 Many of the misunderstandings that occur about hypnosis stem from the not always strictly ethical performances given by stage hypnotists. The audience can often be confused as to what they are witnessing. Is it a trick, with the participants just pretending to be hypnotized? Or does the hypnotist possess some supernatural powers that he exercises over his subjects? Skeptics will also say that anything you can do under hypnosis you can also do without hypnosis. For example it is possible to pretend to act like a monkey or even make your body go rigid. However, what about peeling an onion without your eyes watering? You can’t normally but you can under hypnosis! What about conducting surgery on a haemophiliac without loss of blood? It’s possible with hypnosis, but not under any other circumstances!
The successful stage hypnotist is a professional, proficient at his job and can earn a substantial income. To be a good stage hypnotist though, you need to firstly have an attitude based on encouraging fun, laughter and happiness amongst your audience. You must be ethical and rate your subject’s goodwill and protection above your own.
Unfortunately, the performances of some stage hypnotists tend to undermine the confidence of many people with regard to the very genuine and therapeutic uses of hypnosis.
The professional stage hypnotist brings hypnosis down to the public level and he does not try to represent it as something mysterious, secretive or beyond the average person’s comprehension.
As a stage hypnotist, the first step is to carefully select your subjects. This can be done in a number of different ways but rapport between the subject and hypnotist is paramount. The stage hypnotist is really only interested in the top 10% of people in terms of suggestibility. However, It is equally true to say that virtually all volunteers who go on stage are totally aware of what they are letting themselves in for and are keen to cooperate with the hypnotist.
The Shake Hands Technique
One simple selection method used by some hypnotists is to simply shake hands with each prospect. If the subject’s hand is warm he is viewed as a good prospect. Conversely, if the hand is cold he will be considered a poor prospect. This technique once used to be a fairly closely guarded secret among stage hypnotists!
Other more involved, and arguably better selection methods, involve tests such as inability to unlock hands or falling tests. The important thing though, is that the subjects finally chosen are all of high suggestibility to hypnosis.
Once selected, the induction process takes place. This can be accomplished in many different ways but the end result is the same – relaxation of mind and body and restricted focus of attention.
Possible dangers of stage hypnosis
It should be noted that in stage and television shows, you are not usually made privy to the initial selection process and it is easy to conclude that incredible powers are taking place. You might see the hypnotist just snap his fingers and the subject does exactly what he is told. Unfortunately, this can convey the idea to many people that undergoing hypnosis is a somewhat risky business and can deter them from personally having anything to do with hypnosis, hypnotherapy or hypno-anything!
A real danger factor associated with stage hypnosis though, is that the hypnotist generally knows nothing about the people he selects, apart from the fact that they are very suggestible. A person selected by him could have emotional or medical problems that could be seriously compromised if they were asked maybe to go back to an earlier stage of their life or asked to perform some strenuous task. In the interests of the safety of the general public therefore, a stage hypnotist should preferably be a qualified and practising hypnotherapist who prepares his act carefully and can quickly recognise any unusual reactions to his suggestions.
 Recently, a number of hypnotherapists have been highly critical of a currently popular TV hypnotist. In one show, which has been dubbed by them as being cruel and pushing the limits too far, this hypnotist gave some of his subjects the suggestion that they were about to be hung. In another show he had a subject believe he was about to give birth to a water-melon. The hypnotist pretended to help deliver the water-melon and then raised the water-melon above his head and smashed it on the ground!
No doubt the audience thought this all very amusing, but how about the subjects? Under hypnosis, a subject's critical faculty has been bypassed and therefore he or she actually believes what they have been told is happening to them. Such stage hypnosis performances may be entertaining to the audience, but could prove very risky in terms of the welfare of the subjects.
It should be noted however, that under normal conditions, and in the hands of a reputable hypnotist, hypnosis is never dangerous. The only possible downside may be that nothing actually happens!
Hypnosis and Somnambulism
Literally, the word somnambulism means ‘sleepwalking’ and in this literal sense has nothing to do with hypnosis. However, there is a level in hypnosis in which a subject can open his eyes yet not disturb his hypnotic state and this is also referred to by hypnotists as somnambulism.
Most hypnotists acknowledge 3 levels of trance state…
Light trance: Characterised by immobility, relaxed appearance, fluttering of the eyelids and limpness.
Somnambulism: Characterised by selective amnesia (ie can be produced by suggestion), and the ability to maintain the trance with eyes open.
Esdaille state: Characterised by total immobility ie inability to move any muscle, inability to speak, automatic anaesthesia and catatonia (waxen-like state in which limbs remain in any position they are placed)
Deepening a trance is best explained as a continued stimulation of emotion and the depth of trance achieved will depend on the intensity of that stimulation. The time spent on the stimulation is not especially important. Depth can be achieved almost instantly if the emotion is intense enough! In stage hypnosis, it would be rare for a subject to reach the Esdaille state. Most stage hypnosis is carried out with the subjects only in either of the first two trance states.
Age Regression
This is an important part of all hypnoanalysis, but age regression is also often used as part of stage hypnosis.
It refers to the experience of a hypnotized person in which he or she mentally goes back in time to recall or re-live some earlier experience. Under hypnosis we all have a remarkable ability to recall significant events that are inaccessible to normal conscious memory.
Hypnotherapists differ widely in their views on the accuracy of outcomes from age-regression but all hypnoanalysts believe in its clinical validity.
Age-regression is of two types: Recall regression and Re-living regression.
The Recall type of regression involves enhanced remembering on an intellectual level, without emotional content. Therefore, in Recall age regression, a person remembers the experience, maybe seeing it in great detail, but only as an observer and not as a participant. He will recall his earlier experiences much as if he were watching a movie.
In Re-living regression a person re-lives an experience as a participant, and, as such, also experiences more emotion than as a mere observer.
Put more simply, in the Recall type age regression the person describes the experience as he thought about it at the time. In the Re-living type of regression, the person describes the experience as he felt about it at the time.
The most important type of age regression to a hypnoanalyst is the Re-living type. This is because a person is enabled to not only recall the experience or experiences that caused his problem, but to also actually re-live the emotional content, thereby realizing the importance of the experience and then release the pent-up emotion from his unconscious.
However, sometimes the Recall type of age regression is preferable. If the repressed event is, at that time, far too emotional for the person to handle, then it will be better to simply recall it rather than re-live it.
If the present-tense is used by the hypnoanalyst then the Re-living type of age regression tends to result. If the past-tense is used, then any emotional content tends to be overlooked and Recall regression results.
It is important to know that a person can be regressed to a relevant event but unless a particular date is extremely relevant to a person’s experience, it is too much to expect a valid age regression to a random date. Regression to a relevant event is possible if the event is memorable in some way – birthdays, Christmases, first day of school etc can all be used as target events in age regression. “Go back to the time when xxxxxxxx happened,” is a suitable direction to a person if the thing that happened was significant to the person at that time.
Under hypnosis, a person will recall many events that are lost to them in a normal waking state, if the event had some significance to them at the time it happened.
Needless to say, it should be obvious that in stage hypnosis, age regression needs to be handled very carefully, particularly if a subject is regressed to any event in their past that was traumatic to them at the time.
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