The Set Up: Creating a context for hypnosis

Extract from 'Reality is Plastic - Proper Mental' a supplement to Reality is Plastic aimed at mentalists and magicians.

Many people, who purchased my book 'Reality is Plastic - The Art of Impromptu Hypnosis', with little or no prior knowledge of hypnosis, have simply picked up a few of the techniques and applied the basic approach with incredible results. Success breeds confidence and confidence goes a long way when hypnotizing. I love receiving progress reports of ‘Hypno Attacks’ worldwide. Keep them coming.

However I have had emails from others who simply have not been able to find a variety of people to practice on and are therefore unlikely to build hypnosis into their performances. If you have to pressurize an unwilling or uninterested relative or close friend into having a go then often the hypnotic situation you are attempting to create can collapse before it even gets started as the mood is all wrong. It makes it much less likely you will hypnotize with success. This is hard to take as a fledgling hypnotist when all you really want is to practice your techniques. I have been there.

I was at University when I first started learning about hypnosis. I got one induction under my belt and I just told people I could hypnotize and kept my doubts to myself. I only did therapeutic stuff at that time and just went in well armed - meaning that at first I had it all scripted on paper just past the point of getting the subject to close their eyes. I was fortunate in that my first few attempts went well. In fact disturbingly so, my first ever subject later became my wife! However after I left University it became harder to find subjects. It is easy to get out of practice and lose confidence in your skills. It is also frustrating when you want to practice something new. I realized I had to create opportunities to hypnotize if I was going to improve.

The only answer was to go and find people to hypnotize. To do this you have to create a context for hypnosis. In other words create a reason or opportunity for it to happen. The Subject of course does not need to know you are practicing your latest set piece, induction or routine.

You have choices about how to create a context for hypnosis, especially when you are just at the stage of practicing the techniques. If you already perform in some way then you have even more opportunities than most because you are probably used to finding people to test out your new trick or effect on. I wanted to share a couple of ideas and hope it stimulates some of your own.

The easiest approach is to just tell people you have learnt hypnosis or better still that you can hypnotize or better still that you are a hypnotist and hook them in. The topic of hypnosis itself is a pretty fine hook but you may need to work a bit harder. So find a reason. If the potential subject is tense tell them you will show them a relaxation technique. If they have a monotonous boring job tell them you can show them how to make time fly, if they need to be creative in a music studio tell them you can show them a way of getting in their most creative state, if they have toothache…

I am sure you get the idea. Match your skill up to their needs. This is not deep therapy although of course this kind of thing is therapeutic. As my hypnotist father Freddy Jacquin always says ‘Never waste a trance state, always throw in some positives’. You get to do something potentially of value for someone while honing your approach. Do your set piece, do your induction, plunge them in and give them some nice direct suggestions for how they will be/feel/perform and of course give them a post hypnotic suggestion that you can hypnotize them. This makes it easy to do a re-induction. As I suggested on the RIP video a re-induction with a warm subject is a great opportunity to practice a technique you need to work on. You will soon gain confidence in it this way.

Getting started with hypnosis is a bit like getting started with magic. When you first start you just have to get your cards out and have a go if you want to practice. No one is going to ask you to, especially if they don’t know they are in your pocket. So get your hypnosis out. Seize and create opportunities to hypnotize.

If you want to use hypnosis in your performance then you could simply introduce it after doing some mentalism. Because of the impromptu approach there is no need for a 10 minute discussion about what is going to happen. The fact that you have already done amazing things with your mentalism ensures that your claim that you can hypnotize is no less credible and readily accepted. Keep it brief and light but ensure you are taken seriously. When you have a receptive friendly group of people hanging on your next move they are very likely to become even more fascinated when you throw hypnosis into the mix.

Another way is to simply bring the topic of hypnosis into your explanation or patter surrounding mentalism. If you already do some effects that give the impression they are about suggestion or involve some pseudo hypnosis stuff or trance then use that. My view is that as a magician or mentalist you have carte blanche to use any trick in the book if it helps you trip someone into hypnosis. Pseudo hypnosis is a brilliant aid to facilitate the real thing. So many hypnotists miss this point. Pseudo effects allow you to bring the subject of hypnosis up and immediately gauge who shows the most interest. The most interested is likely to be your best subject. It gives you the natural opportunity to ask if anyone there has been hypnotized or knows anything about it. This is all useful reconnaissance if you plan to use hypnosis later on. If you are not sure then do your effect or Set Piece on a group and use it as a selection procedure. Often I will simply ask people to ‘Close their eyes’ at some point in an effect and say ‘I am not hypnotizing you, I just want you to concentrate/build an image in your mind/go on a little journey’. Often the people that are natural hypnotic subjects give it away by immediately exhibiting signs of hypnosis. Be sure to look at their eyelids for REM and check for any other signs of hypnosis. Mark their card if they are exhibiting them. Later on when you decide to hypnotize someone it will be them that you choose and you can build upon the signs of hypnosis they exhibit.

A simple but effective approach that is a great example of covertly introducing these techniques into your performance was given to me by the performer Nick Belleas from New York. Mid mental set make a written prediction then use the Set Piece magnetic fingers as an induction and a lead into the effect. When the subject is eyes closed and fingers together Nick sends the subject on a journey to a place where they then count a certain number of people or objects. You then bring them out and reveal the information they are thinking of using your preferred modus operandi. Although the hypnosis is superfluous to the effect it gives you the opportunity to see if they are a good subject. If they are not a good subject then yes it is just pseudo hypnosis and standard mentalism but no one knows that. The Set Piece in that sense simply acts as a way of creating mood and gives meaning to what you are doing. If they are hypnotized then you could follow this effect with something genuinely reliant on hypnosis.

Get people fascinated with hypnosis by being fascinated with it and pretty soon you will start to recognize a certain look that some people have who really are interested and up for being a subject. Hard to describe what that look is but you will know it when you see it – the best description I can give is it is a look of fascination, bright eyes, bit of a smile and the full focus of their attention on you. I am sure I have seen the same look when someone is properly foxed by mentalism, an instant ‘believer’. That feeling you get when you just know whatever you say next they will believe.

Once you have really got your Set Piece mastered you have a lead into hypnosis in any situation as explained in the book. You cannot fail because if the subject is not good enough in that moment then you will never get to point where you need to mention hypnosis.

When you have confidence in a hypnotic subject - someone you have hypnotized with success or someone who has said to you they have been a stage hypnosis subject - and you are in public or social situations with them then use them. With the up most respect I refer to such people as HypnoChimps. I have HypnoChimps planted all around the place and an idea of what routine I will pull them into. It is no more underhand to engineer yourself into this position than doing some set up or pre show for magic. You do not have to use stone cold subjects each time you hypnotize. Working with cold subjects is fine and you should be prepared to do that – always have a go. However warm subjects are preferable. Hot subjects are even better. As long as you do not use hypnosis to humiliate this person you will attract other people who actually want to know what it is like to be hypnotized. More practice for you. They are also mentally primed for it once they have witnessed a successful demonstration and seen that you are one of the good guys who makes people feel good. Another tip is to ensure that your good subject goes and advertises for you by dropping them the suggestion that they will tell everyone how amazing it was, how good they feel and to point you out. No doubt hypno marketing is a dark art but one that has to be used from time to time.

Have fun with it. Ensure they enjoy it. Show them the respect they deserve. This is easily done. Tell them how they will feel with your wake up.

Anthony Jacquin
enquiries@anthonyjacquin.com