Hypnotized to believe in God, etc.

is that on youtube?

Is it different from the Derren Brown video about this subject?

No, the old one I was referring to was from well over 60 years ago, published from a university paper. Based on the paragraph written about it in the paper I read, the subject had to be hypnotized again to return to their original status. They had been going to Church and became a rather intense believer.

Hypnoboy wrote:is that on youtube?

Is it different from the Derren Brown video about this subject?

I did some half-assed (and not very nice) experiments back in the day, and while it did work, people tended to revert to their old religion after a couple months (though sometimes losing unimportant or harmful details along the way).

If the subject wants to be a believer, long term things get much easier. However, as I've discussed on this forum before, people don't always understand what they really want, and that can come in and make things more difficult. Why does the subject want to believe?

dont complicate something which is very simple

if someone believes in God, there is always a possibility to convince him there is no God, and vice versa, by simply showing him something that he trusts

however somebody may have more information than you do and you cannot convince him rather if there is a God or not as he knows more about the opposite belief


one or another doesnt mean to be wrong , its a belief

jimmyh: Sorry for the long wait to reply. He wants to be a "believer" because his fiance is and he thinks it will bring him closer to her. Additionally, he's been jealous of the peace believers have (as he sees it) and wants the same but not to think of it as self delusion. He's been doing prays for belief and considers that a form of self hypnosis.

Okay, that makes sense. Let me see if I have this right

He sees people believing in God, and he wishes he could too. He sees the peace that it bring them, and he expects that he would be able to be closer with his fiance if he could share in this set of beliefs with her, but at the same time he can't because he just gets this "this is self delusion!" warning sign, and he isn't okay with the idea of willfully deluding himself. Therefore he wants it to be "not self delusion", in his mind, but since he (currently) sees it as "self delusion", that part of him says "but it is self delusion, and it still would be even if I deluded myself into thinking it wasn't!", so he gets stuck.

The way around this is to forget, for a moment, about whether or not it qualifies as "self delusion", and focus on what "it" is, exactly, in the first place. It's not that you have to "not have" this warning of delusion or anything, but that you have it and just say "Yeah, okay", and look at what it is anyway. "Yeah, it might be just self delusion, and there are definitely problems with that which is why I'm not just going to jump right into believing anything that might not be true. At the same time though, I'm interested in what exactly it is that they believe and what it feels like to be them regardless of whether it's self delusion or not -- and heck, maybe even see if there's a point in engaging in self delusion, at least for these people in this way". That way, regardless of whether he ends up agreeing with his fiance or not, he can at least have that closeness and empathy that comes with understanding. That way, he can learn more about what believers do that bring them peace, and whether or not the trade offs are worth it for him in his current place in life. That way it wouldn't be such a blind leap that he's understandably hesitant to make, and he'd have his way out too, if he ended up making somewhat of a mistake.

The answer isn't to try to close your eyes really hard (perhaps with the help of hypnosis) and try to not-see the warning sign(s), it is to see the warning and say "Okay, noted. Thank you", and then go (cautiously) exploring anyway -- and only making decisions after you've given yourself the chance to inform them fully.

Does that kinda make sense?

jimmyh:

Yes, that makes sense if you meant to say that a person can be hypnotized to emotionally mute some of the previous notions that inhibited being open to their belief in God. From what I understand, hypnotism can be effective in that manner. Very good.
I think that western religions do that using some form of hypnotism (repetition, song, ritual and social dynamics, etc.).

You can look for evidence that there is a God, or you can look for evidence there is not. Either way, you'll find what you look for.

Candid: I think you may have missed the concept of this thread part of which has to do with evidence for God being besides the point. This thread has to do with hypnotizing someone, an atheist no less, to believe in God regardless of evidence, via undermining the person's typical psychological/subconsciously based inhibiting mechanisms while, perhaps, planting positive associations to believing, etc.

Candid wrote:You can look for evidence that there is a God, or you can look for evidence there is not. Either way, you'll find what you look for.