How to Hypnotize Someone
Posted on April 23rd, 2009 by Marck
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Many magic tricks involve leaving someone in a trance, and making him or her do what he or she wouldn’t otherwise do. Many people use hypnosis as a way to cure disease, to entertain an audience, or to become one with the forces of nature. Here are some tips and tricks you can use if you want to learn more about hypnosis.
What Is Hypnosis?
Hypnosis is part of a wide range of tools used by mentalists, performers, psychiatrists, and enthusiasts to conduct mind control. Hypnosis has long been used as a form of entertainment, although many psychologists now subscribe to the idea that hypnosis can be used to cure or stop the onset of mental illnesses and disorders. Hypnosis is performed on a subject in a wakeful, alert state; the hypnotic trance is a heightened state of alertness where the hypnotist may be able to control the actions of the subject.
The Subconscious
There are many theories surrounding hypnosis; one of the most popular theories that explain the hypnotic trance is the concept of the subconscious. Many people believe that by targeting the mind’s subconscious, a hypnotist may release repressed memories in a subject, or make the subject perform actions he or she may not do when he or she is in a normal, wakeful state. A hypnotic suggestion may be used in many ways:
- To entertain an audience.
- To aid a psychologist or a psychiatrist who subscribes to hypnosis to focus on repressed emotional or psychological disturbances that may cause the disorder in a patient.
- In some cases, people may induce a hypnotic state on themselves to induce sleep or other pleasurable feelings.
Tools for Hypnosis
There are two common ways to perform hypnosis:
Power of Suggestion
Mentalists and magicians typically use the power of hypnotic suggestions to entertain their patrons. While some hypnosis acts have the audience in on the act, stage performers use two ways to convince the audience that the hypnotism taking place onstage is real:
- Movement. Some mentalists use the regular movement of a swinging watch or a metronome to draw the focus of the participant away from the act.
- Illusions and sleight-of-hand. Many of the “hypnotized” tricks done onstage are actually optical illusions that use props and other sleight-of-hand tricks. A common “hypnotism” trick is for a performer to lay a hypnotized participant on a table, and he or she proceeds to remove the table and make it appear that the participant is floating on air.
Chemical Substances
Hypnosis can also be achieved by the use and abuse of certain chemical substances. Bear in mind that some of these substances are controlled or illegal:
- Alcohol. When you’re drunk, you actually enter a point similar to hypnosis where you’re not in complete control of your actions. Not everyone can hold their alcohol in the same way; some may enter sleep, or some may be prone to violent behavior.
- Prescribed medications. Sleeping pills are usually prescribed for people with insomnia, as well as some regulated forms of amphetamines, barbiturates, and other sedatives. Keep in mind that many of these controlled substances may be abused, or may be considered illegal in some jurisdictions.
- Traditional hypnotics. Plants like psilocybin mushrooms and kava (a pepper plant found in the Western Pacific) are consumed by some cultures as part of ritual or a ceremony. The plants have a natural hypnotic effect, as those who eat it are sent into a trance in a short time.
Hypnosis may be a dud or a fluke for some, but many people believe in it. With these tips and with enough training, you can learn one or more of the many ways to tap into someone else’s subconscious and control his or her mind.
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