hypnosis is really crazy and weird and
hypnosis is a real thing, right?
if so, can I use it to motivate myself to do stuff, nudge my aliefs and System 1 dispositions closer to actual reality, be happier, etc?
hypnosis is really crazy and weird and
hypnosis is a real thing, right?
if so, can I use it to motivate myself to do stuff, nudge my aliefs and System 1 dispositions closer to actual reality, be happier, etc?
1) Yes and no, depending on what you mean by “real thing”.
The Oxford Handbook of Hypnosis is a giant tome of scientific knowledge on “hypnosis”; none of which suggests that it’s not real. Hypnotists really can do seemingly wild shit that most people cannot do. Most hypnotherapists like to say “It’s not mind control like Hollywood depicts”, but even that is only partially true. The lawyer Michael Fine used hypnosis to sexually assault his clients and give them amnesia for it, and he is in prison now only because he was dumb enough about it that his victims were able to notice that they were missing memory and that things didn’t add up. I’ve talked to victims of more clever hypnotists who haven’t gotten caught.
At the same time, there’s a reason hypnotists tend to write book with subtitles like “there’s no such thing as hypnosis”. I’d argue that it’s more accurate to say “there’s no such thing as not-hypnosis”, but neither really conveys an accurate understanding. The bottom line is that hypnosis isn’t what it appears to be, because “not hypnosis” isn’t what it appears to be, and once you get familiar with how to do hypnosis and see all the gray area between the black and white, the term kinda loses meaning. Competent hypnotists have a strong tendency to drop all the formalisms, and the most competent have a tendency to stop seeing what they do as “hypnosis”—at least, in my judge of competence as someone who also doesn’t see what I do as “hypnosis”.
2) Yes and no. I’ve gotten some interesting results using “self hypnosis”. One that stands out is using self hypnosis to “be comfortable” when I was seasick on a rocking boat one night. It worked, and I got comfortable—only to feel myself about to vomit anyway. Careful what you wish for.
The hard part isn’t “Can hypnosis be used to get my brain to believe X”, it’s what’s true? What’s worth doing? Are things going well, relative to the relevant expectations? The more you try to bullshit yourself, the more you’ll a) have unintended effects if you succeed, or b) foresee this and find it hard to get yourself to do self hypnosis. The more you see clearly what the right answer is, the less you’ll need hypnosis in the first place. The real value in learning hypnosis is as a proof of concept that allows you to see when you’re BSing yourself so you can stop that.
Due to the counter-intuitiveness and subtleties here, it’s hard to give a less cryptic short answer. I’m actually finishing up a ~20 post 65k word sequence on essentially this exact question. It’s about what I’ve learned about psychology and rationality as a result of picking up hypnosis in 2010. It will give concrete and actionable answers to what you’re looking for here, as well as the underlying justification. I have a draft done and basically waiting for a proof reader to make it through, then I’ll start posting.
Your answer wasn’t cryptic at all. Don’t worry. This is a great answer. Let me know when you’re done with that sequence. I’ll have to read it.
(Also, it’s horrifying that people can be hypnotized against their will. That makes me simultaneously thankful-that and curious-why it isn’t more widely practiced...)
There’s a wide range of techniques and behaviors that can be called “hypnosis”, and an even wider range of what can be called “a real thing, right?”. Things in the realm of hypnosis (meditation, guided-meditation, self-hypnosis, daily affirmations, etc. have plenty of anecdotal support from adherents, and not a lot of RCTs or formal proof of who it will work for and who it won’t.
There’s a TON of self-help and descriptive writing on the topics of meditation and self-hypnosis. For many people, daily affirmations seem to be somewhat effective in changing their attitude over time. For many, a therapist or guide may be helpful in setting up and framing the hypnosis.
It’s a bit late in my current timezone and I read this stuff long ago and don’t quite know where so please do not believe me much, but here goes:
I have the impression that social-trust-stuff is pretty load-bearing in hypnosis (ie if a psychiatrist does it you have to trust them for it to work, if a stage magician does it on a member of the public they bring onto the stage then they have to be skilled and the rest of the audience has to be receptive). So going from that I’d say that it is probably kind of a real thing but different and less powerful than you are probably imagining, and that doing it on yourself seems hard and maybe impossible.
Anyways don’t quote me on this, I will retract this answer upon the slightest correction, I did zero research for it, I wrote it on a whim.
I am not really knowledgeable about it either and have never been hypnotized or attempted to hypnotize anyone. I did read one book on it a while ago—Reality is Plastic—which I remember feeling pretty informative.
Having said all that, I get the impression this description of hypnosis is a bit understated. Social trust stuff can help, but I’m highly confident that people can get hypnotized from as little as an online audio file. Essentially, if you really truly believe hypnosis will work on you, it will work, and everything else is just about setting the conditions to make you believe it really hard. Self-hypnosis is a thing, if you believe in it.
Hypnosis can actually be fairly risky—certain hypnotic suggestions can be self-reinforcing/addictive, so you want to avoid that stuff. In general, anything that can overwrite your fundamental personality is quite risky. For these reasons, I’m not sure I’d endorse hypnosis becoming a widespread tool in the rationalist toolkit.