WarpMyMind

How do you dissect audio or video to look for hypnosis or subliminal elements? Or for that matter, how do you check a full website?

An example would be the Qanon website. There are stories online about how addictive that site is/ was. Family members of qanon addicts have cited changes in behavior of their loved ones. Like a college student wgo visited home after being away for a semester and became genuinely afraid for his siblings when he saw his mother's changes.

So how do you check to see if you are being lured in by an unseen hook?

I think there is nuance to the answer to this question. One could argue that anything that captivates you and aims to tell you how to think is utilizing hypnosis. It doesn't even have to be necessarily "hidden". It just may or may not be effective depending on who the subject is. Is the site full of statements using presuppositions, telling you how you think and feel and ensuring that you automatically agree? Are there hooks to keep you engaged and focused? Are you beginning to feel like your thoughts have been changed by the site in a significant way? There are many elements to hypnosis that are used all the time in, for example, branding and marketing, sometimes without the overt intention of "hypnosis" but certainly with the attempt to influence your thoughts. The same is true of cult leaders and influencers alike whether they've studied hypnosis. Their aim is to align you with their mission.

With your example, I think it is more than just that website being potentially "hypnotic" (I put in quotes, to not suggest it is intentional hypnosis or not). Often when people start falling down the ideological rabbit hole like that, any "hypnosis" by thought-leaders is often bolstered by the subject finding community that validates the trance and suggestions. They start watching news and content creators that support the "hypnosis", and keep the programming in place.

Here is what I would say to anyone questioning what is influencing them. If you are feeling affected in a way you don't consent to by material you are seeing, take a break from it. I have found that, though hypnosis can affect you whether you consent or not, taking a break and reflecting critically can help you kind of "snap out of it" when the hypnosis was not in alignment with your true desires for yourself. For example, when someone wants to quit smoking they can be hypnotized once ever and it lasts for their entire life, because quitting smoking was a true desire of theirs. In another example, I was non-consensually hypnotized to only ever talk with one certain hypnotist (I consented to be hypnotized for other things, so allowed myself into the trance). Once I got away from him and took time to return to myself, I was able to shake off his influence after a while. But it took intention and time.

If you think you are being deeply affected in a way you don't like, try to take a break. Maybe (slowly and intentionally) consume contrasting media and see how it feels, whether it aligns with you or not. This may help you reflect on whether you were hypnotized in a way you don't consent to.

That's what comes to mind when reading your question. Hope it's helpful to someone out there.