A friend narrated an incident recently where a bunch of people came up to him inquiring about the best place for currency exchange. The interaction started conventionally with a warm handshake. Then -- almost as if he had gone totally crazy -- my friend took out his wallet and handed over Rs. 7K to them upon their suggestion. A part of him resisted, sensing which they handed him back 3K but left eventlessly with the remaining 4K. It was only after they had left did he realize what had just happened to him -- in his own words, it was almost as if he had just 'woken up from sleep'.
Naturally, I listened to his story with a deep sense of skepticism as it sounded too fantastically absurd to be true. A little bit of searching however revealed that a mere handshake can in fact lead to momentary hypnosis of a person (here are some details).
If it weren't for what happened to my friend, I would have dismissed similar such stories as hogwash but apparently the human brain does appear to be *that* vulnerable and suggestible. And, the potential ease with which it can be pulled off is outright freaky and discomforting.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
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