I always welcome good discussions on the art and science of hypnosis and the performing of (entertainment) stage hypnosis, I think the clarification Danny eludes to is this is a HYPNOSIS forum for the "Serious discussions on the art and practice of Hypnosis." It is NOT about tricks or effects (as the OP referred to in his first sentence) which are simply magic, deception, illusion, etc.

Trick and effects attempting to be passed of as "hypnosis" are only as good as the presentation and performance skills of the magician AND the believability to the audience - something that most magicians miss or don't understand and that rarely passes the test. A real trained and skilled hypnotist will typically have a low failure rate due to their knowledge and execution of the science of hypnosis and the acceptance of hypnosis by the audience. Two different things.

My question has always been why pretend to be doing hypnosis and fail and be seen an unbelievable when one could simply commit to learning hypnosis? The answer is magicians are always looking for plug and play "tricks" that can easily and quickly be learned, whereas learning a skill and gaining experience requires much more time, effort, understanding, and investment than many magicians are up for or willing to commit.

It is ridiculous to pretend psychic surgery is hypnosis in any form. It is a can plain and simple. Raising it to the level of serious discussion anywhere except a con artist forum is not going to happen with me.

I’ll admit there is painfully little out there to actually teach hypnosis. The glut of material offered is nonsense and unhelpful and worse misleading and flat out wrong. Any fool who could fog a dressing room mirror in post prom season put out their own course. And everyone who bought them I feel sorry for. Most were magicians who couldn’t find with. So they decided to be mentalist. Couldn’t be mentalist so they decided they wanted to be hypnotists. The lucky ones manage to work post proms. Heck you could do that hurt much training at all! Then they produce a course to show their inexperience.

So you end up with is a lot of people with “common knowledge” that is absolutely wrong. Odds are most learned from people with no experience themselves. The blind leading the blind.

So you end up with people who think psychic surgery is hypnosis or guys who think things are hypnosis that are not because in these course guys sole internet is to sell courses. So ANYTHING is hypnosis. It is impossible to get people out of this paradigm because they paid for the information so it must be right. We see it here all the time. It was in a course so it is right.

So it is easier not to discuss when this pops up.

Thank you Mindpro. I do agree. I know that when I was first introduced to using "hypnosis", it opened the door for further investigation and study for me.

I think that when tricks are presented as 'it looks like it, but it isn't', without any basic knowledge of what is being imitated, really is a detriment. The original post about the hands not sticking, again, it is/was probably sold with the same verbiage of 'It's not but looks like it is'. Perhaps there are some investigative materials you could suggest for basic understanding, or is that disregarded when presenting entertainment hypnosis?

The problem with performance hypnosis, and this is a problem with magicians as well as actual beginning hypnotists, is there are two main factors that must be considered and executed at the same time which is 1.) the hypnosis itself, and 2.) the performance and entertainment factor utilizing/with the hypnosis.

So many hypnotists are not entertaining, as they expect and rely on most of the entertainment factor to come from the subjects that are hypnotized themselves. The hypnotist is just the emcee. The first key to being a good entertainment hypnotist is first being entertaining yourself - your personality, relatability, connection and rapport, stagecraft, control, and so many other performance elements. Then, and only then, should any hypnosis and the proper use and execution be applied. Routines are then created with all of this in place.

One must also remember there are two different performances going on at one time during a hypnosis show - 1.) the one that the onstage subjects are seeing and experiencing, and 2.) the one that the audience is seeing and experiencing. The key to being a good performing hypnotist is understanding these (and so many more things) and knowing how to combine all of these elements working together in concert to create the dynamics of the best hypnosis show possible.

All of this along with other important and crucial elements including safety must be practiced in all elements at all times.

Of course none of this is anywhere close to being involved in magic's use of pretend hypnosis.

Thank you. That brings much into perspective. I am sure you have said the same in past posts, but this time I grasp what you and Danny have said over the years. I thank you both.

To paraphrase Franco Colombo, “everyone wants to be a buddy builder, nobody wants to lift the weights”.

It seems people just want to know and don’t want to go through the learning process because it is difficult and long. Put in the time!

It is not necessarily the new students fault. They read it from someone who is an “authority” because they put out a stupid course and the student thinks they actually know something. I don’t have a solution to the problem of idiots training the gullible. I really don’t. I guess it use buyer beware.

But look at who exactly the “expert” are. How long have they done it and on what level? How many actual shows have they done that are not post proms? You’re going to find out most of them are posing and nothing more.

Is there good material out there? Maybe. I really stopped even checking because it was all the same nonsense.

Here is the dirty little secret of entertainment hypnosis. It isn’t about being a hypnotist. It is about being entertaining without embarrassing your subjects. Have dinner with Terry Stokes some time. (If you haven’t, I highly recommend this activity!) He is one of the most engaging people you will ever meet. Just fun to chat with and that is off stage. On stage even more so. Terry is also one of the most professional parole you ever encounter. He worked for me in Mexico and he made it happen.

Terry has put in the decades to know what he is talking about.

So if you actually want to be a hypnotist on any level beyond doing post proms for a month find an actual working hypnotist and figure out how to compensate him for what he knows. Shadow him for a year or two. Yes that king. Put in the heavy lifting.

Or just buy a course or attend a weekend training. I’m sure it’s the same thing.

Hi Chris,

Sorry you couldn't find what you were looking for here. The only thing I can advise you to do is use the search function. There is a good thread in there with a recommendation of a well known mentalist that has a series of books on Pseudo Hypnotism effects.