Hypnotism

In 1982, I was enrolled as an evening class student in a Psychology 120 course at the University of Manitoba, Canada. The lecturer mentioned the topic of hypnotism. He said he had some experience with it. He requested our permission to participate in an exercise in hypnotism. There were over 100 students in the lecture room.

He asked us to remain in our seats and to interlock the fingers of both hands in front of our bodies and to keep them in that position. I do not recall his exact words after that but I think it was a statement that our fingers would remain interlocked. Then he asked us to “unlock”our fingers.

I can vividly recall my surprise and amazement at what transpired after that. About seven or eight students, still in their seats, and with alarm in their voices, stated they were unable to “unlock” their fingers. The lecturer requested them to come to him at the front of the class. Then he touched their interlocked fingers and they became free.
He did mention that some persons are more susceptible to hypnotism than others.

Have you or anyone that you know personally ever been hypnotized by someone else, similar to what happened to the students as described above?


I know that hypnosis is also used as a form of therapy to treat anxiety and depression.

It is used in regression, where persons are “taken back” to some past stage in their lives, and are able to describe certain past events that they experienced; this may be part of their therapy.

Some are taken as far back as “previous lives”. Several books have been written that claim to describe past lives of various persons. Some sources quote this as evidence of reincarnation.

What do you think of hypnotism?