Mesmerake Hypnosis: How Does It Work?

Question

Mesmerake are dragons, serpentine with two arms and no legs, but endowed with plenty of fins-four fins come off of their back, resembling butterfly wings but more frilly, sort of like betta fins, a sail down their back, a pair of pelvic fins in place of legs that serve to propel the dragon, the sail-like fins along the backs of their arms, the fins extending from the back of their heads like a headdress, and the three caudal fins running along and extending from the end of the tail.

Their bodies are shiny, chitinous and incredibly colorful, a sort of iridescent blue, with segmented tails and plated underbellies, with sleek armor (segmented only at the joints) everywhere else. Now, this is where it gets complicated. Mesmerake are the sirens of dragonkind. They're known for their 'calls' and 'songs,' which they use to draw attention, and their hypnotic abilities.

You see, once someone catches sight of a Mesmerake, the Mesmerake's fins will fan out and undulate, the colors on their fins and body shifting and pulsating, transfixing the target, who somehow becomes susceptible to the Mesmerake's will. Adventurers, for example, have found themselves fighting their way free from a Mesmerake's jaws or even stomach because they lost all sense of reason 'in trance' and not only approached it unarmed, but stood there as its jaws came down on them, only to 'snap out of it' and react....well, naturally, quite viscerally.

The question is, how do they do it? How does a Mesmerake not only entrance viewers but influence them like this?

The research mages have some ideas, but nothing concrete, even after reviewing this article on Enchantments and the notes below. Perhaps you can figure out what they cannot.

Notes On Mesmerake Hypnosis:

1. Mesmerake, when entrancing and exerting control over others, will shift colors, extend and flutter their fins, vocalize, and perhaps even do a sort of 'dance'. It is thus apparent that this ability is predominantly visual by nature, yet from reports given by those who survived facing or encountering a Mesmerake while being blinded in some way, it is apparent that Mesmerake vocalizations can do just fine on their own, with little to no decrease in hypnotic effectiveness overall.

2. The colors presented appear to influence the overall effect; but more study is needed. Blue, for example, appears to soothe and relax or viewers, but can also depress and detach viewers, while red, depending on the shade, can either energize and excite viewers or somehow grant Mesmerake an edge in battle, either by making the Mesmerake seem more powerful to viewers or by making the Mesmerake itself feel more powerful. Likewise, the tone and rhythm of Mesmerake vocalizations affect the mood of hearers.

3. Mesmerake hypnosis does not affect all people equally. Stubborn, self-possessed, or strong-willed individuals resist Mesmerake hypnosis, most zoning out until it becomes apparent something is wrong, while the most strong-willed or self-possessed people may feel detached, "off," or dreamy but will be capable of acting and reacting appropriately to the situation, albeit a bit slower than usual.

Up to 25% of individuals, most of them being adventurers who have faced dragons before, may experience little effect from Mesmerake hypnosis, functioning more or less perfectly fine, while 10-65% may be especially susceptible to Mesmerake hypnosis.

4. Mesmerake hypnosis is not just used to aid in catching and eating prey. This is a common misconception, one experienced adventurers are familiar with. Mesmerake can use their hypnosis to unnerve opponents, making them hesitant and less accurate in battle, as well as more likely to flee. They can also use their hypnosis to induce feelings of awe, making one hesitant to attack, to make them seem friendlier and less dangerous, or to make them seem weak and scared.

In fact, Mesmerake have been established to use their hypnosis to make people in isolated riverside towns or villages worship them, or be more compliant than people normally would be with a dragon.

Theories on How It Works:

Besides auditory and visual cues, something else must be involved, as Mesmerake victims report feeling an urge or impression, or else hearing a very attractive and compelling voice, to act the way they did. Somehow, Mesmerake are communicating with those they hypnotize....but how?

1. They could be using electromagnetic pulses to stimulate certain parts of the brain, but....magic has a logical if not biological basis, and that would be an extremely unlikely adaptation. Plus, different creatures have differently structured brains, and Mesmerake can affect a wide range of monsters, dragons, and sapient races, so this....likely isn't the way.

2. Pheromones are chemical signals, those take time to reach you, and they take time to work, and using pheromones to influence such a wide range of creatures seems unlikely, but there are some diehards who insist it's possible, so......

3. Some state that since magic is symbolic, Mesmerake are using their hypnosis to form a connection, and magic takes that connection and forges a spiritual bond, which Mesmerake use to influence others. It certainly sounds possible, but....can one really forge such a connection, even if the other is in a state of focus and susceptibility to suggestion? Some argue yes, that hypnosis is used to make one bring down subconscious barriers against magical influence, and claim that such barriers are what make it impossible to directly influence one with magic (such as using fire magic to light someone on fire).

Others argue that hypnosis cannot open barriers so effectively, that it cannot enable the creation of such a powerful bond in such a short time, and that Mesmerake victims are not influenced through a spiritual connection but rather through a suppression of reason and subtle influences, as even if one feels a connection to someone, chances are they won't allow said someone to eat them. So.....

Specifications for Best Answer:

1. Magic is generally symbolic, but it has a logical basis. This magical ability is an expansion and/or enhancement of natural functions that naturally influence other lifeforms. The natural and magical functions are related, and the best answer will take that into account.

2. Magic may be real here, but so is natural selection and development. This ability had to come from somewhere, and part of its origin lies in natural law, so please take those into account.

3. Don't be afraid to check out some of my other questions about enchantments, or to take leaps of logic based off of what I've put here. I appreciate creative answers, and if you make a wrong assumption, I do appreciate effort and I will give constructive criticism so your answer becomes that much better. Finally, please let me know if the question needs improvement, I'm open to and appreciate feedback!

Answer 1

Better Living Through Ecstasy

^{Art by Raymond Swanland, modified by me}
As you note, 'pheromones take time to reach you and take time to work'. You know what doesn't? DMT. From inhalation, DMT takes ~45 seconds to take effect. It's also much more universal than pheromones. Pheromones are intended for intra-species communication, and have limited effect outside of them. DMT, meanwhile, is a serotonin receptor agonist, and all bilaterally symmetric animals have serotonin receptors¹.

Puff, the magic (mushroom) dragon

Your dragon isn't merely brightly colored, it's iridescent. The iridescence is caused by very thin, translucent sheets that coat its scales. Those translucent sheets contain a substance that combines the characteristics of a few different drugs. As it moves about its daily life, its scales rub together, sloughing off the sheets both as a fine, powdery dust, and as mica-like iridescent flakes. The areas surrounding these creatures' often has a soft shimmer as a result, dust and flakes clinging and accumulating on every surface. (ever tried to get rid of glitter...?) Both dust and flakes are high in the aforementioned drug.

The drug has the following properties:

• It's psychoactive. Like DMT, LSD, MDMA, or psilocybin.
• It's a mixed stimulant/depressant. Like alcohol.
• It creates physical dependence. Like alcohol, nicotine, or heroin.

It's this drug, and the bright, multichromatic coloration of the dragons themselves, that creates the varied and various effects you're looking for.

Satisfying the conditions

...once someone catches sight of a Mesmerake, the Mesmerake's fins will fan out and undulate, the colors on their fins and body shifting and pulsating, transfixing the target...

Since the Mesmerakes primarily dwell in caves or other secluded places, it's impossible to get close to them without walking through their home territory. Your footsteps disturb the dust, adding to the amount already present in the air. By the time you reach the dragon itself, you are addled with the drug.

Adventurers, for example, have found themselves fighting their way free from a Mesmerake's jaws or even stomach because they lost all sense of reason 'in trance' and not only approached it unarmed, but stood there as its jaws came down on them, only to 'snap out of it' and react....well, naturally, quite viscerally.

An inhaled dose of a strong psychedelic drug could absolutely leave you dumbly walking into danger, mesmerized by the shifting rainbows of a dragon's scales. This base concept, that people under the influence will be seduced into bad decisions by bright colors, is what fuels the tie-dye and psychedelic music industries.

Mesmerake, when entrancing and exerting control over others, will shift colors, extend and flutter their fins, vocalize, and perhaps even do a sort of 'dance'. It is thus apparent that this ability is predominantly visual by nature, yet from reports given by those who survived facing or encountering a Mesmerake while being blinded in some way, it is apparent that Mesmerake vocalizations can do just fine on their own, with little to no decrease in hypnotic effectiveness overall.

The mesmerake does this to increase the amount of the drug present in the air around it. Coincidentally, it also captivates the eye of the affected beings. The 'vocalizations do fine' because the song isn't actually mediating the effect. As a result, both blind and deaf people would be susceptible.

The colors presented appear to influence the overall effect; but more study is needed. Blue, for example, appears to soothe and relax or viewers, but can also depress and detach viewers, while red, depending on the shade, can either energize and excite viewers or somehow grant Mesmerake an edge in battle, either by making the Mesmerake seem more powerful to viewers or by making the Mesmerake itself feel more powerful. Likewise, the tone and rhythm of Mesmerake vocalizations affect the mood of hearers.

Sensory input can have a huge effect on the type of trip you experience when under the influence. It also plays into the mixed depressant/stimulant effects, since the same drug (e.g, alcholol) can cause a huge array of emotions depending on subject and circumstance. The reason why 'more study is needed' is because these effects are psychological components, not chemical components, and thus, not easily reproducible.

Mesmerake hypnosis does not affect all people equally. Stubborn, self-possessed, or strong-willed individuals resist Mesmerake hypnosis, most zoning out until it becomes apparent something is wrong, while the most strong-willed or self-possessed people may feel detached, "off," or dreamy but will be capable of acting and reacting appropriately to the situation, albeit a bit slower than usual.

Drugs affect different people differently, and some people barely feel the effects at all. Tolerance is also different among people. Nuff said.

Mesmerake hypnosis is not just used to aid in catching and eating prey. This is a common misconception, one experienced adventurers are familiar with. Mesmerake can use their hypnosis to unnerve opponents, making them hesitant and less accurate in battle, as well as more likely to flee. They can also use their hypnosis to induce feelings of awe, making one hesitant to attack, to make them seem friendlier and less dangerous, or to make them seem weak and scared.

In fact, Mesmerake have been established to use their hypnosis to make people in isolated riverside towns or villages worship them, or be more compliant than people normally would be with a dragon.

Numerous studies have been done on the ability of drugs to induce deep religious experiences. Music has been found to contribute, as in the Marsh Chapel experiment.. Thus, religious cults springing up around lairs of these dragons make perfect sense.

And god knows my accuracy with a bow would go down if I was tripping out of my mind.

Besides auditory and visual cues, something else must be involved, as Mesmerake victims report feeling an urge or impression, or else hearing a very attractive and compelling voice, to act the way they did.

From the Survey of entity encounter experiences occasioned by inhaled N,N-dimethyltryptamine:

"The most common descriptive labels for the entity were being, guide, spirit, alien, and helper. Although 41% of respondents reported fear during the encounter, the most prominent emotions both in the respondent and attributed to the entity were love, kindness, and joy. Most respondents endorsed that the entity had the attributes of being conscious, intelligent, and benevolent, existed in some real but different dimension of reality, and continued to exist after the encounter. Respondents endorsed receiving a message (69%) or a prediction about the future (19%) from the experience. More than half of those who identified as atheist before the experience no longer identified as atheist afterwards."

Seems to match up pretty well. The dragon itself doesn't need to speak, it just needs the people perceiving it to associate their hallucinations with it speaking.

, different creatures have differently structured brains, and Mesmerake can affect a wide range of monsters, dragons, and sapient races, so this....likely isn't the way.

See above about serotonin agonists. Obviously, it would have different effects depending on the organism, but effecting a wide array is plausible. I addressed the pheromone effect above as well.

Some state that since magic is symbolic, Mesmerake are using their hypnosis to form a connection, and magic takes that connection and forges a spiritual bond, which Mesmerake use to influence others.

This I leave up to you, since I don't know enough about the rules of your magic. Maybe the dragon can manifest in the hallucinations, or influence which way they go. Maybe it can't. The nice thing about weird drug experiences is it's hard to tell what's you and what's the drug.

Magic is generally symbolic, but it has a logical basis. This magical ability is an expansion and/or enhancement of natural functions that naturally influence other lifeforms. The natural and magical functions are related, and the best answer will take that into account.

As noted, feel free to have magic accentuate or mediate any of these effects as you like. Maybe it increases the quantity of the drug in the air, or keeps it aloft. Maybe it manipulates the experiences of those affected by it. There's lots of places to slot it in.

Magic may be real here, but so is natural selection and development. This ability had to come from somewhere, and part of its origin lies in natural law, so please take those into account.

Natural organisms have developed psychoactive defenses countless times. No issue here.

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1. Acknowledged as a massive oversimplification

Answer 2

Victims of the mesmerake are suffering from various kinds of seizure, most notably absence seizures (or "petit mal" to use an older term). Not all victims will respond in the same way, but the underlying mechanism works on a range of different brains.

The basic technique is brainwave entrainment, whereby auditory or visual stimuli can cause certain brainwave patterns in the victim to sychronize with an external source. The right kind of stimulus in the right kind of brain can result in electrophysiological hypersynchronization, the classic example being photosensitive epilepsy.

Obviously, not all brains will respond to all signals. The trick that the mesmerake uses is a feedback loop that enables it to detect brainwave synchronization in a target and adjust its hypnotic display appropriately to amplify the effect. The way in which this sensing is performed is open to debate... maybe a suitable array of electromagnetic sensory nerves in its "wings" might make up a suitable sensor array, though this might only be sensitive enough to pick up muscle tremors at a distance and not brain activity. Perhaps magic in the trick is purely for passive sensing... the mesmerake can't read your mind, but it can feel the effects of its display on your brain.

The feedback-sensing process will be limited both in range and scale. A single isolated victim might be mesmerized quickly and at a distance, but when faced with larger groups or groups of mixed species then simpler but more general purposes displays (maybe innate, maybe learned by experimentation or taught by peers and parents) are used to blunt the ability of the group to effectively organise and fight back then focussed techniques are used to take out individuals.

Perhaps it is the case that electrical or magnetic stimulation of victims is also used, as well as audible and visible mechanisms, but this is likely to be much more limited in terms of range and subtlety... a changing electromagnetic field will affect the whole brain more or less equally, as opposed to the much more focussed effects on sound and sight processing portions of the brain.

from reports given by those who survived facing or encountering a Mesmerake while being blinded in some way, it is apparent that Mesmerake vocalizations can do just fine on their own, with little to no decrease in hypnotic effectiveness overall.

The effects of a purely auditory signal are inevitably going to be reduced compared to an audiovisual display which just has much higher bandwidth, so all else being equal you'd expect blinded people to be less effective.

However it should be noted that recently blinded people are already likely to be in a confused, disoriented and distressed state making them more susceptible to simpler techniques. Those who have been blinded for longer are likely to have a more developed sense of hearing, which can also mean a more developed auditory cortex at the expense of visual-processing parts of the brain that are no longer needed. Such people might be more vulnerable to the audible parts of the mesmerake's display.

Mesmerake hypnosis is not just used to aid in catching and eating prey

A sufficiently experienced and motivated mesmerake might conceivably be able to hone their talents and use them for more sophisticated purposes than "turn off human, eat human". Feelings of divine awe or ecstasy have been associated with epilepsy (for example, Spirituality and Religion in Epilepsy or The "sensed presence": an epileptic aura with religious overtones) and might well be drivers of mesmerake cult formation.

It is not necessarily the case that more complex and refined effects can be induced in just anyone... repeated exposures may be required in order for the mesmerake to learn the victims' responses and to tune its displays effectively. An individual might be able to safely visit a mesmerake cult without joining it, but they'd be wise not to revisit again too soon lest they fall under its spell.