Hypnosis

[Atonement]

Now, I put this in ROTW because I think this will have two sides to it.

My question, do you believe in hypnosis? Do you believe its real or more so just people having an excuse to make asses of themselves?

If you have personal experiences, by all means, share. Or if you have science. Sweet. I'm curious what people think out there.

[Sage]

I think it's a clever psychological trick but not a whole lot more. You'll never hypnotize anyone who genuinely doesn't want to be hypnotized.

[Death]

They've tested this on Mythbusters. Although hypnosis can help with memory and influence someone's decisions if they are willing, you cannot hypnotise someone to do something after the hypnosis ends, and neither get someone to do something against their will.

They also tried hypnotising a willing subject to quit smoking, but decided to add an extra hypnotic suggestion of their own (I think it was her touching her ear when a keyword was said). Whilst under hypnosis, she actually refused!

[INFERNO]

Hypnosis is definitely real but there are limitations to it as it's not simply swinging a golden pocket-watch and telling the person to quack like a duck against their will. It's all about getting the person relaxed but if you cannot and if the person is unwilling, then you cant do much hypnosis. When you infact do hypnosis, there's also limits as to what the subject will and won't do. For example, telling a person to kill their beloved dog isn't going to happen because their morals and beliefs outweigh the subconscious influence of the hypnosis. On the other hand, if you tell the person to jump up and down on the spot, then that would work. To know whether the subject is merely playing along, people have done EEGs on subjects and analyzed the brain-wave patterns, which are said to be akin to a person asleep or dreaming.

If someone says something such as "I was hypnotized to do ____", then that's nonsense unless someone told them they were infact hypnotized. I'm a bit confused as to people using this as an excuse for inappropriate or unusual actions that the OP mentions.