Stage Hypnosis – is this really Hypnosis? Yes and No. First let us break down what is actually going on. Stage Hypnosis Shows are for entertainment purposes only. The stage hypnotist invites a large number of the audience onto the stage. So this is the only real element of hypnosis that happens during the show. It is extremely likely that 100% of the volunteers are ALL extroverted people. These volunteers are happy to participate in the show and do silly things for purposes of entertainment. Extroverts like to entertain their friends.
The next step is the stage hypnotist gets the volunteers to the do an exercise such as holding their hands together and he tells them “their hands are now stuck together and the volunteers can’t pull them apart, even if they try”. The volunteers claim that they can’t pull their hands apart. There is a very important distinction to be made here. At this point this is not hypnosis, this is COMPLIANCE. The volunteers could easily pull their hands apart, however if they do that, they are no longer apart of the show. The stage hypnotist then goes to each volunteer and tests how tight each of them is holding their hands together. Anyone that isn’t complying well enough by holding their hands tightly together (or “stuck together”) the stage hypnotist will pull their hands apart and send them back to their seat. The remaining volunteers now fear being sent back to their seats. The stage hypnotist will run two or three more compliance tests like the one just preformed, each time sending some more volunteers back to their seats. He/she is essentially looking for only the most compliant volunteers to then “hypnotise”.
I must now point out that at this point in the show each volunteer that is left, has convinced themselves that they will do whatever the stage hypnotist suggests because they desperately want to be part of the show. So essentially the volunteers hypnotise themselves that the stage hypnotist has ultimate power over their minds. This is not true because an introvert would never be up on stage and pretend to be a chicken or whatever the suggestion is, because they don’t want to be made to look like an fool. If an introvert was put in that position, they would likely just walk off stage. The stage hypnotist can’t allow that to happen because otherwise their entire audience would realise that he doesn’t actually have any power and that the show is all an illusion of sorts. This why he only selects the most compliant extroverts.
Stage Hypnosis is all about entertainment. It’s very similar to a magic show which is all about smoke, mirrors and misdirection. The stage hypnotist only has the power of suggestion over those that are very extroverted, highly suggestible and want to be part of the show. Those volunteers that are eventually chosen to be apart of the show could easily disobey the suggestions they are given if they wanted to but they are caught up in the show and happy to participate. This is pure entertainment and that is all. It is very different from how Clinical Hypnotherapy works.
Clinical Hypnotherapy is very different form stage hypnosis because the purpose of Clinical Hypnotherapy is therapy and healing using the power of the mind. The only thing that is similar is that the client in a Clinical Hypnotherapy session has full power to break the Hypnosis and leave the trance state at any point in time if they feel uncomfortable or are unhappy with the suggestions being put forward by the Clinical Hypnotherapist.
At Safe Hypnotherapy we use Strategic Psychotherapy in the interview process in order to identify what suggestions the clients subconscious mind will likely respond to in the Hypnotherapy component of the session. We don’t know for sure which suggestions each individual clients subconscious mind will respond to and accept. Every person has their own unique moral code and no suggestions given to you during a Clinical Hypnotherapy session can be accepted by your subconscious mind unless it is line with your moral code. You are fully aware of what is going on when you are hypnotised. Hypnosis is a state of relaxed, heighten awareness and suggestions offered to you when under hypnosis, that violate your moral code will likely see you come out of the trance state by yourself and be upset.
Safe Hypnotherapy use Strategic Hypnotherapy which is a highly effective combination of Strategic Psychotherapy & Clinical Hypnosis. We use structured and strategic processes for identifying which suggestions we think will best suit each individual clients needs. All Safe Hypnotherapists take the greatest care to respect your moral code while you are in the hypnosis trance state.