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 | Main Concepts |
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| | Hypnosis |
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| | Terminology |
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| | Hypnotherapy |
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Entertainment Application
Researches carried out around the phenomenon of stage hypnosis or hypnosis for entertainment surmised that rather than the subjects being in an altered state, they were affected significantly more by social factors and expectations.
These works explore how a hypnotist will carefully choose volunteers from the audience, put them into a trance using hypnosis, and then plant suggestions for them to perform. The critical factor in any stage hypnosis show is the choice of enthusiastic and credulous individuals. Various techniques exist for discerning whether an individual is a likely candidate for a hypnosis stage act, showing a higher than normal susceptibility.
The process used to ensure participants presenting themselves as adequate for the stage starts with the initial call for volunteers from the audience. The hypnotist will use carefully selected terms in the initial call for volunteers. There will be a certain number of chairs or spots on the stage which will usually be less than the number of initial volunteers. This will set up an unconscious sense of competition among those volunteers who really do want to participate.
The volunteers may be made to believe they are drunk, aliens speaking a strange alien language, naked or seeing others naked, six year-old children, ballet dancers etc. Such suggestions are designed to be temporary, lasting the duration of the show. Stage hypnosis is a unique performance in that it involves real people from the audience responding in a variety of ways, making no two shows the same. There has been debate over the years as to whether some degree of fraud or collusion may be involved in some stage hypnosis acts.
Naked!
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Sometimes stage hypnosis begins with an "induction" in which the hypnotist asks the entire audience to close their eyes and listen to his/her words. He/she lulls everyone participating into a relaxed state with which he/she may observe who is more susceptible to be hypnotized. Often, people are simply unable to relax and go with the hypnotist's instructions due to an inability to relax and allow their minds to follow instructions without conscious thought or simply determination to not be induced.
Ballet Dancers
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There are many behaviors that can be observed of those who "go under", such as slumping in their seat, head lolling to the side, falling into the lap of someone next to them, eye lids flickering, and an inability to wake when spoken to or prodded unless done so by the hypnotist himself. For those who are simply watching this show and seeing the person next to them become induced, it can be frightening to witness.
Heads stuck
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