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A French TV program (Stars sous hypnose) shows celebrities who are hypnotized by an (apparently) famous hypnotizer (Mesmer).

They then proceed to do incredible things (believing to be vampires, forgetting the number 7, ...).

This looks very much fake to me, as if they were acting.

On the other hand, most comments I got from a few Google searches do not debunk this show, which is quite surprising when looking at the enormity of what these stars are doing.

Were such actions actually scientifically measured/checked, under some reasonable conditions? (the definition of hypnosis is not that important, it can be any stated induced by someone in a typical TV environment - so no day-long dances which bring in some kind of trance, or drugs, or starvation, ...)

Note: a similar question mentioned participants being or not staged - in my case the ones under hypnosis are well-know celebrities, some of them actors, some not. They all claim being genuinely hypnotized.

WoJ
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  • Why is the similar question not a duplicate? – Tim Jan 13 '18 at 21:24
  • Please edit this to a more specific claim, because it may be able to do some things (encourage shy people to play-act and improvise in front of a crowd) and not others (actually forget a number). – Oddthinking Jan 13 '18 at 23:40
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    Existing questions [many unanswered] about specific claims : [making items disappear](https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/23667/can-hypnosis-make-things-subjectively-disappear), [causing blisters](https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/35883/is-it-possible-to-cause-a-skin-burn-by-telling-a-hypnotized-subject-they-are-tou), [increase breast size](https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/16608/can-hypnosis-increase-breast-size), [enhancing memory](https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/4241/did-this-hypnotist-accidentally-leave-participants-in-a-trance), etc. – Oddthinking Jan 13 '18 at 23:41
  • See https://psychology.stackexchange.com/questions/18883/how-is-hypnosis-not-mind-control – Fizz Jan 14 '18 at 11:09
  • @Oddthinking: I will update my question to make it more precise. I am not interested in paranormal activities (I have a PhD in physics and hatred towards them) but rather in that special state of the brain (hypnosis) and specifically whether it allows people who are wiling to be put in that state to make very bizarre things (and remember them or not). – WoJ Jan 14 '18 at 11:10
  • I think [this question](https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/23667/can-hypnosis-make-things-subjectively-disappear) most closely matches what you are saying (even though I am personally critical of the conclusions of the accepted answer). – Oddthinking Jan 14 '18 at 11:26
  • @Oddthinking: given the recent research detailing some measurable meta-cognition similarities shared by schizophrenics (and more generally schizotypal personality) and the highly suggestible/hypnotizable, I'm not sure why you are so skeptical the HS group can experience hallucinations. – Fizz Jan 14 '18 at 11:35
  • @Fizz: Hypnosis - especially stage hypnosis - seems to be surrounded by myths, lies and illusionists. I am not denying the existence of "real" hypnosis, but when I hear a surprising claim, my skeptical senses tingle very strongly. I am not an expert, and acknowledge that the fact that I have never heard of a reasonable model of what real hypnosis is or where its limits lie, may simply be my ignorance and bias. – Oddthinking Jan 14 '18 at 14:48
  • @Oddthinking: I agree that stage hypnosis probably involves faking at least some of the time. Consider [a more recent](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.00709000) study that looked at visual illusion/hallucination under hypnosis: it used two highly suggestible subjects (one ranking 12/12 on two scales of hypnotizabilty, and one ranking 12 on a scale and 9 on another); the second subject while being able to experience much more hypnotic suggestions than the average person could not experience suggestion of color change. (continued) – Fizz Jan 14 '18 at 15:04
  • That to me suggests that in a TV/scene show either the show is highly rehearsed by selecting only the suggestions that are known to work with the subjects used... or that the subjects fake some of the stuff for various reasons. Also, in the scientific literature on hypnosis there's general agreement that there's not much of skill of the hypnotist involved (beyond a basic procedure)... the rest all depends on the subject. – Fizz Jan 14 '18 at 15:06

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