Teen Hypnosis Uncovered

Posted by SamuelPatterson from Cardiff - Published on 01/09/2010 at 21:28
8 comments » - Tagged as Education, People, Stage, Topical

Yn Gymraeg

I am very interested in hypnosis.

I am, in fact, a hypnotist.

I have been practicing hypnosis for just over a year ago and I can honestly say it’s been, by far, one of the most interesting things that I have brought to my life.

I first became interested in hypnosis after watching Derren Brown parade around on the telly, quickly and effortlessly putting people into a mystical and unexplainable 'trance' by a mere snap of his fingers. I was in awe.

I immediately rushed to the nearest internet-enabled machine and ordered my copy of Tricks Of The Mind. It was a fascinating read that revealed a surprising amount about his trade and allowed me to delve into the mind of my new idol.

The ‘Hypnosis And Suggestibility’ chapter of the book was, to me, by far the most interesting part of my Bible and I found myself reading and re-reading it over and over again.

I was, at first, somewhat afraid about hypnotising one of my friends. Not because of the potential dangers involved (of which there are none (this link is to a site that outlines the reasons why the scientific community regard hypnosis as a completely safe practice, when in capable and responsible hands)), but because I was scared I would mess something up and my friends would laugh at me.

I was torn. I was desperate to put what I’d learnt into practise but what nervous as to where to start.

I decided to play it safe. I invited one of my best friends over to my house and asked her if she’d be willing to allow me to practice my hypnotic skills on her. Although she was a bit sceptical, believing it wouldn’t work on her, she agreed and I asked her to sit down on my bed.

The process by which I put her into a state of hypnosis (known as an induction) would take too long to describe in this article, but suffice to say, within 30 minutes she was in a relaxed state of hypnosis and I was ready to carry on with my hypnotic work.

I was quite shocked to see my best friend just lying on my bed, completely motionless, listening to and more importantly following every suggestion I posed to her. I started with a simple arm levitation in which the subject’s (or friend’s) arm levitates into the air, without any interference from the person themselves.

A huge grin sprawled across my face as my friend’s arm flew higher and higher. I decided to try something trickier. Or should I say stickier (and not in the way you’re thinking of. Dirty people) I was in complete shock when my friend found her hands stuck to my bedside table, completely unable to move them.

I went on to have her experience more amusing sensations, such as forgetting her own name, the number four and, one which one brought great hilarity to the session, forgetting what a cow was called. I was thrilled.

A few months later and I didn’t do much with my newfound interest, but I found myself on a school trip to West Wales with four other people my age, one of whom was my previously hypnotised friend.

During the evening when there was not much to do, we chatted and although I forget exactly how it came into conversation, my hypnotic abilities were brought up. The others were intrigued and promptly did what I now often experience when people find out I am a hypnotist: an initial shocked gasp followed by multiple finger pointing while shouting “Do him! Do him!”

I complied and put my other friends into a deep hypnotic state (You’ll notice I do not use the word trance, as many hypnotists do. If you ever read Derren Brown’s Tricks Of The Mind, which I sincerely hope you do, you shall discover why.)

The highlight of the evening was another of my friends experiencing teleportation. "How?" I hear you asking in shock. The process is actually quite simple: you allow them to go into a deep hypnotic state, before slowly standing them up. You then slowly escort them to another area (in this case from the kitchen to the corridor a good 15 metres away) whilst having them forget the journey they are taking. The moment their foot hits the ground, they forget it. The look on her face was, needless to say, priceless.

After the Christmas period, news of my hypnotic abilities spread around school like proverbial wildfire. Many people came up to me asking if I would hypnotise them and I was thrilled that so many people were taking an interest in something that was important to me.

I had, by now, quickly shortened the time it took to induce someone into hypnosis. When I hypnotised my first friend it took me half an hour to have her in a completely relaxed state, although I now found myself hypnotising friends within minutes.

As time went by, my hypnotic abilities grew, until one day I placed one of my friends into a hypnotic trance in under 15 seconds. I was, as you may have imagined, buzzing.

I soon found myself entertaining my friends at a sleepover where I allowed my friends to travel back into their 'past lives' (a term which I use very loosely). It was amazing to see my friends tell me about their lives in the 1800s. I never thought the human mind was capable of such imagination, especially when the request was so spontaneous.

That brings me to my most recent weekend, where I attended the CLIC weekend away in Pembroke Dock. Right from the bat, a friend of mine told people I was a hypnotist and I later that night found myself effortlessly putting one of my newly found friends into hypnosis.

I decided to make it easier for him to enter hypnosis by giving him what we in the hypnosis world call a post-hypnotic suggestion, or, in other words, an effect of hypnosis that carries on after the subject wakes up. The post-hypnotic suggestion was really quite simple, but was something that easily allowed me to put him back into hypnosis.

It was something along these lines: “In a moment, you will find yourself back in the room feeling refreshed, relaxed and alert. But know that anytime I tap you on the shoulder like this,” (I tapped him on the shoulder so he knew what I meant) “you will effortlessly be able to close your eyes and come back to this wonderful state of pure relaxation.”

Sure enough, after waking him up, I soon tapped him on the shoulder only to watch his eyes close, and his body sink back into a state of pure relaxation.

If I have hypnotised you, feel free to post your experience below as a comment. It would be interesting to know your thoughts. As I said, hypnosis is probably the most fascinating thing to have been involved in my life and I look forward to hypnotising all of you at which point I WILL RULE THE WORLD!

P.S. Derren Brown is now my computer wallpaper!

LINKS

British Society Of Clinical Hypnosis

CLIC Health Info Pages

Eyes image: Lan Bui

8 Comments – Post a comment

fattigalupo333

Commented 69 months ago - 8th September 2010 - 13:34pm

Wow now i am now officialy freaked. Don't come anywhere near me!

SamuelPatterson

Commented 69 months ago - 8th September 2010 - 16:57pm

I don't need to come with you, simply by reading my article, you have been placed into a deep hypnotic trance. You simply don't realise it!!!

Sonic Tommy

Commented 64 months ago - 1st February 2011 - 18:09pm

Hello. this article is cool, and its made me really curious. I wonder whether I can be hypnotised? Have you made any hypnosis videos or anything? I'd be interested to see if you could hypnotise me.

SamuelPatterson

Commented 64 months ago - 1st February 2011 - 21:44pm

Hey, well it's nice to see that people are still reading my older articles and that they are invoking curiosity in people. With regards to you ability to be hypnotised, I'm a strong believer that anybody can be hypnotised as long as they approach the matter with an open mind.

You seem like an intelligent person who is interested in hypnosis. If you approach hypnosis with an interest and the desire to experience hypnosis, then I honestly believe that you can experience it =)

Unfortunately, I haven't made any hypnosis videos for a number of reasons, well... two actually. The first, I don't possess any video equipment =P The second, and more important reason is that hypnosis is something individual to each person. Everybody responds differently to hypnotic inductions and with this in mind, it can be somewhat niave to create one video and expect everybody to be affected by it in some profound manner.

Another reason is safety (seems to be everywhere these days). There are some people who should not be hypnotised, for example, people with mental illnesses. If I create a video and upload it to the internet, and someone watches it and is in someway negatively affected, is that not my fault? If I am with the person who wants to be hypnotised, I can check that everything is ok, and when hypnotising them, can confirm taht they are always doing well and feeling good about the experience.

Yes, there are many hypnotic videos out there, on youtube, or on hypnotic websites, and yes, if you approach them with a storng desire to be hypnotised, you will be affected by them. Altough, I tend to use hypnotic videos to listen out for language patterns that the hypnotist is using and in turn can adopt as my own to improve my hypnotic ability.

I hope this has helped in someway, and feel free to ask any more questions you may have =)

Sonic Tommy

Commented 64 months ago - 2nd February 2011 - 18:59pm

Well, you wouldn't have to post the video publically, you could just send it to me via email or make it viewable to only certain people on youtube.

Or you could make a video showing you hypnotising someone else in the vid itself.

I can see how having no video camera is problematic though, lol.

I do have a question, but its about this site--how do I add a profile picture? lol.

Thank you for replying and for your help :).