Hypnosis is Easy

This is another article written by a friend of mine who also has a long-standing interest in hypnosis. And it makes a very good point: it’s not that difficult to hypnotize someone if you follow some basic rules. In fact, many people have had similar experiences. (I remember reading Richard Bandler‘s and John Grinder’s “Tranceformations”, wanting to try out self-hypnosis, sitting down in a couch and ending up in a vivid hallucination that was dreamlike, but I could consciously control what happened – it was real “virtual reality”). So, enjoy Mark’s story:

Hypnosis is something that I have been interested in since a fairly young age. I still have a book on my shelf that I bought in the seventh grade outlining various techniques to hypnotize people, and I remember doing one such technique to a kid in my English class.

An important thing to remember about hypnosis is that it isn’t just about getting somebody into a certain state and having them do what you want them to do. Many people think that this is exactly what hypnotizing is but there is much more to that.

Hypnosis is about opening up a person’s mind, with their permission of course, and helping them. It could be simple assisted meditation where your words simply bring the person to a calm state. You can choose to leave the person in that state or you can choose to move further, that is up to your discretion. One of the key things about Hypnosis is being able to channel your thoughts and relax your target. If your target isn’t in a relaxed state of mind or they are wandering between thoughts you are less likely to have them concentrate on what you are telling them.

With them fully concentrated on your words many people may think that you have complete control over them. This is not the case. You do however have their sole focus if you have done it properly. With their attention fixed only on you, you are now the most important thing in their lives at that moment. So now we get to the story from the Seventh grade.

I had spent a couple nights reading through this book as soon as I received it and it covered everything that I thought it would. There were simple parlor tricks to deep hypnosis where you throw a person into almost a trance. I came into school and wanted to try one of these on a person, fully expecting it to do nothing. In a crowded classroom with various cliques talking around us and nobody paying attention I told one of my friend to stand up.

He got up and closed his eyes. I told him to take deep breaths in and out, and only concentrate on his arms. After he did this for roughly a minute I said that I was going to count backward from thirty and as I did that his arms would become lighter and lighter. And as they became lighter they would soon reach a point where they were lighter than air and they would raise to the ceiling on their own. I began counting down from thirty.

With him still breathing deeply nothing happened at first. But as I continued counting I could see his arms beginning to adjust and move slightly. When I finally reached one they had both lifted approximately ten inches from their original position. The kid opened his eyes and they continued to lift in amazement. He was able to pull them down shortly after he opened his eyes. I don’t know whether he was just yanking my chain or if this really worked, it was still really cool for a seventh grader.