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If you're planning on using hypnosis professionally or for fun, the Katterfelto 1-Day hypnosis course will teach you everything you need to know before you shell out £££Hundreds on courses and certificates.

Hypnotherapy courses, and professional stage hynosis courses are extremely expensive and not necessarily useful for magicians. Books and DVDs are a cheaper optiion but don't give you practical experience of hypnotising subjects.

To launch the Mind Control issue of Katterfelto I'm offering a strictly limited number the opportunity to learn hypnosis from professionals in a comfortable classroom setting in South Kensington, London. See website for more details:

http://katterfelto.com

One day? To teach "everything"?

Best of luck.

One day? To teach "everything"?

I have to admit, that was my first thought at first.

mark lewis wrote:One day? To teach "everything"?

Best of luck.

Not one day to teach "everything" ... but one day to teach "everything you need to know before you shell out £££Hundreds on courses and certificates."

The 'before' was even emphasized.

Jolly good. I accept your explanation. I shall even add to it. I only want to help out.

The very first thing you need to know before you shell out money on courses is that hypnotism is a load of bunk. There. That should save you all a lot of study about dissociation, trance confabulation and all the other guff.

Don't take my word for it. Take the word of Dr Graham Wagstaff a learned psychologist who has been saying this for years.

Mark, out of curiosity, what do you claim to perform then? I'm sure your website offers hypnosis days?

It sounds like an attack or a challenge, but it's really not, I am genuinely curious.

mark lewis wrote:Jolly good. I accept your explanation. I shall even add to it. I only want to help out.

The very first thing you need to know before you shell out money on courses is that hypnotism is a load of bunk. There. That should save you all a lot of study about dissociation, trance confabulation and all the other guff.

Don't take my word for it. Take the word of Dr Graham Wagstaff a learned psychologist who has been saying this for years.

Wagstaff has not been saying "hypnotism is bunk" for years - people who think something is bunk tend not to spend a lot of time studying it. What he has dismissed, after careful study, are many of the claims made about hypnosis. Anyone who dismisses hypnotism, in itself, as "bunk" in the face of overwhelming evidence of its therapeutic application alone is probably someone who just likes having 'opinions' rather that someone intellectually interested in the subject. Wagstaff is in the latter group.

If anyone is interested in the opinions of learned psychologists the following may be interesting:

In 2001 the BPS published a report entitled The Nature of Hypnosis. It is available on the internet. What is immediately notable is that the report opens with: Hypnosis is a valid subject for scientific study and research a proven therapeutic medium.

Some interesting quotes from the report include:

"There is convincing evidence that hypnotic procedures are effective in the management and relief of both acute and
chronic pain and in assisting in the alleviation of pain, discomfort and distress due to medical and dental procedures."

"Hypnosis and the practice of self-hypnosis may significantly reduce general anxiety, tension and stress in a manner similar to other relaxation and self-regulation procedures (Schoenberger, 2000). Likewise, hypnotic treatment may assist in insomnia in the same way as other relaxation methods (Anderson, Dalton & Basker, 1979; Stanton, 1989)."

"There is encouraging evidence demonstrating the beneficial effects of hypnotherapeutic procedures in alleviating the symptoms of a range of complaints that fall under the heading ‘psychosomatic illness’. These include tension headaches and migraine (Alladin, 1988; Holroyd & Penzien, 1990; ter Kuile et al., 1994); asthma (see review of clinical studies by Hackman, Stern & Gershwin, 2000); gastro-intestinal complaints such as irritable bowel syndrome (Galovski & Blanchard,1998; Harvey et al., 1989; Whorwell, Prior, & Colgan, 1987; Whorwell, Prior & Faragher, 1984); warts (DuBreuil & Spanos,1993); and possibly other skin complaints such as eczema, psoriasis and urticaria (Shertzer & Lookingbill, 1987; Stewart & Thomas, 1995; Zachariae et al., 1996)."

"Hypnosis is probably at least as effective as other common methods of helping people to stop smoking (see review by
Green & Lynn, 2000)."

There is an enormous amount of guff & bunkum in what passes for hypnosis - this course is designed for anyone who is interested in sorting fact from fiction and learning what can be genuinely achieved from hypnosis, whether on the stage or in the therapy room.

I wouldn't bother trying to engage Mr Lewis in a reasoned discussion about hypnosis, much less convince him of anything.

There's a good review of the day here.

Hmmm... I initially suspected that this was just a way to plug more expensive courses. But based on the Magic Bunny feedback, I might have to consider going along. Bummer.

Tomo wrote:I wouldn't bother trying to engage Mr Lewis in a reasoned discussion about hypnosis, much less convince him of anything.

There's a good review of the day here.

Tomo, you're talking about a different day. The Katterfelto day is an indepth, small class, paid for event. Anthony's day is has bigger numbers and is free.

As I said hypnosis is BUNK. I don't give a stuff what that silly report says. It was not written by MARK LEWIS. The author has never had to lie, cheat and steal for a living and has led a sheltered life.

I am a very busy man and have no time to explain the matter until later. For the moment I shall simply say that I was told that it was a load of baloney by one of the greatest stage hypnotists of the twentieth century. Good enough for me and it should be good enough for you.

For the moment I would suggest some of you who can afford it purchase "They Call it Hypnosis" by Robert Baker. I am afraid he will have to do until I get time to expound upon the matter.

If you can't wait for me to expound then there is another thread here where I have already expounded.

Do forgive me. I have to go out to do a "hypnosis" show. I do find it interesting to earn money from something that doesn't exist.

I have now read the above article and I agree with the notion that "hypnosis" does indeed cure all the things that it is supposed to cure. I have stopped people smoking so I know it works. However it is still bunk. Bunk is a most wondrous thing for making people feel better. Ask any TV evangelist who does healings. Or spiritual healers.

All this is based on the placebo effect. However it is the relaxation induced by the induction and the suggestions planted that is making the difference rather than the non existent "hypnosis"

As for the daft notion that you have to study something before you can say for definite that it is bunk I am afraid that doesn't stand up since loads of people spend years studying astrology and yet it is still regarded as a pseudoscience.

"Hypnosis" works but it is still baloney. As for Dr Graham Wagstaff of Liverpool University he HAS been saying for years that hypnosis is a load of manure but he has been using polite language and big words to say it. However he has still said it only not quite as directly as I have.

Regrettably I must inform Wild Card that I do not do hypnosis "days". My website says nothing about such things. I do not teach "hypnosis" My website does mention that I do "hypnosis" shows and I do indeed do rather a lot of them. I am therefore in a position to advise on the best way to go about doing them. And the first thing I advise is to realise that the whole thing is a load of tosh. YOu will make very fast progress in your studies once you have accepted that. If you don't accept it you will waste rather a lot of time and in the end get only equal or probably inferior results.

It is truly a most wondrous thing not to be hampered by belief and I recommend it.

I will concede that various daft people on stage will convince themselves that they have been "hypnotised" but this state of self delusion is merely an excitement of the imagination rather than an altered stage of conciousness. And only a small percentage of people on stage will react like this but of course they are manna from heaven when they do. The rest of the subjects will be either bloody useless and you will have to sent them back to their seats in the audience or they will be what is known in the business as "contract players". In other words they will go along with what you say for the sake of a good laugh. It should be remembered that you will get quite a few exhibitionists up to help. You want people like this providing they don't overact. If they overdo the acting then just dismiss them before they ruin the show.

There. Now you know.

much more importantly, the date of the course is exactly one month away from my 36th birthday...

do not buy reverend lewis's hypnosis course though - as it is obviously bunkum too....

My video course is not bunkum but it is about bunkum. I can't remember whether or not I say on the course that hypnosis is baloney but I certainly imply it.

I have given several people careers with what I have taught. There is one fellow on the Magic Cafe (RSD) who studied my course and is now a professional stage hypnotist making a handsome income. However he knows quite well that it is a load of tosh and can't believe hypnotists who try to tell him that it is real. He actually thinks they know quite well that it isn't and they are trying to kid him.

I assured him that there were loads of stage hypnotists out there who were daft enough to believe that people on stage who chase invisible canaries and talk the Martian language do so because their brain isn't functioning in the normal way.

Common sense will tell you that they are perfectly well aware of what they are doing but after the show they will deny that they did any crazy stuff since "hypnosis" is a convenient excuse for acting like a twerp.

That is why people on stage will insist to you afterwords they don't remember a thing. They do I assure you.