Is Hypnosis considered a form of magic? How plausible is it to mix sleight of hand and hypnosis in one act? Any information is much appreciated. Thank you!

It seems like a strange pair to me. How would you transition from one to the other?

Mentalism and Hypnosis, seem a better fit to me, since you are demonstrating powers and aspects of the human mind.

-Max

I don't know. I have recently been studying hypnosis and am very interested in it. I have only seen one hypnosis act and havent finished my research. But I was thinking of starting the act out with sleight of hand, then talking about the powers of the mind, then hypnosis. This isn't a proffessional act just for giggles. Also I have never studied Mentalism. Could you recomend any good starting points?

http://www.lybrary.com/thirtynine-steps-mentalism-a-10.html

James Brown is a very accomplished sleight of hand artist who recently has started mixing hypnosis and close up magic. You can check out his stuff on his youtube channel here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/theboss1976

Personally, I liked him better when he did straight up sleight of hand, but this sort of thing seems to be more trendy nowadays...

Luigi

You can find a good history of hypnosis here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_magnetism

Original hypnosis (mesmerism) is different from "stage hypnosis" (entertainment). In the 1960s and early 70s, hypnosis and NLP was associated and you could get certificates saying you were qualified for a few hundred dollars. In some States that was all you needed to hang a shingle saying you were a hypnotist. Then, psychology licensing boards in the various States objected saying that hypnosis was a form of psychological therapy (which it was), and said you had to have a psych licence (marriage and family, psychologist or psychiatrist) with so many hours of training to be qualified (as was in the case of California where I was originally came from). I did not bother to train for hypnosis because there was better ways of treating trauma besides hypnosis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_A._Gerbode

I know nothing about stage hypnosis (entertainment). Occasionally we get people at the Comedy clubs who have an "act" of presenting their kind of hynosis. And there is a few NLP people around who advertise that they can help you stop smoking with hypnosis ( I have no idea if they have a lisc. to do this or even if one is necessary).

“Abreaction therapy” better than hypnosis???
Ouch! Don’t think so!

L. Ron Hubbard played around with what he called "ingrams", claiming that you couldn't get to the earlier ones until you'd "cleared" the later ones. He got the idea from the U.S. Navy, who abandoned the whole idea back in the mid-1940's.

Even Jung tested the idea and thought it triggered as many fantasies as it did "real" injuries. He determined (as has been said often in the Sleepy forum)that it's more often about the confidence of the practitioner than about any specific methodology.

All hypnosis is "self-hypnosis", although some of it can be directed by a "hypnotist". But if you don't trust that person, it doesn't matter what they do.

Stage hypnosis is often little more than giving tacit permission to "act out".

I know some examples of stage hypnosis that is really mentalism. That is, the participants are genuinely hypnotized--that is, in a state in which they are highly suggestible. But, actually, many of the events they experience are actually instances of mentalism and other tricks, but ascribed to hypnosis. The effect is strong because both they, and the audience, recognize the effects of hypnosis, although powerful, are limited.