Hypnosis Stage Show Explained - What a Stage Hypnotist Does

Let us start off by explaining the common misconception that hypnosis is mind control or in some way forces people to do things against their will. This is in no way true. I know why you believe it. It is because you saw a stage show and saw people do things they would never do. Let's take a quick moment to explain a stage show so you do not find yourself lost with everything else that is on my site.

First a hypnotist has to ask for volunteers. Without volunteers he has NO SHOW. Because you have to want the desired effect when you are hypnotized or else nothing you do in hypnosis will work. So the hypnotist asks for volunteers who want to act ridiculous. The hypnotist then hypnotizes people on the stage using a fairly quick induction. When he is searching the crowd it is very important who he picks. He has to pick people who are very excited and show a lot of emotion. What many stage hypnotists do is actually do a suggestibility test to see who reacts the strongest. A common one is the arms rising and falling test. The test tells how suggestible someone is, how likely they are to go into the deep hypnosis states right away. It has nothing to do with intelligence or willpower. The only thing it can really be tracked down to is how big the pituitary gland is in the brain but we won't go in to that right now...

Once he finds his subjects he starts to hypnotize them. Once this is done he starts by compounding his suggestions in order to create the BELIEF that the hypnotist has control over the person. For example, he does this by starting out with "you are feeling hot or cold" which someone is easily able to feel while in hypnosis no matter how deep they are. The ability to feel hotter or colder is very changeable even in the light stages of hypnosis. So by someone immediately feeling the difference in temperature they start to believe that what he is saying is true. And so by experiencing this, everything else he says will happen as well. If he started with "cluck like a chicken" he would have poor results. As he is compounding his suggestions and moving on he is taking people off the stage who either do not want to be hypnotized or do not want to do what he says. Some people fake being hypnotized, most hypnotists take these people off the stage but some hypnotists let them stay as long as they participate. Any experienced hypnotist would know immediately who was or was not hypnotized.

As he goes on with the show he then compounds his suggestions making them even more and more elaborate as he goes on in order to snowball the persons belief. By the end of the show the people are dancing, singing and doing very elaborate things. The hypnotist never has control over anyone; hypnosis merely enhances our natural ability to do ANYTHING. If the hypnotist were to hand one of them a knife and tell them to stab someone, they would immediately come out of hypnosis and probably get very mad! The person went up there agreeing to be ridiculous, not to hurt someone, so they would immediately come out of hypnosis.

The first thing to accept is that the hypnotist never at anytime has control. If that were true, hypnotists could rule the world! The people on the stage are merely agreeing to do everything he says. Stage shows are fun and a great form of entertainment. Unfortunately, it has the effect of making most people uneducated and skeptical about hypnosis.

Please visit our Explaining Hypnosis to Christians page if you have not visited it yet. It will explain how hypnosis works in detail.

Or go back to our Christian Hypnosis Homepage.