(This blog was originally posted on March 3, 2014)
Did
you watch the 86thAcademy Awards on television on March 2, 2014? Remember when host Ellen
DeGeneres asked viewers to retweet the group “selfie” picture that host Ellen DeGeneres took of herself with a
handful of Oscar nominees during the broadcast? Did you do it? If so, you
weren’t alone: according to a CNN report, 2.7
million people took on her challenge, and the Twitter
platform actually crashed for a few minutes. The event was undoubtedly a major
advertising and publicity triumph for the Oscars and the company that
manufactured the camera they used to take the shot (Samsung)—not to mention the
host. This incident was also a great opportunity for me to illustrate how
suggestibility and hypnosis work in real life.
In
my January
16, 2014 blog about hypnotic modalities, I explained how an authority
figure could create a hyper-suggestible state in another person and use this
state to persuade that individual to behave in a particular way. (If you have
ever gone car shopping, you have likely experienced this kind of sensory
overload.) She may not have literally sold an item to her audience, but Ms.
DeGeneres did a very handy demonstration of group hypnosis with just a few
elements naturally occurring elements:
1.
She had authority. As the Oscar host,
Ellen DeGeneres had access to all areas of the stage and the audience in the
auditorium. A celebrity herself, she also had charisma and charm that helped
her to build a rapport with the guests as well as television viewers at home.
2.
She had a message. The role of any host
at a party or event is to help the guests feel at ease and have a good time so
that, hopefully, they will want to come back again. The Academy Awards may be
an American event, but it is known around the world. No doubt the Academy and
the television network wanted to receive positive reviews and feedback so they
could do this again, next year. What better way to get this message out than to
take a photograph of some of your guests having a good time and share that
image with everyone you know (or who wishes they knew you)?
3.
There were plenty of environmental stimuli to overload
the subconscious mind and create the hyper-suggestible state: the
excitement of being nominated for or having won an Academy Award, or the
disappointment of not winning that Oscar, after all; the visual overload of
being surrounded by beautiful people wearing beautiful clothes; the amount of
time the nominees had already spent posing on the red carpet before the awards
began; the anxiety/stress that they must have been experiencing while they
waited for the award to be bestowed in their category; waiting and wondering
who would win an Oscar; the glamorous environment in the Kodak Theater and the
stage… You get the picture.
4.
Ms. DeGeneres used the right language to get the
group of nominees to do the photo with her. Not only did she have the advantage
of being the host for the night, but she knew how and when to cajole one of the
A-list actors sitting in the front rows to join the group. Soon, some actors
just jumped into the shot without waiting for an invitation.
5.
Watching the scene from home on our televisions
or computers, etc., it looked like everyone in the shot was smiling and having
fun. Didn’t you wish you could have been in on that picture, too? (Or one just
like it, but with your friends and family?) When Bradley Cooper finally snapped
the picture, the audience at home and in the theater was ready and waiting to
be asked (or told/playfully challenged) to retweet the image so many times that
Twitter couldn’t cope with all the traffic.
6.
And hey, presto: 2.7 million people accepted and
acted on Ellen DeGeneres’ suggestion.
Now, that is impressive.
Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in
Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in
2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy®
and to set up an appointment, please
visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
© 2015
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