The term “enthrallment” suggests something positive. “I am enthralled with the smell of your perfume”, or “everyone was enthralled with her outfit” are phrases that typify the most modern usage of the word. However, the term has a much older and more sinister meaning. Once upon a time, to be in the thrall of someone meant to be unwittingly enslaved by another personality. Thus “enthrallment” is the state of being psychologically enslaved by someone (or something) else.
Hypnosis
You are at a restaurant for dinner and a show. The restaurant has a very large dining room with a raised stage. On the stage, the entertainer asks everyone at the dinner if they had the chicken. All of a sudden, a man at the back of the dining room stands up at his table, flaps his elbows and yells “Coca doodle Doo” at the top of his lungs. The entertainer on the stage is a hypnotist, and the man flapping his elbows is, of course hypnotized. Hypnosis is a form of short-term enthrallment, in this case, by another person.
The hypnotized man is a submissive person in thrall to a dominant hypnotist. Enthrallment is a universal human condition in which a dominant personality holds a submissive personality spellbound or captive. Another definition of enthrallment is a state of being enslaved. When a spirit obsesses a human, it is negatively affecting the behavior of the host by infecting his or her aura. Of course, one human being cannot directly “infect” another human being, but he or she can have precisely the same effect by psychologically enslaving the victim using both subtle and overt psychological tools.
During the stage show, the hypnotist goes through a routine making various suggestions to the audience in order to find random people who are more susceptible to his or her suggestions. Those who pass the tests are brought up to the stage to become part of the show. They are the ones most susceptible to the temporary form of enthrallment known as hypnosis.
Virtually anyone can be placed in a state of enthrallment under the correct conditions. Interrogators accomplish virtually the same thing with enemy prisoners by subjecting them to sleep deprivation or other forms of abuse before starting the interrogation. By doing these things, the subject’s will is undermined and the interrogator becomes the dominant personality. The most important aspect of enthrallment is a dominant authority figure holding sway over a submissive subject who willingly submits to that authority.