So by now if you’ve been following the previous lessons you should know how to give a good pretalk, prime someone for hypnosis, and how to instantly put them in trance and safely emerge them.
It’s now time to learn about what you do with your subjects once you have them in trance.
This is the part which most people call ‘suggestion giving.’
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On this audio lesson and on several others to come we will be exploring what you can do with your subjects once you have them in trance, and on this lesson specifically you and i will be exploring the incredible world of hypnotic phenomena.
I would like to issue a warning with this lesson. There is a HUGE amount of information, tips, examples, techniques and demonstrations here in this one audio lesson. Consciously you may find it appears slightly haphazard or disorganized, rest assured though the information you are receiving is pure gold, presented in the exact same format you would receive it if you were with me, face to face. As i am a conversational hypnotist and have trained with the best conversational hypnotists around i understand the way the unconscious mind learns, so do not be too surprised when you find yourself easily having an intuitive grasp of everything that you learn here, and of course, if you need anything cleared up or explained further, please use the forums, and I’ll be delighted to answer your questions.
Hypnotic Phenomena is a broad, deep and incredibly powerful area of hypnosis, so this is a long and information packed lesson. Grab yourself your favorite drink (non alcoholic please, if you’re under age ,make sure you wont be disturbed for the next while, get comfy, and enjoy learning how to master the secrets of hypnotic phenomena.
Hypnotic Phenomena Summary:
Catalepsy: Muscles being balanced in such a way that they can rest comfortably in one position for an extended period of time, or an inability to move a particular muscle group. Experienced often in everyday life particularly when you are very sleepy and relaxed or have been immobile for a long time.
When doing hypnosis it is often powerful to use hypnotic imagery, ie that of glue etc, to ‘stick’ someone to something, this is a very powerful use of catalepsy, but be sure to unstick people afterwards! It’s useful to move from this and build into more advanced phenomena, and, like all phenomena, as a metaphor or gateway for change.
Amnesia: Hypnotic forgetting, experienced in normal life as the ‘tip of the tongue’ phenomenon. Often used to have people forget names or used with visual imagery to ‘delete’ a number ‘the numbers 1 and 3 are so close together there simply is not room for another number.’ Again this is very powerful, entertaining and inspiring when framed correctly, but be sure to give all names, numbers and everything back immediately afterwards!
Anesthesia / Analgesia: ‘The sensation of no sensation’ or the inability to feel pain. Happens in regular life when we are distracted or full of adrenalin, e.g. playing sports, or when numbed, ie with ice or a cold drink. Often wise to elicit using expectation, ie when i X you will Y… When testing for this be sure you are gentle and safe, do not do anything which could possibly cause any harm or damage.
Ideomotive Movement: Automatic movement, happens all the time in real life when we subconsciously scratch our nose, shake hands, twitch etc. Often elicited using a combination of imagery and metaphors, such as arm levitation using the imagery of lifting balloons and direct suggestion. Also very useful for information gathering and hypnotic questioning.
Hallucinations: Perhaps the most powerful of all hypnotic phenomena.
Positive hallucination: seeing something which is not in fact there, have them develop the feel and sound of the thing first, to ensure it is more real when they open their eyes and see it.
Negative Hallucination: not seeing something which is there. Happens often in life when searching for something, looking right at it, and not seeing it. Use this or another example of it natural occurring as your reference experience when eliciting negative hallucinations. Many hypnotists enjoy becoming invisible… be sure, of course, to return everything to normal afterwards, this is crucial and cannot be overlooked!
Be sure to use everything here safely, carefully, ethically and judiciously. Be ethical and take care and you’ll find yourself having tremendous fun and many spectacular experiences
I remember one occasion when a friend asked me to hypnotize him in class. The teachers was a bit slack, and the class was incredibly noisy, students shouting and yelling, a typical high school war zone. My subjects friends were less than helpful and seemed to take it upon themselves to be as distracting as possible. With one of my hands i was making sure my subject didn’t fall right out of his chair, and with the other i was making sure his friends didn’t kick him too hard under the desk.
Lets face it, teenagers are not always the most mature crowds, so when you are doing hypnosis in public or in any other noisy and distracting environment it will hugely benefit you to learn how to incorporate these distractions into yours hypnosis and how to ensure that no matter where you are or what’s happening around you, your subject just goes deeper and deeper.
It is for this reason that I am very grateful that 26 year old Clinical Hypnotist Joshua Houghton has created for us a special podcast recording on how to gaurd against noises and distractions when doing hypnosis.
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When doing hypnosis is is crucial that your suggestions stick. A huge number of new teenage hypnotists have the trouble that they put someone in trance, give them a suggestion, ie your hand is stuck to the table, and it does not work.
I remember one occasion when I first started, i had a friend of mine in trance, and had i gave him the suggestion that ‘you are glued to the chair, you cannot stand up’ several people were watching, and as i gave him this suggestion i was nervous and worried, i really wanted him to respond, but i didn’t expect him too. Not surprisingly looking back the moment i asked him to try in vain’ to stand up, he stood up, and i was embarrassed and annoyed. Now on occasion even the best hypnotists have things go wrong, but back then this was happening at least half the time, which was not good!
I eventually learned the ‘secrets’ of making your suggestions stick, and hypnosis suddenly became a whole lot more fun and less daunting. To help you learn these ‘secrets’ the easy way our friend and community mentor Joshua Houghton has created for us this special and exclusive podcast on how to ensure that your suggestions stick.
What you will learn here will make everything you do with hypnosis so much easier and more effective and will dramatically increase your success rate.
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This is fun! This is where you learn how to easily, quickly and effectively put people in deep hypnotic trances!
I have an extra special lesson for you today, people have written books and made entire DVD sets and taught complete multi day seminars just on hypnotic inductions, and so you are going to be learning a HUGE amount right now!
This lesson will use both written and video components to make sure you easily master the incredible power of hypnotic induction. Before we leap right into the techniques, it’s very important for you to know exactly WHY and HOW these hypnotic inductions work, and why we as hypnotists use them.
The induction is where you ‘put’ your subject into a state of Trance. In this trance state their critical faculties become less engaged in what you are saying, and the subconscious mind becomes more open and receptive to the ideas and suggestions which you present (a state often called hyper suggestibility, often to the point where everything tell them instantly becomes their complete and total reality).
In this Trance state the subjects will typically experience relaxation, but this is merely a bi product, trance is NOT relaxation.Also, your subjects will also typically be fully aware of everything around them, and tend to remember nearly everything that happened, unless you should suggest otherwise.
Many hypnotists use long verbal inductions which take 10, 15 or even over 20 minutes, such as progressive relaxation inductions, i tend to prefer the Instant and Rapid inductions, which take just a few seconds and are fast, fun, powerful and at least as effective.
Now thats the background out of the way, lets get right onto how to do it.
I am now going to show you a video demonstration of several instant and rapid inductions, i’ll then explain what the techniques are, and how you can begin using them immediately! Virtually all the inductions i am going to show you use a combination of the following hypnotic elements, known as Charles Tebbetts’ Six Induction Types. These techniques are the crucial building blocks the nearly all hypnotic inductions, and will become essential knowledge for you as you learn and grow as a hypnotist.
Eye Fixation
When you fixate your gaze upon something long enough there is a natural tendency to begin to ‘trance out’
Fatigue of The Nervous System.
Physical and Mental fatigue
Physical and mental fatigue also cause a lessening of the focus of the critical mind, and an increased tendency to accept suggestions, this is often interpreted as relaxation.
Confusion
If you can confuse someone enough they will instantly accept any suggestion which offers a way to escape this confusion, AKA confusion causes hyper suggestibility (trance).
Misdirection
If their conscious attention is focused elsewhere it gives you a perfect opportunity to slip suggestions straight into the unconscious.
Loss of Equilibrium
When you’re off balance your state of mind tends to change, which very often lowers your ability to consciously process and reject suggestions.
Shock
Immediately after a shock there is split second of perfect suggestibility as their mind scrambles to make sense of what is going on. This is an ideal opportunity to slip in a short, sharp and clear suggestion, eg “sleep!” (hypnosis is not sleep, however the states share some similarities, so Sleep is a highly effective command for inducing trance)
See which of the above you can spot as you watch this video of me demonstrating some of these techniques….
The first instant induction in that video was the Cerbone Butterfly Induction, invented by the spectacular hypnotist John Cerbone who is a community mentor here at the IATH (you’ll see him at the forums very soon!)
Notice how the fingers in front of the face cause eye fixation, the hand moving his arm causes kinesthetic confusion and encourages relaxation, and the twisting of the waggly fingers hand brings the subject to a position where he experiences loss of equilibrium. Then it is a simple matter of a firm but soft jerk of the arm to create shock, and the command sleep.
The next induction you saw was a very simple arm drop induction. The words that i used were “Press down on my hand, close your eyes, (move your hand away) and then sleep!.
This is a very simple shock induction. When you suddenly pull your hand away it creates both shock and loss of equilibrium, so that when you firmly command Sleep! a split second after you pull your hand away they instantly drop right down into trance.
A few pointers with this induction: When they first press down on your hand lift up against theirs, this causes them to push down harder, and therefore increases their focus on that part of the body, and the shock that follows.
After that you will see the Cerbone Finger Vacuum. This is a simple eye fixation and shock induction, which i am sure you can figure out.
Next i use an arm catalepsy induction. This induction is a huge favorite of mine, and i plan to talk a lot about it in future lessons, for now notice a few things, firstly that they are in trance the moment they realize that their arm is unbendable, next is that i used the word ‘trance’ after the shock, rather than sleep, which goes to show that you can be flexible in your word choice.
Finally i use a handshake induction. By interrupting the unconscious pattern of a handshake with a sudden jerk i create confusion and shock, which when followed by a simple Sleep suggestion causes immediate trance.
Instant and Rapid Induction Essentials
You have learned several techniques in this lesson, and i hope that when you realize how incredibly simple and easy instant hypnotic inductions really are that you will begin using them all the time, and experimenting with your own techniques and variations.
There are Four crucial things you need to understand before we get started.
The first is Confidence and Congruence.
When doing these techniques you need to appear as confident and in control as possible. Remember you are The Hypnotist, whether this is your first instant induction or your 500th and no matter how nervous you may be feeling on the inside you need to act as confident as possible.
The subject will pick up on exactly how confident you are, and if you don’t seem to expect it to work, it almost definitely won’t.
So have fun, be confident and have a firm belief in your own ability to hypnotize.
The best way to get this confidence is through experience, so get out there and do it! Sure there will be the times when it just won’t work (happens to the best of us!) but these are valuable learning experiences, take them in your stride, move on, and keep hypnotizing!
When looking at past failures of mine the missing ingredient is nearly always rapport.
This is basically just a sense of trust and liking between you and your subject, now this will also be discussed in great depth in future lessons, but for now just project a sense of trust, liking and good will towards your subject.
Know that you are doing something good for them, and through your non verbal behaviors they will unconsciously pick up on this, and be much more inclined to follow your suggestion.
Thirdly we have deepeners.
You’ll notice that after every induction i said something else that was intended to deepen the state. It is important that you become fluid and skilled with your deepeners, as they are crucial for ensuring that your subjects stay in trance, and do not jerk right out immediately after the induction.
Begin your deepening patter immediately afterwards. In your deepener you make it clear to the subject that they are doing fine, everything is going perfectly, and that now they are going to go down into an even more profound state of trance.
Have a look at the examples on the video, and use your own, even something as simple as “…Sleep!… now i am going to count from 3 to 0 and when i reach 0 you will be 50 times deeper, thats right your are doing wonderfully, now just relax as we go from 3, all the way down now, 2, you are doing brilliantly, 1 relaxing more and more, and 0, 50 times deeper” will work fine. Watch the video again experiment and see what kind of deepeners tend to suit you better.
The final thing is… awakening!
The last thing we want is you rushing out after this lesson, hypnotizing a dozen people, and having no clue how to return them to a normal state of consciousness.
Fortunately emerging people from the ‘trance’ state is very easy, it just takes a simple suggestion which gives them time to reorient themselves to normal consciousness, for example ‘i am now going to count from 1 to 3, when i reach three you will be fully awake, fully alert and fully aware, everything becoming back to normal and you feeling wonderful, happy calm and free, 1, 2 3′
I always like to throw in as many positive feel good and become more successful style suggestions as possible, whether as part of the awakening or throughout the normal hypnotic process. This not only makes them feel wonderful, but is also makes it much easier to get more eager volunteers when your subjects emerge feeling better than they have ever felt before! Also be sure to undo any non beneficial changes that you did to them during the trance, ie if you made them feel happy and be better at focusing in class, suggest that that will stay with them, but if you made them forget their name, be sure to give it back! (this will be explored in greater depth in other lessons).
Now go for it, you now know absolutely everything you need to begin hypnotizing people immediately, so get out there and do it! I’ll see you on the next lesson where we learn how to powerfully and spectacularly utilize this trance state for amazing hypnotic results, and form irrepressibly suggestions which will deeply and profoundly influence the subconscious minds you whoever you please. until then, keep trancing!
By now you should have a good idea of what hypnosis is, and be keen for the practical real world training to begin. I am happy to say that it starts now with your very first lesson, How To Create Spelling Binding Hypnotic Pretalks.
A pretalk is what you sometimes do before the actual hypnosis starts, and is regarded by many to be the first step in the hypnotic process.
Now i could make a 2 hour DVD just on the pretalk itself, so in this lesson i have included only the essentials.What you will learn in this lesson will not only teach you how to do a pretalk which prepares your subject for hypnosis and dispels their fears and misconceptions, but also how to use stories and presuppositions to prime your subject for hypnosis, thereby stacking the odds in your favour and almost guaranteeing hypnotic success.
Listen to your lesson now by clicking the play button below:
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Summary:
Be sure to remove their fears and misconceptions, these are typically that: not everyone can be hypnotized, they may get stuck in hypnosis, and that the hypnotist can control them. It may help to explain to them that hypnosis is a natural state of mind that everyone experiences by themselves each day, ie daydreaming, ‘zoning out’ highway hypnosis.
Tell Stories and use presuppositions (when you go into hypnosis…) which send the message that they are going to be hypnotized easily, it will be a spectacular and wonderful experience for them, and that it will work perfectly.
Be The Hypnotist! From the moment you start talking about hypnosis you are the hypnotist, so make sure you act like it, appear confident and in control and have fun amazing yourself with what you can do!
You do not have to use pretalks, if you are confident and congruent enough you will often be fine without any pretalk at all.
Welcome to the very first lesson as part of the IATH, in this lesson we look at the real basics, basically where i answer all the ‘what is…’ questions. If you are a real beginner you may be feeling a little bit overwhelmed, you have just discovered this wonderful new world of hypnosis, you are curious and you want to learn as much as you can as fast as possible, and you have definitely found that the IATH is the ideal place to be.
This lesson will help you figure out whats what, and allow you to get a solid footing before we move on and look at how to do hypnosis. This lesson is particularly short, and is basically here to help you out if you are a real beginner, for our more experienced members please feel free to skip right to Lesson 2 where we will look at how to make our hypnotic pretalks powerful, persuasive and positively irresistible…
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For some further reading on understanding hypnosis and how to master and learn hypnosis, feel free to check out:
Basically any process of powerfully influencing the subconscious minds of those you are communicating with.
What is Direct Hypnosis?
Hypnosis based on very literal, straight forward suggestions, eg Dave Elman and many stage hypnotists.
What is Indirect Hypnosis?
Hypnosis based more on metaphor and subtle multi level communications, eg Milton Erickson and Ericksonian hypnotists.
What is Street Hypnosis?
Doing hypnosis totally impromptu out in the real world to amaze, entertain and inspire.
What Is NLP [Neuro Linguistic Programming]?
Finding out how the best hypnotists (and other people too) in the world do what they do and breaking down their methods into a collection of techniques and models.
,make sure you wont be disturbed for the next while, get comfy, and enjoy learning how to master the secrets of hypnotic phenomena.