Serious question - can anyone be hypnotised and not know? I don't mean to get them to do silly things, I refer to a change of personality and behaviour.
No! Because hypnosis comes through the conscious to the sub conscious mind.
However suggestion on a regular basis at a low level can affect behaviour .
Personality is another matter . It is something you are born with and any change is really a learnt response to a given situation. ie your behaviour may change.
Well don't some cases of hypnosis involve the hypnotist making the suggestion that the hypnotised will not remember ? I doubt the hypnotised can be guarantied not to recall though, after all, they hypnotise themselves at the hypnotist's suggestion, so when they want to remember, then they will.
What does the person you are thinking would benefit from hypnosis wish to change ?
When I was hypnotised a few years back, it really didn't feel like I was as I was completely concious of everything that was being said and where I was. My behaviour changed afterwards in the positive way that the hypnosis was designed to do (breaking a habit).
Do you refer to someone who was hypnotised intentionally by a professional but doesn't think that they actually were, and yet their behaviour has changed? Or that someone who hadn't agreed to be hypnotised believes that they were?
If you are motivated it can do quite a lot
I had a tumour irritating my diaphragm which is known to cause distressing hiccups and asked my brother to hypnotise me out of it ( the hiccups and not the tumour )
and everyone said wow
but then.... I really wanted not to hiccup