I now have a new love to add to my magic obsession ... hypnosis. I've decided to document some of my initial successes and failures here. Some of you may be in the learning stages as well and reading others' progress may be helpful. Also I welcome any criticisms and corrections you may have.

A little background: my first introduction to hypnosis was the purchase of a 'hypnotizing coin' that I bought at a magic shop while on vacation in Florida. (Never had the luxury of having a shop closer than 3 hours from me) This coin displayed a picture of a spiral and it would appear to spin as you tilted the coin. I spent hours with this coin and the half a page of instructions that came with it. Surprisingly, I never was able to induce anyone with my powers.

Several years later I was in college and volunteered to help out in a stage hypnosis show. I and several others were positioned behind the hypnotized subjects to prevent them from falling backwards, out of their chairs. There was no one positioned behind us. Part way through the show I found myself laying on the floor behind the raised stage. I had been standing on the edge and had apparently paid too much attention to the induction phase.

The next year I volunteered to be hypnotized in Michael C. Anthony's show on campus. I had a good experience but found myself coming out of trance towards the end of the show and later questioned if I had been hypnotized at all. (I had) Later myself and a fellow magician grabbed a bite to eat with Michael after his show. I wish I had picked his brain more than I had but I didn't feel comfortable talking shop with him when he probably wanted to chill out after a gig. Michael was a very personable person and was the same onstage and off.

A few years after that I was watching the Derren Brown lecture video on my PC. I was distracted and was working on other things while this was playing in the background. I had my hand on my desk at the same time he was doing a stuck hand routine. I wasn't paying attention to the video and moved to get up ... and I couldn't. My hand was stuck to the table. After several attempts to remove my hand and through giggling I managed to move the hand with my other hand.

A few years after that brings us to today. I had watched Anthony Jacquin's Manchurian Approach DVD several months ago and was amazed. The inductions were so quick and the results were almost too good to be true. My interest was sparked but I never attempted the techniques.

Two weeks ago I watched the Trilby Connection and I was finally hooked. I just had to learn this stuff. I started typing out Anthony's patter and a tweaked few things to match my speaking patterns. I listened to his youtube videos on my long 3 hour daily commute and practiced the patter as I drove. Last week I was headed to the movies and one of my former students caught me on my way in and asked me to show some magic to his wife. I told him that magic was on the back burner right now and I now do hypnosis. He didn't want to have anything to do with that because he 'didn't like to be out of control of himself.' I calmed his fears and told him we would simply do a couple of exercises to test his ability to be hypnotized. I did magnetic fingers and Calof's eye lock with him. They worked like a charm. His wife didn't participate but they both seemed to really enjoy it. I had to run but I told him next time we will take it further.

Three days ago I was out with a magician buddy and was telling him about my experiences. I did magnetic fingers and Calof's eye lock on him as well. I then did magnetic hands and gave him the suggestion that every time I snapped my fingers the electromagnet in his hands would be twice as strong. Each time I snapped my fingers his hands jerked closer and closer till they touched. He was giggling through all of this. Since his eyes were closed and he couldn't see me, I gave his wife the oh yeah fist pump gesture. (I didn't want him to know how excited I was .. this was supposed to be an old hat for me) I then decided to try the floating hand with him and was feeling pretty confident. His hand begun to twitch even though the restaurant was noisy. It was going slowly at first but it was making progress. Then his 3 year old daughter started yanking on his other arm and was crying about her ice cream. I tried to work through this and was giving him the suggestion that all the outside noises would only drive him deeper under. Well, that may work with noises, but it had no effect with a persistent 3 year old little girl.

I am now excitedly awaiting the weekend to attempt a full induction.

Brilliant Chris

You did induce. There is No full or half hypnotised you is or you isn't.

I believe it's a mistake to tell them outside stuff is making them do something, especially as a deepener. They are not going deeper but you are intensifying the connection between you and them and need them to focus internally not externally. So telling them to focus on that works best.

"There's only my voice and nothing bothers or disturbs you. There is just the sound of my voice and the sound of your deep heavy breathing." One of the big five symptoms of 'hypnosis' is a disregard of external stimuli so don't make them think about it. It's a very hypnotherapist thing to do.

If the arm is rising slowly tell them it's rising faster. Never let them decide what happens, they could decide to wake up. Have a look at this, Anthony and his Dad Freddy were really gobsmaked when they did this for the first time back in '04. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjD8VOXDxiQ

The arm was going to be too slow for the video length I wanted so I speed it up. But please note the wake up procedure, always make sure you terminate the hypnosis properly no matter what else you do. Hope this helps.

Thank you very much Jon. I appreciate who you are and your taking the time to respond here. I really like the patter you offered here; the reasoning behind it makes a lot of sense. I'll be throwing that into my toolbox, word for word.

I also like how you controlled the situation and made his arm speed up. That is much better than my waiting with bated breath, hoping his hand would pick up speed as I was reinforcing that it was starting slowly.

I am looking forward to putting this into action. It feels strange putting this into practice so quickly where as with my magic I would put many weeks of practice in before anyone saw it.

Week 2 results:

I didn’t have much time to practice my patter this week and felt I hadn't made any headway since last week. I met up with my magician buddy, Ryan, that had I hypnotized last week. The Pizza Hut we were at was pretty dead and the few that were there were watching us warily, so we didn't approach any of them. Honestly, I hadn't really planned on attempting anything since my patter was still shaky.

Ryan and I decided to take turns running the patter for a few set pieces on each other to get a stronger familiarity with them. He wanted to watch me run the set on his wife. I had no idea of the gold mine we had sitting next to us. Not only was she very susceptible, I learned a lesson on being careful about prematurely judging whether the pieces are successful or not.

I started with magnetic fingers, which is pretty much a guaranteed hit. It took a little longer than I cared for, but it did work. I then did magnetic hands. Once again I used the increased electromagnetic attraction with each snap of my fingers. They went together smoothly and not in jerking pulses like before. This too took a little longer than I had hoped for. She was smiling through both of these sets and I was wondering if she was simply playing along to spare my feelings.

I decided to have a try at having her place her hands out palm up, with her eyes closed. I did the bit where I was going to place a heavy book in one hand and tie a balloon around the other one. I went into a lot of detail about this book. I described the binding and the lettering on the cover; I even described the smell. I told her that when I snapped my fingers I would drop this book in her left hand. I had expected the hand to go down an inch or two slowly. When I snapped my fingers her hand went immediately to her lap. I leaned back in my chair with a laugh and told her to wake up, this isn't working. I definitely thought she was playing along this time. She said she wasn't at all. She had completely felt the book.

So now with renewed energy I attempted a suggestion of her eyes being so relaxed that she felt she couldn't open them. I forget who this one is attributed to, but it isn't the Calof eye lock version. As I initially told her that her eyes were starting to feel stuck I noticed her eyes moving under her eyelids. I then told her to try to open them. She smiled and said she couldn't. I then told her that when I snapped my fingers she would be able to relax and open her eyes. I snapped my fingers and she still couldn't open them. So I adlibbed here and lifted her hand and told her when I dropped her hand that her eyes would then open. That worked.

I then tried the two fingers holding a card with the suggestion that she couldn't drop it. It worked like a charm. Once again it took me two attempts to release her arm. I then tried the stiff arm suggestion, which easily worked.

I then tried to get her hand to rise from her lap. Even after all the previous successes, this one wasn't working. I attempted a fractionation and it still didn't work. I am going to review the patter on this one and see if I am omitting something that would help sell this suggestion. It may be due to some disbelief on my part because I wasn't able to get this one to work last week.

Then came the best part of the night. I wanted to stick her hand to the table. I not only described the attraction of her hand to the table but I also described how she could feel the whole weight of the air in the room pressing down on the back of her hand. Then came the moment of truth. I asked her to test her hand. She smiled and I saw her fingers visibly struggling. I told her that as she tried it would become more stuck. She started giggling and I tied that to it as well. The more her hand become stuck, the funnier it would become. Trying as hard as she could, she couldn't release the hand until I told her it was unstuck.

To you hypno giants on here this sequence may mean nothing to you. But, HER FREAKING HAND STUCK TO THE FREAKING TABLE!!!! I, a mere mortal, caused this. I was giddy the rest of the night and am still giddy today. This feels like real magic. I did something cool without having to do a double lift, forcing a word, or using an ITR.

I dread the day when these results no longer excite me like they do now. But for now, I couldn't be happier with my progress.

I´m still buzzing about a month after my first success! It´s really a lot easier than I initially thought. Nice work, keep it up!

I think that if you have doubt in your mind that the subject senses it. My attitude over the last month has changed from one of being nervous about trying, to one of "You can be hypnotized, all it takes is a little concentration, and if you take any of my initial suggestions (pretests) then I WILL HYPNOTIZE YOU!"

On saturday I was invited to a get together (about 10/12 friends) and they all wanted to "see something" but of course they were almost all too scared to volunteer. The general public here in Spain are rather superstitious and scared of hypnosis.

I didn´t do a pretalk because of the loud music playing in the bar, my sure fire subject didn´t want to be hypnotized because she doesn´t like being the center of attention.

So I went for it with another lady, whom I failed to hypnotize a month ago. I discarded her a month ago because the first pretest completely failed. This time however, my attitude was very different.
I knew she didn´t mind trying so I told her we were going to do the test again.
She responded "but it didn´t work last time".
I said "yeah, but I´ve been practicing loads, improving my technique and now I´m a lot better" (outright lie, I haven´t been practicing due to a heavy work schedule and other commitments!)

She had a drink in her hand and I asked if she was drinking alcohol, she replied in the affirmative.
"How many have you had?" I asked.
"This is my second" she said.
"Perfect" I said "Just the right amount" - a rather obvious suggestion that was a total bluff but I couldn´t resist using it.
So then I launched into the first pretest - bingo, got exactly the result I was looking for.
second pretest - bingo, again 5 star response. By this stage she was half way there, but I couldn´t get any further than that - toddlers required her attention.
So then I moved on to the barmaid, two more positive results on the pretests with her, I sat her down on a bar stool and was about to do a formal induction and deepener when she was called from the stage over the P.A. system (there was a flamenco group playing in the bar).
Again I had things cut short.
I´m heading back to the same bar on saturday, at 4pm when she starts work

My approach to hypnosis is now currently founded on the following belief: If someone takes the suggestions and reacts positively to the pretests (not counting magnetic fingers because there´s a physiological reason for "success" with that one) then in my mind they are already hypnotized. It´s just a question of deepening them from there on in.

Awesome, Owen! (I so want to use brilliant but I live in the wrong hemisphere for that)

Toddlers in a bar? Man, remind me to be on my guard when I go to Spain, you guys are tough. I bet there is a long line in your tattoo parlors for ankle biters getting "I love Mommy" tattooed on their biceps. Do they park their tricycles outside the bar?

That is great that you were able to succeed with the woman you had troubles with a month ago. My girlfriend was resistant to all my charms. I'll try again at a later date.

I agree with your premise of a subject taking suggestions being already hypnotized. I think that was what Jon was iterating in his post.

I would love to attend Anthony's training session coming up here in the states, either that or the session in Vegas. It is just bad timing for me this year. It would hold a lot more value for me now in these initial stages. By the time another one rolls around I might be at a point where I wouldn't bring as much back from the experience due to the focus on the initial approaches and set pieces. Then again, it would just be a blast to hang out with these guys.

I´ve found that pauses in your delivery can really improve subjects response.
For example, the falling fowards test that I use:
I rub my hands together really fast to heat them up, whilst I´m doing this I get the subject to close his/her eyes.
Then I place one hand on their forehead and say (in a calm relaxing tone of voice) "feel the warmth of my hand on your forehead". Then I´ll wait for a good 5 to 10 seconds, giving them time to focus on that thought. Then I´ll say something like focus on the sensation my hand provokes in the skin on your forehead, nothing else, only the feeling of my hand on your forehead (followed by another suitable pause).
When I´m sure they´re concentrating well on that, then I "bang the suggestion in there" - speaking rather faster than before something to the effect of "in a moment I´ll count to three, when I count three you will feel an invisible force pulling you forward, as if a tow truck were dragging you forward. You will not actually fall, you will move something like 5 to 10 centimeters and no more. I will not let you fall, but upon the count of 3 you will feel an irresistible force pulling you forward". In many cases I´ll feel them start to lean forward at this stage and I know I´m onto a winner.

I follow this with a count- 1,2, (longer pause to build expectation) 3!
Then I start to separate my hand from their forehead. If they´re moving nice and fast I move my hand fast. If they´re moving slowly then I move my hand accordingly. When they move slowly I find that maintaining light contact with the forehead whilst moving slowly away tends to help reinforce the suggestion. I find that a lot of people start to fall forward but they instinctively fight it and return to the normal vertical standing position. When that happens I tell them to open their eyes, not to worry, I wont let them fall, "trust me" etc etc and give it another shot. Then I give them the suggestion that the force will be 10 times stronger the second time round - it normally gets them.

If they don´t respond I just say thankyou for trying, but that it will take too long to hypnotize them and it would probably end up being a bit boring. I recommend this pretest - it´s been a great indicator for me of whether a subject will be good or not. Of course it goes without saying, if you´re not well built, don´t try this with a 6ft 10 tall body builder!

Chris – I run a study group here in Lexington. Anthony has played a major role in our approach as have Richard Nongard and Brian David Phillips. Our schedule is a little off as I have been on the road teaching for the last several weeks but as soon as the next meet up is set I will post the time/date.

Aaron Little! I had no idea you were into this stuff. What a small world it truly is. Aaron and I trained from the same martial arts teacher years ago.

FYI, The 'magnetic' fingers when done properly have nothing at all to do with hypnosis. It's physiological and will work with 90% of people with normal muscle and tendon set up. This is only a key in though, don't know how many people write to me saying the mag fingers worked but they didn't respond to anything else. that's because unless you go into a hand lock it is not an induction. The guy who invented it was called George Estabrooks.

The magnetic hands can be easily speeded up by getting them to close their hands together and rub them and then to separate them to only a couple of inches. The rubbing causes muscle memory and you'll be shocked at how fast they go back together. As far as I know the mag hands is Gill Boyne's, sadly no longer with us.

The eye lock is Dave Elman's but don't tell them they are relaxed. It's easier to tell them to pretend, just imagine, that they can't open them.

All of these re on my online training videos which is more or less the same as the live class of mine where where Anthony Jacquin and Kev Sheldrake learnt them, although since 2004 I've improved the methods slightly.

I've been hypnotising for 30 odd years and know what? I still get a buzz from someone forgetting their name, or being unable to lift a cup because it weighs six tons.

When doing the light and heavy hands you don't need to describe the heavy weight in detail, but make sure they know what's going to happen before you start. I use my E+D=P formula. Explain + Demonstrate = Practice. So tell them whats going to happen, show them then they will do it easier. Build expectation.

You're doing good. The worst thing with hypnosis is you can practice, and should, your patter but to practice you need victims.

Hope this helps.

Hi, Chris.

One of the difficulties with learning hypnosis is that there are no visual sleights and no music to cover up boxes that "talk." Instead, it's just you, by yourself, talking. That can end up being a lot of words, and most trainings and books give "scripts" (the hypnosis jargon for the magical jargon of "patter") and most students work really hard to memorize that script/patter so they can recite it smoothly. That, IMO, is like the first, earliest step in learning hypnosis and I believe should be discarded as soon as possible. I would respectfully suggest that rather than working on patter you work on understanding the concepts. People will know if you're just running patter because you're speaking AT them rather than TO them.

Get the concepts so you can give original scripts/patter each time. As you develop you may end up repeating patterns or copy an expression or phrase you have read or heard. That's fine. But by understanding the concepts you will have a great ability to do the work.

Scripts or patter are great to learn from; they need not and should not be used word-for-word. Talk to people. Memorized speeches often lose the important textures and vocal characteristics that speed induction and acceptance of suggestions.

Chris,

I'm really enjoying your posts. Have you tried an actual induction or are you concentrating more on your patter and/or suggestive technique? I can't wait to hear your experience with an actual induction/trance like state. Since reading the numerous posts here I'm getting more and more interested. I sold the Trinity series here on the Café' and admittedly to quickly. I'm also curious of the many experts here of when they first experienced their first sucessful trance and how long it took them to accomplish such. All the best and I'm looking forward to more of you posts.

Randy

Very good points, dmkraig. Thank you for taking the time to share them. I actually think of my scripts/patter in a modular format. Well, that is how it worked for my magic. I never had a complete script that ran the same from start to finish. Mine tended to have multiple branches I could take, depending on the situation. Sometimes I would deviate from that, even. A few of the pieces I ran this weekend didn't have memorized patter at all, I hadn't gotten that far. I did the fingers holding the card with minimal remembrance of the original patter. The stuck hand was completely done on the fly, I had to rely on the concept because I couldn't remember a single thing that was said on the DVD. So in all honesty, it wasn't pretty .. but it did work. I'll keep your suggestions in mind; I don't want to ever sound like a robot reciting lines.

As a beginner I do like the concept of 'set pieces.' These bite size chunks have been easier for me to digest and they give me a menu to choose from. I also like having the ability of running some of the self working and mostly self working pieces before 'deeper' inductions, that way in the audience's mind they have seen an entertaining, albeit brief, hypnosis demonstration. This has removed most of my fear over the possibility of not having good subjects or having a bad night myself. I am sure I will run into some rough subjects and may even have some battle scars (figuratively .. hopefully) but that will make for some good stories to share on here.

Be Careful Chris, I know a pro over here who got his nose reshaped by trucker after the poor hypno stamped on the guys pet faery. LOL

I love what ou said there, keeping in mind what the Audience sees is the ultimate point of entertainment hypnosis - you're my hero ;-)

Randy,

Thanks, brother. I didn't try induction, I did induction. As Jon stated above "You did induce. There is No full or half hypnotized you is or you isn't." However, I think you are asking if I made it past the first few semi-self working set pieces. Yes, I did. I ended each set piece in a head slumped, eyes closed, deepening state. Her hands dropping to her lap immediately and her hand sticking to the table weren't simply from the suggestion without any induction. She could not remove her hand no matter how hard she tried. Once I released her, I put her deeper.

This weekend I plan on adding amnesia, sticking their body so they can't grab cash I have laying there, and may even have a go at making myself invisible. It will depend on how well my subjects respond. (I almost used the word "trying" instead of "adding." As Yoda says "Do or do not... there is no try." )

Right now I have what my coworkers deemed idiot wisdom when I was moved to a new position that I had to learn from the ground up. I know I am naive about this stuff and hopefully seeing this from a fresh perspective, I may keep myself out of some ruts we can get into. I know as a magician at times it was really hard not to think like a magician. Then again, being so new I may convince someone they are a chicken and they will need years of therapy afterwards. I am relying on my source materials and the generous guidance of some of the experienced performers on here.

You sold your Trilby collection? Yes, you did sell it too quickly. Did you attempt any of the techniques before you sold it, or did it simply look too good to be true? As I stated earlier, I am sure I will have some less than successful days with this, but once I convinced myself that I was The Hypnotist, it was pretty easy. It is much easier than a coin roll on your knuckles. I am looking forward to my continued education.

Thanks Jon! I feel for the pro but man oh man what a great story. I hope one of my other skills, kung fu instructor, would protect me if I omitted an important part of a suggestion. However, no matter how good you are there is always someone bigger and better out there, or better on that particular day. I already have a prominent nose, maybe a Roman nose would be an improvement.

Chris,

Way to go my friend! This all so interesting. I did sell the Trilby Set way to quickly and It was because it seemed to good to be true. I have since tried the fingers lock and eye lock and worked wonderfully. That is when I knew I sold it too soon and probably cause of lack of confidence and lack of people to attempt it with. BUT... I'm enjoying hearing of your success and I really enjoyed Anthony Jaquin's teaching style so I'm gonna devote more time to this and see where it leads. I bet you were dancing a jig with the success you had recently.

Oh yeah ... I was very excited. I even accidentally stepped on some biker's pet fairy.

I am glad the subject's eyes are closed because I am grinning like a possum while all of this is going on. I understand having limited numbers of people to work with. I live in a town of a little over 11,000 people. Given enough time I'll have such a high percentage of them who have been induced by me that I'll be able to walk into my local Walmart and yell sleep and have half the store stand comatose.

Go for the bank Chris!

Yeah, go for the bank Chris!