TOK Workshop - The Powers of Persuasion

As part of our Theory of Knowledge course, the 11th and 12th grade took part in a "Powers of Persuasion" workshop, ran by Martin Taylor. He calls himself the Hypnotist who doesn't use Hypnosis, and this came through right from the very beginning. He talked to us about how people can be persuaded to do things, but only if they are open to the idea. He said that this persuasion can come from three main sources: suggestion, peer pressure and obedience.

In his first demonstration, where he attempted to make our hands stick together, he was explaining that there isn't a particular "trick", just talking using certain techniques. After this demonstration, certain people volunteered to go up and try some of the more difficult demonstrations, with the most dramatic saved for last, such as tasting water as your favourite drink, and even seeing an elephant walk through the door!

Before seeing the demonstrations, I had been very skeptical of hypnosis, because really I had only seen it on TV, with people going into a "trance". However, having seen the demonstration first hand, it was really interesting to see that the volunteers really did feel like they were tasting their favourite drink, even though rationally they knew that it was only water. All the way through the demonstrations he was explaining that our Senses aren't always as reliable as we think they are, and at times (as he showed), they can be actively changed.

From an audience's point of view, it was a really interesting way of explaining one of our topics in ToK, and showed us that our senses can be changed a lot easier than we think!

By James - Grade 11