Dr. Gordon Gallup’s “Animal Hypnosis: The Role of Fear and Predation”

On March 7th, the Instructional Media Services Center was given the privilege of documenting one of many EvoS lecture series talks titled “Animal Hypnosis: The Role of Fear and Predation.” It was hosted by guest speaker Dr. Gordon Gallup, distinguished as an educator, researcher, and speaker. Dr. Gallup spoke to his large audience of faculty and students about a state of tonic immobility animals succumb to, similar to hypnosis, after being restrained. Through research, he has related this to a defense mechanism animals use against predators, and has even traced this to human responses in situations of sexual assault or drowning. He presented this information with data and supplemental pictures during his speech, and ended his demonstration by opening the discussion up to questions from members of the audience. His lecture and slideshow presentation have been recorded by the Instructional Media Services and can be accessed on the SUNY New Paltz website, along with other EvoS presentations in this series.