Can You Be Forced to Do Anything Under Hypnosis?

Question:

Can people be forced to do anything while hypnotized?

Answer:

Short answer, no.

Slightly longer more nuanced answer, still no, but the person could potentially do things they would normally not be comfortable with. Real-world hypnosis is not at all like how it is portrayed in movies and on TV. Hypnosis heightens suggestibility rather than controlling free will. You can’t make somebody do something that goes against their core ideals, morals, or being. Things on the borderline between stuff they’d be happy to do and stuff they would never do can potentially be done. Not because hypnosis is all powerful, but because their stance against it isn’t as strong as they think. Hypnosis may give them the excuse to try. But anything too far into the wouldn’t ever try won’t be possible.

There is the option of trickery. For example, you’d normally never openly announce the PIN for your bank card, but you’d have no issues at all telling somebody the name of your pet cat. If you were hypnotically induced to think your pet’s name was the PIN, there is a good chance you’d give it when asked. But this scenario is more about exploiting a mental trick than hypnosis itself, and millions of people day in and day out are tricked in to/out of things without even the slightest hint of hypnosis.

In short, if you would 100% never do something out of hypnosis, you are very safe in thinking you wouldn’t do it in hypnosis.

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