On the hypnosis board of one of the magic forums I belong to, a question was asked of the members of whether or not one can do waking hypnosis with someone who doesn’t know you’re a hypnotist. My first response to that sort of question is to determine what sort of effect one was after and what the context was. So often, folks ask those sorts of questions in the hopes of hypnotizing hot babes to start making out or more. In this case, the example effect was to stick someone’s hand to their face using waking hypnosis methods with someone who does not know you are a hypnotist.
I have done this a number of times. Typically, I simply said somethng along the lines that I wanted to play an "imagination game" . . . then I went into rigid arm suggestibility effect and from thee converted it into a routine of sticking the hand in different places. This is a blast with the stick stuck to hands effect as well – here is a video of the process http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN8tyMb3tp4 although the girl in this video knows I am a hypnotist (this is done from waking state). Some of my students have learned the variant I do of this where instead of a stick you use your business card and then let them keep the card as a souvenir of the experience. A lot of folks respond very very well to the "drunker and drunker" suggestibility effect which can be a wonderful stage or street induction whether the person knows you’re a hypnotist or not if they follow the directions they will feel wonderful (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEEzv99u898 for a great clip).
So many hypnotists ignore suggestibility effects without realizing they can be a LOT of fun for your trance partners, are quick and easy, and they ARE hypnosis inductions in their own right with out without eye closure! If you look on the youtube at http://www.youtube.com/user/briandavidphillips there are a number of examples (or check the video section of my webpages at http://www.briandavidphillips.com).
If you are unfamiliar with suggestibility effects, there is a comprehensive list in the "resources" section of my webpage at http://www.briandavidphillips.com with explanations of how to do them. Of course, my comprehensive core hypnosis DVDs at http://www.briandavidphillips.net/store have explanations and demonstrations of all of the listed effects as well as other hypnotic processes (few programs demonstrate so many suggestibility effects as hypnotic processes and there are some processes in that set that aren’t commonly available elsewhere – yes, that’s a product pitch so click on the blasted link . . . oh, better still . . . imagine you are looking deeply into my eyes and finding yourself inexplicably relaxed and feeling good as you continue to breathe in and out and relax more and more deep deeper deeply into a pleasant feeling as you find yourself clicking on that link NOW and ordering that wonderful product for yourself NOW and knowing that deep deeper deeply in those special places deep within in where all those pleasant thoughts dwell you can now enjoy the sweet, pleasant, wonderful anticipation of that special package coming to you soon . . . er, or, something like that . . . although, kidding aside, it really is a solid product with a ton of material not covered elsewhere while hitting all the major bases for the core basic hypnosis skills, so if you haven’t bought it yet you really should).
Seriously, for the most part, you just need to have some confidence in yourself and in your process and you will be fun. Make it a playful experience and have fun with it. If you present whatever you are doing as a fun imagination game then you are set. Sometimes I will use a suggestibility effect as an icebreaker and then introduce the hypnosis concepts for more obvious hypnotic fun.
Of course, Kreskin used to do a whole slew of hypnotic effects without a formal induction (while claiming hypnosis didn’t exist). Ormond McGill would play with eyes open suggestibility effects as inductions quite a bit to and you will find a few performers doing them at venues in locales where stage hypnosis is restricted but suggestion is not. Some mentalists will use them as hedge effects to demonstrate their "psychic" powers and the like as well.
I hope this has been helpful.
All the best,
Brian
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Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [brian@briandavidphillips.com]
Hypnotist, Hypnotherapist, Intuitionist, Trance Wizard
President, Society of Experiential Trance
Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan
http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com
