Can chickens really be hypnotized by staring at a line?
... and could animal hypnosis be a good thing for my pets?
This week’s question comes from a video I saw online that I wasn’t sure I could really believe. With the advent of Artificial Intelligence, I’m finding myself to be increasingly cynical, which is not the positive life-altering result the Internet promised me. How much of what I see and hear and read online is even real?
Regardless, this video seemed convincing:
Is it true you can entrance a chicken simply by drawing a line in front of it? Is this somehow related to other animals that fall into trances, like fainting goats? Speaking of that, are there other animals (besides humans) that can be entranced? And would that be a helpful skill to have when my dog is being overly rambunctious?
Can chickens really be hypnotized by staring at a line?
To start with, I researched hypnosis in humans because I’m curious about what exactly is happening when people are put into a trance. I’ve never participated in hypnosis myself, but what I found through Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins revealed that it’s being used successfully to treat depression, reduce pain and anxiety, help people quit smoking, and mitigate menopause symptoms.
There’s not full agreement on what exactly is happening inside the brain with human hypnosis, though most view it as an altered state of mind that results in deep relaxation, unawareness of surroundings, and a high susceptibility to suggestion. Personalities influence someone’s susceptibility to hypnosis and not everyone can be hypnotized – it appears to be somewhat hereditary and falls along a typical bell curve, with most hypnotic research focusing on only 10% of the population.
That being said, we all enter trance-like states at times. Ever get lost in a good book? Or drive down a road and suddenly wonder how you negotiated the last five miles while your mind was a million miles away? In these instances, you’re not noticeably aware of your immediate surroundings, more caught up in your inner awareness than outer stimuli. Hypnosis can be seen as a meditative state; in which case, I suppose I get hypnotized every time I get a massage.
What about animals? Can they really be hypnotized? It turns out – yes! And it’s not just chickens. Alligators, swans, ducks, trout, guinea pigs, frogs – all can be made to enter a trancelike state.
However, it’s not really the same as hypnosis. Whereas hypnosis is initiated by verbal suggestion, with animals the trance is actually a fear reaction. It’s called tonic immobility or fright paralysis and happens when “fight or flight” doesn’t work – as a last result, animals will try “fright” and simply keel over as if they’re dead. It’s thought to be a way to ward off predators, who much prefer a fresh, live kill rather than what must appear to be an already-dead animal. In this way it’s similar to the behavior of “playing possum.”
Humans can induce this tonic immobility in animals oftentimes by flipping the animal on its back and focusing its attention – sometimes by stroking it, sometimes (as with chickens) by drawing a line in front of it.
Could hypnosis be a good way to calm an agitated or overactive pet? Well, it turns out that it doesn’t consistently work. In one study, tonic immobility was tested in 132 dogs but only 10 of them were put into this state by inverting them with an additional treatment of either stroking them or covering their heads. However, another small study of 10 very nervous dogs found that all were susceptible to tonic immobility as compared to less high-strung dogs. Perhaps, like humans, some animals are more prone to “hypnosis” or tonic immobility?
Many feel it isn’t necessarily a good practice to do with pets – while it may appear that “hypnosis” is calming to animals, there’s a strong possibility it achieves the opposite effect since tonic immobility is usually a fear response.
Actually, even humans will respond in this frozen way when faced with danger – it’s part of our defense cascade, a series of behaviors we exhibit in scary situations: first we experience arousal (awareness of the danger), then we choose fight or flight, then if that doesn’t work we experience fright and oftentimes tonic immobility and collapsed immobility as a last resort. Think about that Jello-legged feeling you get when you witness a car wreck, or the fact that many people faint at the sight of blood. Quiescent immobility is the period of recovery that happens after an event is over. Each of these is correlated with specific functions of the brain.
This definitely appears to be emotionally different than hypnosis and not something I’d want to put my dog through.
Finally, what about fainting goats? Are they being “hypnotized” when they fall over? Actually, no. Tennessee fainting goats experience immobility as a result of a hereditary condition called myotonia congenita, a neuromuscular disorder that causes their muscles to stiffen after a fright, which usually results in their falling over. It’s different than tonic immobility in that it’s a disorder that’s unique to this particular species, though the results oftentimes look the same.
So… yes, it turns out you can “hypnotize” a chicken and the chicken video above is not an AI-generated illusion. I’ll keep that in mind next time I encounter a bear in the woods and need to hypnotize it. Like this guy.
Weird Nature:
A few months ago I wrote about coydogs and wolf hybrids, and now it looks like I should be worried about these a little closer to home…
When I look at my water bill, I topple off the couch!
In the 1940's I watched my father "hypnotize" a chicken. I was a kid so I took it at face value that it really was hypnotized. Over the years I've told friends about this amazing way to hypnotize a chicken - nobody ever believed me! Your article has substantiated my claims. Thanks!