Our love affair with psychology has led to many many phenomena being attributed to thought- or emotion- based causes. This includes explanations around how to hypnotize someone.But increasingly these assumptions are being tested.
For example, there has been a HUGE amount of research into hypnotizability. This research is basically attempting to identify whether some people are more hypnotizable than others and also attempts to discover why!
But findings of recent research published last week, suggests that hypnotizability may be related to biological factors not psychological factors!
Because a parasite has been found that hypnotizes rats to behave recklessly around cats. Why would a parasite want to do that? Well, it seems that the parasite has to breed inside the cats gut. But, it lives on rats! (How badly organized is that?)
Anyway, nature does have an amazing ability to “find a way” - and so it has here.
Researchers have known for some time that the parasite Toxoplasma gondii is a puppeteer that can force a rat to go against its own instincts and become attracted to the scent of cat urine
OK, we know that there are substances that can increase a person’s susceptibility to hypnosis. But this is a new twist to that that old saw - it will be interesting to see how these results will be commercialized.