A hypnotising program?

[Realm]

I've read in a number of places that the best environment for hypnosis is one in which the hypnotist and subject are in the same room, so that there is close interaction and the hypnotist can gauge trance level etc. But people can also be hypnotised over the internet and even just from listening to tapes, it just happens that the closer the interaction the better. Now I may be oversimplifying but I get the impression that when you're putting someone in trance you're following a relatively linear path which pauses or deviates to suit the state of the subject. It might not be quite as effective, but you could almost rely on a flowchart for this.

This leads me to wonder, could the process possibly be automated? If you had a program that played recorded files which were essentially snippets of the induction, asked for feedback from the user in the form of simple key-strokes then adapted accordingly, would this be an improvement upon listening to a single file?

I've found that more than once a file will go through parts of the induction a little too quickly. This would at least allow some sections to loop until the user is actually deep enough. It certainly wouldn't hurt to try and it wouldn't be difficult at all to put together. Would anyone have any suggestions on how the flowchart might be arranged?

[HypnotizeMike]

You would need a very simple feedback system. It would likely only be of value to the beginner who is not as skilled at reaching a deep level of hypnosis. But, asking someone who is in a light trance to perform a task could potentially take them out of hypnosis.

A hypnotist in a room can read their subject in more subtle ways such as breathing, responding to suggestions like a helium balloon attached to their wrist, or eye movements.

[Realm]

Thanks to vb.net's confusing-as-hell system for recognizing keyboard input, I've so far only managed pressing any key as feedback. And I do understand what you're saying about a hypnotist in the room being able to notice a lot more, but surely most of that wouldn't work the same over the internet or the phone.

For the record I am a beginner, which is why it interested me to begin with.

I've listened to plenty of files designed for beginners which ask them to actually repeat a phrase at some point while in trance, and I can't see how that would be less distracting than just pressing a button.

[softline]

[quote="HypnotizeMike"]You would need a very simple feedback system. It would likely only be of value to the beginner who is not as skilled at reaching a deep level of hypnosis. But, asking someone who is in a light trance to perform a task could potentially take them out of hypnosis.
[quote]

Mike is right what you need is passive feedback system. I know a number of hypnotists who make use of bio-feedback equipment (including computer based equipment) to measure the effectiveness of a trance.

Bio-feedback measures many of the same factors that an in the room therapist looks at (i.e. breathing, skin temp, etc). Another thing that bio-feedback equipment can measure is brain wave activity. Many psych texts tell you that the greater the level of theta brain waves the deaper the trance.

In this modern time there are bio-feedback sensors that hook to the USB port of your computer with software to interpret the input. There also exists a lot of hypnotism software that does things you want (like repeating parts of session). However what no one has done is interface the two. If you have programming skills there are a number of open source hypnotism programs like "Virtual Hypnotists" that you might want to try to interface to one of the open source bio-feedback programs like "Nuero OS". Remember if you get them working together even if the software is free people are still going to have to buy the sensors.

[Realm]

Christ this all seemed a lot simpler a couple of days ago. Plus the biofeedback equipment required costs much more than I'd be willing to pay for something I'm not even sure I could do.

However, as I've already said a few times, hypnotists still apply their trade over the phone where they cannot see their client. How then do they get feedback on the depth of trance?

[demigraff]

It might be worth checking out a program called "Virtual hypnotist" which I believe is pretty much what you're describing

[Realm]

Ah bollocks. A free program with all the functions I was looking to implement only better plus loads more features.

On the upside, problem sorted.

[Realm]

EDIT: EDIT: Splendid news: finally got everything working.

Sorry, I couldn't venture a guess as to the cause of your problem since I haven't yet tried altering any of the scripts.