Having been using various tools for communication such as NLP and Hypnosis (both overtly and covertly) I thought it would be a good idea to introduce covert trances, or invisible hypnosis.
The key idea that first inspired me to learn hypnosis is this idea of "invisible hypnosis" - but what exactly is that?
Perhaps it is covert hypnosis, the careful use of language patterns, pacing and leading, and secretly manipulating the people you talk to. Perhaps it is simply street hypnosis, where any person is a potential subject.In truth, it is neither and both of these. Invisible or covert hypnosis is a term I have coined for a combination of techniques ranging from all areas of hypnosis. There are several little details within it that would prove interesting to current hypnotists, as well as informative to those wanting to learn hypnosis.If you have been keeping up with my articles on the various directories recently, you will notice that quite a few articles deal with practical applications of hypnosis, and stretching the boundaries of what is usually the limit.Invisible hypnosis is a way of pushing past those limits.
It revolves around a very central idea - that we, as hypnotists, do not have to tell people we are hypnotizing them. This may seem like just more covert hypnosis, but the truth is that invisible hypnosis allows you to perform your standard street, stage or therapeutic hypnosis techniques without your subject ever realizing it. The best way to describe this is in an example - the first time I used the invisible hypnosis technique.At one point, I was asked to perform a little show for a local church fete my grandfather was in charge of. I had nothing really to perform with, so I decided to put together a little hypnosis skit. I had two 15 minute shows to do, and I was feeling pretty confident - that is, until, I got my first reactions. After everyone had sat down, I came up front and told them they were going to experience hypnosis. There was a short silence, no applause or anything. I carried on, oblivious, and asked for volunteers to experience hypnosis. No-one applied. I asked several people in turn, and each of them said no. So there I was, stuck, with no-one to perform with. I ended up doing a measly card trick, and they all left looking slightly dissatisfied.I didn't feel great. Perhaps a bad crowd, I thought - despite the fact that such things rarely exist. Then it hit me - what if they were terrified, or at least un-nerved, by the prospect of hypnosis? What if their previous misconceptions about what would or could happen were so strong that a simple pretalk, designed to alleviate the fears of the subject, didn't help?I considered abandoning the next show.
If people really don't want to see hypnosis, then I couldn't force it on them. But as I was packing up to leave, another thought hit me - what if they didn't know it was hypnosis? Immediately I backtracked through the script in my mind, removing all mentions of the word "hypnosis". The next crowd arrived shortly afterwards, and I was nervous - could one missing word make all the difference?Oh, how it did. The show went fantastic, lasting a good 25 minutes rather than the usual 15, and they were talking about it for far longer, trust me! And that was just the removal of one word. In that quick moment, most of the fears people had been storing inside them had been wiped as being unimportant. If a person has never seen a hypnosis show before, then they will have no idea that hypnosis is what you are doing. Your pretalks will become easier! Your inductions will seem even more impressive! And the phenomena...well, ask anyone if they have had their hand turn invisible before their very eyes, and they'll give an opinion!So that is the general gist of the invisible hypnosis idea. But it is far more than simply not telling someone what you are doing. The above scenario is a performance situation - but what if it wasn't? What if it was instead some sort of business meeting, or a presentation - a moment that could have either enormous profit or great loss for you?
By carefully utilizing the skills many of us already know, in the right places, many hypnotists could greatly improve their own lives. There are many cases of hypnotists already doing this - we have masters of persuasion, we have covert hypnosis gurus - even politicians use elements of hypnosis during public speeches!So, to recap. Invisible hypnosis is where you use the skills and techniques of hypnosis in an obvious way, but without letting on that you are using hypnosis. By doing this, you bypass the barriers that immediately go up when you say "I'm a hypnotist". Watch this space for more details - this is just the start of the invisible hypnosis journey!