#forer effect

Before anything happens in trance… there’s already a reason you’re there

According to a colleague whose post I highly recommend, Barnum statements in hypnosis tend to focus on two main areas:

Desire

What people experience in trance

Barnum statements work best when they’re tailored to what you already know about the person.

Because here’s the catch: not everyone relates to every “generally true” statement.

Not everyone wants simple pleasure. Some want catharsis. Some want intensity. Some want discomfort.

There’s always an outlier.

So how do you actually use this?

Build rapport and trust Without that, nothing sticks.

Acknowledge the desire to be in trance This one is simple: if someone seeks hypnosis—whether a session or even an audio—there’s already a desire there. (Yes, exceptions exist. There’s always someone training resistance. But they’re not the majority.)

Reduce anxiety Many subjects worry about “doing it right,” about being good subjects, suggestible enough, cooperative enough. Telling them they don’t need to perform can make a huge difference. And that, again, is a general truth.

Recognize common emotional patterns Desire is complex—especially in kinky contexts. But broadly speaking, the search for pleasure (sexual or not) and parasympathetic relaxation are expected in trance.

And it all comes down to one question:

Why does the subject want trance?

Whatever the answer is— you respect it. And if you know it, you can work with it.

Do they want to stop thinking? Do they want someone else to take control? Do they want to stop deciding? Do they want to relax?

✦ ᛉ ᚨ ᚷ ᛟ ✦

Complete nonsense. For the same reasons we know prayer doesn't work: because nobody can define how it works, and because when we test it, the results are no better than random chance.

Otherwise, whichever is the "true" religion would exhibit greater professional and academic success, better health, longer life, etc, etc. The same for the astrologists who get it "right."

That is, it isn't just that it's not been demonstrated to work, it's been demonstrated not to work.

The interesting thing about astrology isn't the astrology itself, it's the human psychology that powers it. Pattern seeking, magical thinking, confirmation bias, appeals to mystery and ignorance, desire for control - that something is in control, and that you can take control by aligning your activities with the "predictions" for the day.

The Forer experiment is particularly interesting. James Randi conducts the same experiment in the video below. It's been consistently replicated.

https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/forer-effect.htm

http://skepdic.com/forer.html

Part of the reason it's so interesting is how applicable the technique is, not just in the nonsense of astrology, but also in advertising, social media, and of course, religion and politics, and particularly identity politics.

I've got an astrology tag, but this post in particular probably covers it:

https://religion-is-a-mental-illness.tumblr.com/post/622441189493391360

Of course, when you look at what is actually required for it to function, it's pretty much a tacit form of geocentric flat Earth.

Barnum effect

(via Psychology Professor Debunks Misinformation on TikTok - YouTube)

Barnum Effect, also called Forer Effect, in psychology, the phenomenon that occurs when individuals believe that personality descriptions apply specifically to them (more so than to other people), despite the fact that the description is actually filled with information that applies to everyone. The effect means that people are gullible because they think the information is about them only when in fact the information is generic. The Barnum Effect came from the phrase often attributed (perhaps falsely) to showman P. T. Barnum that a “sucker” is born every minute. Psychics, horoscopes, magicians, palm readers, and crystal ball gazers make use of the Barnum Effect when they convince people that their description of them is highly special and unique and could never apply to anyone else.