Here are some answers:
First of all, all of the issues you raise are legitimate questions that everyone interested in hypnosis has raised before. The literature is packed with discussions and explanations - it’s a very fasciinating subject.
- What causes a person to enter a hypnotic state?
The brain generates brain waves just normally. If you had no brain waves, you would be “at room temperature”. Merely during the course of the day, each of us slips naturally from one brain wave pattern to the next, depending on our natural body cycle. For any of many reasons a person may want to focus on a particular “object” or thought: figuring out your checkbook, reading the mail, reading a book, concentrating on navigating your car… When you are very focused, your brain waves tend to be in the area that is associated with being in hypnosis.
A state of hypnosis is really a “definition” more than anything else. Nothing magical about it. When we focus, we shut out most outside stimuli. We can direct our minds to recall … for example,… trying to figure out our balance on our checkbooks… is simple addition and subtraction enough math skill… do we need some other skill… have we remembered any deposits or withdrawals… did all our ATM transactions get included… so with a focused mind, we can call up various resources that are stored away in the longer-term memory.
- Next time you are at the movies, take a look at the people around you and look at their eyes (from the side). Some people may be distracted, but most are totally focused. If someone loses track of time, they are focused and by definition, in a hypnotic trance.
Are they suggestible? Well, in a movie theater, they are seated in a comfortable chair, the lights are dimmed to minimize distraction, and the film was edited by a team of people who are experienced and who put a sound track on top of the visual and script parts, to distract the attendees from noticing any glitches. In an action movie, everyones breathing gets shorter and tighter and people tense up, as if it was they who were dangling from a helicopter instead of Harrison Ford. In a sad picture, people cry… why? They are in a comfortable chair, not experiencing the actual events. (In fact, even the actors are not REALLY experiencing any actual events… it’s all pretend… ) But the attendees is made to FEEL – as if – the event was real.
For fun, watch a movie with no sound. I’ve done this on airplanes. It’s a hoot watching Bruce the mechanical shark on Jaws with no sound. You can see why the Bruce gave the director fits because he (it) kept malfunctioning, but they had to keep filming because the budget kept rolling!!
- Hynotists cannot impose their wills on other people. I’m assuming you were at a stage hypnosis performance. First of all this is not recommended. It’s a misuse of a valuable therapeutic technique. But what happens in stage hypnosis, is that the hynotist carefully chooses people (volunteers) who simply do what the hypnotist tells them to do. If they don’t cooperate, he or she sends the volunteers back to the audience. Theatrical, big time stage hypnotists rehearse the performance with professional assistants beforehand. There are different ways of doing this. The hypnotist generally will pick ten volunteers from a new audience and will test them as a group. Any non-cooperators will be sent back. The final one or two will do whatever he asks. Or the professional assistants will mingle with the audience before the show and select possible “volunteers” to be asked to help out, based on their behavior patterns – uninhibited exhibitionists, for example.
In the Ed McMahon example, not everybody buys the magazines. But some people will fall for it. Take a look at TV commercials. Watch them with the sound on and then with the sound off. Compare your reactions each way. The producers of TV commercials spend millions of dollars on research to make sure the message is carefully targeted. Sometimes they goof up, but generally they are very good at what they do.
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