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shrink
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Quote:
. In motivation instructions the subjects are told:

1) Your performance will depend on your willingness to try to imagine vividly and to experience those things that will be described to you.
2) Previous subjects have been able to imagine vividly and to have the experiences that were suggested to them when they put aside the idea that this is a silly or difficult thing to do.
3) If you try to imagine to the best of your ability, you will experience a number of interesting things and you will not be wasting either your own or the experimenter's time.



This seems very much like an induction to me. They are just not using what most people recognise as an induction. Never the less they are using trance work.
Dr Omni
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The literature on hypnosis is absolutely colossal, but the number of really good books on the subject is fairly small. The central figure in the development of contemporary hypnotherapy was Dr Milton H. Erickson, who really transformed it into a versatile tool for therapy, tailored to the individual. Two good summaries of Ericksonian hypnotherapy are:

Richard Bandler & John Grinder, Trance-formations

Rubin Battino and Tom South, Ericksonian Approaches

Erickson wrote a vast number of papers, articles, encycopedia entries, monographs, lectures, workshop notes and the like, but never summarised his life's work in a single accessible volume. His writings have been assembled into numerous volumes, probably the most authoritative of which are the four volumes of "Collected Papers of MHE on Hypnosis", edited by Ernst Rossi.

There is a considerable gap between hypnotherapy and stage hypnosis, the latter being fundamentally about entertainment and showmanship. Although there are thousands of books on hypnotherapy, there are very few on stage hypnosis, and the two best (as mentioned above by other posters) are:

Ormond McGill, New Encyclopedia of Stage Hypnotism

Jerry Valley, Inside Secrets of Professional Stage Hypnotism

If you want to read one book as a complete beginner, a good start is Paul McKeena's "The Hypnotic World of Paul McKenna". For those outside the UK, Paul McKenna is Britain's leading stage hypnotist, whose TV show was vastly popular back in the 1990s. His book crosses the line between hypnotherapy and stage hypnosis.
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Thoughtreader
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One only need watch Ormond work a show NOW, even at his age to see what a consumate performer he really is and that everything he wrote about was "the real thing". If you ever get the chance to see this master work, do it!
PSIncerely Yours,
Paul Alberstat
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Peter695
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I have a stack of videos of various performers including comtemporaries. I just don't understand what people are talking about when they say Ormond is dated. Some of the terms used in his writings are dated, but as far as the shows go, I don't see the difference. "The room is cold" and "You are holding a puppy" have been around for ages. Is it the lighting or costuming or attitude that people are saying are new? I'm asking and not making a comment. What about shows now are edgy?


Peter
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Haven't seen Ormond for over a decade. He gave me my 1st instruction in hypnosis in Palo Alto Ca back in the 50s. I consider him an absolute master and a really great guy.
I'm not a fan of the Bob Baker THEY CALL IT HYPNOSIS approach. I read the book some time ago & kept asking myself "They call ?WHAT? hypnosis?" If you don't call it hypnosis, what DO you call it? To me, Baker is one of the ultraskeptic crowd that starts out by DENYING the existence of something, and then bends over backward to try to "prove" it doesn't exist. You know, the Randiesque, CSICOP approach.
I'd wholeheartedly recommend anything Ormond wrote on the subject of stage hypnosis. (By the way, Dr. Erickson got his basic hypnosis strategies from watching stage hypnotists.)
Peter695
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Really? Sex sells?

Not that I'm knocking your response, long memory. I appreciate it. My point is, I haven't seen one example of any shows that I would consider new in technique or content. That doesn't mean they're not out there. Orman gives several examples of rapid and instant inductions if I remember correctly. Jerry Valley has used glitz for decades. He even uses dancers. Plenty of older hypnotists offer adult or "X" rated parties and shows. I do see your point. I guess I'm having the same reaction as when the Hollywood madam, Heidi Fleiss was busted - really; sex and cocaine in the show biz crowd?

(Edit)I don't really have too much of a point. I just appreciate what Orman did for all of us. Thanks Orman.


Peter
Millard123
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Please remember that I heartily endorse Ormond McGill’s books and I also endorse the Robert Baker book.

The original questioner has no experience in hypnosis and that is why I cautioned him about some of the things in Ormond’s book. As we gain experience, we know which things to do now and which things to not do now. Ormond himself no longer does many of the stunts that are in his encyclopedia, but those stunts do belong in the encyclopedia for informational purposes.

Inexperienced hypnotists should also be aware of the skeptical views that they are sure to encounter, hence my recommendation of the Baker book. I also think that we can learn much from the Baker book by careful reading as pointed out in another post in this thread. In some places the arguments Baker gives actually seem to support hypnosis.

BTW, I always wear long pants when I go out; I am 58 years old.

Millard
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limhanchung
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Where to get Jerry Valley, Inside Secrets of Professional Stage Hypnotism and Ormond McGill, New Encyclopedia of Stage Hypnotism?
Peter695
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For Jerry Valley's book:

Look Here! and click "professional".

And for Ormand's book:

Look Here!


Peter
Decomposed
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Has anyone read Conversational Hypnosis: A Manual of Indirect Suggestion by Carol Sommer?

Candin
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Quote:
On 2002-08-28 11:03, Millard123 wrote:
Here is an excerpt from the book "They Call It Hypnosis" by Robert A. Baker:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Barber, Spanos, and Chaves (1974) point out that response to suggestions can be easily obtained without any hypnotic induction at all. In fact, "task motivational instructions," actually work better than standardized induction procedures involving suggestions of relaxation, drowsiness, and sleep. In motivation instructions the subjects are told:

1) Your performance will depend on your willingness to try to imagine vividly and to experience those things that will be described to you.

2) Previous subjects have been able to imagine vividly and to have the experiences that were suggested to them when they put aside the idea that this is a silly or difficult thing to do.

3) If you try to imagine to the best of your ability, you will experience a number of interesting things and you will not be wasting either your own or the experimenter's time.

Through a series of experiments the authors found that there were eight separate variables which enhanced responsiveness to suggestions. They were:

1) Defining the situation as "hypnosis."

2) Removing fears and misconceptions about hypnosis.

3) Securing cooperation, i.e., making the subject want to comply or convincing the subject he couldn't resist.

4) Asking the subject to keep his eyes closed, i.e., removing visual distractions.

5) Suggesting relaxation, sleep, and hypnosis.

6) Elaborating and varying the wording and tone of suggestions.

7) Coupling suggestions with actual events to enhance suggestibility.

8) Preventing or reinterpreting subject failure to act in accordance with suggestions.

All of the above variables heighten or augment suggestibility because they give rise to positive attitudes, motivations, and expectancies toward responding to suggestions and to being hypnotized, which in turn give rise to a willingness to think and imagine along with whatever is being suggested.

By far the most impressive and convincing aspects of Barber's work has been a series of experiments over a period of a dozen years or more demonstrating that any human activity or behavior that has been attributed to hypnosis – particularly the unusual ones, such as anesthesia, hallucination, enhanced muscular performance, amnesia, posthypnotic effects, unusual perceptual effects such as deafness, blindness, colorblindness, etc., and physiological effects such as heart acceleration, curing warts, pain suppression, etc. can be brought about in the normal waking subject without hypnosis just by direct suggestion. As Barber notes, thousands of books, movies, and magazine articles have woven the concept of "hypnotic trance" into the mainstream of common knowledge. Yet there is almost no scientific support for this concept. Since Mesmer's day it has been assumed the hypnotic trance state is real, i.e., that there is some reliable way to tell whether or not a person is hypnotized, some simple physiological measure such as brain waves, eye movements, pulse rate, etc. Yet no such physiological test exists, no way we can distinguish a hypnotized individual from an awake one. As Barber says, the notion of the hypnotic state is circular, i.e., state theorists say that a person obeys suggestions because he is in a hypnotic state. How do you know he is in a hypnotic state? Well, "because he obeys the suggestions."

The only reasonable challenges to Sarbin's and Barber's contentions have come from those state theorists who argue that hypnotized subjects are able to do things they would not or could not do while awake. It's hard to imagine that anyone could maintain his role playing or even a high level of motivation while undergoing major surgery. Both clinical and experimental evidence clearly shows that the hypnotic induction procedure followed by suggestions for pain insensitivity is highly effective in diminishing reports of pain. Robert Sears, for example, found that people's reports of pain from a sharp point could be reduced by twenty two percent under hypnosis when compared with waking controls. This ability to go through an ordinarily painful experience without reporting pain is so extraordinary that some theorists have suggested this as a test for the presence of hypnosis. Because of the importance of analgesia and the problem of pain we will take up the subject again at length in a later chapter. Suffice it to say here that it is not hypnosis per se that reduces the pain but the effects of relaxation and anxiety reduction, and suggestion and distraction serve as the active agents.

Regarding the other unusual or bizarre things that people do in hypnotic situations, Barber shows how wide-awake individuals accomplish the same things with ease. A standard stunt that nearly all stage magicians perform is to hypnotize a member of the audience and make his body so rigid that he can be stretched out like a plank, with his head on one chair and his ankles on another. It is assumed, of course, that in the ordinary waking state no one could do this. This is not true at all. Kreskin has shown how anyone can do the same thing while wide awake by just holding the body tense. The stunt is capped by having another person remove his or her shoes and then stand on the suspended person's chest. In such a case, usually the person playing suspension bridge has his shoulders on one chair and his calves on another. This simple stunt has nothing whatsoever to do with hypnosis.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Millard



I have this book otw. It seems from what I have read here and other places is it basically is stating hypnosis is just a mindset and does not really exist. They touched on this at a conference/workshop I attended a few days ago that was dealing with the clinical side of hypnosis. One MD (hypnothearpist) told us they still do not understand hypnosis since the brain waves have been debated for years. Makes me wonder why the AMA approved hypnosis in the first place.

Converstational "hypnosis" as well as NLP I think would expound on this would it not? Looking forward to reading this book nonetheless.

Candin
RobertTemple
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This is gonna set a huge cat amongst a lot of pigeons. Am I the only one who isn't a great fan of McGills Encyclopedia?

Seems that way! I know its packed with stuff, but I didn't ever find it anything I could learn from.

In truth, and again everyone will hate me for saying it but I don't care, I learnt from an amazing 500+ page eBook which teaches everything you could possibly need to know, including a full stage show.... AND you can download it for FREE from here: http://www.hypnotherapycourse.net/

Before anyone suggests it Im not on any form of commission from JR... clearly the book is free. I just genuinely believe its the best resource for a budding hypnotist.

Rob
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1gbZt0-x74
TonyB2009
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Hi Robert. I agree completely that McGills book is over-rated and not the best resource for someone learning the art. Jonathan Royale's book is more useful - but he takes 500 pages to give 200 pages worth of information. He is a very long-winded writer, but the information seems to be spot on.
I always recommend Eddie Burke's Professional Secrets of Stage and Cabaret Hypnosis to beginners.
Decomposed
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Thanks Tony. Having been resarching for a few months, I have never in my life seen so much marketing, books, tapes, DVDs, even 8 tracks (VHS) made available concerning hypnosis. I remember starting out in mentalism and not seeing 10 percent as much bombardment on the web. It is truly amazing.

Well, back to writing my eBook on NLP.

Candin
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