Hey gang,
I've been interested in hypnosis for a while and have just started to take the plunge. I've done a bit of research and found that a lot of folks reccomend the Manchurian Candidate, and I know that Mr. Jacquin is a member of the Café so I thought this would be a good place to ask.

I do not want to do clinical hypnosis, or anything of the sort. I am only interested in adding some inductions and hypnotic demonstrations to my act to make my mentalism routines stronger and more plausible wit the character that I play when performing. Ideally, I'd like to be able to walk straight up to someone and use a handshake induction and get them in trance without the need of long induction processes or deepening technique. Really, I just want a plausible means of influencing peoples behavior. If I start to really dig it, who knows where I'll take it, but for starters that is what I'm going for.

I know that The Manchurian Approach seems to cover most of what I want to learn, according to the ad, but I'm also curious as to the Trilby connection. Which of the two do you feel is better for someone who is seeking the results that I am?

The Manchurian Candidate--the original version--is superb, but I think it may help you more with acting and directing. The Machurian Connection is much better for real hypnosis.

Now to get semi-serious, if you've never encountered Anthony Jacquin's work, then Reality Is Plastic will give you an excellent overview of his approach. Each case is different: I followed that with Manchurian and then Trilby (books and dvds by others, as well, but Anthony is certainly solid), He also has some good video postings, which you can find referred to in this forum.

As you noted, Anthony is a frequent visitor/poster here, a trtemendously helpful fellow and an extrfemely nice guy. I would expect to see him cropping up here shortly to answer your question directly. If not, PM him. As I said, he makes himself--and his expertise--readily availavle.

If I may chime in , Reality is Plastic is a fine , cheap yet easy introduction to the world of induction.
It'll spell out the basics for you and with the supplements , it'll be plenty for you to chew over.
Following up from that I'd go to the Manchurian Approach dvd set , it gives more of a "magic" slant on hypnosis.
By then you should really know if hypnosis is going to tickle you and if at all possible I'd recommend some live training , I've met both Ant and Jon Chase - both very fine Hypno-Trainers.

Personally I read the book(reality is plastic) and watched the dvd , but the whole thing didn't "click" for me until I did the live training , I don't know there's something comforting about being able to get instant feedback and advice on what you're doing / doing wrong.
2 years later and I'm a hypnotherapist seeing clients on a weekly basis and haven't looked back since......

I don't intend to be a physicist, but I studied physics in school. I don't intend to be a mathematician, but I studied math in school. I don't intend to be a pro football player, but I studied and played football in school.

Being a hypnotist is about working with the mind. The more you learn about the mind--even if you never use all of that information--the better. Learning hypnosis and hypnotherapy, even if you never intend to be a hypnotherapist, will make you better at using hypnosis.

What I'm saying is learn all you can. If you want to be a stage hypnotist learn all forms of hypnosis. It's okay. Honest. It won't harm you.

Personally, I agree with Paul. Get an in-person training. Learn with an expert who is able to give you instant feedback. Learn by working with a variety of people (fellow students) rather than trying to find one person who will let you work with him/her and not having the experience of working with a variety of people. Books and videos make a great adjunct and enhancement to in-person training.

You'll learn more in one day of training that you could with weeks and weeks of struggling with books and videos. After you get that training the books and videos will open and expand what you learned.

I started my studies with books by Bandler and Erickson which were interesting but not what I was looking for. I then decided to pick up a 90 minute training DVD by some Guru and was mildly disappointed.

I then took the plunge with The Trilby Connection and everything just clicked. I enjoy the pacing of the training and felt that it was a solid foundation for building upon.

I also picked up Anthony"s RIP book and DVD which I highly recommend as well.

I'm glad I started with the books, and then the mildly disappointing DVD, because it made Trilby all that much greater once I started learning from it.

Hi there
I'm interested in commercial short bits of hypnosis
in order to enhance the impact of my Mentalism PK demonstrations
(yes Iam a big liar but I claim nothing just relax)
I never tried hypnosis but I decided to purchase RIP
and iam confused what to follow with should I go with The Manchurian Appoach or Hypnosis Without Trance
because MA is interenting because they say its for magicians
James Tripp work is interesting too because iam not interested in heavy deep hypnosis

any thoughts
thank you for the previous responses

MaXiMoN

Hey there ,

James Tripps stuff is seriously interesting , but if you're only getting into hypnosis its a serious layout of cash compared to either jon chases dvd or Manchurian Approach.

Well I am leaning towards the Manchurian Approach (mistakenly called it the Manchurian Candidate in my first post) since it seems to be more my level. I've read on hypnosis, have NLP experience and have attempted to use the oh so mysterious "conversational hypnosis" style of working. Sometimes it would work, others not. I attribute the times it did work more to just me being confident and projecting an expectation of it working, and the person I'm doing the hypnosis on just assuming that's what they were supposed to do. Maybe that's all hypnosis is in reality, but it felt a little cheeky. I haven't much cash to play with at the moment, but I definitely want to get going on my studies in hypnosis because I believe it will open new doors in my performing, and be an added source of income. That said, my budget at the moment is 150 usd in order to gear up on the study of hypnosis, so I think I'm going to start with The Manchurian Approach and Reality is Plastic. Quick question on RIP, is this available as an actual book or just a PDF? I'm so sick of buying PDFs, I like the real deal haha.

To illustrate my current level of competence I have recorded an audio track of me just playing around with some free scripts I've found online and tweaked. May not be the best hypnotic track you've ever heard, but shows my current understand. The link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2wbmMlUebs

My question is: With study and application of The Manchurian Approach, will I be duly prepared to do hypnotic work without the need of the long and drawn out induction/deepener technique? Or is all that walking up to people, doing the Handshake Induction and getting someone to "go under" an unrealistic goal? Obviously I've never seen a hypnotic show, so I have no real world experience with it.

Thanks for your time guys

One more question: Does anyone know of any good live training in either Houston or Austin texas in 2012?

My first thought? I'd suggest working on your voice, projection, confidence and delivery rather than the creepy whisper delivery. It may have subjects focusing on your delivery rather than what you're saying.

Remember you're trying to hypnotize them not putting them to sleep.

Definitely go for live training.

The creepy whisper was mostly due to not wanting to wake up the roomate while I'm talking to myself But noted. I was going for a deep relaxation also. When you say "work on your voice" what exactly do you mean? There are a lot of things I could be working on, so any specific tips would be appreciated.

Thanks for your time.

Also, you reccomend Live Training, which I plan on doing. Can you suggest any good teachers in the Houston or Austin Texas areas?