NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/alt/hypnosis/35

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-21 | 2.6 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ucla-cs!ucla-se!edison.seas.ucla.edu!ygoland
From: [e-mail] (The Jester)
Newsgroups: alt.hypnosis
Subject: Re: nonsence and truth
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 21 Nov 92 21:37:10 GMT
References: <[e-mail]] <[e-mail]]
Sender: [e-mail]
Organization: Republicans for Sanity
Lines: 46

Mr. Barton has an excellent point, as a matter of fact I am familiar
with the experiment he references. None of the activities (pranks) I
involved myself with really pushed the limit very far. The reasons
for that are obvious, I was out to have fun, not hurt anyone. I can
only report a 'feeling'. That feeling was that I could warp
someone's view of reality to the point where they would do just
about anything. But this isn't a scientific claim.

                The Jester

In article <[e-mail]] [e-mail] (David Barton) writes:
]In article <[e-mail]] [e-mail] (The
]Jester) writes:
]
]   First, anyone who says you won't do things under hypnosis that you
]   wouldn't normally do, is wrong.
](A lot of irresponsible, high-school pranks deleted)
]
]I think you underestimate, not what people will do under hypnosis, but
]what people will do when not under hypnosis.  There are many ways of
]getting people to do things they "wouldn't normally do".  The easiest
]is to ask them, under the color of some sort of authority.  The Milkin
]experiment should be required reading for anyone who works with
]hypnosis (and is usually covered in an introductory level psychology
]course).  Ordinary people, placed in a situation where they thought
]they were administering electric shocks as a part of an experiment in
]learning, would shock a person literally to death (or what was
]presented as death, convincingly --- they did not actually kill
]people).  All personal consequences of doing so were explicitly
]denied; the "experiment leader" simply told them it was necessary, and
]took all responsibility.
]
]I don't know what your high school experience was, but similar
]incidents (including taking off clothes, and similar to the dog act)
]were certainly part of my high school life, without hypnosis of any
]kind.  Most such activities took simply a "dare".
]
]                    Dave Barton
]                    [e-mail]


--
For some reason unintelligible to me, Lord Acton's dictum that
"Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely"
is rarely raised in connection with judges, who...possess power
..that comes [close] to being absolute"-Judge Bork