Hi everyone,

As I have been getting more serious with mentalism I feel my style would benefit from some hypnosis training. I know in the UK the are laws and regulations, which I have tried to research but there is quite a lot of unclear, or even contradictory information on the web.

So basically, before I get myself into trouble I was hoping someone in the know could clarify a few points for me.

First, many places in the UK offer courses in many kinds of hypnosis, but I can't seem to find out which courses lead to a certificate that would allow me to practice hypnosis for entertainment. Am I looking for courses backed by a certain governing body? Maybe you could recommend someone?

Second, how is pseudo hypnosis affected by these laws?

Third (this may just be expanding on the second), if I'm right in believing that the hypnosis act only covers cases were a "trance state" is used, how would that affect, say, Patrick Redford's Souitibma Drac (His amnesia effect). without going into the method, a real induction is part of the patter, but no trance. And what about effects that don't use "real hypnosis", but gets you to ask spectators to close their eyes and relax. Would this not technically be a trance state?

Hopefully you can see I have done some independent research, but I want to be 100% sure about how I go about this. Thanks in advance for any help.

Ricky.

There is no body or certificate that is recognised in any kind of hypnosis in the UK. You need a license and insurance for doing a proper stage show but that would not apply to any of what you mentioned above.

Aha, great! I've found the relevant "license". You can apply for one on the UK Government website, it's under "Hypnosis Permit" if anyone else is interested. Thanks for the help, seems I've been confusing laws from all over the world...

Also the insurance is something I hadn't considered, so I'm glad you mentioned it. I'll have to make sure I look into that. Thanks again for the pointers mindpunisher.

If you are just doing mentalism and not a proper stage hypnosis show you won't need a hypnosis permit/license which is a pain in the but as you need one for each venue. You won't need special insurance for hypnosis either. Its up to you whether you get public liability insurance for performers. But its not needed for hypnosis if your not doing a stage hypnosis show.

You are correct that the phrase 'trance state' under the 1952 Hypnosis act has not been properly defined and, to the best of my knowledge, has never been tested in court. When the act was written, the only thing hypnotists did back then was to dangle a pocketwatch or use some other method to make the subject 'sleep.'

Hypnosis today is recognised as being more about persuasion than trance. Some people do not even need an induction for this to happen. Authority and their belief in your abilities can lead to compliance simply by you making a direct suggestion. NLP and other persuasion techniques take us further away from the need for a 'trance state'

I think a licence is only needed for theatres and other formal events. House parties or other places where you are a guest (i.e. not for the general public) are probably exempt.

As regards insurance, you may find that hypnosis is excluded in the small print. There are some specialist companies that will give cover for hypnosis work.

More important than any insurance is the use of common sense.
Avoid anyone making a 'claim' against you by:-

getting their clear permission/consent to take part.
checking they have no current/recent clinical mental conditions.
having at least one other person you/they trust present to step in if they think the subject is distressed.
reminding the subject they can come out of hypnosis at any time.
making all suggestions fun, clean, appropriate and safe. (e.g. don't suggest they feel ill or just experienced an electric shock)
reminding them that your suggestions only apply tonight, in this place, only my voice, etc.
removing all suggestions at the end of the performance (e.g. you feel fit and well, you will never forget your name again, etc)

The 1952 hypnotism Act gives the right to licence a public demonstration of hypnosis attached to an entertainment. So just don't do entertaining hypnosis.

The answer to the original question is that you don't need a hypnotic license for pseudo hypnosis and mentalism "demo's". Getting permits is a pain in the arse for working stage hypnotists. Unless you are going to do full blown shows and advertise them to the public YOU DON'T NEED A PERMIT.

Personal Injury lawyers have never been so busy these days I know because I have personal Injury Lawyers as clients. I do their marketing and advertising for them. If you are doing regular shows you should really be insured these days its not worth he risk. Insurance companies are famous for getting out of paying out.

If a case went to court I don't think arguing about the trance state would come into it. there would most likely be an injury claim of some kind involved. The argument would be about proving professional negligence and liability. If you had no permit and proper insurance that would only go against you.

Just to give you an idea my clients recently took on a case whereby someone's large aggressive dog tore a hole in someone's arm. They only take cases on that are more than likely to win because they do it no win no fee. They were finding out out if the defendant owned their own home etc. They would then take that case on based upon the fact that they can make someone sell their house to pay out compensation if they lose the case. These guys only take on cases they are sure they can win. Personally I wouldn't do any public shows without proper insurance or permits but that's something you have to decide yourself.

As for the definition of the trance state with regards to NLP. Most NLP curriculums teach that we are constantly in trance. We exchange one trance state for another multiple times everyday. If you look up trance in the dictionary all it means is an internal focus. So day dreaming, depression, reliving a good night out etc are all trance states. Are all natural functions of the mind. Most of the time we move in and out of trance and project internal subjective experience onto reality as we do. A lot of the influence and notion around everyday trance comes from Milton Erickson.

Stage hypnosis utilizes natural trance by focusing and compounding the imagination to render the volunteers more suggestible. Its a demonstration of how the mind works naturally. There ios nothing supernatural or mystical about this. And I think this is where the big "argument" whether it exists or not is really just a misunderstanding between the two camps. Its more semantical than anything else.

I doubt if needing to prove trance exists or not would be important in a court case more likely if the hypnotist had been negligent and being found liable for some kind of injury.