I love things that show us how our minds work and this body trick is a great example. You probably know already that it is hard to rub your stomach and pat your head, well this takes that idea quite a step up!
Out minds sometimes confuse us and because of the way that our thinking works we cannot always do more than one thing at a time.
In this case we are trying so hard to move our foot in a circle that when we need to use our cognitive function to remember what a six looks like and then draw it in the air we find that we cannot actully do it without our foot taking on a mind of its own and moving in the opposite direction to the one we started moving it in!
Have a go and try it for yourself. The thing is that some people who do things that mean they have trained themselves to detach the thinking from each limb and then created a muscle memory can find a way to do it. So, in fact I play the drums a little bit (as you can see in the video) and this means that in some ways I can try and do it with a little more success...although I really do have to try!
Is it realistic or fake hypnosis? Could what happens in the Netflix film happen with a real life case using hypnosis?
So, Netflix has dropped its latest movie Hypnotic. I have already written some thoughts about this based on the information that netflix released before the movie came out.
Now here is a chance to read a synopsis and review of Hypnotic and also a chance for me, as a clinical hypnotherapist to talk about how realistic the movie is and whether the things that happen could happen for real.
Spoiler alerts: This is a review and Synopsis of Hypnotic the movie on Netflix so will contain details about the plot, spoilers and also details on what can and cannot happen with hypnosis.
Hypnotic Ending explained...
We open on a scared woman in an office calling a detective and asking for help. She leaves a message on his answerphone as he is unavailable. She takes the lift and whilst in it her phone rings and someone says some words to her that trigger a panic attack as she feels the lift closing in on her and crushing her. Clearly someone has planted something in her mind and now she is living a nightmare. Knowing this is a movie about hypnotism we doubt that this is happening for real. It feels like perhaps this is all in her mind.
After the title card Jen meets a doctor called Colin Meade who is a therapist. He tells her that he follows the rules 99 per cent of the time, maybe 95 per cent. Let's face it that is already quite creepy and inappropriate even if he is trying to flirt!
We find out that Jen is a software engineer. At the end of the party he gives her his card...in case she is interested. So far perhaps he is just a creepy flirt. We also see that Jenny had split up with her ex Brian, who was also at the party and that he missed her a lot. He offers her a ride home and in the next seen we see that she has spent the night with him and regrets it.
She has breakfast with a friend who has already booked an appointment with Collin the creepy therapist.
His office is clean and the waiting room almost empty with strange lighting and a water feature. Whilst she waits to see him a previous patient comes about and tells her Dr Meade will fix it.
When she enters he is feeding his fish. He tells her he finds them calming and their session begins. In the background of his office is a clock with a pendulum that swings back and forth. Hypnosis is often shown as something where a swinging pendulum can hypnotise you.
In fact you can do this for yourself. Here's a video where you can hypnotise yourself with a swinging watch...
Dr Meade suggests to her that she should try hypnotherapy with her telling her that he had a mentor called Dr. Xavier Sullivan, who had a brilliant mind, and a name like someone from a marvel movie!
Jennifer says she just wants to be happy.
Meade says let me help you...and proceeds to use hypnosis on her. He uses a real method where he helps her to relax each part of her body at a time, we use this in hypnosis or you may have even used this as a meditation where you body scan. It happens much quicker, although this is s film of course.
She opens her eyes and an hour is gone. She remembers nothing.
Do you forget what happens in hypnosis? Well you are not asleep you are normally aware of what is being said. Your mind may wander, and sometimes people fall asleep. It is common that people lose track of time, but not so common that you would have no idea at all about what is happening.
Time moves on and it seems that Jen has now had a few sessions with Dr Meade. She has told him that she lost a child a while back and when she spots people with children she notices them more than she did before.
She bumps into the Dr whilst out and about and he takes her for a drink. This isn't something any therapist would be, or should be doing, he would and should have explained this to her. It is crossing boundaries, so the fact he is doing it is yet more evidence that he is not on the level.
He goes on to talk to her about things that perhaps would be more appropriate in the therapy room. He tells her she should invite her ex Brian to dinner. She does. He accepts.
Her phone rings with a call from an unknown caller and when she answers she zones out and wakes up at dinner. She hears a ticking clock and then she hears choking. She finds Brian in the bathroom choking and having a fit. She manages to get his epi pen in time to call for help. What has happened? How did she get there? She can remember nothing.
Again, we move into the territory of things that just don't happen like that. If she had passed out then someone would have found her. But she somehow went home cooked dinner and remembers nothing of this. I can't see anyone under hypnosis using an over or hob without burning themselves or the dinner! It cannot happen like this. Which is good news if you are worried about it!
We see Jennifer in Dr. Meade's office again where he is berating her for not doing the work. His tone is creepy and controlling and as time goes on this film is just getting more ridiculous! He is coming across as deranged and yet noone seems to have noticed. I am starting to find this much funnier than I was expecting. It's becoming more ridiculous, by the minute.
Whilst back at home she has a flashback to the fact that perhaps she caused Brian's problems.
Off she pops to the internet where she finds out that Collin Meade ( I am still not sure if he is a one or two L Colin!) has been involved in a lot of weird cases where the police were involved. She runs a background check which shows that he is almost a ghost.
The words that are coming to me right now are ALARM BELLS!!!! but of course she has a friend who tells her that all of this is absolutely fine! Maybe it is time to get a new friend.
Anyway, off they pop to see a policeman who tells us that the lady in the elevator died after lots of things that are strangely similar to what is happening to Jen. She decided to go visit Dr. Meade again and record what happens. What could go wrong?!
He hypnotises her again. The strange bit now is that she could really just resist anything that he tries, you can't just hypnotise people and make them do things. If she didn't want to listen and just blocked him out then nothing would have happened.
As she leaves she starts to listen to the recording. She hears him asking her questions about why she was there. He asks her about if she is recording him and she tells him that she knows about Andrea Bowen and he knows that she was at the police station with her friend Gina.
GET OUT OF THERE NOW...oh and DON'T answer the phone would be the kind of thing I would be thinking.
They race to Gina but whilst she is driving Dr. Meade calls and of course she answers. He tells her this is how the world ends and she starts to see a spider and we see her crash her car.
Cut to Dr Meade stirring a whisky with a spoon. I guess this is a homage to Get Out a much more enjoyable, although also silly movie.
The detective arrives and tells him that Gina has died in an accident. He was working with her on her fear of spiders. It was interesting that the detective just turned up for a chat when clearly...this man is doing some pretty bad stuff. But hey, we are all in on this movie now.
Hmmmm, now the doctor is offering to hypnotise the detective to help with his insomnia. He declines, phew! Actually Hypnotherapy is great for insomnia, it is how I first came to hypnosis myself many years ago and I sleep like a log.
Off the detective pops and ooh it's the doctor pushing his way into her house and telling her to keep doing what he says. Hold on, how did the detective miss him! The more this film goes crazy the more coffee I am needing just to keep me awake.
Now there is a strange creaking noise in the detective's house. He is just trying to watch tv and like any off duty detective he is watching a crime show. Oh looks like a patient of the doctor has broken in and is trying to kill him with a knife. He fights her off but even when he ends up in the hospital he doesn't want to bring anyone else in on the case. ALARM BELLS AGAIN!!!
Jen decides to go to a police hypnotherapist suggested by the detective. Why is she not going anywhere else for help? Down the hall Brian, her ex is still in a coma. Lucky they were in the same part of the hospital.
Next, we see Jen at the police hypnotherapist who tells her in the wrong hands hypnosis can be dangerous. I think the wrong hands means a psychopath who kills people. In those hands anything can be dangerous. She also uses a ticking metronome to hypnotise Jen.
She asks her to recall all that happened in the sessions and Jen sinks deep on the sofa. She tries to wake her but is unable. If someone is hypnotised and you shook them they would come back to the room as they are simply very relaxed. Not Jen though, until a big flashback.
The hypnotherapist is a bit shook and has never seen anything like it. Probably because YOU CAN'T do this stuff.
I am on the final half hour and wondering if anyone will ever read this far. I could have been out walking the dog and enjoying some fresh air, instead of this fresh hell.
Anyway, after some more research she finds out about the CIA doing hypnosis experiments. This is true they did try this. I think they found that trying to hypnotise people to do murders doesn't work though. You can't make anyone do something that they do not want to do.
Jen decided to go visit Mr Sullivan, a man who was involved in all of this. When she arrives she goes on in, like you do! Oh dear, turns out that it was Dr. Meade's father!! He puts her straight to sleep. She probably could have just run off, but hey things are preposterous still.
She comes round in his office and calls the detective. HELP she says and he is on his way. The police arrive and get ready to storm his office. They are all getting ready to run in. We are clearly all recalling all the films where this happens. There is no way they are all in the wrong place! They will burst in at any time. It's not like he would have a replica office in his home. They burst into the office. He has a replica office in his home. Yep, we worked that out ages ago! There are few surprises in this film. More coffee needed.
She comes round and he has dressed her as his dea wife. I really feel that we could all have avoided this mess if she just hadn't gone to see him after he was creepy the very first time he met her!
He tells her that he is not insane. He is insane.
The police are now racing to his house. Hopefully the right place this time. He puts make up on her. This man is a real villain. What is he going to do next give her her dead wife's bracelet! He gives her his dead wife's bracelet. It's their anniversary.
The detective arrives. At last!! We must be on the final straight. Rather than save her he goes after the baddie.
Netflix allows you to play things at a faster speed I am playing this sequence at double speed and it is still going on for ages. I feel like I have been hypnotised to watch this.
A fight now and Jen is sent to sleep but manages to pick up the gun and Bang....a gunshot.
Cut to. Rollins the detective and he is waking up Jen telling her everything is going to be Ok. He has called for backup and gives her a lovely hug. He says..
"You're going to be fine..my love"
She remembers that the police hypnotherapist added a post hypnotic suggestion to see the world as it is. Suddenly she realises it wasn't Rollins!!! It was Dr Meade with her. Off she runs and this time she shoots Meade and finds Rollins who isn't dead yet. Mean slumps in the chair, blood pouring down his face.
What happens at the end of Netflix Hypnotic - Ending explained
It's the final scene!! Once month later. Brian is still in a coma. Jen is with him saying that all will be ok when he wakes up. She goes to see Rollins. He gives her a present and tells her to take care of herself. She leaves and opens the present. It is a sleep hypnosis CD and she smiles.
And we are done!! I thought there may have been a final twist, but no, of course not. So, In summary this is a silly film and perhaps if you have nothing much else to do it will pass some time. Personally I think I may just get back to watching Succession. Nothing to do with hypnosis, but a great show! Thanks for getting this far. You deserve so fun hypnosis after all that...so here's a video where I hypnotise your fingers..and if you like that check out the one with my dog mind reading.
Hypnotic, the latest from filmmakers Suzanne Coote & Matt Angel (of The Open House previously). Is now streaming on Netflix this October. A young woman seeking self-improvement enlists the help of a renowned hypnotherapist. But after a handful of intense sessions, she soon discovers unexpected and deadly consequences. She finds herself caught in a dangerous mind game, unsure who she can trust or how to regain control over her mind again. Kate Siegel stars in Hypnotic, with a cast including Jason O'Mara as Dr. Meade, Dulé Hill, Lucie Guest, and Jaime M. Callica.
Reviews for the film Hypnotic..
If you want to read more reviews about Hypnotic Roger Ebert said "This slick and cheesy Netflix movie only occasionally rises to the potential of its wild premise, thanks mostly to a crazy-eyed, licking-his-chops performance from Jason O’Mara."
The New York Times says of Hypnotic... The twists in “Hypnotic” may not be brilliant, but they are abundant, making for the sort of straight-to-streaming treat best enjoyed on a couch, with company who will laugh with you and let you yell at the screen."
