Tag: stage hypnosis

Hypnosis

Stage Hypnosis – That’s Entertainment!

Written by Connie August 30, 2011June 8, 2013

How many of you have ever seen a stage hypnosis show? Did you wonder (as I did my first time experiencing hypnosis, which happened to be while watching a hypnosis show at the Puyallup Fair): “What IS this???” It’s called “stage hypnosis.” It’s a show, or demonstration, for entertainment purposes, of the power of the human mind. It’s fun. Laughs. Humor. Amusement. Amazement. Did you ask yourself (as I did): “Is it REAL??”

Yes! It’s real! These participants in the hypnosis are actually experiencing new realities. For example, these new realities may involve differences in sensation. As a hypnotic subject in a stage show, you may feel hot while imagining a warm beach, even though the room may be perfectly comfortable temperature. You may experience differences in reality, like speaking a foreign language you have never learned. Even Martian! Differences in other sense experiences of the world, an onion may taste like an apple. Differences in your identity. You may begin singing and dancing believing yourself to be Elvis Presley. What IS this? It’s a freedom of expression and inner creativity. In some cases, simply a license to act goofy. How is the hypnotist MAKING the people do that? They’re not. The participants want to–they are volunteers! It’s NOT mind control.

What does this have to do with hypnotherapy—the application of hypnosis to achieve positive changes in behavior and feeling and thinking? It’s the same power of the mind. The same power of the mind to create new realities. Only, the changes are desired and useful, not silly, and good hypnotherapists make them stick. Hypnosis. It’s a GOOD thing!

Michael and I were in Las Vegas this past weekend, and we went to a stage hypnosis show. And we enjoyed it! The ones in Vegas tend to be adult humor, the ones you might see at the fair are family-oriented humor. We love stage hypnosis. In fact, we’ve both been trained professionally in stage hypnosis, as well as our other trainings. In fact, we’ve both performed stage hypnosis–birthday parties and the like. An understanding of the mind is useful, and all new information gathered is useful. Learning stage hypnosis has made me a better hypnotist, adding to my skill set.

Some people think stage hypnosis is “bad” or less valuable. Nope!! Not at all. It’s for a different purpose. Laughter. And it meets that well. That’s entertainment!

Hypnotherapy is for life change. Your positive changes in behaviors, thoughts, feelings to improve your quality and experience of your time on planet earth. Stage hypnosis and hypnotherapy: same animal, different saddle.

If you’d like to learn more about hypnosis, please check out my videos on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/MindworksHypnosisSea#p/a/u/0/NNiXe2Y2STs

and on my primary website: http://www.mindworkshypnosis.net.

If you like you can also sign up for my FREE monthly e-newsletter which gives the insider scoop on hypnosis and NLP (another animal which is even stronger)–the sign up link is below!

Warm Regards,
Connie

Connie Brannan for Seattle's BEST hypnotherapy & NLP.

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Hypnosis, Musings

What You Didn’t Know About Stage Hypnosis

Written by Connie January 23, 2011June 8, 2013

Michael Brannan, Master Hypnotist & Licensed Trainer of NLP (tm)

by Guest Blogger, C. Michael Brannan, Master Hypnotist & Licensed Trainer of Neuro-Linguistic Programming ™.

Stage hypnosis shows have always been an important way to introduce hypnosis to the general public. Many hypnotherapists, if not most, received their first introduction to hypnosis through a stage hypnosis show. Connie herself was first introduced to hypnosis through a stage hypnosis show.

Connie’s initial reaction, like that of many, was “this can’t be real,” and “they’re all plants.” That reaction is common because most of us are truly unaware of the power and role our unconscious minds play in each and every thing we do. In some cases, stage hypnotism evokes fear!

What’s really going on in a stage hypnosis show? How does what we see in a show relate to hypnotherapy? How does it relate to what we experience in ordinary life? Most people, including most hypnotherapists, haven’t realized yet that every phenomena experienced in hypnosis is experienced by everyone in their ordinary “waking” state!

I went to a hypnosis show yesterday presented as part of World Hypnotism Day (an event sponsored by the National Guild of Hypnotists, Washington State chapter). The response of most of the audience who were not hypnotherapists was one of fascination and interest. And the hypnotic phenomena are truly that.

The hypnotist performed a lot of skits, all displaying the power of the unconscious mind to control our bodies, to enter imaginative realms of fantasy and to access our minds in ways we perhaps didn’t know we could. Stage hypnosis shows are a powerful presentation of the power of the unconscious mind!

In one skit, the hypnotist created amnesia for the number 7, and had the participant then count the number of his fingers. The participant counted..1,2,3,4,5,6,8,9,10,11….have you always had 11 fingers? No, I only have 10 fingers. Anmesia can often be important. What if each time you wanted a cigarette, you simply forgot that you wanted one and continued with whatever you were doing? What if you simply forgot to eat all those unhealthy things that are keeping on those unwanted pounds?

And this experience is something we have in our ordinary life. You know that “tip of the tongue” phenomena? We know something, we know it perfectly, but just can’t get access to it at the moment. Students who study for tests and then “forget” what they learn during the test is common. They haven’t “forgotten” at all; they are just too nervous, anxious or something else to get access to the information. It’s easy to deal with: just give yourself a suggestion to remember, relax, and let your unconscious mind do its work.

The unconscious mind is extraordinarily powerful. It can give or withhold conscious access to information at a mere suggestion. Suggest the number 7 is gone, and, boom, it’s gone. Suggest it’s back, and, boom, it’s back.

The flip side is that the unconscious mind can give access to much more information as well. Suggest to yourself that you will remember more, remember more clearly and you will. In trance, people can recall vivid details and details thought long forgotten. With hypnosis, you can create states where that vivid recollection comes more quickly and more easily than you ever thought possible. And that can carry into your everyday life, allowing you to learn more, learn faster and remember what you’ve learned here.

When we say to ourselves things like “I can’t learn,” “I can’t remember” we are sabotaging ourselves. We are giving ourselves a suggestion, we are telling our unconscious minds to fail at learning, and to “forget.” And those suggestions can be just as effective as the hypnostist’s suggestion to “forget” the number 7. The unconscious is a humble servant–it will do what it is asked to do, so ask it to do things you want it to do.

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Hi, guys! Connie here. Learn more about this fun side of hypnosis here: http://www.onstagehypnosis.com.

As always, we’d love it if you’d sign up for our FREE e-newsletter, “The Monthly Trance.” Form below! It comes out (approximately) monthly, and lets you know what’s going on, hypnotically speaking. For instance, yesterday was our free World Hypnotism Day Event in Bellevue. The Seattle Times NW weekender publication declared it a “best bet” for the weekend, and yes, it was. Thank you to all who came out and participated. We’re so glad you’re getting to know hypnosis.

Warm Regards, Connie

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Hypnosis, Musings

Hollyweird

Written by Connie December 15, 2009June 9, 2013 2 Comments

The Hypnotic Eye, 1960 Hypno-Horror movie

Last night, Michael and I watched a movie. THE HYPNOTIC EYE. 1960 hypno-horror ridiculousness. On the one hand, it is (unintentionally) hilarious–beyond ridiculous, to anyone who understands what hypnosis is and how it works. On the other hand, it is quite disturbing that this movie helped shape beliefs about hypnosis to minds of the 60’s and beyond!

This movie features sadistic, evil, murdering hypnotists! Not just one, but TWO evil hypnotists. Stage hypnotists. Working together on the unsuspecting public to torture and maim. Nice! (NOT!) The male hypnotist also had his hypno-seduction thing going on, too.

Visually, the movie was stunning, and evocative. Black and white. And not just black in color, I think they call it “film noir.” Nice spooky soundtrack.

Hollywood and popular culture sure like to malign hypnosis and hypnotists. It’s not just movies of the 60’s, swirling with hypnowheels and blinking electronics, men with dark, evil eyes and even evil-er intent, and swooning, helpless women. That mystique continues today in popular culture, movies, television. A mystique of fear, and darkness, mind control, and nasty intent. A recent episode of “The Mentalist” (massively popular US television show) featured an evil, murdering hypnotist as well. Also, thieving!

Of course, people who truly feel that hypnosis is dark and dangerous don’t come into my world. They aren’t coming to me for help. So, I really don’t know how prevalent this myth-bound attitude is. When I teach my courses at Bellevue College and with my own school, Mindworks NLP, and even one on one with clients, I ferret out these fear beliefs and counter with what I know is true. And clients and students experience that truth!

Hypnosis is a healing art. It’s natural, and positive. It’s one of the most natural and positive forces in the universe, and it’s not something “being done” to someone else. It’s what we can do inside ourselves and for ourselves. It’s a GOOD thing. Powerful, positive, healing, expanding, beautiful. Natural. We all go in and out of hypnosis every day. Reading, daydreaming, playing on the computer, writing, watching TV, just THINKING, it’s all hypnosis. I’ve always been a thinker, one prone to daytime dreaming, so I’ve always been a hypnotist. You are one, too. I have a hypnosis friend named Skip. He says we’re in a hypnotic state 24/7, only trading one trance for another. I like that idea, too!

So, while these movies and shows are surely entertaining, and might be “fun,” please take it with a grain or two or thousand grains of skepticism when you see, hear, or read in popular culture about all the evil hypnotists and their evil mind control power. Maybe it helps sell movies, but it ain’t reality.

Warm Regards,
Connie

Hypnosis

Michael, Master of the Mind!

Written by Connie October 19, 2009June 9, 2013 3 Comments

Yesterday, Michael put on a comedy stage hypnosis show for hypnosis students, enthusiasts, and professionals. It was FANTASTIC. We’re talkin’ FUN! Entertaining, and fascinating! He’s GOOD! He had zombies dancing, losing body parts, finding body parts, a girl miscounting her fingers, forgetting her name, remembering her name, forgetting her name,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p22YVEZclg

a top secret agent answering her ringing shoe, magic x-ray glasses revealing people in their underwear, and all manner of good clean hypnotic fun.

If you’ve ever seen a stage hypnosis show, it’s an entertainment like no other. Volunteers are guided to trance and then led to experience all manner of hypnotic phenemona in amusing skits, such as I’ve described above. Amnesia. Hallucinations, both positive hallucinations (seeing things that aren’t there, hearing things that aren’t there, smelling things that aren’t there, and so on…) and negative hallucinations (not seeing things that ARE there). Body catalepsy. (Inability to move certain muscle groups, such as an arm or the eyes.) Post hypnotic suggestions. (Engaging in a behavior outside trance triggered by something communicated during trance.) Very cool to see AND experience! It’s performance, it’s art, and ethical performers such as Michael are respectful and never embarass anyone.

Michael and I have both been trained and certified as Professional Stage Hypnotists. Stage hypnosis is fun stuff. It ain’t therapy. Nor is it intended to be. As I said, it’s FUN! Fun that makes people smile and feel good, and laugh. Why not?

Some hypnotherapists look down on stage hypnosis as frivolous and providing a myth-filled, skewed, and erroneous view of hypnosis as mind control, and some stage hypnotists look down on hypnotherapists as unskilled with no professional standards of training and excellence. And no business sense. Both are right, and both are wrong. Personally, I LOVE stage hypnosis. It has value. It has it’s time and its place and its purpose. Entertainment is a good thing. As is education. (Think Mr. Wizard for science!)

I do both, and I love both, clinical hypnotherapy and stage hypnosis. No conflict in my mind! 🙂 As I mention in my personal story about my journey to a life and career and joy in hypnosis, stage hypnosis was my first intro. I believe it is for a lot of people!

Michael, “Master of the Mind,” and I will be putting on more shows in the future. If you’d like to join in on this unique experience, keep your eyes on this space and also on http://www.mindworkshypnosis.net for coming announcements. If you’d like to arrange a private show for your group or place of business, call us! We can do that, too! We’re also in the process of putting together a youtube video of some of the highlights from yesterday. Also keep your eyes here for that link!

Update: Here is the video link to a skit involving “amnesia dust.” 🙂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p22YVEZclg

Here’s another video: the walk of the dreaded ZOMBIES!!

Warm Regards,
Connie