Stage Hypnosis is something I have been interested in ever since I learned to hypnotize, which was in 1990. I learned hypnosis in the context of an NLP weekend seminar by John Overdurf and Julie Silverthorn. They were excellent teachers and I came away amazed at how easy hypnosis is to learn.
After that I did an NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming) practitioner course, and later I completed an NLP masterpractitioner certification, both with Richard Bolstad. Great, you might think – that was all it took. But no.
The truth is that having seen some stage hypno on TV, I still had never been to a show and had no real idea about how it really worked. Asking “how” is a useful question.
A few years later I stumbled across Ormond McGill’s “An Enclycopedia of Stage Hypnotism”, the first edition. It was a slim yellow book, and as I now realize, it was reasonably complete. After reading the book I still wasn’t exactly sure how to do a show, but I had better ideas and better questions. It was clear though that stage hypnosis is not like clinical hypnosis, especially as taught in NLP seminars. For one thing, in NLP you can pretty well take as much time as you like, and tailor the induction to the individual. But with a group on stage, and with a time constraint, there are significant differences.
From time to time I looked on the web for more information and training courses, etc. What I found was fairly dismal, and for the most part it still is. I did come across the greatly expanded second edition of Ormond McGill’s book, and it remains to me the best work on the subject. I have read other books, but they added little or nothing. I ordered some videos and they were crap. I won’t say where they were from, but they should have been great given the organisation’s pedigree. They were a waste of time and money. I literally threw them away.
I found a good course, though, in Canada, nearly halfway around the world, and it took some time to find. First a bit more about learning stage hypnosis from books. . . .
f
Books
Let me say up front that I am an avid reader, and frequently buy books to learn new things. As I write this I am keenly awaiting books from Amazon on how to weld. But I’d have to say that Stage Hypnosis is right up there with Equestrian Showjumping and Olympic Swimming as being difficult to learn from a book. It is a practical and subtle subject and it is often the small things that make the difference between success and that other thing.
Many of the books advertised on the web are by “famous” people that I have never heard of. Unlike Ormond McGill who has unimpeachable credentials, they all seem to be just guys like me who learned the craft and have written about it. These books are for the most part advertised with a great range of hyperbole, they are amazing, outrageous, extreme, exciting, and above all secret. Yes, brothers and sisters, the amazing stupendous someone-or-other wants you to believe that his book sold on the web contains secrets. About there I check out. Since the “secrets” claim is doubtful, I doubt all their claims. I also wonder what the value of a subject being “amazing” is in a learning context. My best teachers have all been practical, down to earth, and able to make their subjects fun but accessible to us mere mortals. I do not want to have to be the amazing something-or-other to learn a new subject. I also noticed these books are roundly endorsed by other famous people I don’t know, and who were all successful stage hypnotists before they read the book. What kind of endorsement is that?
You can get a great deal of information about a range of topics from books, as I do, but books give you no practice, and do not coach and guide you. For the most part they only inform. Information can make you a good judge or critic, but does not make you a dancer, juggler or hypnotist. I guess you could try juggling the books though . . .
As with the welding books, once I have gained some information, I will then put it into practice if I am still keen to proceed. I will be completely prepared for what others might think of as an abject failure, but what Eric Jensen calls a “Great Moment in Learning”. And after all, there is no such thing as failure, only feedback.
If I muck up my welding, so long as I don’t burn down the shed or electrocute anybody, my mistakes are fairly private and mine to learn from. But what about stage hypnosis? How about you read that book then get 20 of your friends together and do your first show? Not a bad idea (depending on your friends) but a “high gradient” approach. The thought scared me. I also realized that it would be easier with more people, so get your friends to bring their friends and family – then have your first experiment in front of everyone you know, and everyone they know. After all, there is no failure, only feedback . . .
Training Courses
Along with amazing stupendous secret books, there are training courses offered by many of the same people. These are e-learning courses, or practical one-on-one courses. And the trouble with these is that there is no way to actually practice. E-learning is basically another book form, so count that as above. One-on-one puts you in the risk of parting with many dollars or euros to spend typically a couple of days at a hotel with someone who may be a lousy teacher and with no way to validate that you have actually learned anything. But they are always amazing, stupendous, and astonishing etc. They’ll teach you secrets too in most cases.
Read Ormond’s book. There are no secrets. Stage Hypnosis has been around for about 300 years, and watching some shows, so have many of the gags.
The first course I found that actually seemed like a proper education was run by Anny Sleghten at the Hypnotism Training Institute of Alberta and is taught by Attila Kun, a performing stage hypnotist and magician. This course was different because it ran every year with a timetable, was part of a syllabus, had multiple participants who were all learning, and we could practice on each other! Woo hoo - so that’s where I went. After that I was a stage hypnotist right? Wrong!
Before we go into the final step on becoming a stage hypnotist there’s one thing I’d say about courses. Some of the courses offered may be valid and useful, but I would advise you to consider your learning goals and preferences. For me, learning stage hypnotism without a group to practice with is like going to an equestrian showjumping course without a horse, or learning to swim without getting into the pool.
Stagecraft
Lucky for me, I guess, but I have always been a good speaker, and I am comfortable and relaxed on stage. For this part of the show, I had enough to start. More on this later.
The Final Step
I tried practices with small groups, friends and family. But one thing I learned is that the closer you are to someone on a personal level, the more that existing relationship can interfere with establishing the hypnotist-candidate relationship. My practices were all Great Moments in my Education, or abysmal in other words. That’s when I revisited my earlier plan. Invite everyone you know . . . And I did. To make sure that besides my utter humiliation something good would come of the evening, I booked a small theater at the Police College where I worked as an IT wonk, and made people pay $5 to come to the first show, this I would give to charity, so that as I died on stage, the charity would benefit.
I needed someone to help with sound and lights. A guy I’d not met before heard me say this and volunteered. Simon was a godsend, and added a professional touch and a great deal of encouragement to that first show, and every subsequent show.
My first show was hard hard work. It is not visible on the tapes, but about 30 minutes into the show I gave up, and then my public speaking practice took over and I kept going. I did just one more thing. Because I wasn’t trying so hard and didn’t care, it worked brilliantly. From there the show took off and finished on a high. The rest is history as they say.
The one main lesson that I learned at that show and since, is that being in the right state of mind is essential to success as a hypnotist. I cannot stress that enough. The more confident, direct, and certain that you are, the more people will be hypnotized and the more they will respond.
The Right State of Mind – How To Be a Stage Hypnotist
In hindsight now, I can see the three things I had to learn, and that I would advise anyone starting out to learn. With these you can achieve the right state of mind and have your first show. After that you’re on your way.
1. Learn to Hypnotise
Go to courses, learn NLP, or practice one on one until you know you can hypnotise a bunch of different people. You’ll not succeed all the time, and not with everyone, but learn and practice the language patterns, and learn to recognize the physical indications of hypnosis and trance. Get to the point where you know that you can hypnotise some people, albeit one on one.
2. Develop Your Stagecraft
Learn to speak on stage in public, and later with a mic, so that you are comfortable and confident. To quote Dale Carnegie, “take every opportunity to practice”. Speak at work, at school, wherever, join clubs, attend meetings, and speak, and do it on your feet. Get to a point where you are confident enough on stage to do a show of some kind, and not to have basic “public speaking” issues get in your way. You’ll have enough on your mind for your first show and you don’t need stage-fright and nerves to impede you.
3. Learn How A Show Is Built Up
Make an effort to really understand how a show works. Read Ormond’s book, attend courses (see above for good types of courses), watch videos if you must. And develop the structure of a show. Make a plan, a script if you like, for your first show. Run it through in your mind and practice it.
Ok, so now you know that you can hypnotize, and know what it looks like when you do. You know you can get out on stage and talk and entertain, and you know how a show is built up and you have your own plan for a show. There is one more step. Invite everyone you know . . .
In this regard stage hypnosis is like parachute jumping. There comes a point where all the practice and theory are done – and you have to step off the edge and do a show to prove to yourself (and others) that you can do it. From there it gets easier.
One thing to understand is that to some degree stage hypnosis is a numbers game. The better and more confident that you are, the more of your candidates you’ll hypnotise during your induction, so when you start out, compensate for lack of experience and a lower “hit rate” by getting more volunteers. If you only hypnotise 25% of the volunteers, if you start with 8 you’ll end up with 2. But if you start with 20 you’ll keep 5, and 5 can make a top notch show.
Strangers are easier to work with than friends and family.
Also think through your gags. Some gags are high gradient – such as getting your mother to pole dance. Some are low gradient, tapping a foot to a tune, holding a balloon etc. The high gradient gags will work when you are confident, pick the right candidate, and deliver the suggestion flawlessly, and no, I have never gotten my mother to pole dance. I have never even hypnotized her. The low gradient gags will work almost all the time, so use them a lot to start with.
If you video all your work and watch it (I cringed when I watched my first few shows – oh, and I have a bald spot now, how did that happen?), you’ll pick up the times when you let a good candidate go by mistake, or where you could have done something different for a better result. There is no failure only feedback. The more useful feedback you get, the quicker you will improve.
One last thing. If you invite all your friends, and you want them to speak to you again, don’t humiliate them. This is the reason why we do a respectful show. I have a few friends and I want to keep them. I want my volunteers to come back, and my audience to volunteer next time. Since that first show I have gone on to do many shows, and mostly now with people I have not met before. But I still remember that without them my show is nothing, and with bigger audiences and more volunteers my show is much much better, and much easier. I have been touched in recent times to have half the audience volunteer. They honor me with their trust, and the least I can do is treat that with respect.
When you really know you are a hypnotist, people will be hypnotized because they will know it too. |
