- Close your eyes. Breathe in, and out. Slowly. Picture yourself by the ocean. It's warm. You can hear waves. You're completely at ease. When I count backwards from three, yada yada yada yada yada, and ta-da! That's the Hollywood version of hypnosis. Luckily it is bunk. But what is hypnosis? Is it real? The short answer is, yeah. But maybe not the way you think. Hypnosis is a trance state, characterized by suggestibility, relaxation, and heightened imagination. Kind of like day dreaming. Think of losing yourself in a book or in a movie. You're conscious, but you tune out stimuli. Including your own worries and doubts. This happens more often than you might think. In fact, by that definition, you've probably accidentally hypnotized yourself before. You're highly suggestible when in trance, so when a hypnotist tells you to do something, you are more likely to do it. Hence the whole cluck-like-a-chicken bit, right? Fear of embarrassment flies out the window, but not a sense of safety and morality. That's reassuring when you think about it. I mean, at least stage magicians are churning out temporary chickens, instead of winter soldiers, right? Hypnosis is often described as a way to access the subconscious, that's the part of your brain that does all of the behind-the-scenes thinking. This is the unsung hero in your head. It's solving problems. It's finding your stuff. It's giving you those out of the blue eureka moments, and all that jazz. Psychiatrists think that hypnosis partially subdues the conscious mind. Think of your conscious mind as an inhibitive force. It's the thing that hits the brakes. Your subconscious mind, on the other hand, is the seat of imagination and impulse. If that's the case, then of course you become suggestible when the conscious part of you gets put on the cognitive back-burner. The subconscious also regulates sensations and emotions. So if you're in trance, a hypnosis can trigger feelings and senses via suggestion. You know, warmth, ocean waves.

This part of your brain also helps store memories, meaning hypnotized people can access otherwise lost memories. But this also implies that it's possible to create false memories. Spooky stuff, right? And, to be fair, skeptics have another explanation for this state. Social pressure. Their idea is that insecure people can be convinced that they should act a certain way. And when they do they think, oh, I must be in a trance. Kind of a, self-fulfilling prophecy, or a placebo effect. This is just scratching the surface. I mean, we haven't even talked about how to actually hypnotize people and whether that whole pendulum thing is real. Spoiler alert, yes, it's meant to induce a state of suggestibility by making you focus on one object with such intensity that you lose track of all the other external stimuli. But, enough about all of that. What do you think? Are people really being hypnotized? Have you, yourself, been put under? Let me know in the comments, and subscribe to BrainStuff so that you don't miss a thing. That's it. Have a good day. Oh, wait. Yeah, sorry. Three, two, one.