Utilization and Resistance
 

Mr. Lankton,

Dr. Erickson in one hand developed one after another different induction techniques including some that utilizes resistance and on the other hand asserted that the control lies within the person being hypnotized and one could be hypnotized only if one relinquishes control for some reason. He also discussed about confusion, unconscious control, illusion of free will and there are many situations where one feels out of control. I guess you will say one can feel one cannot control if one wants to feel that way. Do you think hypnosis can be resisted consciously where it is not attempted in a formal way and it is difficult to say where social interaction ends and hypnosis begins?

Chayan Das

Re: Utilization and Resistance
 

Well, I have to say that the first parts of your post/questions is really not clear. So, I will comment on the last part...which I guess you were leading to anyway.
I will summarize what you wrote: "Do you think hypnosis can be resisted consciously when it is not attempted in a formal way? Is difficult to say where social interaction ends and hypnosis begins?"
I, personally, are a bit of a rebel on this topic. Researchers want to say that hypnosis is this or that measurable thing. My observations are that it is very difficult to say where social interaction ends and hypnosis begins. ... In fact, it is pretty close to impossible. But this is based on my idea of communication. All communication manipulates (not in a bad way necessarily). I want you to tell my how much your computer costs and so my questions focused your mind on that in the process of talking. That focus is manipulating your attention no matter how you slice it. If hypnosis is a heightened state of internal concentration, then the more my communication heightens your internal concentration...the more it is hypnotic. So the line is pretty darn well blurred between 'normal' conversation at times and deliberate 'formal induction'. I don't know that many would disagree with me on this...Andre Weitzenhoffer and Erika Fromm even agreed with me about it. Yet, when you say normal conversation is hypnotic conversation...suddenly lots of controversy rises. I think it is merely a problem with how we each define hypnosis. Researchers need to make a very very clear distinction on how it is defined. This is okay, as they want to be able to carefully measure something unique. Nevertheless, it makes what I have just said invalid.