How to Hypnotize Anyone - Confessions of a Rogue Hypnotist

This is not a serious, academic, or therapeutic book on hypnosis. You can have fun with this - but man I have a lot of disagreements with this guy.

Disagreements on theory aside, he can lean a bit sexist… So be aware if you delve in here. The information here isn’t bad, just… maybe misinformed and simplified to the point of not being useful. I’ll quote some usefulish nuggets from here.

FWIW, if you want a really, really casual introduction to hypnosis and don’t take it too seriously. This might be OK.

If you want it, go buy it. It’s three fucking dollars on kindle.

Chapters 1 to 5

They describe hypnosis as separate from trance, a state of intense absorption or concentration, nothing more. Trance is the ‘daydream state.’ And the combination of the two makes hypnotic trance.

They say that most hypnotists and hypnotherapists only induce relaxation, not trance. In line with Elman, they also believe that a patient undergoing surgery can hear everything at an unconscious level. (I do not… but if I start rambling about that here, I’ll never finish the book.)

To induce trance - have the person focus inside.

So… to have them narrow their focus to the exclusion of all else to bypass critical thinking…

Have them focus on their breathing.
Try ‘How do you feel about x?’ or ‘What do you think about x?’.

They provide their own take on the Betty Erickson induction - but it’s structured for a newbie so you can just read along. They cover…

Delivering NLP style embedded commands.
Pacing. Slow down and leave pauses in between sentences so your subject can process your instructions.

They do not cover:

Kung Pow

Chapters 6 to… Whatever

I’m going to cull my notes down to things I find interesting for me. So… expect this to be a bit less comprehensive.

Here’s an NLP style way to handle an abreaction:

That image can turn black and white and fade off into the distance until it vanishes completely as you open your eyes, feeling calm and aware of your surroundings fully.

Paraphrasing what they said about doing something therapeutic in hypnosis - get in, finish the job, and get out. (I don’t always agree with this, but changework can be quick.)

Match their language - if they swear, you swear. (Erickson has done this before, but uh - he’s Milton Fucking Erickson and can pull it off.) Actually here, have a quote from Erickson…

The reply was made in a casual tone of voice and with a smile, “O.K., shut up, sit down, keep your damn mouth shut and listen; and get it straight, I am going to get a move on (using the words of the patient’s own request) but I move just as slow or as fast as I damn please.” (My terms for the acceptance of his request for therapy were phrased in his own language though said casually and in a voice free from any unpleasant intonations and inflections. Thus the patient is told effectively vitally important matters in the italicized words without his conscious recognition of the fact.)

From Milton Erickson, “An Hypnotic Technique for Resistant Patients: The Patient, the Technique and its Rationale and Field Experiments” https://doi.org/10.1080/00029157.1964.10402387

For stimulating the imagination, use…

Imagine, picture, visualize, what if, I have a vision of, what would it be like if, see in your mind’s eye, suppose, pretend…

For NLP focus - try:

Focus (analog marking) on x, pay attention to x, become aware of x, notice (change in x), STOP! And just relax, Stare at X and allow Y
“Look… (command) The something will happen.”
“Listen… (command) To something.”
“Where do you feel X”
Find that X… inside. (Maybe a poor place to use the letter X.)
“Exactly where…”

An actually banger idea:

‘Just imagine that you are breathing through your solar plexus.’

Chapter 22 - Deconstructing a Hypnosis Script

I kinda… actually like this guy’s induction.

Here are my short notes. They probably won’t make sense to anyone else…

Direct, create time to feel something growing positive (comfort/relaxation)
Do nothing pattern (ala Graham Old), notice breathing
Direct -(as you do) inhale, hold release and relax.
- Repeat, focus on relaxation
Do nothing, suggest trance
Noticing least noticeable difference as you (introspection, going inside, trance, deeper)
Do nothing, allow ambiguous
- As you notice interoception
- Notice responses
  - Notice how “they” feel, as you feel (positive introspection)
Direct - imagine breathing through your solar plexus
Link color spreading to a feeling (calm, comfy), embedded now
- Direct - Allow spread (give time)
- Direct, noticing muscle relaxing
- Link anything (sounds, my words, everything) to improving feeling, drift off
“You are free to wander and wonder…”
- Truism. Ability for relaxation.
“You may hear the sound of my voice going with you…”
(Skip) Direct thoughts towards pleasantness, embed suggestion for trance and drifting
“You don’t have to open your eyes or talk, let me do the talking for a while.”
(Gaslighting) “Do you really think you are awake?”
Suggest unconscious understanding, conscious ambivalence.
Comparative, most comfortable ambiguous ‘part.’
- Embed finding positive introspection.
Suggest permitting automatic response
- ambiguous Wonder what shifts and changes
- Easy empowerment for the imagination
Indirect suggestion to go deeper by suggesting they wonder about how much deeper they could go.
You could (awareness, notice)
Link deeper, feeling good bidirectional
“A deeper part of you will hear…” (automatic response)
…
Split analog marking, eyes closed
Metaphors for distance and depth.
Movement for comfort will make you more comfortable.

Prologue

Maybe buy this book for three bucks if you’re not sure how you’d do a Betty Erickson induction without the frame of self hypnosis.

Disagreements

All right - just in case some poor soul comes across this book as an earlier resource, here’s ~~all~~ most the disagreements I have with it. I’m gonna fuckin’ unhinged here.

I’m going to talk a lot of shit about NLP. NLP friends - you’re cool - but I’m more mad at the “I understand therapy and science because I’m an NLP practitioner” vibe, not the “NLP is an effective framework” bit.

This guy talks about how he’s one of The Best at hypnosis, then presents his NLP credentials. (Which, sure, fine - it’s effective, but you need to temper that with something science based if you’re trying to do anything therapy related. For fuck’s sake. Please.)
“I know what I’m doing because I’ve done a lot of trial and error.”
They talk about their knowledge about psychology, and then they immediately say something incorrect about psychopathy.
Simplifying hypnosis into a state of intense absorption and concentration is okay… But this either a newbie frame or a lack of understanding of the nuance that goes into this stuff.
- (Okay fine I’ll give them credit for saying nobody knows how this works. BUT IF YOU HAVE BEEN SO DAMN WELL TRAINED CAN’T YOU CITE SOME FUCKING RESOURCES?!)
People can not hear everything when they’re properly zonked the fuck out during surgery. This is some old ass misunderstanding proliferated by Dave Elman.
You don’t need focus to the point of everything else to get phenomena - but it does help if you’re shooting for trance, but they gloss over this.
Your facts about women are pop-science and statistics at best and sexist at most probable.
There is no unconscious, just unconscious processing.
Also holy fuck:

Hypnosis uses words – women are highly susceptible to emotional manipulation through language because they process words through both ‘hemispheres’ of the brain.

The Rogue Hypnotist. How to Hypnotise Anyone - Confessions of a Rogue Hypnotist (p. 11). Candy Books. Kindle Edition.

Sometimes hypnotherapists do intentionally create abreaction and it can help - especially if that’s what the client thinks they need and the therapist knows what the fuck they’re doing.
Conflating unconscious processes, the subconscious, and your nervous system is not winning you any points, since a naïve reader may assume they can talk to their heart literally and not figuratively.

A woman’s breast size can be increased and if she fails to reach orgasm she can be hypnotised into being able to have one.

Okay they finally fessed up to saying the unconscious is just stuff outside of our awareness.
They suggest people are more hypnotizable than they used to be. If you use physiological markers, this is unlikely. If you believe in socio-cognitive theories, this is unlikely, If you use cognitive theories, this unlikely. The example they provide of people being in their heads more than they used to is just completely fucking unfounded.
Being on your iPhone is not being in trance. Otherwise hypnofetishists would just be like “yeah you’re a great hypnotist and all but I’m just gonna check my phone.”
I am still not sold on analog marking or embedded commands. I haven’t found resources to disprove this but it might be so stupid that academics haven’t found a good reason to study it.
If your suggestion is fucking subliminal they’re probably going to have trouble following it.
Holy fuck man the critical faculty is an idea from Dave Elman again, at least present it as a model or simplification rather than accidentally making it into the socio-cognitive version of a single ‘state of hypnosis.’
“If you want to be hypnotic use vividly descriptive language.” Sure. Or just fucking ask them a bit and gently nudge them into the direction of being absorbed - you’ll have to take less buckshot roulette rounds aiming at your foot that way when your suggestions end up being incongruent.
“You never need a convincer to get results.” Sure okay if you want to do it the hard way. Or you can just take a few free boosts to expectancy and be more effective - both recreationally and therapeutically.
“There are too many incompetent people claiming to be hypnotists: the worst are often very well trained.” Bro. BRO. You called yourself out. Read some science and not NLP.
Introspection is not hypnosis unless everything is hypnosis ad absurdum.
“If you want to hypnotise someone, get them to imagine that they are breathing through their solar plexus.” The fact that this is a MAJOR highlight for me 40 pages in is not a good sign. (But this suggestion IS good.)
WHY THE HELL DID YOU WRITE SO MANY THINGS WRONG AND THEN DO A DECENT BREAKDOWN OF YOUR OWN INDUCTION I AM SO FRUSTRATED NOW.
Consciousness does not just ‘give up’ and ‘go into trance’ usually.
“In ALL hypnotic inductions there comes the point where the conscious mind ‘gives up,’ let’s go and hypnosis takes place.” No. That’s just flat out wrong.
“Also known as ‘somnambulists.’” To Dave Elman. But if someone’s talking shop to me and uses this terminology I immediately get a vibe that they’ve done more workshops than reading.
I’d be cool if “The Pleasure Deepener” was put in mind play - but uh. The vibe’s a little hypnohorny for a non-hypnokink book.
Okay, I dig the external trance indicators section as ‘response potential.’ These aren’t exactly scientific but I use some of these… Except for suggesting boredom is a state of trance. That just means your subject was fucking bored.
Yeah yeah I see you know how to use submodalities in your deepener, I’m not buying your second book to read about how cool NLP is.
This is the first book I’ve seen call an awakener an Exduction. Maybe the tone was off and it was supposed to be a joke.
Please never suggest to anyone they will go 100 times deeper. I’m ace as fuck but if someone goes 100 times deeper inside of me it’s leaving a hole in the wall. (It’s also a suggestion that’s almost certain to fail - very few people would comply with this without question. Moreover, if you go 100 times deeper and you only raise an eyebrow… well. I’ll stop with the innuendo.)
Please fucking pre-talk hypnotic amnesia before suggesting it, that’s not cool man.