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I thought that I might as well ask here...

I have a question. Is it really possible to learn hypnosis from books? (Other people I mean - not self-hypnosis) and also, if it is possible, is it safe?

If the answers to this is yes - can you point me in the direction of learning?

Cheers.

(I just loved some of the magic effects you can use along with hypnosis - "Sleep. Now ehen you wake up, you will think of the number 756.17 - awake! Now - I will read you mind...you are thinking of the number 756.17!")

You can do a lot with hypnosis if you know wht you're doing. I'm not tying to put you off, though. The best place to start to get an appreciation would be with Ormond McGill's "New Encyclopedia of Stage Hypnotism". You can seriously learn to put someone intrance and implant suggestions form that.

You might have trouble finding people who will let you at their subconscious however, especially if you abuse the privilege, so for learning it's probably best to look into booking a course with a reputable stage hypnosis teacher. They'll teach you the basic mechanisms (hand clasp, Ellman, etc.) and also pass on tips about what to do if you get what's called an abreaction - i.e. a freakout.

Hypnosis is something that has to be taken very seriously, it is not just something that should be treated as a bit of trivial entertainment which seems to be the view that some if not a lot of people have of it. You really do have to know what you are doing, and I urge you to get a very good and solid grounding in it before you try anything.

For the mechanics of why it works, in terms of biolgical reasons, I recommend Hypnosis and Trance States; a monograph by Joe Griffin & Ivan Tyrrell; it might be hard to track down but it is worth it.

I don't really do much hypnosis, it's more of an intellectual pursuit of mine as opposed to one that I use a lot. It is a fascinating tool IMHO, but a very powerful one and one that must not be wieled carelessly.

What's the deal with that...Black Ops? I think it's called...They kept e-mailing me about it...I thought it to be wierd...and I heard that Derren Brown uses Black Ops to hypnotise people.

you may want to also try and look at the work of orville meyer, he has alot of hypnosis style mentalism, which deals with waking hypnosis and influence. highly recoemmended

McGill, Meyer and Arnold Furst were the pioneers of stage hypnotism and anything you can find from these men is worth studying. BUT, it is also important that you understand that stage hypnotism IS NOT the same thing as "genuine" hypnotism, nor is it as mystical and "amazing" as some think it to be, once you know the truth behind it.

Jerry Valley, a cohort of Mr. McGills, has a fairly decent video lecture on Hypnostism I would personally recommend but, if this is something that has honest appeal to you I'd look at going to school and getting the formal trianning and related certifications vs. looking for the shortcuts found in the magic world.

Craig Browning wrote:if this is something that has honest appeal to you I'd look at going to school and getting the formal trianning and related certifications vs. looking for the shortcuts found in the magic world.

Exactly. Well said!

Cardza wrote:

Craig Browning wrote:if this is something that has honest appeal to you I'd look at going to school and getting the formal trianning and related certifications vs. looking for the shortcuts found in the magic world.

Exactly. Well said!

A-ha! I see my carefully crafted suggestion for you all to forget my reply after you'd read it worked!

..i am feeling sleeping...

Yes, I agree that Ormond McGill is the way to go if you're interested in starting in hypnosis.

However, having been dealing with hypnosis for a couple of years I coming to realise more and more that hypnosis doesn't exist.
It is essentially a long winded way making a person believe what you say to the such a degree that they unquestioningly act on it.

Tell someone they cant remember their name and they will probably doubt it and tell you their name.
However, if they completely and utterly believe what you're saying to them, then they will believe they are unable to remember their name. And as a result they wont be able to recall their name.
As such, the whole 'induction process' is just a long winded way of convincing them that what you say will work, and they wont doubt it for a second.

This of course means you can achieve the same effects without the induction process. Gain enough rapport and awe and respect in a participant, making sure they don't doubt a word you say, and you can achieve amazing results.

Just my two pence!

Hypnosis will only work on somebody who is willing to be hypnotised and who is open, totally open to suggestion. You have to pick your victims with great care and this is what stage hypnotists do.

Also, whatever anybody tells you, you cannot under hypnotism make anyone do anything they really do not want to do. They may not realise for example that they want to walk around clucking like a chicken. But lodged down there somewhere in that scary place, the unconscious mind there may be n idea that it may be fun to act in a really ridiculous way. This is what hypnotism unlocks.

I don't personally think that anybody will come to any harm from someone who is anot very good at hypnotism working on them. It just won't work.

The unconscious mind is a very powerful thing and the power it has over the running of your body is awsome. A researcher, Paul Thorsen hypnotised a manand told him that the pen that he (Paul) was holding was a hot skewer. He then touched the mans arm with the pen and a blister formed on the mans arm where he had been touched.

This shows that what happens is what we expect to happen as defined by previous experience.

What needs to be considered here is where the line gets drawn between what is ethical and what is not. Stage hypnotists to my mind border on the unethical. I also don't see how hypnotism connects to magic. A magical effect is something that a magician creates and performs. I don't see that there is any magic in the clinical manipulation of a persons unconscious mind!

As well as blistering, apparently it is possible to induce such occurances such as stigmata in people, as well as alter the flow of blood and blood pressure and all of that - but of course this should only be done by a qualified expert who knows what they are doing!

I take a differing view to what a hypnotic induction is; I don't think that it's quite just a "long winded way of convincing them that what you say will work, and they wont doubt it for a second" as it is actually accessing the programming mechanism in the subconscious mind; as opposed to actually believing that what will work and so it does, they are literally "programmed" to do what you say, or whatever, which is where the whole aspect of post-hypnotic suggestions comes in to play. If someone has been told that they will lick their hand when they hear a certain command, they do so because they have been programmed to follow that instruction and are actually in a trance state as they carry out that programmed action.

So while there are similarities between an actual induction and rapport, they are not the same thing...although I am sure that someone who knows far more about this than myself will correct me if I am wrong.

Remember: We're talking about stage hypnosis here, not clinical hypnosis. Mostly it's about meeting someone's expectations in order to obtain their agreement to act with the conscious mind's approval - even forgetting that it has happened.

Yes, if you have time and ability, you can drop some talented subjects into a true hypnotic trance, thereby suppressing the conscious and so bypassing the critical faculty, which protects you from simply believing everything you're told. Every accepted suggestion literally becomes reality for a subject once woken, including re-entering the state itself when triggered beyond their conscious control or knowledge (as an example of something beyond your conscious control, can you stop reacting to someone else yawning? Sure, you can stiffle the response, but can you prevent it in the first place?).

So, your model of reality is, for a brief time, altered and informs you that you are a dog, you are eating an apple rather than a raw onion and the giant glasses really are X-ray specs. The mind will go out of its way to rationalise the situation. Remember, we don't experience reality directly, only a fluid model of it. The critical faculty protects it from arbitrary change.

Tomo wrote:Remember: We're talking about stage hypnosis here, not clinical hypnosis.

Ah, right, okay then. In that case, I guess Mark Lewis' statement holds true, especially given all of the pressure that someone on stage may feel/be under.

If anyone is interested in what Tomo writes about, such as bypassing conscoius resistance and frames of reference, and all of that, I really do recommend the book I mentioned above. For the price, it is an absolute bargain and a fascinating read.

As an afterthought, and as it applies to magic or mentalism, hypnosis and post-hypnotic suggestion really come under the heading "pre-show work".