The founder of one of the schools of hypnosis, the American psychiatrist Milton Erickson, argued that there are no people who cannot be hypnotized. Physiologist Ivan Pavlov was a supporter of a slightly different scientific "message". He argued that in a state of hypnosis, most of the brain is put to sleep. Which theory is most correct and can hypnosis be avoided?
“Ay, honey, ay, good … Do not pass by. Let me tell you, beauty, I’ll tell you what awaits you ahead and what happened in your life…”- well, who of us has not encountered this? How to explain such frequent cases of deception of people by gypsies, as well as by "wizards", "magicians" and other "oracles"?
Often, the victims did not want to be put into hypnosis or, as it is also called, into a state of altered consciousness. Agree, few people want to voluntarily, in their right mind, give a stranger on the street all their pocket money, up to clothes, passport and house keys, car and safe.
However, these cases are not at all isolated and, what is most surprising, practically do not lend themselves to criminal prosecution, because the victim herself, without coercion, gave up her “wealth”. Why do smart people, not suffering from marasmus and mental illness, end up in such sad and funny stories?
The famous scientist Milton Erickson (1901-1980) would answer this question comprehensively. However, he did not have time to complete this scientific development. According to his concept, there are no people who cannot be hypnotized. And in order to put someone into a state of hypnosis, you do not need to ask his permission. If in Pavlov's technique, figuratively speaking, "most of the brain is put to sleep" and due to sleep a person is brought into a state of altered consciousness, follows the commands of the hypnotist and does not remember anything after the session, then the concept of "Ericksonian" hypnosis is diametrically opposite.
It operates approximately according to the following scheme: if in a normal state of a person the cerebral cortex is awake, then in a state of altered consciousness the foci of the cerebral cortex are introduced into a state of super-wakefulness. A person seems to understand everything, does not sleep, consciousness is working, but at this moment he is in the complete power of the hypnotist and as a result does what he is told.
That is why, after some time, the deceived people who decided to use the services of fortune tellers and would-be fortune-tellers are surprised: how is it that they, unwillingly, gave the charlatan everything that was in the wallet ?! And they are ready to swear that at the “moment of contact” they did not doubt the honesty of the gypsy woman, as well as the correctness of their actions!
Let's try to figure out how and why this is happening? In order to introduce a person into a state of altered consciousness, it is enough to evoke a strong emotion - either positive or negative. Naturally, the most powerful emotion for any person is the fear of his own death and the death of loved ones.
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That is why it is easiest for a fortuneteller to say to a person: “I see misfortune in fate. And death. No, not in yours, dear, no, not in yours, good, but in the fate of a person close to you! As a rule, in the mouth of a “charlatan” -hypnotist, the relatives of the victim, who are “threatened” with danger or death, are impersonal. After all, he does not name specifically who is in danger, who it is: brother, sister, mother or father, precisely because of the fear of later being caught in a lie and fooling around.
And now the charlatan gets his way! And this is not so difficult to do, given the prevalence in our society of myths about the otherworldly power of gypsies, magicians, sorcerers, healer grandmothers and other "evil spirits", the victim believes in his fairy tales and fear immediately paralyzes the ability to think adequately and give an account of actions. For the sake of saving himself and his relatives from inevitable fate, a person does everything that a charlatan “recommends”. Up to the actual theft: it is not uncommon for people responsible for finances, for example, sellers in retail stores, to give all the proceeds from the cash register to unfamiliar “well-wishers”.
Strong emotion is the cause of hypnosis. This is why women, as the more emotional half of humanity, are much more likely to be deceived. Strong emotion is impossible without faith in the words of the hypnotist. If a person knows that everything said by a deceiver is bullshit, he will not feel fear and will not rush to commit acts devoid of common sense. And as long as we live with medieval concepts of magic, extrasensory perception, magic and shamanism, they will profit from us, because we are the gullible victims of "magicians", "oracles", "sorcerers" and "wizards".
Although the means and methods of hypnosis are much wider than the examples described, it is much easier to defend against aggressive attempts to manipulate your subconscious than to try to control a person yourself. That is why even an ordinary person, prepared for a possible intrusion from the outside, will have good chances to defend himself against a more or less experienced deceiving hypnotist.
The main rule is not to enter into discussions with a suspicious or strange, at first glance, person. If, by the nature of your work, you often and a lot communicate with strangers, in no case do not talk on topics that are "far" from your work. It is better not to answer questions and suggestions concerning you personally and to have one or another excuse or reason for a change in reserve.
Alexey Tsarev
