How To Hypnotize People

by Bob Walsh

If you want to learn about hypnosis, then this article will help you to make the first steps into the realm of influencing states of consciousness.
It really is NOT difficult to hypnotize people – in fact, chances are you have done it already several times without knowing it.
Huh?

YOU a hypnotist?

That’s exactly what I’m saying. I bet that in your life, you’ve already told stories to others. Maybe it was reading stories to a kid, maybe it was just “the story” of what you did on vacation or on the weekend.
When you describe another person how you were enjoying a vacation at the beach, how you enjoyed the feeling of the warm sand between your toes and the refreshing coolness of the crystal clear water… that’s pretty much an hypnotic induction already. And if your story was even just a little bit engaging, you might have noticed a glare in your listeners eyes.

However, here we want to look at how you can hypnotize people more effectively and when you want. So we’re leaving less things to chance. This way, hypnotizing others will be YOUR choice when you want and where you want.

Please watch the video below, it is a typical method used by many hypnotherapists to induce a trance. The disadvantage? It’s very boring! The advantage? It works most of the time. So, here we go:

Now, when you hypnotize someone it’s important that you actually observe the other person – watch their breathing pattern, watch their eyemovements and any signs of unconscious activity, shifts in posture, muscular tension and relaxation and swallowing. Also, observe how often a person blinks in the course of a minute.

All thise gives you clues about the state of consciousness the person is in. You should observe these clues already BEFORE you start your induction so that you are able to recognize shifts.

There are no “hard rules” here – so it’s not like: “if a person blinks 7 times per minute, then they are in the beta-state” or stuff like that. It’s always dependent where the person started at.

So, then, how do you actually hypnotize someone? First of all, you need to direct their attention. You can do that by telling them to focus on a certain point at the wall and tell them to just keep focusing that point on the wall and not look anywhere else for the next couple of minutes.

Then you tell them:
Notice how the air is entering and leaving your lungs, how you are breathing in and out and allow your muscles to pleasantly relax.

Listen to the sounds that you can perceive, also the ones that you weren’t conscious of just a second ago. All the while, keep your eyes focus on the point on the wall, and if your eyes start to feel tired, you may decide to keep them open, you may decide to just blink, and you may decide to close them, that’s totally up to you, you are in control here, and remember to gently breath in and out and allow the feeling of relaxation to spread from one part of your body to other parts of your body and notice the pleasant sensation of warmth.

One thing that is a lot more important than your choice of words is: your tone of voice! You want to use a tone of voice that helps the person to relax – so a tone of voice that is a bit slow, relaxed and friendly. Also, make sure you use the right intonation patterns. Use downwards inflection. This is extremely important, otherwise your suggestions will sound like questions.

(Notice: there are different kind of trance inductions, some of them require you to use a different tone of voice and fast-paced speech – but let’s start with this one. Once you master this skill, you can go on to other, more advanced methods of hypnotic induction. And it really doesn’t take that long to learn how to hypnotize people with the basic induction – do it 20 times and then move on to the next method. But if you don’t do it, or just do it in your head, you won’t have the chops to do the more advanced stuff).

Now, notice that I wrote: “if your eyes start to feel tired”… this isn’t as simple as it seems, there are language patterns involved here.

First of all: anyone who focuses on a certain point on the wall for more than a minute will feel how his or her eyes get tired. It’s just simple physiology. Our eyes aren’t designed to focus on one point on the wall for that long, they are designed to move around from time to time. So this is a very subtle and clever way of pacing the hypnotic subject.

Next thing: it’s actually also an embedded hypnotic command. “your eyes start fo feel tired”. But it’s not as confrontive as: “You’re eyes will start to feel tired now!”. When you say: “IF your eyes start to feel tired”, than you literally slip under the hypnotic subject’s objection radar, because you use an ambiguity.

Next thing: notice that I still seem to leave the subject three options – and no matter what action the hypnotic subject choses, it will be following one of your suggestions.

Now, every time an hypnotic subject follows your suggestion, it gives you more power – because human beings have an inbuilt need for consistency. So if we follow ten suggestions by a person, it’s a lot harder to reject the eleventh suggestion, than it is to reject the first suggestion. You are literally building up “hypnotic momentum” there.

So, this is already a pretty long article and a lot of info to digest.

If you still want to learn more about how to hypnotize people, please sign up for the hypnosis course. I’m temporarily offering it for free because I want to get some feedback from people what they like and don’t like, before I implement the feedback and start charging $47 for it.

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

Leslie Webb June 8, 2010 at 12:29 pm

I studied a little hypnotism many years ago for the sake of interest.
Although, often requested by people to try this on them for a variety of health/addictions reasons I always refused. I am very aware of the dangers of implanting thoughts detrimental to peoples health eg in pain reduction – where allievement may cover a possible medical problem. However, I have a friend who wishes to stop smoking and I have agreed to help.
I have given one light session to provide understanding to what hypnotism is and feels like.
I am currently actively seeking more expertise from all sources.
So I would be grateful for any assistance you may give.
Regards
Les Webb

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