If you want to hypnotize a woman into going to bed with you, it won’t work unless she wants to go to bed with you. Or sing like a member of the Village People.Īctually, it’s not the hypnotist who makes this happen, it’s the subject him/herself. First of all, someone under hypnosis never loses consciousness and won’t do anything he or she wouldn’t do otherwise. I needed to know how a hypnotist got people from an audience of strangers to come up onstage and do outrageous or silly things. I knew he had done hypnosis as entertainment. He was the first hypnotist I talked to, and I had a lot of questions. We met at his small office about a mile from the beach. He’s trim, immaculate (he brushes his teeth between appointments), and passionate about his profession. What exactly that issue was is between a man and his hypnotist. I had a specific issue I wanted to address. (Note: Känd has recently relocated to Florida’s west coast - he likes the ocean and he likes warm weather.) He’s a practicing hypnotist, certified, experienced, personable. I went to see Erick Känd in Pacific Beach, CA. I’d get hypnotized up and down, inside and out. Could I be hypnotized? I’d give it an honest shot. I knew enough to know that the stereotypes - the hypnotist swinging a watch in front of a subject’s face and saying, “You’re getting sle-e-e-e-e-e-epy,” or the nightclub act where a shy librarian is made to jump up and down on one foot, flap her arms, and bark like a seal - were just that: stereotypes. I knew people who had tried it to quit smoking and to lose weight.
I’d spoken to law enforcement people who use hypnosis forensically. I, on the other hand, had to learn the fine art of puking in my lunch box while the school nurse drove me home with what was termed a “sick headache.” She was taught some self-hypnosis techniques by a hypnotherapist, and it helped her a great deal. My daughter, for example, suffers from terrible headaches, just as I did at her age. Probably because I’m a born skeptic and I didn’t quite believe it worked but had heard of its efficacy from enough people over the years to know there must be something to it. I’d been interested in hypnotism for some time. Therapeutically, it’s used to treat an array of conditions/addictions/phobias. Law enforcement uses hypnotism - most commonly in helping people recall crimes they’ve witnessed. It’s used as entertainment.
It’s a leap, but today hypnotism is used as an alternative to anesthesia - in dental work and even in serious surgeries. More and more, the medical establishment is accepting, even encouraging, alternative therapies. Some people believe God to be the first hypnotist: He put Adam to sleep and took out a rib to make Eve.
An eloquently written “outsider’s” experiential account of hypnosis. What follows is an excerpt from the San Diego Reader cover story. This writer also happened to be a noted poet and University Professor of Literature. Several years ago, I conducted three hypnosis sessions with a journalist flown in to write an article about Hypnotism. Someone that can capture the essence of this elusive and mysterious topic and relate it in a way that it becomes understandable.Ī Poet’s work…to name the unnameable. So, what’s needed here is a third party perspective from someone who has no experience or vested interest in the subject one way or the other. Of course, if I say that “ hypnosis works,” and that it’s a real phenomena, that’s expected because everybody already knows I’m a Hypnotist.
The short answer to that question, is “YES.” However, the experience of hypnosis is probably different than you think if your hypnosis background is limited to movies and cartoons. I Hypnotized a Skeptical Journalist, and THIS is What Happened… Can Anyone Be Hypnotized?