When you start out with hypnosis it looks like a very complex and daunting task. There are a lot of things you need to know and learn and since it is basically a psychological process it is not an exact science.
Most people who start to study entertainment hypnosis will not progress to the next level. Often withheld by the fear of failure. Many starting hypnotists have done a few attempts with their friends, when they are lucky their friend is a great subject when you’re not lucky your friend is not and you get insecure and your stop.
I have researched suggestion and stage hypnosis in depth and I have taken the most important elements that make for a good ‘hypnotic’ process. A good ‘hypnotic’ process consists out of 7 very simple steps.
- Raising expectation
- Pre-Talk
- Selection
- Induction*
- Deepening
- Skits
- Awakening
Any good hypnosis demonstration consists of these 7 steps.
You will notice I have put an asterisk (*) at Induction. In my opinion too many hypnotists stare blindly on inductions. In my opinion (as a none-state theorist) this is the least important step; After all when your subjects are all primed and ready to go a mere tap on their forehead with the word ‘SLEEP’ or ‘DOWN’ will send them off. Actual proof that there’s not really such a thing as an induction on itself. Any induction will falter when you did not go through steps 1 to 3 before hand – with the exception of people that have experienced hypnosis before.
I will briefly describe what each step is and needs, for more details I advice you to go to Lulu.com and buy my book Stage and Street Hypnosis by Raymond Doetjes.
Raising Expectation
Any suggestion is strengthened with expectation; to me hypnosis is nothing more than a mother of all suggestions. So I want my victims to anticipate it. Either I want them to worry or fear it a bit — fear in the sense of standing in the line for a Rollercoaster and knowing that your safe but you do feel on edge. Expectation comes in different forms: worry, fear, amazement and wonder… Anything that you can do to raise this in your subjects will increase the likelihood of them going with you on this journey. Simple words like: “You’ve never been hypnotized? Really… You know it’s amazing! The things that you can achieve in that deeply relaxed state are uncanny.” Or you can tease them by saying: “Going into hypnosis is very easy. Most people avoid looking at my eyes but the things is I can hypnotize them simply by talking or even touching them. They will often wonder whether they are already in hypnosis or not, when they ask themselves this they are already deep away.” On an actual stage you can play, eerie music raising the tension. You can have spot lights light the stage ominously pulsing as they await your presence.
Pre-Talk
You raised expectation and certain amount of tension (fear) is good it makes people comply more but too much fear and tension will work against you. A good pre-talk should get rid of the ideas that you can get stuck in hypnosis, that you will do anything against your will, that you are a complete zombie and that you don’t know what is going on. That hypnosis is a process of guided mediation where you simply point the way and that they have the choice to follow these directions and go deep into trance now, or ignore them and to not go deep in a trance now. During my pre-talks I already use “analogue marking” of commands. I will often say in a commanding tone:
“To GO IN HYPNOSIS is a very normal thing to do. We all GO INTO A HYPNOTIC TRANCE, at least 7 times a day. Of which twice you go deep into hypnosis just before you go TO SLEEP and just before you wake up from your SLEEP. And when you volunteer here tonight, you will sit on these chairs behind me and you will GO DEEP INTO TRANCE and you will experience the best wonderful amazing time of your live because these seats are the best seats in the house.”
The fact that I already speak in my “hypnotic” demanding voice will already condition people to it. It doesn’t matter when people consciously pick up on it because they think you are already hypnotizing people and that raises more expectation.
Selection
This is the most important step and the biggest secret of our trade! Not everybody is a good compliant subject. Only 10% of the people are “somnambulists” or “extreme compliant individuals”. You want them to volunteer for your demonstrations or you want to ambush them for you demonstrations. Doing suggestibility tests does the selection process. There are three types of suggestibility tests: automatic, semi-automatic or suggestion based. Magnetic fingers, is an automatic test, those fingers will move together in most people automatically.
However suggesting that this will happen in your demanding hypnotic voice primes people to believe that what you say happens. I hate this test because it has been debunked too many times here in NL. When the volunteers catch you of trickery at this stage you will have lost the show! Magnetic palms, is a semi-automatic test. The suggestion of moving arms together triggers a ideomotor response (tiny involuntary signals) by stretching your arms you put tension on it and you amplify these tiny movements. Seeing these movements (amplified) is often enough for people to comply an follow.
The moving apart of the arms is actually an automatic process, letting go of the strain will repel those arms apart. So this is a very good initial test. The heavy and light arm is a great semi-automatic test as well, the moving up is suggested the moving down happens automatically in most people. The suggestion based tests, are sticking hands together, talking people to fall back in their chairs, suggesting that they are stuck to their chairs.
So you want to start with automatic or semi-automatic tests and then move into the suggestion based tests. People who will be “stuck in their chair” or hands are stuck those you will select or keep. The others dismiss them.
Stage hypnosis is a numbers game! The bigger your audience the easier it is to find great subjects. Psychologically its counter intuitive but performing before 1000 people is so much easier than performing for only 10 people!
Induction
by now these people are already conditioned to follow you and the induction is nothing more as an official starting point for them. You will notice that perhaps 1 or 2 will not comply perfectly and you can dismiss them but from this stage you should simply relax. Every thing is under control!
It is of importance that when you do a stage show that you make your selection, induction and deepening process entertaining. So many people have their victims stare at a point and talk for 10-15 minutes. I combine suggestions like letting people fall backwards in their seats. The ones that remain standing will get an arm pull or any other rapid induction. Or I use the backwards drop several times. I start by actually touching them and then I do the ‘pulling back’ without actually touching them. This is entertainment and is awe-inspiring for the audience. Bear in mind you are a performer so perform; make it cool to watch.
Deepening
this is a process of “making the state stronger or deeper”. Actually this is the process to condition them better to follow your suggestions. You want to see when you say: “Take a deep breath in.” Who follows this directly and “let go….. of all the stress and sorrows of the day and inhale…. Relaxation.”
Skits
in my book I have some of my skits written out letter for letter and then followed by other skits I did. What is important is to build up your skits. Start with simple things that everybody participates in. Like pretending to “Wax on and wax off”, of “Swatting flies”, or stroking your favourite animal. The fact of doing things together makes it “okay” to do weird things. Believe it or not but the people know during the process what they are doing! Shared pain is half the pain as they say, also peer pressure is a psychological thought behind this. Watch out for those people who are the most extroverted.
You will use them in your first skit and you will team them up with someone else who’s not that outgoing. It will suggest and show to the others that its okay and that they are not making a fool of themselves and that it’s all good fun. The extrovert can often loosen up the more reserved people. The first 3 to 4 skits are a psychological game to build up compliance and comfort of ‘acting’ on stage for the audience. Basically those first few skits are there to make the people who are not extroverts become comfortable and at ease.
Awakening
Well that’s simple just do a count back. However when you perform for larger groups you want to wave away an liability lawsuits. So its important to use the following words in a public show: “At the count of 1 you will open your eyes and you are the exact same person that you was before you entered this room.
All the suggestions given tonight are gone from your mind and you are the exact same person that you were before you entered this room. 5…4… feel that energy rush from the floor into your body, feeling more and more aware… 3… more and more aware of your surrounding more and more aware….2 feel that revitaising energy rush through your body, feeling happy feeling wonderful, feeling healthy feeling powerful! And at the count of one you will open your eyes feeling fit and wide awake and you are the exact same person that you were before you entered this room and all of the suggestions are gone… 1 Eyes open feeling wonderful and awake, give these stars of the night a wonderful applause!”
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