Hypnosis, as I mentioned in my last post, is something that all of us experience, probably many times a day. Today I thought I would look at a couple of interesting ways hypnosis has been created in the past, and a fun little demonstration of my own that shows you really can create hypnosis and trance from anything.
First up, lets go back to the 1770s, and the beginnings of what eventually became (after many iterations) hypnosis as we know it today. To Franz Anton Mesmer, from whom we now have the word ‘mesmerise’. Mesmer was a great believer in ‘animal magnetism’, the theory that all living things have an invisible, natural force, that could have various physical effects. Mesmer would make various passes with his hands, and eventually developed fancy contraptions to work these movements on groups of people, to stimulate this magnetic field and promote healing.
And bizarrely enough, it worked. Which isn’t to say that Mesmer was correct – he clearly wasn’t – a royal commission set up in 1784 demonstrated that any effects achieved were down to suggestion and placebo. Mesmer was essentially hypnotising his subjects, but giving credit to this magical magnetic field.
Fast forward a long way and we find my other favourite, and very unconventional, means of creating trance: Oscar the hypno-dog. You can read a little on wikipedia about him here. And following Oscar there has been Princess, another hypno-dog. These are dogs that somehow hypnotise people, and Princess even gained some notoriety on Britain’s Got Talent a few years back.
By Krystyna Lennon’s (Princess’ owner) admission, Princess isn’t magical, although she is good at holding eye contact. Rather, Krystyna creates the expectation that Princess will hypnotise. And this positive expectation, combined with other various suggestions, successfully draws people into trance.
This brings me to my own experiments with unusual means of trance. Last year, whilst writing my magic/hypnosis show for the Adelaide Fringe, I found myself struck by this thought: If someone can create by talking about magnets and waving their hands about, or, even more bizarrely, through the use of a dog, why can’t I create it using a magic trick? And it turned out I could! By pacing the action of the trick to leading statements about relaxation, along with creating an expectation of hypnosis, I was able to do exactly that. Check out the video below
And there you have it! Trance from a coin trick. Hypnosis really is everywhere, and can be made from anything – if you’re willing to engage your imagination and give your attention.
And if you’re interested in experiencing hypnosis for yourself, for whatever issue you might have, drop me a line or give me a call, by clicking here.
