A question about hypnotism

[SkeptiKel]

Back when I was in highschool a hypnotist performed for the school with students volunteering to be hypnotized.

One of his tricks was to make one girl unable to respond to questions in english... but she could respond in Russian. I don't know Russian so I can't verify if she was actually speaking the language, but it did sound convincing (she wasn't just making noises). I knew the girl well enough to know she didn't speak the language and that she wouldn't have been a part of a scam... so how was this trick possible?

Was it total jibberish that I just thought was Russian, or could it be that we subconciously learn other languages by watching TV (that was the hypnotists explanation)?


Kel

 

[EdipisReks]

my guess would be gibberish. or maybe she was channeling Lenin.

 

[BillyJoe]

SkeptiKel,

I don't know Russian so I can't verify if she was actually speaking the language.....

......so she could have been speaking gibberish.

.....but it did sound convincing (she wasn't just making noises).

Perhaps you were also hypnotised into thinking that it sounded convincing.
Perhaps you have a false memory of the events.

I knew the girl well enough to know she didn't speak the language.....

If you knew her well enough, why didn't you just ask her if she spoke Russian.
I once knew someone for three years before discovering he had a photographic memory.

.....and that she wouldn't have been a part of a scam...

Why not?
She volunteered to be part of the performance didn't she?
She might have thought it was just harmless fun.

...so how was this trick possible?

If your friend could not speak Russian, then it was certainly a trick. There are any number of ways in addition to the above.
How does a magician make a rabbit appear out of nowhere?
How does Randi bend spoons?

Was it total jibberish that I just thought was Russian......

This would certainly be the most likely explanation IMO

....or could it be that we subconciously learn other languages by watching TV (that was the hypnotists explanation)?

That would not be high on my list of possibilities.
How many Russian movies could your friend possibly have watched? Why would she watch even one for more than a few minutes if she didn't understand Russian. Maybe there were subtitles but even then......

regards,
BillyJoe.
[And welcome to the forum]

 

[SteveGrenard]

Reciting words in a foreign language under hypnosis or under any condition is known as recitative xenoglossy and done through remembering such foreign words or phrases, even after hearing them once. Speaking responsively or carrying on a conversation in a foreign language is a skill that must be learned and which also requires practice. This is known as responsive xenoglossy for anyone who wants to look it up in a search engine. There are only three known confirmed cases of this over the past 100 years, one of which was conducted under hypnosis, the other two occured spontaneously.

So the big question is was she carrying on a conversation, and if so, with whom? I doubt she was doing this. Suggestion under hypnosis can do a lot of things but it can't make you do something like this which you have not learned. More likely she was reciting words or phrases and may not even have known what they meant in English.

And yes, since you don't speak Russian nor presumably did anyone else in the room, you don't really know what she was saying. It could indeed have been Russian sounding gibberish. Was it recorded by any chance?

Also: if this were true she would be making headlines and every researcher in the world would be vying for a chance to test
her. And the hypnotist also.

 

[BillyJoe]

Speaking responsively or carrying on a conversation in a foreign language is a skill that must be learned and which also requires practice. This is known as responsive xenoglossy for anyone who wants to look it up in a search engine. There are only three known confirmed cases of this over the past 100 years, one of which was conducted under hypnosis, the other two occured spontaneously.

Your definition is incorrect. I did do a google search and got the following.....

In responsive xenoglossy the persons are able to converse in the unlearned language

Responsive xenoglossia: WARNING: This is hilarious

Dr. Stevenson believes that....authentic instances of speaking a language that has not been learned (responsive xenoglossy) suggest that another personality (perhaps one of a previous life) had learned the language. Cases of responsive xenoglossy thus add to the evidence concerning the survival of human personality after death.

The personality of Gretchen demonstrated during hypnotic past life regression of a U.S. housewife the capability to carry on an intelligent conversation in German.
No means of learning that language could be found during Dr. Stevenson's extensive investigation.
Details provided by the past personality of Gretchen suggested a life in the second half of the nineteenth century in a specific German town, but many of the details could not be verified.
The best explanation for the case of Gretchen is either (1) reincarnation or (2) possession by a discarnate personality.

The personality of Sharada in India.....demonstrated the capability to speak Bengali and act in almost all other respects as an individual female living in the early 1800's.
There was no indication that the original personality had ever had the opportunity to learn Bengali, which was different from her normal language.

The fundamental importance of these two cases is that.....a personality who did learn the language must have come to occupy and control the body of the original personality either through strong memory of a past life or through "possession". In either case, it strongly implies the existence of a soul or personality which has inhabited a different body in the past and yet survived death of that body.

 

[SkeptiKel]

Thanks for replying, everyone.

I agree that it was probably just jibberish that sounded enough like Russian to be convincing. The girl had probably heard enough Russian to know how it sounds and was making up words that sounded like it.

The hypnotist had her believing she was a Russian news reporter and he was the news anchor asking her questions about a major story. He would ask questions in english and she would respond in "Russian".

It really did sound convincing though. She sounded like a Russian from a James Bond movie... if she was making it up I would have expected her to sound like the Swedish Chef character from the Muppets.


Kel