When I count to ten, you will bark like a dog

I have never believed in hypnosis, at least the whole "when i snap my fingers, you will waddle around and quack like a duck". I believe that in a relaxed state, there are things that can be done to people's minds. I actually tried to be hypnotized at my senior lock in and it was a joke. I was completely lucid the whole time and to me it just seemed like everyone was acting because they wanted to be hypnotized. It is possible that I had set myself up for failure because i was not open enough for this to effect me. I believe that the things that happen when people are "hypnotized" is a hoax and is a cheap party trick. The lady even told us not to be scared because we would be in control the whole time. What does that tell you? It says that it is all in your head and whatever you do you are doing under your own free will. It is a joke if you ask me...

While personally hypnosis is not one the things that I've always believed to be true (it just seems to be a bit far-fetched), I understand where you're coming from. Without having actually experienced something it's very hard to avoid believing the first thing you hear about it, especially if it's from a source we trust for the most part such as television and the internet. I think this is what gets the best of us when we fall for pseudoscience scams the book talks about. This idea also opens my eyes to the idea of not knowing in general. We are conditioned to believe that everything we learn throughout our schooling is true because a teacher said so. I think that it may be difficult to shake this once we get to the real world.

I really enjoyed reading about hypnosis in chapter 5 because I have actually experienced it and could relate to many of the things the book talked about.
Like someone mentioned above, my school also hired a hypnotist for my senior all night party. Until that point, I was also completely sceptical on the whole thing. All those past doubts were totally wiped away though as soon as I was actually the one up on stage doing all sorts of crazy things.
It was about 2 in the morning so I was extremely tired and fell into doing the demands the hypnotist right away. (Afterwards, the hypnotist told us you are more vulnerable to hypnosis when you are drowsy.) Now, as the chapter mentioned, I was completely aware of my surroundings. I was also still able to recognize all of my peers sitting in the crowd. However, I did not care what so ever what they thought of me while doing the actions the hypnotist commanded. I was cuddling up to kids in my grade that I had never spoken to before, complimenting boys I definitely am not attracted to, and I even started crying when the hypnotist told me the cops were chasing me. There is no way on God's green earth would I be crying in front of a group of 600 people if I were just faking it.
My point is, although hypnosis is a far-fetched concept, it is not some kind of joke; it really happens! And it is so fascinating how these hypnotist have the ability to trick our minds.

First off, love your headline -- it grabbed my attention right away!
Secondly, I as well have experienced some sort of hypnosis at my senior all-night party. The hypnotist requested us to fall into a relaxed and sleepy state of mind, and to solely focus on his words. This was rather difficult for me to do since I was a little over excited about making it work, so it was hard to focus. I did not fall into a hypnotic state completely until the end of the session (where apparently I was an alien who could only see all blue, and I no longer had a butt and could not sit down). However during my "light hypnotic stage" as he called it, I could really hear the sounds he was describing to us, and smell the odors he had us imagine. This made me wonder, is hypnosis all personal interpretation and completely sensory? Why was it easy for me to fall into the auditory and olfactory hypnotics, but not the visionary? Hmmm...

On a related note, I actually know a bit able how to perform a type of physical touch induced hypnosis. It may be a bit more believable, because you are essentially telling a complex, highly believable story to your listener, occasionally touching them lightly if the story allows (i.e. the wind caressed your face, the rain fell softly, etc.) until they begin to believe the story. As soon as they mentally believe, the body can draw upon past experiences that form parallels with the story. For example, if you suggest to them that are being crushed with an immense weight and then give explicit examples, they generally find it very difficult to get up, even though you haven't actually put anything on top of them. It's really quite interesting!

I have seen and known people who have been "hypnotized" and they all have said they are completly in control. They are just in a relaxed conscious state. The reason they acted goofy in front of an audience was to appease the crowd. It is to my understanding that some doctors use hypnotherapy, I still question the realiability of it all. I think hypnosis is just someone being fed a "mind placebo" if you will. They are told that it is going to work and these people buy into it. I'm not saying that hypnosis doesn't work, what I am saying is that it won't work for everybody because some people are just weary (like me) of the actual results it can perform.

A hypnotist came to my high school's senior party and my brother was selected to be hypnotized. After the show was over, I asked him if he was really hypnotized or if he was "faking it." Unsurprisingly, he was faking it. Like a previous commenter mentioned, I think people who are hypnotized in front of an audience act strangely to make the audience laugh. As I have never been hypnotized myself, I can't honestly say whether or not it works, but I remain skeptical. I think that in order for it to work, people have to have a certain mindset--they must want to be hypnotized. It probably won't work for skeptics like myself.

I like that you countered your previous beliefs, and showed that you learned something. I have seen people hypnotized before, and it is true that they can get them to perform strange behaviors. However, it didn't work on everyone the hypnotist attempted to control, and some people snapped out of it halfway through. It just seems to be a relaxed state, and nothing more. Also, I don't think it's possible to find "repressed" memories, or help them remember anything. Basically, anything you tell someone that is hypnotized, they believe, so it probably shouldn't count as evidence of any kind. Hypnotism is interesting, but definitely iffy.

I admit that I was first skeptical about the effects of hypnosis, but I have actually seen a large group of people that were hypnotized and made to do very odd and unique things. Things that a person with any sense of real consciousness would not do. Regarding a previous comment, I asked a few of the people who were hypnotized if they were faking it or not and they were very adamant that they were not.