Hi
Does anyone know the latest on the problem regarding obtaining public liability insurance here in the UK? Although I have no problem performing my paranormal act in cabaret, etc. I have given up doing the hypnotic aspect due to an apparent ban on supplying insurance to stage hypnotists. Does anyone know if this is the case with all insurance companies or just those backed by Lloyds of London?
I have seen the Paul McKenna show heavily advertised in the national newspapers, for his shows around Great Britain, so obviously he must be getting cover some how. Or is it, as I presume, available at an extortionate price?

What's the story? How long is this going to continue? Is there any way round it? Is it legal? Many questions? And is this the same in the States and across the globe?

The Paranormalist

The current situation in the UK is that there is not a single insurance company in this country that will provide public liability insurance for stage hypnotism acts. This is not the result of a "ban" of any kind, but a purely commercial decision on the part of insurance firms. Last year, Phil Damon, a stage hypnotist, was successfully sued by a woman whom he had hypnotised in a private show at a sports club, who claimed it led to psychological damage, because she had been age-regressed to the age of nine, which she claimed brought back memories of horrific child abuse which supposedly led to severe depression, suicide attempts, and so on, for years afterwards.

As Mr. Damon was a declared bankrupt, he didn't have the money to effectively challenge such a ridiculous claim, which had no scientific or other support. With a jury trial, the person with the more impressive-sounding lawyer generally wins the case, and this is what happened. This set a legal precedent that stage hypnotists can be successfully sued in UK courts, so no insurance company will provide us with public liability insurance.

This poses a real problem, because under the Hypnotism Act 1952, if you do a stage hypnosis show which is open to the public in the UK, you have to get a license from the local town council, who demand proof of public liability insurance before granting a license. In the case of the Paul McKenna shows, it is possible that the shows were planned and the local councils granted a license before the insurance problem arose, or that Mr. McKenna has managed to make a special and unique deal with an insurance firm to provide insurance at some astronomical price (after all, he is worth millions and has very good lawyers who successfully defeated a widely-reported High Court lawsuit against him in the 1990s).

A private show of stage hypnotism (for instance, performed to members of a club, students at a college, or guests at a private party) can lawfully take place without the need for a license, but there is still the risk of being sued and losing everything in the event of a successful lawsuit.

Many UK stage hypnotists have moved to Spain, where they perform to tourists in bars and hotels, and no license is required to put on a stage hypnotism act. I performed a stage hypnosis show (with a bit of comic mentalism thrown in) at a hotel in Spain earlier this year, where the hotel's insurance covered the insurance situation (and in any case, the Spanish legal system is very different from that of the UK and a successful lawsuit against a stage hypnotist of the sort mentioned above would be practically impossible.)

In the US, as far as I know, there has never been a successfully lawsuit of this sort against a stage hypnotist, and insurance for stage hypnotists is available. However, US insurance firms won't cover stage hypnotists performing in the UK.

In short, it's a real bummer...

Thank you Dr Omni for your reply.
I appreciate everything you state and I also had a look at your web page. Obviously you’re still advertising, does this mean you and a lot of other hypnotists in the UK are taking a gamble? Is it worth the gamble? I don't know! A real problem!

Something that has crossed my mind might be a solution to our problem. I remember going to see a 'Hypnotic' show many moons ago, in fact as I still have the theatre programme, it was 1976. The Paul Goldin Show, at the Broadway theatre in Kilburn, London. I know it was a long time ago, but the unique thing about this show, was that through out the performance and in the publicity leading up to the show Mr. Goldin stated, "that no one was going to be hypnotised". I have even still got the flyer advertising the show, from which I quote: - "IT IS NOT HYPNOTISM. THERE ARE NO SIDE EFFECTS. AND ANYWAY, YOU DON'T HAVE TO TAKE PART, IT IS JUST AS MUCH FUN WATCHING."
Through out the show he took this 'Hypnotism is not taking place' presentation and went ahead and did the usual show, we all do!

Mr. Goldin probably took this approach because he was performing at a theatre in London governed by the requirements of the Greater London Council.
Needless to say the show was very successful, but could this be one possible solution to our problem? Leaving out all suggestion that Hypnotism is taking place.

The Paranormalist

Here in Edinburgh there is a stage hypnotist 'Myster A' who is doing performances - I don't know what his situation is regarding insurance.

BB

Martin Taylor, a UK hypnotist, has an unusual approach. Check out his website: http://www.hypnotism.co.uk/

Paranormalist - I still advertise my stage hypnosis show, partly because I have still done a few performances outside the UK in the past year (in Spain and the US), where insurance is covered by the venue where I’m performing. Also, if someone booked me to do a private show in the UK, I'd probably do it, despite the risk of being sued, provided that I took such precautions as videoing the entire show and also getting volunteers to sign waivers indemnifying me against being sued.

There is a loophole in the Hypnotism Act 1952 that enables a public stage hypnosis show to take place without a license from the local council. If you announce the show in its advertising and publicity material as being "for scientific research purposes", then, strictly speaking, you can legally put on such a show to the public without getting a license. The stage hypnotist you mentioned probably took that route. I've heard that there are still a few stage hypnotists doing the same today, here and there. Essentially, they hand out questionnaires to the volunteers, asking them questions about their hypnotic experiences while on stage, and commit to publishing the results as a "scientific survey". However, even this route is difficult, as the stage hypnotist is still taking a risk of being sued (and quite possibly the venue where the show is being held would be reluctant to allow such a show in case they get sued, too. Now that lawyers in the UK are legally allowed to take cases on a "no-win, no-fee" basis, it would cost a volunteer nothing to try his or her luck in the courts. So, quite honestly, I wouldn't recommend it.

The Hypnotist who doesn't use Hypnosis.....http://www.hypnotism.co.uk/

I don't know if anyone has noticed? "We are not using hypnosis" "hypnotism without hypnosis" is a hypnotic command! The brain can't process a negative. For example DO NOT picture a pink cow with blue spots!

In other words these descriptions of stage shows have embedded commands to actually be hypnotised. "I am a hypnotist who doesn't use hypnosis". This phrase has the reader or listener internally processing the idea of being hypnotised twice. But suggested indirectly it bypasses the current resistance to stage shows.

It's just as much using hypnosis as any method. However the induction may be informal rather than formal and the initial presentation may be different.

There is also a lot of causal modeling going on in the reasons as to how this works "without hypnosis". In other words expectation is built in just as it is in the usual stage shows. But it is done indirectly therefore attempting to bypass resistance.

He also claims that there is no such thing as hypnosis, which would also suggest that traditional stage shows also work on the same principles he is using. This means by his own descriptions they are one and the same with a variation in presentation. (Courts may not share his view that there is no such thing as hypnosis).

If that is the case then how can he claim that his method is safer when the only difference is he "hypnotises" them with their eyes open. What evidence exits to suggest that this is a safer method than with eyes closed? I think if he were to be sued by someone his claims wouldn't protect him.

I know it may seem like it but I wasn't suggesting that hypnosis is being used, in fact I was describing how its possible to get similar results using indirect suggestion without actually using any suggestion at all

Well the problem still remains. Is there any way we can get around performing in this country without public liability insurance? You would think Equity would be working for us. Is this the end?

I must say I very much enjoy working the paranormal act but I also wanted to include some form hypnotic suggestion, hypnotic or otherwise. I even thought of using it pre-show, needless to say with difficulty.
Any thoughts????

The Paranormalist

The best way to resolve the insurance issue is for a group of hypnotists to band together and seek an experienced insurance broker in the entertainment field to negotiate on their behalf. While a company may be relucatant to insure an individual hypnotist, they may reconsider if several hundred are prepared to pay for coverage.

As long as there is a sufficient pool of capital created to pay whatever claims may be anticipated and allow some profit. It should be acceptable to an insurer.

To be fair to Equity (this is the trade union for actors and entertainers in Britain, for those outside the UK), of which I'm a member, they have done their best to find an insurer to will cover stage hypnotists, but without any success. Their current insurance firm excludes both stage hypnotists and pyrotechicians (fire-eaters, etc) from public liability insurance, and I've heard that lion-tamers have a tough time of it as well.

If you want to perform a stage hypnosis show in the UK at a *private* event (for instance, students at a college, employees of a company, a private party), you may still do so lawfully without a licence. If you do such a show, in order to protect yourself against a lawsuit I'd recommend videoing the entire show, making a strong requirement at the beginning that people with histories of mental illness should not volunteer, and getting everyone who *does* volunteer to sign a legal disclaimer. Also, avoid any routines involving age regression (if you use a routine in which the volunteers are supposed to act like children, then spell out that they are *not* to go back to their own childhoods, but merely to *act* like kids). Also, to be frank with you, when people start a lawsuit, they generally do so only if the target seems to be "worth suing", i.e. they own their own home and perhaps other concrete assets. A stage hypnotist who does not own his own home or other visible assets is much less likely to get sued, as it's unlikely the plaintiff will collect anything in the event of winning the case. (Law has little to do with justice.)

However, if you already perform a paranormal, or mentalist, or magic act, and it is advertised as such without mentioning the word hypnosis, and you simply want to add a few hypnotic effects to your act, then you should be safe from lawsuits, provided that you never mention the word "hypnosis" in your show. At his recent stage show, a certain very well-known TV celebrity mentalist resident in Bristol performed some routines which included the induction of an altered state of awareness (for instance, though the handshake induction and counting backwards from 500 while performing a task) in several of the volunteers who came on stage. The word "hypnosis" was never mentioned either in the publicity material or verbally in the show. In the unlikely event that some spoilsport was to sue him, he could claim that it was simply magic tricks, involving no hypnosis. It would be impossible to prove it one way or the other. If you follow the same path, I'm sure you'll be fine, so long as you don't mention the "H" word.

Thank you for the advice Dr Omni, especially your thoughts in the final part of your last reply. It has certainly given me something to think about.
Also out of curiosity, does anyone know if there are any routines that the dealers are currently marketing, or possibly in print that can be passed off as subliminal suggestion, or pseudo hypnosis? I know the hot seat and hot foil or ball, but anything else? Thanks.

The Paranormalist

For the Paranormalist: Docc Hilford has a treatise on the venerable Ball & Tube where the prop is dusted off and used to induce and ratify a trance state. At one point the ball is made to appear to shrink and grow in the participants hands. Kenton Knepper contributes some ideas as well and Docc proposes ways to use the resultant trance to hypnotically enhance subsequent effects. You might also want to check out Richard Busch's Mind Over Number for an example of how he applies the premise of hypnosis to improve on an old effect.

As far as passing off an effect as subliminal suggestion, let me share an idea of mine. Essentially, I take the idea of the "instant magic square" and turn it on its head. After briefly introducing the idea of subliminal suggestion, I offer the example of how it was used in movie theaters to influence patrons to buy food and beverages via flashing messages on the screen so quickly that they couldn't be seen consciously but impacted the subconscious via subliminal suggestion. I then quickly flash (the quick flash neatly justified by the theater example) a completed magic square and ask the participant to name the first two-digit number that comes to mind. Using the methods described in any of the instant square routines (check out Doug Dyment's Mindsights, Boarde's One on One Mentalism and the dealer item The Stockholder, among others, for info on how to create the instant square illusion) I then go on to show how the square must have subliminally influenced them since the number they thought they freely chose is produced every which way in the square itself. In my experience, the participant responds by questioning their susceptibility to subliminal suggestion rather than wondering how I learned to add so quickly. IMO, a much more desirable result. And like with Docc's Ball & Tube, this presentation tends to leave them open to other forms of suggestion.
Hope this helps, feel free to PM me if you need more info.

It's a new slant to me Bill. And darn good thinking. I like the premise. Don't recall seeing it in print before.

Larry

Thanks, Larry! You made my night. I referenced the above post on the Knight's Tour - What a Stunner Thread (in response to a comment on Marc Salem's presentation of the square), asking if anyone knew of the square being presented like I suggest. As I said there, I don't want to take credit for something that isn't mine. FYI, this square presentation was first described in an article I contributed to 73 Hours, the book that accompanied the 72 Hours convention. The article was primarily focused on Milton Erickson and had a section on applying his style of thinking to bypass participant resistance by "shutting down" the analytical mind. I used the above presentation of the square as an example of this process

"Hypno-tricks" (i.e., impressive-looking routines which seem to be hypnotic effects but are not really) have long been a part of the stage hypnotist's repertoire. Ormond McGill's "New Encyclopedia of Stage Hypnosis" has a section on them. Also, Val Andrews (a venerable British entertainer and writer) wrote a manuscript called "Hypno-tricks" which contains some excellent stuff, including patter to go with them (I think the MS dates from the 1950s).

I would point out that Jonathan Royle did release an ebook that he included in his CD that covers several methods that he suggests to get around the current problem with stage hypnosis in the UK. I do realize that he is not always considered highly, I have read the manuscript and it does seem to provide a possible way around the licensing and insurance issues.

Hasn't Royle done time for a publicity stunt that went wrong? (I may be wrong). If that is the case I don't think usiing his methods are advised!

Stage hypnotism insurance is now available in the UK from 2 different sources remember. I noticed this hasnt been posted in for quite sometime

Rob

robert@comedyhypnosis.co.uk