It is quite true that most people are not all that susceptible to hypnotism in a controlling sense, specially in the sense that they can't be hypnotized into doing something they don't want to. I have sat in audiences and seen professional hypnotism acts, and I've seen how repetitive phrases, music, and a certain form of speaking are used to induce a hypnotic trance in members of the public. I was among about 100 people out of an audience of thousands who volunteered and went up on stage as subjects for a very well known hypnotist...Reveen.

Well, it was fun. We all got up on the stage and he proceeded to suggest that we do various stuff...all applaud...all jog in position...and turn around...all laugh...and so on. And we did.

It was quite interesting how he went about doing it, but I never lost awareness that he was making the suggestions, and I was choosing to follow them, because:

1. it was fun to do it
2. I saw no reason to object to doing it

Eventually, however, he asked us to do something that I didn't particularly want to do, so I just stood there. Within moments I found an assistant tugging on my arm and I was directed back to my seat in the audience. And the same thing happened with most of the other 100 people in the next few minutes...they eventually decided they didn't want to follow some command, and were directed back to their seats.

Finally Reveen had narrowed it down to just 3 people, and it was quite evident that those 3 people had gone completely into a deep trance and had no idea any longer that they were standing on a stage being directed by a hypnotist. Reveen was then able to command those three people to do all kinds of weird and funny stuff...and to experience all kinds of imaginary realities which only they were aware of...and they clearly thought those realities were totally real. They had forgotten entirely that they were in an arena and they were unconscious of anything except what he told them to think about.

He did not ask them to do anything harmful or particularly embarrassing...as he could certainly be open to legal repercussions if he were to do that.

It was quite amazing how disconnected those people were until he ended their trances at prearranged signals which he had instructed them to respond to to end the trance. It was also quite clear afterward that they didn't remember any of it.

I spoke to one of those people, a young woman, after the show as she was leaving with her family. She clearly had not the slightest idea what I was talking about, and did not remember being hypnotized.

Now....this whole episode demonstrated something quite interesting. Only 3 out of about 100 people were so susceptible to hypnosis that they went into a deep trance and forgot about normal reality and became very malleable to the will of the hypnotist. That's significant. I do not think most people can easily be hypnotized.

What is easy to do, though, is to influence most people...to persuade them....providing they like you in the first place, providing you are a really good speaker, providing they like the way you look, providing you have charisma, providing you are famous, etc...

And all politicians do their utmost to influence and persuade people. That's their job. I don't call it hypnosis, but in some cases it can approach hypnosis. What a politician who is really good at it does is this: he taps into people's basic motivations. He either taps into negative stuff like fear, anger, resentment, hatred, "getting even", etc...

Or...he taps into positive stuff like pride, patriotic fervor, hope, faith in someone or something, treasured dreams, etc...

Again, I don't call that hypnosis, I call it influencing and persuading people. I'd much rather see people persuaded through positive motivations than through negative ones.