Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!ncar!ames!amdcad!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!mcvax!hp4nl!htsa!fransvo
From: fransvo@htsa.uucp (Frans van Otten)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Artificial Intelligence and Intelligence
Message-ID: <675@htsa.uucp>
Date: 19 Dec 88 13:40:28 GMT
References: <840@quintus.UUCP> <2804@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu>
Reply-To: fransvo@htsa.UUCP (Frans van Otten)
Organization: AHA-TMF (Technical Institute), Amsterdam Netherlands
Lines: 37

In article <2804@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Greg Lee) writes:
>From article <840@quintus.UUCP>, by ok@quintus.uucp (Richard A. O'Keefe):
>" ...  For example, it is not the case that all people can be
>" hypnotised, whereas if a subject can be hypnotised by one mesmerist he or
>" she can usually be hypnotised by another.  This ought to suggest to us that
>" just maybe hypnosis might be something that subjects do, rather than something
>" that hypnotists do.
>
>Some bottles are harder to open than others, therefore bottles open themselves.
>Some programs are harder to write than others, so computers have free
>will.  (This method of argument has great possibilities.)
>
>		Greg, lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu

Let's define hypnosis as 'being in an altered state of consciousness'. Then
the question becomes: how does someone get into this state ? There are some
possibilities:

  1) you do it yourself,
  2) you agree with someone that (s)he helps you,
  3) someone having 'hypnotizing power' 'does it to you' before you are aware
     it's happened.

Note on 3): In my opinion, you must have some vulnerable spot in your per-
sonality which the other person (knowing it or not) uses. I have never met
someone without such a spot. By the way, the hypnotizing person doesn't
need to be aware of what (s)he is doing; (s)he may very well be doing this
unconsciously (because (s)he has some psycholocal trauma/.../...)

Also, from personal experience I believe that everyone can be hypnotized. It
is true that this is very hard sometimes; even someone who wants to get
hypnotized may have blocks on other (unconscious/subconscious) levels.
-- 
                         Frans van Otten
                         Algemene Hogeschool Amsterdam
			 Technische en Maritieme Faculteit
                         fransvo@htsa.uucp