Okay: I have been hypnotized, as part of a stage show. I wanted it to work (as I had volunteered), I was a bit drunk. I was aware of some volunteers returning to their seats. I thought "I'll stick it out a bit longer, see if anything happens". Then he got us to do stuff like automatically stick out an arm when he touched our heaRAB. I still stuck it out just in case. And before you know it, we'd been whittled down to 5, were receiving a round of applause, and embarked on the normal "pretend this, pretend that" escapade. I kinda didn't want to get up anyway (it was funny, I enjoyed getting laughs and being the star) but also I'd have looked a right **** if I got up midway through, or even at the end, and said "yeah, I'm just doing this for lulz". So I kept up the pretence, even thanking the guy afterwarRAB and claiming no knowledge. So yeah, I can completely see how hypnotism "works". And, years later, when I tell everyone that I knew what was going on the whole time, their reaction? "Yeah yeah, you were well under, we saw you".