How to protect yourself from suggestion? Article. Autotraining. Self-knowledge.ru

What might the impact be?
How to deal with other people's influence?
How to protect yourself from hypnosis if you are approached on the street?
Confronting specific methods of street “hypnotists”
What to do if you fall into a trance?

Reading the latest news about how scammers hypnotized and defrauded respectable citizens, many people think - how to learn not to succumb to someone else’s suggestion? It's actually not that difficult. Of course, the ability to resist hypnosis is not a panacea. Fraudsters can deceive a person without resorting to a trance, but the ability to protect yourself from uninvited influence will also not be superfluous. In this article you will find tips on how to avoid falling for the most common attempts to influence you.

Why hypnosis can be dangerous for humans

The trance state is absolutely natural; during the day a person periodically falls into it on his own when he gets carried away with something or is immersed in thought. However, trance can be intentionally induced by another person, who in this case is called a hypnotist.

Hypnosis:

Has nothing to do with supernatural forces.
Represents the normal function of the human psyche and its reaction to stimuli.
The perception of a person under hypnosis changes.

To better understand the potential threat of hypnosis to a person, one should turn to the phenomena of trance, which scammers use for their own selfish purposes.

Phenomena of hypnotic trance

Everyone can remember a time when they did not hear their name called loudly while watching an interesting film or reading an exciting book. This is a clear demonstration of a negative auditory hallucination: in a trance state, hearing becomes selective, a person hears only those sounds that are associated with the object that interests him. A hypnotist can also cause similar manifestations of the phenomena of the human psyche.

Regardless of whether a person entered a trance himself or was deliberately hypnotized, this state is characterized by the following properties:

decreased critical perception of the information provided;
narrowing of attention, focusing on certain images, sensations, sounds and nuances of the situation;
substitution by the hypnotist of the existing reality with a fictitious one;
amnesia – complete or partial loss of memory about events that occurred under hypnosis;
confusion of consciousness, actions that are patterned for a particular situation: under hypnosis a person acts unconsciously, automatically, in a manner familiar to himself;
visual or auditory, tactile hallucinations;
decreased motor activity, so-called “trance paralysis”;
negative hallucinations: a hypnotized subject does not see, hear, or feel things that are obvious to a person with a clear consciousness.

Trance can be light, when a person maintains a connection with the outside world, or it can be very deep, in which reality is completely replaced by inspired reality.

Features of human actions under hypnosis

A hypnotized subject will not do anything that contradicts his moral code and will never change his principles and beliefs. However, the potential danger of hypnosis is that scammers literally change reality for their victim, simulating a situation in which a person will act in a way that is beneficial to them.

Under hypnosis, a person will not become a murderer, obeying the will of the hypnotist, and will not commit dirty tricks or illegal actions that he is not capable of in a normal state of consciousness.

However, the hypnotist can cause:

pay for a successful purchase,
withdraw cash from an ATM,
give money as a reward for something,
pay to avoid trouble, etc.

These are actions that are completely explainable by logic. And they can happen to anyone. The hypnotist's task is to create such a situation.

Gypsies have gained fame as successful hypnotist-swindlers by asking passers-by to tell their fortunes “for a pretty penny.” During the ritual, the victim places a large denomination banknote in his palm, which the scammers then take away for fortune-telling, distracting attention with the story of the upcoming fate or frightening him with the fact that otherwise the person will face grief. But this is far from the only example when the first person he meets can plunge a person into a trance state.

A person can be hypnotized even over the phone. This is a completely common practice used by many scammers. And if a person has suspicions that someone, when communicating, intends to change his perception of the surrounding reality, forces him to take certain actions (buying an item, manipulating a wallet, a bank card), asks questions that lead to confusion, feeling of shame, embarrassment or deep thought, causes shock, then you should interrupt the trance induction using one of the methods presented below.

What it is

In simple terms, hypnosis consists of influencing one person on another through instilling in him specific thoughts and patterns of behavior. People often fall under hypnotic influence - as spectators or students, children or buyers from TV show hosts, sellers, and book authors. The basis of such influence is suggestion.

Human thinking has two roles - conscious and unconscious. Consciousness works all day, processing the information received online, and rests in sleep. The unconscious accumulates everything that happened to a person, what he saw, heard, felt, experienced, the entire previous part of life. The unconscious controls physiological functions, emotions arise in it, and behavioral patterns are built. Fears and habits hide in the unconscious. But it is most often impossible to directly influence your unconscious. And it is hypnosis that paves the way between the conscious and the unconscious.

The unconscious is constantly in an active state, but inhibition of consciousness activates it even more. The subconscious organizes all the information received, forms protective mental mechanisms: it displaces and erases something from consciousness, rationalizes something. This most important role of the unconscious in a person’s life provides almost unlimited possibilities with the targeted influence of hypnosis on it.

Every person is susceptible to suggestibility to varying degrees; it is inherent in his nature. Suggestibility is based on the direct or indirect influence of speech or mental impulses on the thinking processes, human actions, as well as the physiological and psychological functioning of the entire organism. These processes, habitual and natural, a person rarely notices and realizes the impact exerted on him, much less successfully resists it. And there is no point in opposing hypnosis if it is used for the purpose of teaching or healing.

You need to know how not to succumb to hypnosis only in case of adverse hypnotic effects, criminal types of hypnosis. The purpose of such hypnosis is to impose on a person, usually quietly, without asking his consent, a pattern of behavior or an idea that will benefit the hypnotist and harm the victim.

Rating of the best ways to resist hypnosis

Methods of preventing trance induction vary depending on the technique used by the hypnotist. At the same time, it is important to recognize scammers and their intentions in time.

Fraudsters often use:

surprise effect,
overload of the victim’s consciousness, when she is deliberately not allowed to come to her senses and collect her thoughts.

The effectiveness of the presented methods depends on the subject’s readiness for unforeseen situational turns, the ability to maintain concentration and manage one’s own attention. The higher these abilities, the less susceptible a person is to hypnosis.

The decisive factor in resisting a hypnotic trance is the subject’s ability to critically perceive information, not to succumb to the influence of others, while remaining committed to his line of behavior and protecting his own interests.

Who is easier to hypnotize?

The relaxed psyche of any person has the ability to submit to hypnotic influence. If he trusts the hypnotist and is able to concentrate his attention on the stimulus used during the session, he will be hypnotized. But statistics show that in practice only every ninth person in ten can be put into a hypnotic trance. One, for various reasons, resists immersion. Although this resistance is relative, and with another attempt it can be overcome. This often comes with the client’s growing trust in the specialist.

It is possible to identify groups of people in whom resistance to hypnosis manifests itself to a greater extent:

people under the influence of alcohol or drugs;
infants (they do not understand the effect of stimuli, their imagination is just developing);
people in extreme old age (imagination and sensitivity at this age are greatly reduced);
mentally ill;
skeptical and curious individuals;
people who laugh.

A person who cannot be hypnotized is a relative concept. This property often depends not on the personality of the person being hypnotized, but on the experience and skill of the hypnologist.

Avoiding contact with the hypnotist

This method is simple but effective. If the scammer's intention to hypnotize is known in advance, then the most basic response will be to deliberately avoid contact with the scammer.

Having seen a crowd of gypsies looking for a victim, it is better to cross to the other side of the street in advance, remaining unnoticed by them.

Otherwise, even brief visual contact is enough for scammers to call out to the potential victim, ask them to come closer or stop to continue communication. This same tactic also includes refusing to answer calls coming from unfamiliar numbers. Although for some people this principle may seem wild, in this way many avoid real trouble.

Disadvantage of this method:

A fraudulent hypnotist is often not so easy to recognize at first glance. Moreover, it is in the interests of the swindler himself to ensure that his intentions are not revealed ahead of time.
Also, contact with a hypnotist is forced when one has to resist the trance already in the process of inducing it.

Critical perception of the hypnotist and his actions

Everyone needs to remember that not everything heard or even seen is true. You need to be critical of all information provided, especially by a stranger, and question it. In this case, distrust should be deliberately flaunted - such behavior will discourage the hypnotist from influencing his victim.

The hypnotist will put a person into a trance only if he can overcome his critical perception.

The scammer must get the victim to sincerely believe in his words. That is why the hypnotist’s voice, as a rule, sounds confident, does not allow doubts, it is authoritarian - this is the technique used by the masters of pop hypnosis on stage, when the subject’s attention is already focused on their personality.
Hypnosis doesn't always look like direct suggestion. When inducing a trance, the acting abilities of the hypnotizer can be used: he can portray fear, surprise, bewilderment and even pain - in order to evoke the appropriate emotion in a person, sympathy or complicity in what is happening, and reduce the critical perception of the situation. Gypsies wear a small child or a doll in their hem to evoke compassion in the first person they meet and thus make contact, after which they proceed directly to hypnosis.

What is anchor hypnosis and how does it work?

In some cases, the patient is better helped by direct hypnosis with instillation of aversion to alcohol. In others, anchor hypnosis works well. It is based on the principles of neurolinguistic programming. This is a gentle, non-violent practice. Many patients are afraid that the doctor will “get into their head.” In this case, any fears are groundless, because the impact is based on three “pillars”:

the patient’s desire to get rid of addiction;
relying on strong personal impressions;
individual approach.

The specialist, with the help of the patient, finds an “anchor” in his past - a strong memory with a negative connotation. Then, with the help of hypnosis (light trance without complete immersion), this impression is associated with the idea of alcohol. In the future, alcohol causes negative emotions in a person and the desire to drink disappears.

Mental withdrawal from the hypnotist

The hypnotist’s efforts to induce a trance can be neutralized by voluntarily turning off attention from his actions. It is enough to remember any familiar melody or song and mentally repeat it, read poetry to yourself, or count from one to one hundred.

The essence of this method is to deliberately distract from the personality of the fraudster, whose efforts will be in vain. To induce a trance, it is important for the hypnotizer to keep the person's focus on his actions or words. The willful mental concentration of the hypnotized person on simple tasks will help to distance himself from attempts to influence and not get confused in his own reasoning.

Gaining control over the situation

When inducing a trance, it is vital for the hypnotist to keep the situation under control, because hypnosis can otherwise be called manipulation of attention. And a person opposing trance should make his own adjustments to the situation, consciously change it.

How to regain control of the situation:

You can start with basic actions: when communicating with a street scammer, look at your watch or to the side, intentionally cough, light a cigarette, take out your phone or tie your shoelaces - do any act of your own free will, and feel in control of the situation.
After this, you can invite the hypnotizer to come closer to the standing people, go with him to a nearby kiosk, ticket office at the station, ask him to be silent, ask a few questions not related to the topic of discussion and demand an answer.
This behavior will help to break the trance state and will confuse the hypnotizer, since the latter will have to cede control of the situation.
Usually, such attempts immediately cause resistance from the scammer and a desire to return to the topic under discussion, but this should only cause a response of wariness; you must categorically refuse the scammer’s proposals.

Tactics to get ahead of the hypnotist

If there is no way to avoid contact with the hypnotist, but his intentions are quite predictable, you can be proactive and start a conversation first.

Simple discouraging questions or remarks will be especially effective when meeting traders or notorious gypsies:

Buy a pen from me;
How do I get to the library?
Let me tell you fortune;

These remarks must be pronounced in a calm tone, the first to begin communication. Initiative and confidence in a person’s voice will make it clear to the scammer that confidential contact is simply excluded. This will also indicate that the ultimate goal of communication - deception - is already known. Usually street scammers themselves avoid contact after such questions.

Protection from suggestion

It happens that it is not possible to avoid communicating with a hypnotist. This can happen during important business negotiations. In this case, you need to confront the partner who is trying to hypnotize.

It is important to clearly formulate your goals when communicating so as not to succumb to suggestion. You can write them on paper and periodically take it out, reminding yourself of the result of the meeting that you need to get. If you deviate from the goal of the negotiations, you need to confidently return the conversation to the original topic.

Hypnosis will not work if a person chants to himself:

a simple and cheerful song;
poem;
fairy tale;
prayer.

If such protection does not work, build a protective wall in front of the manipulator. You need to imagine how you build it.

While you are distracted by such visualization, hypnotic words will pass you by. When you feel like sleep is receding, you can return to negotiations. If the method does not help, it is better to leave the room.

Interfering with the hypnotist's nonverbal influences

The hypnotic state is caused not only through words, the so-called verbal influence. Trance can also be induced using wordless techniques.

The scammer can use non-verbal methods to induce a hypnotic state by:

long handshake,
tapping on the shoulder,
tugging at clothes
introduction into personal human space.

Also, these methods can be used in combination with speech trance induction, enhancing the influence of words.

A common example is when a scammer, in popular parlance - a “gopnik,” intimidates the victim by hugging her by the shoulder, while uttering threats in a quiet and calm tone. Intrusion into personal space causes discomfort and a trance state, focusing attention on the words of the bully, which sound more convincing.

In this case, you need to remove your hand from your shoulder, step back, and demand that you not touch yourself. You need to act decisively, achieving a complete cessation of touching. This will significantly prevent the fraudster from influencing consciousness and will reduce his ability to persuade.

Temporary interruption of contact with the hypnotizer

Not every situation that the hypnotist models is conducive to calm. For example, a swindler may call a potential victim and, posing as a bank employee, report that the card is blocked. Another common method is when a scammer tells a person that one of his relatives has had an accident, has been detained by the police, or is in need of urgent medical attention.

The essence of the method is to cause a state of shock in which the ability to think critically is lost, which is what the swindler takes advantage of, offering a simple way out of the current situation - urgently provide the PIN code and other secret card details, transfer funds to any account, give money for treatment or payoff, etc. In this case, it is important for the hypnotizer to constantly maintain contact with the subject, without giving him time to think.

In order to exit the trance state, you must immediately take a time out:

ask to call back a little later,
give time to think,
just hang up, even if the hypnotist insists otherwise.

After this, you should critically think about the situation, try to call your relatives back, contact the bank through well-known channels and clarify the situation with the card.

The ability to criticize in a state of shock is minimal. To quickly get rid of troubles, a person can take any rash step. This is exactly what the hypnotist is trying to achieve, but even temporarily interrupting contact with him will provide an opportunity to calm down and more carefully weigh the situation without the scammer putting pressure on the psyche.

You can get stuck in hypnosis

No you can not. A specialist without the necessary qualifications who uses hypnosis may simply not know how to bring a person out of a hypnotic state. A person may become stuck in hypnosis for some time, but any qualified hypnotherapist will easily bring him out of this state. Or, in extreme cases, he will come out of hypnosis on his own. He will simply go into a normal sleep state and wake up. The person being hypnotized may decide not to come out of hypnosis, and then one can really get stuck in it. That is, it largely depends on the person who is under hypnosis.

Insulting a fraudulent hypnotist

Many people are unable to break off contact with a hypnotist because they are hampered by social attitudes: not to refuse help to any person, including a stranger, not to be the first to stop communicating, and not to behave offensively. This is used by scammers to maintain rapport - trusting contact between the hypnotist and the victim.

If there are no doubts about the scammer’s selfish goals, and other ways to get out of the trance do not come to mind, you can resort to a very simple but effective method: end the communication directly and firmly, without being shy in the expressions addressed to the hypnotist.

Obsessiveness is characteristic of street or telephone scammers who resort to trance induction. An insult, although it does not fit into a socially acceptable model of behavior, can lead to the end of contact with the hypnotist, which ultimately saves the victim from troubles due to immersion in a trance.

1.Escape

Although escape is associated with cowardice and inability to influence the situation, sometimes this remains the only correct way out of the situation. If the victim is surrounded by gypsies, inaction is fraught with negative consequences, since it is almost impossible to resist hypnosis in this case.

Fraudsters work by overloading consciousness:

bright outfits and shiny earrings distract attention,
simultaneous statements by swindlers from different sides are confusing,
constant tapping on shoulders and arms,
Twitching of clothes leads to a state of confusion.

It is extremely difficult to maintain a clear state of consciousness and not fall into a trance.

To prevent hypnosis, you must literally run away and escape from the environment..

Although this method may seem degrading to many, it is the best in the ranking. A decisive cessation of contact with scammers is guaranteed to bring you out of the trance state and prevent its further induction.

How to resist hypnosis

There are a number of rules on how not to succumb to hypnosis. Having an understanding of the main tricks of unwanted hypnotists, it is easier to recognize a person who is trying to exert a hidden influence. When learning ways to protect yourself from hypnosis and suggestion, you need to learn to firmly say the word “no.” It is important to train your subconscious to show maximum resilience in an extreme situation. To do this, you need to use auto-training to program yourself to be calm, decisive in any circumstances, and make clear and firm decisions. But you should never make decisions under pressure, especially fast ones.

Important: resisting hypnosis is akin to playing with fire. Even if attempts at suggestion are recognized, the strength and skills to resist may not be sufficient. The best strategy would be to avoid threatening situations or prepare for them in advance and mobilize your inner strength.

Protection from street hypnosis

It is better to avoid communicating with suspicious strangers and gypsies. It is better not to look into the eyes of such people, not to allow them to touch. When the hypnotist tries to adapt to gestures, posture, and breathing rhythm, you need to quickly change your position and slow down your breathing rhythm. If a conversation does start, you need to perceive it as critically as possible, answer with ridicule, inappropriately, and interrupt the stranger. You can even try to confuse the attacker yourself, for example, with a pre-conceived “home preparation”.

In the case of street hypnosis, the role of a pendulum or a shiny ball, which are often used to induce trance during normal hypnosis, can be played by other objects. For example, large swaying earrings or pendants of gypsies, bright scarves or other objects that they fiddle with. In order not to succumb to gypsy hypnosis, you need to look away from such objects.

In an unfamiliar company, you don’t need to talk about yourself or open your soul. It is better not to advertise your fears, interests, and weaknesses. In a dangerous situation, you can more successfully resist hypnosis if it is difficult for the fraudster to “calculate” the person.

If the path inevitably leads past gypsies or suspicious people, you need to concentrate and set yourself not to react to words, sounds, or body movements. In such a situation, dark glasses, headphones in the ears and a quick step also help. Calmness and lack of emotional reaction to what is happening will help you avoid becoming a victim of the manipulation process. It is by their violent reaction to winning that the “scammers” draw victims into their frauds.

Please note: collective suggestion is much more effective. By becoming part of the crowd that is being "processed", a person increases his chances of becoming a victim of manipulation.

Resisting suggestion during negotiations

To resist hypnosis and suggestion during negotiations, you need to concentrate as much as possible on your own goals. In any attempt to deflect them, you must stubbornly return the conversation to the right direction. If the feeling of impact is great, you can independently go into an internal trance, disconnect from the dialogue, and focus on a memory, event, or action. A good defense is a monologue within yourself. You can simply read a prayer or a poem, sing a song. The main thing is to weaken the efforts of the manipulators by breaking contact with them.

Effective defense is a mentally built wall that separates you from your opponents. You can even imagine how it grows, one brick after another. Or imaginary glass covered with raindrops for greater visualization. By plunging inside yourself for a short time, you can let the wave of suggestion pass by and continue negotiations.

A state may arise when it is difficult to overcome drowsiness or even when you do not want to leave a pleasant trance. To get rid of the effects of hypnosis, you just need to get up and leave. You can come up with any excuse or not explain anything at all. It may seem impolite, but the possible losses will become a much bigger problem.

How to overcome the hypnotic influence of a merchant

If a person is persistently advertised for a product or service, or forced to buy, he needs to focus on the question of who will benefit from it. Anyone who understands the commercial component of advertising does not give it a chance to influence the subconscious.

To get rid of the effects of hypnosis, you do not need to take information on faith, no matter how attractive, profitable or intriguing it may be. It’s better to remember once again where there is free cheese. In situations with intrusive traders, it is better to show your distrust in full.

A hypnotic effect can be exerted on a person even during interrogation. The detainee is immediately bombarded with questions in parallel with harsh suppression. In this way they get him to lose control over himself. Having succumbed to manipulation, the detainee, even if innocent, is able to sign any protocol and admit to something he did not do.

Protection against hypnosis is a complex topic and raises many questions. For advice, you can contact an experienced specialist, psychologist-hypnologist Nikita Valeryevich Baturin on his VKontakte page.

In protecting against hypnosis and suggestion, a person’s attentiveness plays a huge role. It is important to recognize the very first attempts at suggestion and stop them. With a sudden feeling of trust in a stranger, an unexpected feeling of withdrawal into oneself, it is better to play it safe than to fall for the bait of a scammer. You can influence almost any person with hypnosis, the question is the availability of time and the level of proficiency in the technique. But a person armed with knowledge, with internal strength, attention, calmness, and prudence has a much greater chance of avoiding such problems.