

Eyes reveal true hypnotic state for the first time - wicknicks
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/2011/10/one-word-technique-produces-first-physical-evidence-of-hypnosis.html

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jpulgarin
Interesting - a lot of professional hypnotists (Derren Brown for example), and
scientists deny the existence of a hypnotic state.

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amalag
We need new scientist to tell us the hypnotic state is real? Too bad there
have been many studies before this which are quite conclusive.

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jpulgarin
Link to them please.

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tzs
I don't have a proper cite, but I saw on a TV show where they highlighted
interesting researchers who were studying cognition and perception a very
interesting experiment. One of the most interesting was a researcher who took
subjects and measured the Stroop effect.

In case some have not seen it, I'll describe the Stroop effect. The Stroop
effect is the way the meaning of a printed word interferes with the perception
of the attributes of the print. For instance, if you are shown words printed
in colored ink, and asked to identify the color, you slow down significantly
on words where the word is a color name.

For instance, if you see the word "lamp" printed in blue, you have no trouble
quickly saying blue.

If you see the word "red" printed in blue, you want to say red, and there is a
significant pause as you have to override that and say blue.

Anyway, in the segment I'm thinking of, the researcher took people and
hypnotized them, and told them that when they woke up they ware going to do
the test, but all the words would be in a foreign language they did not
understand.

The subjects were woken up, and the test was done--in English. The subjects
performed as fast on the color name words as they did on the other words, as
if they could indeed no longer understand the meaning of the words.

Hypnosis is often dismissed as the subject just wanting to please the
hypnotist. So they cluck like a chicken when someone rings a bell because they
want to appear cooperative and make him happy. OK, that could be. But how your
brain prioritizes work meaning vs. word color when you are trying to decide
what color to say is not something that you can change to please the
hypnotist. It's not voluntary. If you are able to do the color name words as
fast as the other words, it means something really has been changed in how
your brian is processing.

