Discovery Channel show explores the power of hypnosis and brainwashing
On Sunday, Oct. 28 at 9 p.m., Discovery Channel will premiere its latest episode in the series, Curiosity, a show that thrives on hypothetical situations. This week’s episode asks some profound questions: Are human beings susceptible to brainwashing? If hypnosis works, what are the limits?
Tom Silver, a world-renowned hypnotist, is the main subject of the one-hour special. Recently, Hollywood Soapbox talked with Silver about his career and the upcoming controversial episode. Responses have been slightly edited. For more information, visit Silver’s website. Silver said he is currently in private practice in southern California, helping people with drug addiction, alcoholism, habits and phobias.
On his professional history …
“First of all, I’ve been doing hypnotherapy for 28 years. I was trained in basic hypnotherapy and certified through an organization, and went through the program for about two years, learned all the basic stuff that most hypnotherapists learn.
“After that, I started developing my own methods and testing my own techniques and creating some very powerful techniques to bypass the conscious mind and to hypnotize people and get them very, very deep into hypnosis. I was invited to Taiwan to bring hypnosis to Taiwan, where I did TV shows every week hypnotizing the most famous celebrities in Taiwan, and having them do funny, goofy stuff. You know the stage stuff, as well as some powerful demonstrations in erasing memory as well as in regression therapy.”
On his TV and radio career …
“I also started working on a lot of different TV shows. I was on a radio show out here in southern California called the Kevin & Bean radio show. How I got that gig was I had hypnotized one of the sales guys for the radio station who had an eating disorder. And he had it all his life, and he came in to see me to see if I could help him. And I was very successful in about two or three sessions of removing the emotions related to his negative eating disorder. He lost all this weight, and his life changed.
“He got on this radio show called the Kevin & Bean morning show, and I was driving in, this was in 1990, I was driving into the show and all I could hear is these guys on the radio ready to debunk me, put me in the category of the magic and the psychic, and all just being a bunch of phony stuff and fake. So I went into that kind of den of skeptics and did some demonstrations, convinced them how powerful hypnosis was, and I was on that show on and off for about 10 years.”
On the Discovery Channel special …
“They called me a few months ago and told me they’re working on a show called Brainwashed, and these are some of the things that we want you to do. And these things were really way out there. These things were the most scientifically and morally strangest, wildest things I’ve ever heard. And I said, ‘Yeah, I can do it.’ Because I believe I can do it.
“So they started the show and they brought in groups of people for me to work with to see who I can condition to go into hypnosis. I did some tests, tests in relaxation and memory loss. … I tested who were the best candidates for the show, who were the fakers, who were the wannabes that wanted to be on TV or the wannabe actors, and to get rid of those guys and characters because I didn’t want those people on the show. I wanted this thing to be totally real, just like the media company and Discovery wanted it to be real.
“So I picked a good core of people that I thought would be good to test these demonstrations. … So we started doing the show and started doing some tests. One of the tests, and I’m not going to tell you the results, was breaking morality and fear. Most of us wouldn’t walk into a public place and you know take all our clothes off. I mean nudity is a pretty, scary thing for somebody. So we tried certain tests to see if (we) could break down their restrictions, their physical restrictions. … And it’s pretty extraordinary. It showed some amazing results, but it also showed some people that I thought were not receptive or were pretending. …
“This was the first show that I’ve ever been on in all my years where you’re trying to find people who are not hypnotized and get them out. Almost every show shows you people that they say are hypnotized and they lead you just to believe that everybody can be hypnotized in a deep hypnosis. And this was the first show, Brainwashed, on Curiosity series on Discovery, that we’re going to find the … fakers and we’re going to get them out by these tests.
To see the results, tune in to Discovery Channel on Sunday, Oct. 28 at 9 p.m.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
No matter what anyone thinks, this was all real and not staged. People can be hypnotized and do something they would never do. I hope you understand the real power of hypnosis. What ever career Ivan now has, he was really hypnotized and was programed to do these things. He would never have passed the Ice Water test if he was just acting. This was the truth believe it or not.
What about the ethics of this? Did the psychologists who hired you try to get any approval from the APA for the experiment? Are they going to publish their results?
What about bio feedback? Couldn’t Ivan have trained his body to the point that he could mentally control his heart rate? I honestly have to say that at the end of the episode, he didn’t look surprised. He looked angry, bewildered, and upset — there was even genuine worry, but there was no surprise. Also, I would’ve thought that after performing the act, he would forget and continue on his way, but he just stood there waiting for something.
but he didnt just walk over and do it, he did it with a murderous look on his face… also if the show isnt staged then he would not have had any way of knowing if that gun was loaded or not….. I wouldnt do it just “to please my tester”
He would if these were used:
http://www.amazon.com/Acrylic-Cubes-Square-Shape-2-Pound/dp/B0014RB3FY
Even if it was real, the mistake of using an actor, and not disclosing that fact, will cause people to question it.
Ivan new the gun was not real. 100%
The suggestions given were too vague.
You of all people should have known that!!!
The question, “can a person be hypnotised to do an assassination” was a terrible demostration of hypnosis and like totally unscientific and misleading, because a person is subconsciously aware when performing any physical activity, even sleep walkers, even if they do not remember a thing afterwards. From that we can conclude, the subject knew subconsciously that he was not really killing anyone, so he fired away at his target.
So, why was it not disclosed that Ivan is an actor? It looks like he’s been acting since 2010:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4961273/
I swear i just saw one of the “actors” on this show on a bath fitter commercial…skeptical now
Ivan is indeed an Actor. If you google “Ivan the Terrible Santiago” you will find him.
They chose the meanest looking guy to do the shooting, nothing says that was really ice water he was in, they didn’t show the ice water as much when Ivan was in it, the ‘ice’ could have been fake. His name ‘Ivan’, may be real or fake, when someone sees the mean look on his face throughout the show, one may conjure up the though of ‘Ivan The Terrible’ and feeling he looks mean think this is all possible. I feel if any hypnosis has happened here, it’s simply Tom Silver pulling one over on the audience.
I would like to add, how unlikely it would be to conduct a study like this, to screen 160? people, and only end up with a single person to complete the study. There is no way the show would have been aired with no one committing the assassination.
The experiment was a success, and Ivan carried out his instructions: removing the gun from a red backpack, waiting near the velvet rope line and “assassinating” his target.
If I had just woke up n saw a dead guy on the ground I would have had a BIG reaction to it wouldn’t have just stood there uninterested like the prison guard actor
Hypnosis and brainwashing are really just two different words for the same thing. And it is mind control – but not the hypnotist controlling your mind. True hypnosis is you getting back control of your own mind.
http://www.northjerseyhypnosis.com/hypnosis-and-brainwashing/