200.03 - Experiential Explanation

If you’ve got the chops for it - a great way to explain hypnosis is to demo it! Do a hand-stick, magnetic hands, or any other simple ideomotor suggestions. This will also give you a good feel on how to work with your subject later on.

You can lead with a frame like “let me show you some hypnosis without trance - you’ll be able to talk during the whole process, and I won’t even ask you to close your eyes.” Or - for the even more cautious - you can suggest “well, let’s try something like hypnosis - it’s not exactly the same thing, but it’ll give you a feel for it.

Tips

It’s perfectly fine to learn how to perfect this later - but most hypnotic “tests” will do.

• Don’t present them as tests. There is no failure.
• Use soft, medium, and hard tests - explained later.
• Use comparisons to highlight differences - explained later.
• Highlight the successes you got. Even a change in feeling is a hypnotic response.

More Info

A few recommendations on working this way:

• James Tripp - Hypnosis Without Trance - flat out my favorite book on hypnosis. You can also find my notes on this book on this website.
• How To Hypnotize… Without Trance - the video series.