across the wire

Have you ever been hypnotized? Do you think you even could be hypnotized?

A few years ago, I took a psychology course in which we talked about hypnosis and discussed some of the more fascinating uses for it rather than just entertainment. We looked at a case where an athlete underwent knee surgery with out anesthetic but was hypnotized to feel no pain. It was quite remarkable to watch the documentary on it. Then came the fun part: our professor hypnotized us as a class. It was quite the experience but very unlike what you see on TV or as a parlor trick. I have seen people wave their hands, tell you that you are going to get sleepy and 20 seconds later they are completely limp and sleeping. This was nothing like our experience. Or prof helped us relax through an almost meditative like speech and it lasted for about 1 minute. Some of the class at that point were hypnotized, some where not. He suggested that we would feel cold, or warm, unsteady etc. nothing unusual or embarrassing. I unfortunately was not hypnotized enough to feel it.

Here is a fun little exercise - take the quiz to see if you can be hypnotized and make sure you go on to the advanced quiz to be (slightly) hypnotized over the internet. (no, they didn't hypnotize me to give then my credit card number!). If you can't be hypnotized from it, at least it was a great 15 minute relaxation experience ;)