"You're getting slleeeepy" is a myth

We've all heard the stories about stage hypnotists who put people into deep trances and have them clucking like chickens or crawling around on all fours barking like dogs. And we've seen the Hollywood version of hypnosis, which shows subjects becoming so completely unconscious that they are unaware they have been hypnotized, and later respond to "suggestions" planted while they are "asleep."

But although there are graduated levels of what people have come to call "hypnotic trance," the common stories about hypnosis are in fact myths, says Hypnotist Bob McKellar, who runs Insights Hypnosis Centre on Highway #7 in Norwood. In fact, hypnotism has nothing whatsoever to do with putting people to sleep, says McKellar, a former police officer and a practitioner of Kung Fu, who is also certified with the National Guild of Hypnotists.