Autism and hypnosis and sensory overload

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I'm listening to a series of podcasts on hypnosis (here: http://www.thehypnosisevent.com/season1/ - it's free to just listen and you can get "free gifts", i.e. advertising, from each of the speakers if you show up within two days of that interview - at least one of those free gifts is also available on the interviewee's website for those that are keen), and in the interview with Keith Livingston someone asked if you can hypnotize an autistic person. He said yes you can, but also that autistic people, like children, are already in a trance state to begin with. Which kind of makes sense. We do tend to be off in our own little worlds a lot. I wonder if anyone has tested us to look at things like brain waves, to see if this is literally true, or if we are in a different state than a trance state. (Alpha waves vs delta vs whatever)

So that had me wondering if that was why I'm so sound sensitive and fearful of intrusion. After all before a hypnosis session they always say to turn off the phone and make sure people don't disturb you (yeah, right) so that you can relax. I guess over the years I've learned that it's dangerous to relax because it makes me too open to noisy intrusions and they hurt so much. And I'm already pretty open to begin with.

Thoughts?

"Autistics always in a trance state"?

Bullsnot.

I think that's really interesting. I'm sure brain waves of autistic people have been measured at some stage, but I'm not sure where you'd start looking for information like that.

Actually, I just listened to the Jonathan Royle interview at the link above (may still be there for free for a few more hours) and he said that there's no such thing as hypnosis per se (according to him you can generate the same brain waves by breathing in and out deeply and thinking of something nice), but it's still good for manipulating people's emotions, so it can still help people. I'm not sure what to make of that.

I don't know what to think.

I heard that Autistic people tend to have more difficulty entering a hypnotic state. That's the opposite of always being in a trance.

Then again I've heard several different things about Autism and hypnosis so I don't put to much stake in any of them. I don't know what to believe about it.

While in the Navy, I attended a USO show that featured a hypnotist. He called five people up on stage, including me, and had the others hypnotized in a very short time.

He tried for a minute with me, and I could only shrug.

Then he put the others through their paces and came back to me.

Another shrug.

Then he brought the others out of their trances, thanked them and sent them back to their seats. Then he came back to me, and really put on some theatrical hypno-tricks to put me under.

Another shrug and a laugh.

Then he had me escorted off stage by a couple of workers who were dressed as MiBs.

I can't be hypnotized.

That sucks. I'm kind of worried that might be the case for me.

No suckage at all!

It may have something to do with the fact that salespeople, gold-diggers, and suck-ups only irritate me, and rarely have any influence over me.

Correlation, not causation, of course.

there is no one in the world who can't be hypnotized.
that is because hypnosis is a natural state of the mind, of high concentration and total awareness in your own being, also now as the alpha state of mind. The hypnotists is only helping the person to go into that state, but everybody already does that naturaly without naming it. is when you a to obsessed on your own toughts, on some kind of pain, for example. all hypnosis is just self hypnosis, the hypnotist is just catalizing this process, and that is the thing that can be a problem for aspies. in need to do that, he have to build rapport with hus subject, trought voice tonalites, body language, and basically an imense use of theory of mind to get the person into trace, which is much harder to do with an aspie, than with an nt.
so, we aren't good subjects for stage hypnosis, but on clinical hypnosis, where there is time, pacience and no audience, an aspie can be hypnotize without any problem.

Someone tried to hypnotize me once. Didn't work. He was convinced he could hypnotize anyone. Ha. I wouldn't have minded if he hypnotized me because it would have been an interesting experience, but I'm too grounded in reality. I think it's similar to why I have a hard time doing pretend play and why I could not have an imaginary friend even when I was lonely and wished I could. This is not to say I have no imagination, however.

most hypnotists use a combination of sensory overload techniques to induce a trance.
as autistics, we are used to being overloaded, which makes us typically more resistant to stage hypnosis.

i know that i cannot be hypnotised on-stage, but i have no experience on other techniques. especially becouse some pieces of music can get me into a deep trance, that might very well allow me to be hypnotised, if prepared