Hypnosis

[henryp]

I suspect an early tribe that was able to organize and be more 'ant-like' in their behavior would have an advantage of a tribe behaving as individuals?  So the ability to allow others to control you via suggestion maybe rose up through natural selection?

This only works as an assumption if the environment is stable and repetitive.  Under such circumstances, such behavior can capitalize on the consistency in the environment.  However if the environment is unstable and subject to change, the lack of individualism leads to opportunity costs and losses due to an inability to flexibly respond to changes in the environment.  The ideal human is therefore a mixture of ant-like and individualistic behaviors.  What the most profitable mix of such behaviors is will vary depending on the environment.

I wonder if we were ant like and then developed individualistic, or vice versa.  Science probably knows.  An ant-like base probably makes religion make even more sense.  

Or really the willingness to accept any suggestion.  The idea that you don't have to be willing to accept the details of the suggestion, only be willing to accept A suggestion is intriguing. More so if the willingness to accept suggestions is a built in trait which it appears to be.