Stage Hypnosis

Stage Hypnosis

Ok, we’ve posted plenty about hypnosis and

hypnotherapy and some of the reasons why people

turn to it for help. But what about stage hypnosis? How

is it similar to “real” hypnosis or clinical

hypnosis and how is it different?

Stage hypnosis comes in two main types. The first

sort is the best known sort – where you have a

hypnotist up on the stage who calls up volunteers

from the audience to be put into what is referred to as a trance. Once the volunteers

are put into a trance

they are given a series of commands, usually to do something ridiculous or hilarious, though usually

within the bounds of good taste and decency. The volunteer might be told that when they put on a huge pair of sunglasses,

they will see everyone in the audience with no

clothes on; they will not be instructed to take their

clothes off… or at least not in any of the stage

hypnosis shows I’ve seen or heard of.

The second type of stage hypnosis was used as part

of a traditional magic show. In these old shows, the conjurer’s assistant was

put into a trance (or appeared to be put into a trance, anyway) before being used for illusions

such as being sawn in half,

levitated up off a table covered in a sheet, put into

a cabinet to have sabres seemingly thrust through

them and more.

This writer recently saw an old Laurel and Hardy black

and white film (“A Haunting We Will Go”)

where the comic duo act as assistants to the conjurer Dante, and Dante seemed to use this form of stage

hypnosis quite frequently.

(At one point, he tries to put Stanley into a trance, and when Dante wiggles

his fingers, Stanley wiggles his ears… but I’m getting distracted and I’d better stop before I tell you the

whole plot.)

The main thing that stage hypnosis of both types has

in common with clinical hypnosis is the trance. The trance state is considered

to be the hallmark of hypnosis and is what gave

hypnosis its name (it comes from the Greek word for sleep and a trance state

looks like sleep to the outsider).

In both types of stage hypnosis, the subject (the volunteer or the assistant)

is told to stare into the hypnotist’s eyes. This

mimics what happens in clinical hypnosis, where the subject (the client seeking help from hypnotherapy)

stares at a focal point. the trance.

In stage hypnosis, it appears to be the eyes of the hypnotist and his/her personal energy or power that puts the subject into

However, in clinical hypnosis, it isn’t so much the eyes of the hypnotist

as the voice. The subject of clinical hypnosis can stare

at any focal point they wish, even their hands or a

pin on the ceiling.

In stage hypnosis of both kinds, all the power seems to be in the hands of the hypnotist and the subject

seems to fall into the trance against their will. In

clinical hypnosis, it is frequently stressed that

nobody can be hypnotized against their will.

The get-volunteers-to-do-silly-things type of stage

hypnosis has another parallel with clinical

hypnosis: suggestions. Suggestions implanted by

the hypnotist while the subject is in the trance affect the actions of the

subject once he/she comes out of the trance,

with the altered subconscious (where the suggestions have been

implanted) producing the change in behavior. This

happens in clinical hypnosis and is how hypnotherapy

works, to put it very briefly. This principle of suggestion is exaggerated for effect in

stage hypnosis.

There a number of other ways that stage hypnosis

differs from clinical hypnosis. Firstly, stage hypnosis is always very public. It’s a show and

everything is made to be as dramatic a spectacle as

possible. Clinical hypnosis, on the other hand, is very

private,

especially as it is usually done to help someone with a problem that can be quite intimate and personal. And the sort of trance induced in stage hypnosis isn’t a real trance at all, as any

clinical hypnotherapist will tell you.

The subject is not in a relaxed state and the trance appears to be

induced almost instantly – a real trance requires

relaxation and takes time.

So what is going on really with stage hypnosis if the

subject isn’t in a real trance? Why do you see that

staid person from the accounting department

rushing around the room squawking like a chicken when they’re normally as

dull and quiet as a calculator?

Why does the conjurer have to put the lady in the

sparkling leotard into a trance before sawing her

in half?

It’s easy to explain what’s going on with the conjurer’s type of hypnosis. Here, it’s part of the atmosphere of

mystery and illusion. There’s something a little uncanny

about even clinical hypnosis, and it is no secret that even clinical hypnosis has drawn

on the techniques of the yogis and gurus and has a

touch of mysticism about it.

Stage conjurers draw on this to give a sense of mystery and supernatural power as part of their act – and the

assistant is faking it as part of that act. What’s more, the actions of the “hypnotized” subject and the actions of

the conjurer as

he/she puts the assistant into the trance also serve to distract the audience from the mechanism of the trick. Not all conjurers use fake

hypnosis as part of their act and plenty of professionals get on just fine without it.

But what about the other sort of stage hypnosis? What’s going on here is more complex. When a

person volunteers to be the subject of a stage

hypnotist, he or she probably knows the sort of thing that they’ll be asked

to do

It is highly likely that the volunteer actually wants to

do these crazy things in public. Yes – even the staid, boring types. The hypnotist gives the subject an excuse to act like an idiot in public and get away with it – after

all they “can’t help it” because “I was under the power of the hypnotist”.

In the case of the dull accountant described

above, probably he/she has been itching to break out of that professional role and

get out of the rut but without endangering their business image. Humans

are funny creatures…

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