File Idea: Change skin color

[OxyFemboi]

I'd like to propose a file that allows you to change your skin color. We do it when we tan; why can't we make a permanent all-over change?

There are a few medications that allow one to darken skin on a temporary basis. I don't see why hypnosis couldn't make such a change permanent. Drugs were used by a white man to temporarily change his skin color; this was the basis of the non-fiction book Black Like Me (copyright 1951) by Robert Charles Grifffin. [Further info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Like_Me]

I don't think I have ever seen this suggested. I'm not sure it's possible to change one's skin color on a permanent basis (though there are drugs that can darken skin that has been robbed of melanin by vitiligo -- but ... I'd love to be the beta tester (hell, even alpha tester) for a file of this sort.

[Endo]

I'll go ahead and parrot the typical line: Hypnosis should not be used to make physical changes, it often does not work.

Feel free to make your own opinion based on observations, of course.

[OxyFemboi]

Endo wrote:

Hypnosis should not be used to make physical changes, it often does not work.

Hypnosis often does not often work in making physical changes. All right. Though hypnosis may not often work, obviously hypnosis sometimes does work.

I have had hypnosis make physical changes in my body. True, it hasn't worked often. However, it has worked often enough for me to want to suggest files like this.

[Alien4420]

The first question I guess is whether there's any interaction between the nervous system and the melanocytes, direct or indirect. A quick web searched indicated, perhaps surprisingly, that there is: skin pigmentation reacts to hormones produced in the pituitary and to other hormones as well.

The second question is whether the subconscious can be programmed to alter levels of the appropriate hormones. I'm guessing that the chance of that is low. But -- suppose the hormonal signals are seasonal, released based on sensory cues like periodicity, vitamin D levels, heat on the skin and bright lights? There are chemical pathways that induce tanning in the event of damage from UV light, but I assume that the pituitary is involved for a reason. It might be possible to craft a file that seeks to induce tanning by emulating the sensory cues.

I'm skeptical that it would work, but then, who would have thought before the experiments that expectation could induce a life-threatening allergic reaction? It can't hurt to try (the tanning, that is).

[diode168]

Wow, I was reading the link before coming here. It also may shatter your dreams. However sunburn (more blood flow and damage factors, no increase in radicals or DNA damage) can be induced with mental imagery. If done often enough it was shown to allow tanning to take place. I can't actually find the study I will take a look.




http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1658407

[Alien4420]

http://mp3hypnosis.co.uk/tanningtest.html

Not sure whether it's legit, but they say it's a free tanning file.

[OxyFemboi]

Alien wrote:
Not sure whether it's legit, but they say it's a free tanning file.

The link is active but you cannot download anything. Apparently the "free trial" has ended without success. It's not listed among the files they offer.

I found information on a drug called Melanotan which is purported to darken skin. However, it is not on the market -- and may never be. One of the side effects that they found when they got to human testing was a Viagra-like effect of causing erections. I suspect they are trying to separate the two effects -- darkening skin color and causing erections because there is mention of a Melanotan2 in some ads in bodybuilding magazines. You can order the drug on line ... but I have no desire to inject a drug in my body that is being sold (clandestinely?) "for research purposes only".