The Buddha's power of attraction is similar to hypnosis

The story of Yongshe committing grave offenses and awakening to the unborn is about how, after the Bodhisattva Yongshe left home and received the full precepts, he violated two grave precepts—the killing precept and the sexual misconduct precept—and upon death should have fallen into hell to suffer. Because he feared his karmic retribution, he went to seek rescue from Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva, who led him to see the Buddha. The Buddha then analyzed for Bodhisattva Yongshe: whether there truly existed such a person as the monk Yongshe, whether there truly existed the person whom the monk Yongshe had killed, and whether there truly existed such an event as the killing. After the Bodhisattva Yongshe contemplated this on the spot, he immediately awakened to his true mind and became a true bodhisattva—not merely eliminating self-view and realizing the first fruit. The Bodhisattva Yongshe was extremely fortunate to meet the Buddha: not only did he not fall into hell, he also attained realization and became a bodhisattva, with all karmic deeds of the three evil destinies expiated.

When the World-Honored One explained the principle of the unborn to Bodhisattva Yongshe, He was using the method of hypnosis. At that time, Bodhisattva Yongshe was in extreme panic, fear, and shame, his mind in utter confusion, yet the Buddha was able to stabilize his state of mind and guide him to contemplate the selflessness of persons, guiding him to contemplate the agent behind the actions. In the end, the manas of Bodhisattva Yongshe confirmed the principle of selflessness, realized the agent, and thus both eliminated self-view and awakened to the true mind. What great roots of goodness and merit it would take to meet the Buddha and have Him perform hypnosis on you! We should all cultivate more merit, so that in the future, when we meet the Buddha and He performs hypnosis on us, we can become bhūmi bodhisattvas and become noble ones.

There is also the passage in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra where the World-Honored One unties the mental knots of King Ajātaśatru; the portion on eliminating self-view that He taught there is quite excellent. After King Ajātaśatru killed his father, he underwent his retribution and was deeply unsettled inside. When he saw the Buddha, the Buddha dissolved his karmic obstructions and asked King Ajātaśatru: Does your father truly exist as a person? Do you truly exist? Does the event of killing your father truly exist? After hearing this, King Ajātaśatru contemplated and said no. He then attained rootless faith, but did not realize the first fruit or enter the first fruit—this was because the karmic obstruction of killing his father blocked him.

This is also the method of hypnosis the Buddha used for sentient beings, and only those with merit can encounter it. Therefore, merit is extremely, extremely important. Some people only care about themselves and are unwilling to cultivate merit—one word for them: foolish!