Are Buddhists hypnotists? Are Buddhists hypnotists?

I'm being a little facetious, but not entirely. Hypnotism is a strange mental phenomena, and I wondered how much interaction, in any tradition, is based in similar mental phenomena, to hypnotism. I have no theory, about how that might involve rebirth, or the annulment of annihilationism (which I cling to a little).
The simplest answer to this question, while not being informative would be to say 'Yes'. Buddhism covers many traditions, many cultures, over thousands of years, and some of those traditions have methods of meditation which are strongly related to a self-induced hypnosis.  

However modern hypnosis has gone it's own way and it's not fair to say that the one is 'the same' as the other - but merely that there are overlapping areas of interest.

Of course, on the other hand, the answer is a definite 'No'.  The purposes of Buddhism and Hypnotism are completely distinct, and therefore regardless of the similarity of some methods of induction, they are heterogenous.

Within some of the Himalayan traditions, there are powerful methods of inducing particularly rarified states of consciousness which the hypnosis community is not yet found a way to tap into - probably because the training is too severe.  Hypnosis is primarily a profession - so the motive is generally money (or fame, or renown) - which, because they are derived from a worldview that is faulty, cannot act as serviceable motives for deeper training.