Stage Hypnosis
Stage Hypnosis
Ok, we’ve posted plenty about hypnosis and
hypnotherapy and some of the reasons why people
turn to it for help. But what about stage hypnosis? How
is it similar to “real” hypnosis or clinical
hypnosis and how is it different?
Stage hypnosis comes in two main types. The first
sort is the best known sort – where you have a
hypnotist up on the stage who calls up volunteers
from the audience to be put into what is referred to as a trance. Once the volunteers
are put into a trance
they are given a series of commands, usually to do something ridiculous or hilarious, though usually
within the bounds of good taste and decency. The volunteer might be told that when they put on a huge pair of sunglasses,
they will see everyone in the audience with no
clothes on; they will not be instructed to take their
clothes off… or at least not in any of the stage
hypnosis shows I’ve seen or heard of.
The second type of stage hypnosis was used as part
of a traditional magic show. In these old shows, the conjurer’s assistant was
put into a trance (or appeared to be put into a trance, anyway) before being used for illusions
such as being sawn in half,
levitated up off a table covered in a sheet, put into
a cabinet to have sabres seemingly thrust through
them and more.
This writer recently saw an old Laurel and Hardy black
and white film (“A Haunting We Will Go”)
where the comic duo act as assistants to the conjurer Dante, and Dante seemed to use this form of stage
hypnosis quite frequently.
(At one point, he tries to put Stanley into a trance, and when Dante wiggles
his fingers, Stanley wiggles his ears… but I’m getting distracted and I’d better stop before I tell you the
whole plot.)
The main thing that stage hypnosis of both types has
in common with clinical hypnosis is the trance. The trance state is considered
to be the hallmark of hypnosis and is what gave
hypnosis its name (it comes from the Greek word for sleep and a trance state
looks like sleep to the outsider).
In both types of stage hypnosis, the subject (the volunteer or the assistant)
is told to stare into the hypnotist’s eyes. This
mimics what happens in clinical hypnosis, where the subject (the client seeking help from hypnotherapy)
stares at a focal point. the trance.
In stage hypnosis, it appears to be the eyes of the hypnotist and his/her personal energy or power that puts the subject into
However, in clinical hypnosis, it isn’t so much the eyes of the hypnotist
as the voice. The subject of clinical hypnosis can stare
at any focal point they wish, even their hands or a
pin on the ceiling.
In stage hypnosis of both kinds, all the power seems to be in the hands of the hypnotist and the subject
seems to fall into the trance against their will. In
clinical hypnosis, it is frequently stressed that
nobody can be hypnotized against their will.
The get-volunteers-to-do-silly-things type of stage
hypnosis has another parallel with clinical
hypnosis: suggestions. Suggestions implanted by
the hypnotist while the subject is in the trance affect the actions of the
subject once he/she comes out of the trance,
with the altered subconscious (where the suggestions have been
implanted) producing the change in behavior. This
happens in clinical hypnosis and is how hypnotherapy
works, to put it very briefly. This principle of suggestion is exaggerated for effect in
stage hypnosis.
There a number of other ways that stage hypnosis
differs from clinical hypnosis. Firstly, stage hypnosis is always very public. It’s a show and
everything is made to be as dramatic a spectacle as
possible. Clinical hypnosis, on the other hand, is very
private,
especially as it is usually done to help someone with a problem that can be quite intimate and personal. And the sort of trance induced in stage hypnosis isn’t a real trance at all, as any
clinical hypnotherapist will tell you.
The subject is not in a relaxed state and the trance appears to be
induced almost instantly – a real trance requires
relaxation and takes time.
So what is going on really with stage hypnosis if the
subject isn’t in a real trance? Why do you see that
staid person from the accounting department
rushing around the room squawking like a chicken when they’re normally as
dull and quiet as a calculator?
Why does the conjurer have to put the lady in the
sparkling leotard into a trance before sawing her
in half?
It’s easy to explain what’s going on with the conjurer’s type of hypnosis. Here, it’s part of the atmosphere of
mystery and illusion. There’s something a little uncanny
about even clinical hypnosis, and it is no secret that even clinical hypnosis has drawn
on the techniques of the yogis and gurus and has a
touch of mysticism about it.
Stage conjurers draw on this to give a sense of mystery and supernatural power as part of their act – and the
assistant is faking it as part of that act. What’s more, the actions of the “hypnotized” subject and the actions of
the conjurer as
he/she puts the assistant into the trance also serve to distract the audience from the mechanism of the trick. Not all conjurers use fake
hypnosis as part of their act and plenty of professionals get on just fine without it.
But what about the other sort of stage hypnosis? What’s going on here is more complex. When a
person volunteers to be the subject of a stage
hypnotist, he or she probably knows the sort of thing that they’ll be asked
to do
It is highly likely that the volunteer actually wants to
do these crazy things in public. Yes – even the staid, boring types. The hypnotist gives the subject an excuse to act like an idiot in public and get away with it – after
all they “can’t help it” because “I was under the power of the hypnotist”.
In the case of the dull accountant described
above, probably he/she has been itching to break out of that professional role and
get out of the rut but without endangering their business image. Humans
are funny creatures…
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