Hypnotizism

I found this chapter to be interesting partly because of the discussion on page 158 about hypnosis. I've tossed around the idea about wondering if someone can really hypnotize another individual. I'm not sure if I can completely grasp this vision of someone being in such an altered state without some other type of medium used such as drugs, alcohol, etc. I had an interesting discussion with a friend of mine during the week. There was a commercial on TV for a new television show called Phenomenon. We both knew about Criss Angel and just in general some of the stuff that 'magicians' so to speak have done in past years. We got on the topic of hypnosis and he was completely critical and cynical about the possibility of hypnotizing someone. He didn't believe it was possible. I'm the type of person that even though I haven't seen something or experienced something out of the ordinary, I'm not going to completely rule it out and say it isn't possible. However, this type of action boggles my mind. I'd like to see someone being hypnotized just so I can be proved wrong and that it really does happen and also can affect your mind and influence situations!