🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1jl0irINNdf2@mirror.digex.com> curt@access.digex.com (curt
williams) writes:

   But first, an informal poll.

   1) How many readers of alt.hypnosis believe that a person can be
   compelled to do something against their will, or something they
   would not ordinarily be willing to do, because of post hypnotic
   suggestion?

The question hangs on what a person would be "ordinarily" willing to
do.  I have brought up the Milgram experiment several times here, and
I think that it is still a good one to look at with respect to this
whole question.  If ordinary people are willing to administer shocks
to a stranger until he is apparantly dead, then I think there is
nothing that a person can be "compelled" to do by post-hypnotic
suggestion (I do not see this suggestion as "compelling") that he or
she would not do given an appropriate situation.

Milton Erickson's investigation of the antisocial uses of hypnosis is
interesting.  He came accross several examples of ordinary but
frowned-upon acts (violating the privacy of a friend, small thefts,
etc.) that he attempted to induce without a "safety net" that a person
would commit when in a normal state which they categorically refused
to commit in a trance, after considerable persuasion and hypnotic
changing of the scene.

   2) How many readers of alt.hypnosis believe that a person under
   hypnosis or following a post hypnotic suggestion can fool a
   polygraph?

People in a normal state can fool a polygraph.  I have no doubt that
someone in hypnosis could also fool a polygraph.

					Dave Barton
					dlb@hudson.wash.inmet.com