Review of "Speed Trance: Instant Hypnotic Inductions for Stage, Street, & Clinical Hypnosis" with John Cerbone & Richard K. Nongard.

Today, there is a major interest on rapid and instant inductions among neo-hypnotists and magicians, as well as among hypnotherapists. For some reason, the neo-hypnotists want to do things like come up to a person on the street, put them under hypnosis instantly, and then stick their hand to a trash can so it won't come off.

Ha. Ha.

This has led to some amazingly UNSAFE ideas. One DVD shows hypnotic inductions where victims seem to have their arms almost ripped from their sockets and then fall to a hard ground. I'm just waiting for injuries and lawsuits, followed by anti-hypnosis articles in newspapers.

On the other hand, for trained professionals, rapid or instant inductions can be very valuable. They can look impressive on stage, and for clinicians it gives more time to do changework rather than playing with inductions.

It was with the latter in mind that I purchased "Speed Trance." This is supposed to teach instant inductions and I have seen Richard Nongard's name as an instructor of stage hypnosis in several places.

The DVD set (there are 2 DVDs) comes in a skinny box. The cover sheet looks amateurishly designed in something like Microsoft Word. The disks are not printed, but have stick-on labels that you could buy at Staples. Sorry, I was unimpressed.

When you get to playing the disks, there are two things that pop out at you. First, the titles and transitions are very amateurish. Second, the entire thing on each DVD is one long presentation. This just begs for breaking down into chapters, and even basic authoring applications allow you to do this.

Each DVD is about an hour and thirty minutes in length. It features clips of Mr. Cerbone and Mr. Nongard doing inductions at two different venues. It appears as if there were very few people there. If these guys are so good, why not give clips from some big shows?

Between the brief clips are the two gentlemen lecturing and teaching. They look quite natty, although I wish that Mr. Nongard would comb his hair. They are standing and talking in what I'm guessing is a smallish office. There is a flip chart with writing on it for visual aids. I found this to be very 20th century. You have the ability to do titling, why not use it? Again, the flip chart looks very amateurish.

But let's assume that you really don't have a problem with the chart. Well, there's a big microphone on a stand in the center of the image that blocks the chart. Again, amateurish and poorly thought out, especially for DVD that retail for $89.00

On the other hand, the quality of the image is absolutely excellent. I've seen far too many videos where the quality is horrible. Unfortunately, it is a one-camera talking heads presentation. In fact, I think that there may not have even been a camera operator as toward the end of the second DVD Mr. Nongard has to go behind the camera in order to zoom in and give a close up on Mr. Cerbone's hands.

Frankly, I was thoroughly disappointed with the clips of people being hypnotized. There were very few people hypnotized and they frequently repeated the same clips. Is this padding to get extra money from consumers? When Mr. Cerbone has some people doing stunts, he kept shouting at them throughout the stunt, as if he didn't believe they would follow his suggestions. I've seen other stage hypnotists do that and I don't consider it to be as good as those who give suggestions and then get out of the way, letting the trancers become the true stars of the show.

The first DVD is basically an introduction to what they are doing. They make some claims that I consider bizarre. For example, they define a rapid induction as an induction that takes less than a half hour and an instant induction as one that takes less than five minutes. Mr. Nongard repeatedly says that hypnosis is just relaxation. On the first DVD their explanation of a confusion-based induction seems confused, although they get it right on the second DVD. I think the problem here is that they haven't decided whether they are doing instructions for beginners or for more advanced practitioners of hypnosis.

The real meat of the set is on the second DVD. They literally begin by spending about 15 minutes talking about safety. I can't applaud them enough for the extreme effort they give to this, especially when compared to others who don't even mention this. The tips and attention to detail is absolutely outstanding. I wish all teachers of hypnosis would stress safety even half as much as they do on this DVD set.

They give excruciatingly complete explanations and details about several instant inductions. These do not merely take less than five minutes. They literally take seconds. The techniques are a combination of several things, but mostly include eye fixation and physiological confusion, leading to mental confusion that sets people up for very rapid inductions. Some well-known methods are given, such as Erickson's handshake and the famous hand-press techniques. The keys, however, are three of Mr. Cerbone's techniques. The first is called the "Cerbone Butterfly." The second is called the "Finger Pointing" or "Finger Vacuum" method. The third consists of a swiping motion that can even be faster than the other two. Each is well explained and I think any experienced hypnotist should be able to add them to their repertoire. I wish for the demonstrations they had called in some other volunteers rather than simply hypnotizing each other.

The swiping motion induction, according to Mr. Cerbone, was something he just invented a couple of days before this production. On one level, it makes one wonder if this will be effective as it has obviously not been tested on more than a few participants. Such a small number does not prove its effectiveness. More importantly, in my opinion, is the idea that he is demonstrating: virtually anything can become a form of induction. In this case, not only is it an induction, it's an instant induction. This is important for hypnotists both new and experienced to understand. Learn the concepts of induction, get rid of the scripts, and use what will help any particular client.

Although this is marketed to stage hypnotists (and wannabe stage/street hypnotists), there is a value to this DVD set that is incredible. Mr. Cerbone may be the best stage hypnotist in the world, but in my opinion it doesn't show on these DVDs. However, the positive suggestions Mr. Cerbone gives are incredibly good. Outstanding. I wish everyone could see and hear the ease with which he spontaneously gives these suggestions. I would urge people to listen to what he says for suggestions and letting people leave with a positive attitude. It is absolutely wonderful, and I can't possibly say enough good things about it.

So let me summarize:
Highly padded. Should be edited down to one DVD. Amateurish production, but excellent video quality. Should have more examples rather than repeating clips of the same people doing the same thing.

Focus on safety: excellent. Explanation of several known and new instant induction techniques: thorough and very good. Value of watching Mr. Cerbone give suggestions: so good it is impossible to even give a value to these DVDs.

My suggestion: If you've studied hypnosis for awhile, you've probably watched some videos that are really bad. These are amateurish and padded, but not bad. Are they worth ninety bucks? Just for the teachings of the inductions, no. Just for the focus on safety, no. But when you combine these teaching with Mr. Cerbone's incredible use of suggestion, you will easily get your money's worth and more. This set is good for stage hypnotists and even better for hypnotherapists. If they make enough money off of them I would hope that they can add different and better clips and take out the padding. I've paid more for a lot less, and you'll find a lot--and I really mean A LOT--to learn and like from these DVDs.

Very comprehensive and useful review. Much appreciated.