Many of my members have been discussing hypnosis featured on various radio shows recently and this episode of Radio 4’s Word of Mouth has the host Chris Ledgard considering the use of words to control minds… He explores hypnosis, brainwashing and the recruiting language of cults to find out just how influenced we are by language…. It makes for some interesting listening to people with or without knowledge or understanding of my favourite subject…
Chris himself is put into an altered state of consciousness by a hypnotherapist, to find out what kind of words are used to do this and how… I suspect many hypnotherapists or hypnosis professionals may not be highly impressed…
As you regular readers will have seen me write here, some in the medical profession are calling for hypnosis to be used for pain relief during medical procedures such as bone marrow transplantation and cancer treatment following successful research findings. They say that as hypnosis has no side effects it makes the operation quicker, the recovery faster and the cost less than with the use conventional anaesthetic. But does it really work, and if so, how? Chris talks to the scientists currently working on a systematic review to find out.
Can talk also be used to control and manipulate us into doing things that we would otherwise not do? Stories of people being indoctrinated into cults usually involve descriptions of brainwashing, corruption and manipulation. But are words really powerful enough to control the mind? Chris talks to an ex-cult member turned rhetorical theorist about how language is used.
Do go and have a listen.
