I've seen several ads that vary from $15 - $400. I'm coming in completly cold on this subject.

I highly recommend the book Trance-Formations by Richard Bandler and John Grinder. It's out of print now, but you can find a copy of it on eBay fairly frequently. It's a fantastic introduction to Ericksonian hypnosis.

Look for other threads on this topic as well.

- Richard

training is the answer....you can't learn from books alone. At least not safely.

try to find a mentor.
this is the best investment you can make

I studied via an on-line course last year, very low cost, and got a Diploma in Hypnotherapy and.. the course and training is recognised by the American and Canadian Boards of Hypnotherapy for their membership.

Worrying thing is....I haven't done any practical work whatsoever !!! Yet apparently I'm qualified as a hypnotherapist. It is still therefore a grey area trying to work out just exactly what a qualification means.
I think you will find most of the recommended books will teach you all that you need to know in fact I was advised by a well respected author and hypnotherapist to
"find the lowest cost course and then get some practical experience preferably from a mentor"
By the way I would love to get hold of a copy of Trance Formations- unfortunately I can't afford the ridiculous prices being asked for 2nd hand copies. I'm suprised there hasn't been a reprint of the book it is highly recommended by most of the Hypnosis training organisations of which there are numerous - try typing in "hypnosis" as a search !!

Howard

It depends on whether you want to learn stage hypnosis or clinical hypnosis or both.

To learn stage hypnosis, the course taught by Jerry Valley and Ormond McGill (assisted by others) under the title "The Masters' Ultimate Stage Hypnosis Seminar" is really excellent. I attended it both times it was held in London (in 2000 and 2001). Assuming that you're in the States, the course is repeated several times a year in different American cities. Learning from Ormond in particular, the world's greatest living hypnotist, is an astounding experience and a real privilege. Ormond McGill's book "The New Encyclopedia of Stage Hypnotism" and Jerry Valley's book "Inside Secrets of Professional Stage Hypnotism" are both essential reading. Another excellent stage hypnosis course is taught by Geoffrey and Wendy Ronning in Seattle, which focuses particularly strongly on marketing your act successfully and profitably.

To study clinical hypnosis, there are a multitude of courses. I know the UK scene a lot better than the US in this respect, but if you want to make clinical hypnotherapy your main occupation, I would strongly recommend doing a course which includes at least 300 hours of teaching. You might want to ask around hypnotherapists in your area as to which courses they recommend and read the books or other material published by the course teachers before making a decision on which to go with. To over-simplify somewhat, there are two broad approaches to hypnotherapy: traditional authoritarian and direct hypnosis (Gil Boyne is the leading practitioner in this area) and permissive, indirect, utilitarian methods (the late Milton Erickson, MD, was the master in this area, which is known as Ericksonian hypnosis). It is useful to have knowledge of both approaches, but most courses teach either one or the other. Gil Boyne himself teaches a well-reputed course at his headquarters in LA (and also now in London), and you might like to read his book "Transforming Therapies" to see if you like his style. (Not everybody does.) Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is worth looking at, as it is derived largely from Erickson's hypnotherapy. I became an NLP pracitioner on a course taught by Richard Bandler, co-creator of NLP, who is quite a character and, whose style not everybody likes.

I'd recommend reading some books on the subject, surfing the Net (where is masses of material on hypnosis and NLP), calling up some schools of hypnotherapy, looking at their material, discussing it with hypnotherapists and then deciding which school is best for you.

As of now I am just interested in stage hypnosis. I saw a guy back in California 3 different times and he was great, but I don't think I could pull off such a risque show in the middle of the Bible belt.

I saw an ad in "Magic" for the Mark Lewis course for $299.95. How's that rate?

By the way, I meet a Methodist preacher who does hypnosis, but doesn't tell anyone for fear of what they will think.

Thanks for all the info, everyone.

If anyone in the UK wants to learn stage hypnosis then I may consider putting to gether a course.

Just recently a friend of mine who delivers communications courses has approached me asking me to work with him to put together an NLP practitioner with a difference. It would include seduction patterns and cold reading to develop intuition..

Its just at talking stages just now so this isn't an advert!

You can find Mark Lewis course on ebay quite frequently for about $100.00. Just type in Mark Lewis in the search window and go from there.

Mark Lewis has informed me that these are illegal pirated copies on ebay so I would suggest you buy them at your own risk. You do have to do a regular search to find them.

If you really want to find all the legitimately available training materials on ebay just type in "Stage Hypnosis" at the search box on the first page of ebay. There are plenty of training materials there. I have built up my library by doing just that. For those just starting out, this is a good way to get going. Most of the products are being sold by the actual people who created them and they're a nice bunch of people.

Shrink:

How are plans coming on your training and will you be doing a distance study video set of your project.

Genuine Encyclopedia of Stage Hypnotism by Ormond McGill (preferably the 1947 dated one, the original one. You should still find it at Magic Books by Post - UK)

Trance-Formations by Richard Bandler & John Grinder

And... a good training course. May I suggest my friend Gil Boyne? IMO he is one of the best hypnotherapists alive today! (And he knows a lot on stage hypnosis too, because he started his career as a stage hypnotist).

The National Guild of Hypnotists has several trainers in the UK.

Check their web site at http://www.ngh.net

Hope this helps!

Lee Darrow, C.Ht.
http://www.leedarrow.com

I agree with Lior. Find a mentor.

Back in the 60s (when we admitted that we were all mental) I got very interested in hypnosis and, in fact, conducted a sales seminar for the third largest insurance company in the world on that topic. Ten plus years later I went to work on a Ph.D. Two years into it, I have one comment: "Boy, was I embarrassed about what I thought I knew!"

One thing I did learn is that it is a wonderful way to fake research results by controlling the responses to the inputs. I'm glad I simply went back to magic many years ago. Hypnosis is entertaining but loaded with possible problems for the entertainer. Clinical is iffy but stage hypnosis is slightly better than pure chance. Meanwhile, you may be setting yourself up. Forcing a card is much safer than forcing a response. Both are forces. It's a trick, after all. Unfortunately we are tempted to use volunteers.