Intelligent, imaginative people are easier to hypnotise than weak-minded, dull people. Why? Because dull people lack the inability to focus.
One of my instructors said that it's easier to hypnotise people who watch Star Wars than those who watch soaps, because they have more imagination. I think he was probably right.
But hypnosis took an enormous turn during the second half of the 20th century following the work of American physician, Milton Erickson and a modern hypnotist is likely to behave less like Svengali dominating Trilby than somebody sitting, chatting with you. It's still heightened suggestion, but delivered much more subtly than the methods used by Dr James Braid's disciples.
But Erickson's method led to the further development of NLP (Google it) and that, as useful as it is, is dangerous in the hands of, say, a demagogue.
I like your comparison to a Jedi mind trick. I'm sure Yoda would be a wonderful hypnotist.
