3

Chris Jones styles himself as a comedy hypnotist. In this video on his official website, he puts a man to sleep within seconds by waving the person's finger in front of his face.

Recently, this official video claims to show Howie Mandel being hypnotized on America's Got Talent by hypnotist Chris Jones. Mandel was put to sleep instantaneously, and shook hands with Jones, apparently believing that he had gloves on (as he's a well-known germaphobe).

Mandel claims he was hypnotized as well, and has been been quoted in a video interview on Today.com as saying that he went for therapy:

I was upset about it, and it's hard for me to watch... I didn't know. I was not prepared for that to happen. ... I was open to be hypnotized... I just didn't know what he was going to ask me to do...
For those that - I've been reading online in social media, you know, there are people that don't believe it, you know, you know what you're doing but it's kinda like you're at a party and you had drinks or xanax and you don't care... As soon as [the hypnotist] snapped me out of it, my guard is back up

Are these effects possible with hypnosis?

Related question on John Morgan

Howie Mandel (currently a judge on America's Got Talent) is well known for being a germaphobe; due to his OCD he refused to shake hands with any of the contestants on "Deal or No Deal" and opted for fist-bumps instead. He has also penned a book titled "Don't Touch Me" about his OCD.

Improve this question
13
  • +10 for reminding me that America's Got Talent 2015 has started. As for your question, I don't think we can answer it...
    – George Chalhoub
    May 31, 2015 at 15:34
  • @georgechalhoub Hmm I was thinking that if the hypnotist has been shown to have been a fraud in other cases, it would constitute a sufficient disproof. You're certainly right that it's a hard question though.
    – Twilight Sparkle
    May 31, 2015 at 15:38
  • It could be a trick from the producers; I can recall in the last season that a magician transformed Mandel into someone who can't read any words; so I think you're right to be skeptical about this - it could be staged and it could not be. One way to answer this is to search for a video showing Mandel shaking hands...
    – George Chalhoub
    May 31, 2015 at 15:46
  • I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's inherently a question about motivation. It boils down to asking whether Chris Jones suggestion motivated Mandels actions or whether Mandel just played along to provide viewers a fun show.
    – Christian
    May 31, 2015 at 15:58
  • 1
    Is there any way that this question could be structured to be on topic? e.g. change the emphasis to "Is Chris Jones able to hypnotize people?"
    – Twilight Sparkle
    May 31, 2015 at 16:12

0

Reset to default

Browse other questions tagged .