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Is this really a hypnosis or just some primal defense system that kicks in, like "snake ahead, freeze". I had a pet python and I know for a fact that snakes wil

Is this really a hypnosis or just some primal defense system that kicks in, like "snake ahead, freeze". I had a pet python and I know for a fact that snakes will only eat moving food, if you just leave a dead mouse snake will not touch it (same as frogs and many other lizards and amphibians). Pray needs to move to attract the interest. So if you don't want to get eaten by a snake the perfect defense is exactly this, don't move a muscle, stand very still. And many animals have "hard-wired" defense against snakes, for instance like cats get scared by cucumbers and other snake like shapes, although they never seen a snake in their life. Just a wild theory of course, but it might be that?

sandworm101 7y ago
It isn't real hypnosis. It is the brain being hit with unusual or overwhelming stimulus and is basically blue-screening, locking up the entire system until something kicks it out of the loop and causes a reboot. Similar things happen to sharks if you put them upside down, or to deer caught in headlights at night. Unable to process what is happening, their brains just lock up. Drawing the line probably forces the chicken's eyes to follow the object out of its stereo vision. Birds have amazing stereo vision right in front of their faces (so they don't smash their beaks when pecking at things). Trying to track an object moving directly out of this space might be just unusual enough to cause a system crash.
- YokoZar 7y ago
  Deer in headlights is probably a much simpler explanation - their eyes+pupils are adapted to the dim light, and sudden application of headlights is blinding. If you were suddenly blinded, you probably wouldn't respond by running either.
  - sandworm101 7y ago
    It's more complex than that. If I shine a light at you in the dark it will hurt. You will close your eyes, look away or shield your face. The deer don't even blink, the most primitive response to bright light. They are transfixed like the chicken.
    - DecoPerson 7y ago
      Because looking away may lead to death. When does a deer naturally get suddenly exposed to blinding light? Ignoring the response of "ah it's bright, look away" avoids false positives accidentally getting the deer killed. Actual positives never occurred during night time until humans developed artificial illumination.
    - de_watcher 7y ago
      I think when climbing up a tree you're often exposed to sudden sun in the face. Deer don't climb trees.
  - LanceH 7y ago
    Faced with a predator at distance, deer freeze and depend on camouflage. A completely stationary deer is damn hard to see in the hills during the day. It's even more difficult to see at night. Faced with an oncoming car, they go with their natural reaction to stay still, and it works every time, except the last.
- dondawest 7y ago
  It is definitely real hypnosis. The definition of hypnosis is so vague and nebulous that this absolutely falls within the umbrella of “hypnosis.” To be specific it is visual hypnosis.
  - DoctorOetker 7y ago
    as a child I always thought hypnosis implied a state in which you can program a person to 1) do things 2) even if they are against their own interest, 3) immediately or at a later time, without them remembering 4) the cause being hypnosis, or 5) anything about the period under hypnosis, or 6) to recall information that is inaccessible to the unhypnotised brain... over time I have seen the claim being totally watered down to apparently just intimidating a creature with primal fear for fun and profit.
    - dondawest 7y ago
      All those claims are proven to be incorrect. Not even the best hypnotist in the world can hypnotize someone into doing something against their will. I agree “intimidating a creature with primal fear for fun and profit” is not that cool. But the claims you once believed were never true in the first place.
      - DoctorOetker 7y ago
        I never believed in hypnosis, what changed was my understanding of what people actually claimed hypnosis could do, and this change was the only constant thing about hypnosis. My father (an engineer) was down-to-earth enough to explain me math, physics, chemistry, ... I do believe though in the somewhat debilitating conditions that exacerbate for a person who is already tired, like seeing repetitive long period highway lights, or road markings ... and of course innate primordial fears and reflexes...
        dondawest 7y ago
        Hypnosis is real. No question. Learn it for yourself and you’ll simply be astonished what you can accomplish. However, in many ways hypnosis is synonymous with “learning.” Your father hypnotized you into learning math, physics, and chemistry... as do all effective teachers.
carapace 7y ago
I once had a small flock of chickens, they were a hybrid with some Surinamese jungle fowl, jet black and as small as pigeons. They cheeped rather than squawking. They never laid any eggs, and were eventually all eaten by raccoons. Anyway, one day I looked out the window and they had all frozen solid, like someone hit them with a "time stop" spell. So the capability is obviously a defensive adaptation.[0] Why it can be triggered by the given techniques is a bit mysterious though. In humans though you can interrupt motor patterns and get hypnotic trance. The search term is "handshake interrupt", there are videos. I went to a hypnotherapist who used it with me, and I started cracking up because I recognized what was happening and almost wrecked it, but then I made a conscious decision to "go with it". (It's weird how many "levels" there are in the psyche: who was going into trance? who was cracking up? who decided to go with it? who was it that went into trance? "A trance is only as deep as you are." is a powerful spell to break out of trance. Why does it work?) Be advised that there are roving gangs of hypnotists warring in the streets for your attention. [0] It works too. A friend of mine and I were climbing the scree below a cliff when we came across a mother brown eagle and her nest. She spread her wings to cover the nest and froze. She was so still that even though I was staring right at her from about thirty feet away, with my binocular color-vision eyes and human brain, I still could barely see her. We left her in peace.
brennebeck 7y ago
This isn’t entirely true. Pythons will happily eat a dead mouse. In fact, it’s even common to buy and store frozen mice and rats for small pythons. In my personal experience: 1) snakes that were fed frozen mice from a young age handle it better and 2) the mice needed to be microwaved or heated in some form. Generally, only my small ball pythons were frozen fed, though. My Burmese, carpets, and greens were all live fed. Edit: first sentence referring to python eating patterns, to clarify.
- ivanhoe 7y ago
  I fed them frozen baby mouses, too, but I had to hold it and move it around until the snake grabs it. If I just drop it in, snake was completely indifferent about the food. Could be that you need to heat it, I never tried that.

sandworm101 7y ago

It isn't real hypnosis. It is the brain being hit with unusual or overwhelming stimulus and is basically blue-screening, locking up the entire system until something kicks it out of the loop and causes a reboot. Similar things happen to sharks if you put them upside down, or to deer caught in headlights at night. Unable to process what is happening, their brains just lock up. Drawing the line probably forces the chicken's eyes to follow the object out of its stereo vision. Birds have amazing stereo vision right in front of their faces (so they don't smash their beaks when pecking at things). Trying to track an object moving directly out of this space might be just unusual enough to cause a system crash.

YokoZar 7y ago
Deer in headlights is probably a much simpler explanation - their eyes+pupils are adapted to the dim light, and sudden application of headlights is blinding. If you were suddenly blinded, you probably wouldn't respond by running either.
- sandworm101 7y ago
  It's more complex than that. If I shine a light at you in the dark it will hurt. You will close your eyes, look away or shield your face. The deer don't even blink, the most primitive response to bright light. They are transfixed like the chicken.
  - DecoPerson 7y ago
    Because looking away may lead to death. When does a deer naturally get suddenly exposed to blinding light? Ignoring the response of "ah it's bright, look away" avoids false positives accidentally getting the deer killed. Actual positives never occurred during night time until humans developed artificial illumination.
  - de_watcher 7y ago
    I think when climbing up a tree you're often exposed to sudden sun in the face. Deer don't climb trees.
- LanceH 7y ago
  Faced with a predator at distance, deer freeze and depend on camouflage. A completely stationary deer is damn hard to see in the hills during the day. It's even more difficult to see at night. Faced with an oncoming car, they go with their natural reaction to stay still, and it works every time, except the last.
dondawest 7y ago
It is definitely real hypnosis. The definition of hypnosis is so vague and nebulous that this absolutely falls within the umbrella of “hypnosis.” To be specific it is visual hypnosis.
- DoctorOetker 7y ago
  as a child I always thought hypnosis implied a state in which you can program a person to 1) do things 2) even if they are against their own interest, 3) immediately or at a later time, without them remembering 4) the cause being hypnosis, or 5) anything about the period under hypnosis, or 6) to recall information that is inaccessible to the unhypnotised brain... over time I have seen the claim being totally watered down to apparently just intimidating a creature with primal fear for fun and profit.
  - dondawest 7y ago
    All those claims are proven to be incorrect. Not even the best hypnotist in the world can hypnotize someone into doing something against their will. I agree “intimidating a creature with primal fear for fun and profit” is not that cool. But the claims you once believed were never true in the first place.
    - DoctorOetker 7y ago
      I never believed in hypnosis, what changed was my understanding of what people actually claimed hypnosis could do, and this change was the only constant thing about hypnosis. My father (an engineer) was down-to-earth enough to explain me math, physics, chemistry, ... I do believe though in the somewhat debilitating conditions that exacerbate for a person who is already tired, like seeing repetitive long period highway lights, or road markings ... and of course innate primordial fears and reflexes...
      - dondawest 7y ago
        Hypnosis is real. No question. Learn it for yourself and you’ll simply be astonished what you can accomplish. However, in many ways hypnosis is synonymous with “learning.” Your father hypnotized you into learning math, physics, and chemistry... as do all effective teachers.

carapace 7y ago

I once had a small flock of chickens, they were a hybrid with some Surinamese jungle fowl, jet black and as small as pigeons. They cheeped rather than squawking. They never laid any eggs, and were eventually all eaten by raccoons. Anyway, one day I looked out the window and they had all frozen solid, like someone hit them with a "time stop" spell. So the capability is obviously a defensive adaptation.[0] Why it can be triggered by the given techniques is a bit mysterious though. In humans though you can interrupt motor patterns and get hypnotic trance. The search term is "handshake interrupt", there are videos. I went to a hypnotherapist who used it with me, and I started cracking up because I recognized what was happening and almost wrecked it, but then I made a conscious decision to "go with it". (It's weird how many "levels" there are in the psyche: who was going into trance? who was cracking up? who decided to go with it? who was it that went into trance? "A trance is only as deep as you are." is a powerful spell to break out of trance. Why does it work?) Be advised that there are roving gangs of hypnotists warring in the streets for your attention. [0] It works too. A friend of mine and I were climbing the scree below a cliff when we came across a mother brown eagle and her nest. She spread her wings to cover the nest and froze. She was so still that even though I was staring right at her from about thirty feet away, with my binocular color-vision eyes and human brain, I still could barely see her. We left her in peace.

brennebeck 7y ago

This isn’t entirely true. Pythons will happily eat a dead mouse. In fact, it’s even common to buy and store frozen mice and rats for small pythons. In my personal experience: 1) snakes that were fed frozen mice from a young age handle it better and 2) the mice needed to be microwaved or heated in some form. Generally, only my small ball pythons were frozen fed, though. My Burmese, carpets, and greens were all live fed. Edit: first sentence referring to python eating patterns, to clarify.

ivanhoe 7y ago
I fed them frozen baby mouses, too, but I had to hold it and move it around until the snake grabs it. If I just drop it in, snake was completely indifferent about the food. Could be that you need to heat it, I never tried that.