by Jeshi » May 28th, 2012, 12:19 am
Memory creation and modification is incredibly even without hypnosis, so doing it with hypnosis is probably pretty easy too. Sometimes files won't actually work as intended, but instead create false memories of the file working well instead, so the subject can't tell the difference and doesn't care anyway. (Because a lot of files use those stock wakeners with the suggestion of something like "you really enjoyed this file" or "this file was great" which gets added without thinking about it, and so even if the earlier suggestions didn't work, the last one will and they wake up remembering how much they loved this file but not remember if it even worked.)
Studies have found that if you've known someone for long enough that they can just make stuff up and you'll take it into your memory and believe it. Because there's a sort of "communal memory" system our brains use, where we don't bother to remember certain things because we can trust that someone we know does remember it. This is most apparent among couples who have been married for a long time. It also happens among friends though. The thing is, it's not always as simple as "Nancy, do you remember where I put my car keys?" Sometimes you believe that you remember something fine, because every time you've ever needed to recall it you've been around a certain person, so you actually store the memory "inside" that person. An example could be song lyrics, your friend knows the lyrics to a song, you don't, but you never sing the song except around that friend, and then you can "retrieve" the memory from them at a quick enough pace to sing at the same tempo as them. You never asked them to remind you, you could just get it.
So then in these studies (if someone wants, I can hunt them down, but I don't want to do it while writing this post since there's a chance nobody cares) they would find people who were BFFs since childhood, and then they'd instruct one friend to casually bring up a "memory" (under the pretenses that they were chatting, and this wasn't part of the test) which was completely fabricated, and then talk about it with their friend. The other friend would then believe that it happened and add it to their memory. They don't feel reminded, they feel like they had the memory all along and just hadn't thought about it in a while. To the point that they'd remember extra details than what they were told for the sake of continuing the conversation.
When it was revealed that the memory was made up, the subjects didn't believe them. By the time they were done talking about it with their friend, they were convinced it was something they'd remembered all along. They "retrieved" the memory from the friend, by assuming they had been storing there, and then kept it.
Other studies where changing memories was really easy involved doctoring photographs. Photos from family albums were doctored and shown to the people in the photos, and then they'd remember the event as it was shown in the photo. Being convinced they wore a bright red suit to their brother's wedding, and once again, not believing the photo was doctored. They didn't even question it at first, as soon as they saw the photo their reaction was "Of course I'm wearing a red suit in the photo, because I remember wearing a red suit that day."
(Here's even more stuff about how pliable memory is: http://www.cracked.com/article_18704_5-mind-blowing-ways-your-memory-plays-tricks-you.html)
So with hypnosis, making memories should be really really easy. I mean, I still feel like dldrip was "in a grade above me" in school, even though I didn't go to a school with grades. He suggested that in a file, I know that, but I also totally remember all of the things he described. Although I know those memories were implanted, they feel real. If I've listened to one of his files more recently, I'll sometimes catch myself thinking things like "I know he planted those memories in everyone else but maybe for just me they all actually did happen, and then he based the suggestions in his files on those times."
Plus, there's that whole thing how hypnosis is useless for remembering past events because you're really just creating new memories, and if the hypnotist knows what happened then those new memories might be accurate, but if they're looking for a certain something then it's sure to come up. Alien abductions, abuse, always shows up when looked for if you use hypnosis. And then they believe it.