an actor friend of his for a 'method/preparation session', just kind of went along...said it was a trip, thanked the instructor as such for having taken him 'on one' so as to say :thumbsup: psycho cybernetic release of certain & specific past remembrances and such, not the weird shit where they make you cluck like a chicken, nothing stupid like that x(

[Fredda Weinberg]

31. yes

First we did the standard eyeball test - the further you can raise your eyes the more susceptible you are.

Then the practitioner used a standard relaxation response routine ... concentrating on muscle groups, registering the feedback and ultimately focusing on the normally autonomic breathing mechanism.

To test if I was in a trance, I was asked to raise my arm. The choice to comply was mine, but I was mildly shocked by how weightless it felt.

[Orsino]

32. No. I have never been hypnotized...

I was nowhere near the building at the time, and I will not speak of this to anyone.

[bikebloke]

33. Some friends did it to lose weight

And it really worked! After each session, they felt so thin, it justified a stop at the grocery store on the way home. They'd load up on cakes, pies and sausages, then have a pig out.