have wanted to address it. It is an episode
about how hypnosis can't have you do anything
against your will. According to what they show,
they believe it proves that the statement is
"true."
Things like this trouble me because the validity
they give to the claim I believe gives people a
false sense of security. First of all, the
examples they give are one-offs. One attempt is
made, and it doesn't work. Second of all, those
that they do the hypnosis with are not necessarily
the "best" of all possible subjects. Third of
all, the suggestions are almost silly, and worded
in a no-nonsense, direct kind of way.
If someone was "likely" to do something against
his will, given a hypnotic suggestion, there are
variables that might give a different outcome.
First it would likely be more than one session,
maybe even many. Secondly, as all subjects are
not created equal, if a hypnotist had a deeply
suggestible subject, the odds of accepting a
suggestion plainly, or otherwise suggested, is
greater than one who is not. Third, give a
suggestion in a way that allows the mind to
accept it by it appearing to be something other
than it is will likely allow for greater acceptance.
In addition, there will be ways to make it difficult
not to have the person follow through. An ethical
hypnotist is not likely to do something like that,
(there are exceptions - for instance, when you ask
for/desire it by your own accord) therefore it
is not a true sampling of what would or would
not seem to be possible. Plus, if you were to
make it rewarding in some way for the person to
follow through it would also tend to skew the
possible end result.
Believe me when I tell you there are ways to
skew things when you are in trance. While it
may be "technically" true that you won't do
anything against your will, there are many ways
that things can be contorted and distorted...
and the only benefit there will be will be for
the other person.
If interested, view the episode for yourself,
and let me know what you think.
(You may also want to read this blog entry.)
Unfortunately, MythBusters in this case does what it often does: they don't ask the experts. They may be great at detonating things and engineering applications, but otherwise they're just as ignorant as anyone else. I just have to wonder sometimes about the behind-the-scenes research that goes into each topic (there has to be some).
ReplyDeleteI know Penn & Teller also did a similar episode. While I have never seen it, I believe it had a similar type of outcome. Sadly, these types of superficial approaches I think really do a disservice to people, as people like this become the "authority" on something they don't really have any first hand knowledge of.
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