More discussion on responsibility, hypnosis performance, and just plain weirdness.

My friend’s student went to a Marshall Silver workshop at a Learning Annex in New York. My friend’s student is a very deep trance subject. Marshall held a burning torch to her hand, and then created a full body catalepsy and stood on her for thirty seconds.

Ah, Marshall Sylver (note the spelling), the man whose success we envy and so love to hate. 🙂 He’s slick, he’s polished, he’s powerful. He’s also a very easy and very visible target. His real name is Marshall Walter Sylwesterzak and he is a Master of Marketing and High Pressure Sales and King of the Big Effect, an infomercial guru. While you may not approve of portions of his shtick, the guy is a master showman and pressure salesman.
Marshall Sylver uses firewalking, firebreathing, torch touch (aka, fire pass), glass walking, and human bridge effects as part of his motivational training seminars. He’s also been known to use magician’s tricks such as the impalement bit and pass them off as bona fide mind effects. They’re big effects and they demonstrate to people very vividly that they have dealt with fears. The effects in and of themselves are not hypnotic, they can all be accomplished without the hypnosis but for most folks they don’t realize this so the trancework helps them focus and get past the fear that is stopping them. They appear very dangerous but he does control the environment and context to a degree (under uncontrolled circumstances these can be potentially very dangerous indeed).
It can be a very powerful experience.
While I have never seen him live . . . although I did discover he has been to Taiwan a few times doing big sell expensive seminars for corporate and political types . . . I have tapes of Marshall’s stage show from when he was starting out and was not particularly well polished to his big Las Vegas slickness show. His basic presentation is pretty much the same . . . however, it should be noted that while he does what we might all consider to be big and potentially dangerous effects, he does control the environment (particularly once he got into the big Las Vegas shows where the theatre required a large number of checks and double checks for safety – casinos never put their guests at risk, it would be bad business), he uses a safety disclaimer, and gains an open agreement of consent that puts the onus of responsibility on his guest for complying.
He also controls the environment while making the effect seem much more powerful than it is. In all honesty, the potential for harm is not nearly as high in one of his shows as in others but it is definitely there and his promotional practices and framing of the effects leave much to be desired. His early shows were much more freewheeling and had more potential for mistakes and accidents than his post-Las Vegas presentations. However, having said that . . . while you and I might be concerned about safety issues and just plain misrepresentation and the like inherent in these sort of effects, how many accidents – real harm to real people – have you actually come across in regard to his or other contemporary performers’ shows?
He is a master of consent gaining . . . Cialdini’s laws of influence hard at work. Now, if you ask your friend’s student (sounds like “friend’s cousin’s uncle’s niece” a la nine out of ten urban legends . . . but as I am familiar with Sylver’s process I have no doubts that what you’ve reported is true), and find out what was said just prior to the arm burn (which is actually NOT a burn, it is a fire pass which gets the fire close enough to the skin to feel the heat but it is moved in such a manner that the fire never touches as single spot long enough to burn anything – it is potentially very scary but as long as it is done properly, it is safe . . . the art of misdirection, expectation, and illusion combined with the power of positive thining and fear removal) you will note that Marshall asks permission. For the human bridge effect, Marshal ALWAYS approaches would-be volunteers who he has selected from a group for natural somnambules or “deep trance subjects” he never does the effect with folks who are not natural somnambules so he has high confidence of acceptance of the suggestions and of compliance throughout the duration of the effect . . . he always asks if the person has any medical issues, bad heart, bad back, pregnancy, or any other reason that he should not do the effect and when he gets a no, he then “would it be alright if I demonstrate to you the power of the mind and cause your body to be straight and rigid as a steel bar and stand upon you, say yes” . . . while the rest is okay in that he is checking to make sure everything is okay and no health dangers are in evidence, the sleazy part is that he is talking to folks who have been tranced out for a good hour or two and he asks permission and throws in the “say yes” bit at the end which is a clear suggestion . . . of the six Marshall Sylver shows I have on videotape (I love stage hypnosis and will study anyone and everyone), I have never seen him fail to get compliance and agreement. BTW, the full thirty second stand may not have been quite so long, through time dilation it seems much longer and – at least in his big shows – he will often wear a harness for “safety and balance in case he should fall” which bears some of his weight (big men should NEVER stand on top of smaller women . . . although, it should be noted that in the human bridge effect, the proper arch of the back for the effect creates a natural support upon which one really can support more weight than without the arch . . . and every time I have seen Sylver do the effect (six shows with three women in each show), he does it correctly . . . basic architecture for stable structures and all that . . . not as dangerous as it appears but as a lot of folks do get back injuries and the like when doing it improperly one wonders why take the risk).
Okay, now . . . Marshall looks like a big guy on stage when he does this effect in part because he always selects small women. It just looks so powerful when he builds a staircase out of three women and climbs up the stairs (it is visually a very powerful effect). But, there is still a trick to his technique . . . the women are in no danger of harm as long as everything is done properly, particularly when he uses the “safety harness” to offset some of his weight and he does not stand in vulnerable positions . . . I’ve seen him misstep though so it can have some real potential harm risks (just as his firewalking and glass walking are controlled effects). Honestly, for the most part (but not always) when Sylver does his big effects he’s controlled the environment to a degree that the ladies are in no real danger (he uses illusion and presentation in much of the actual effect).
I would strongly suggest that you watch his show sometime and note how he paces and gains compliance. He builds a yes set pattern that is very effective . . . may or may not agree with his framing but watch the how he builds the pattern. He truly is very good at what he does and understands how to apply influence and persuasion laws as well as and marketing principles better than most.
He’s a big effect guy as his Passion, Profit, and Power programs are big effect sales pitches that appeal to very basic needs for a kind of almost supernatural power over one’s destiny via power (all of his events dovetail into high pressure sales).
However, he also has to protect himself and part of protecting himself is to 1. minimize risk to the guest who is a customer and 2. shift any possible responsibility to the customer through consent acts. The first strategy is sensible, the second can be both a legal necessity in today’s world but the way it is done on stage often makes it feel a little more on the sleazy side to me.
This is my opinion, those of you who know Marshall may have different opinions . . . personally, I respect that he is highly successful in the niche that he has created and that he does very well at what he does. He definitely is very skilled.
There are portions of his approach that I find very compelling even though there are bits which I am very very against (such as the big non-hypnotic effects that are potentially dangerous if repeated in uncontrolled circumstances) . Actually, I respected his general approach much more before I saw the Weird Weekends episode with Louis Theroux where the Sylver organization and Sylver came off as a bit beyond ineffectual and sleazy . . . and in the same episode Theroux also did a bit with Ross Jeffries of Speed Seduction fame and Ross came off much better than Sylver, really a LOT better with full congruence and as very effective . . . actually, in my opinion, while Sylver and his people with their “no challenge” parroting and high pressure sales came off very poorly, Ross Jeffries really came out of the program looking very good and very helpful with some very powerful stuff . . . I went into the program knowing Ross’s material with a lot of reservations and admiring a lot of Sylver does and came out with a much lower opinion of Sylver and a very very much higher opinion of Jeffries . . . go figure).

This happened two weeks ago. She very excitedly emailed my friend to tell her that this happened.

Of course she was excited. This is very powerful stuff. Imagine, she was able to face her fears and do something that in no stretch of her wildest imagination could she have ever imagined doing before. She had an immediate and powerful demonstration of just how powerful her mind can be at facing and dealing with fears. On her end, it was a very positive experience.
> But this is the kind of thing that I’m talking about. It’s just plain dumb. DUMB! Am I crazy to say let’s be careful? Well yes, I probably am crazy. But, hey, maybe we should be careful anyway.
Dumb? Over the top and perhaps sleazy in terms of business model, but he isn’t dumb and he does “attempt” to minimize risks to a degree (albeit, from what I’ve seen, there are still minor accidents that could very easily be avoided and the risks could be eliminated completely by not playing into the game of those sort of stunts).
However, please do keep in mind that Sylver is not the typical hypnotist, the gimmicks and effects and high pressure sales tactics he uses are not typical . . . so, to say “we should be careful” is not wholly appropriate . . . Sylver would certainly counter with a statement that he is careful and that his guests are safe at all times . . . personally, I would eliminate those effects but when I present hypnosis I want to focus on the hypnosis and not on the big illusion or effect.
While I personally have on a very large number of occasions been openly critical of human bridges, fire walking, glass walking, fire passes, and needle through the flesh effects as part of hypnotic entertainment (one of my big time pet peeves) . . . quite often specifically mentioning Sylver’s format when doing so . . . we also should note that before attacking Sylver, how many accidents have there been? He may seem foolhardy, but he does control his environment . . . not to the degree I am comfortable with, but he is also not as irresponsible as some of the other folks out there right now who are doing much more potentially dangerous effects (albeit, even there the number of actual accidents or harm to the public is far less than the perception of danger and harm . . . which does not make such effects okay).
Of course, as to Sylver . . . one can see that he is very good at what he does . . . his webpages . . . and his legal troubles associated with his activities (a grand jury indicted him in April 2003 on nine felony counts of obtaining money under false pretenses in relationship to his Millionaire Mentorship program, mistrial Dec. 2003).
It’s easy for some of us to poke at him for being irresponsible or a charlatan or whatever . . . accusations that may or may not have some bearing . . . but, the truth of it is, we may also just be a little on the jealous side of certain elements of his success. Personally, I am both critical of large chunks of his performance and business model but I’m also incredibly jealous of his success . . . but I also both admire and loathe him at one and the same time . . . so take my views with perhaps a grain of salt. The guy really is a Master Showman . . . even when the audience doesn’t realize it’s a show.
All the best,
Brian