Stage Hypnosis Explained

I often get asked questions about hypnosis based on what people have seen in stage hypnosis shows, namely comedy stage hypnosis. Stage hypnosis is an art form quite different to what hypnotherapists do and the misconceptions that come through it are quite staggering. 'Can you make me cluck like a chicken?' Stage hypnosis is a mystery for many people that they cannot quite get their heads around, how is this person controlling these people in such a way? Could I be made to do something like that? The below article was written by Jonathan Groves and explains why stage hypnosis is not such a mystery to those in the know. (More about the misconception surrounding hypnosis here)


When a stage hypnotist does a stage hypnosis show, one of the first things the stage hypnotist will do is ask for volunteers to come on stage.Now, notice how the stage hypnotist is asking for volunteers. If the stage hypnotist had so many secretive powers to control people, then why is he asking for volunteers? Authentic covert hypnosis secrets do not require volunteers or the cooperation of other people, so this is the first warning that stage hypnosis is a joke. 


The next indication that stage hypnosis is fake is that during a stage show, a stage hypnotist continues to reject volunteers who had come up on stage to be hypnotized. The stage hypnotist will tell the volunteers to return to their seats and to enjoy the show. The question we must ask ourselves is why does the stage hypnotist do this? Why is the stage hypnotist disqualifying his own volunteers? The reason why people are banned is because the stage hypnotist closely monitors his volunteers to determine if they are doing everything he says in the correct way he wants the volunteers to do it. When a volunteer is not doing just what the stage hypnotist says, what the stage hypnotist will do is get rid of the volunteer. This proves stage hypnosis is false, because if stage hypnosis was some dark art with gobs of hypnosis secrets, then how can people resist what the stage hypnotist says to the point where the stage hypnotist needs to disqualify them? 

As the show continues, more and more volunteers are disqualified. During the final phases of the show, there will only be a few volunteers left. These are the volunteers who end up clucking like chickens and doing awkward things so that the stage hypnosis looks to have some unexplained powers at work. But these volunteers are simply volunteering to do exactly as the stage hypnotist says. The stage hypnotist will even go so far as to tell the people that they will not recall anything that they did on stage, and when the people appear to come out of trance, they do as the stage hypnotist told them and act as though they are not able to remember anything that happened. 

A stage hypnotist is a entertainer and not a real hypnotist. All he does is collect a bunch of volunteers who want to be hypnotized and then he sorts out the volunteers who will not voluntarily do everything the stage hypnotist tells them to do. So, people are not in reality hypnotized during a stage hypnosis show, they are volunteering to act as though that they were hypnotized. 

There isn't much of a distinction between a Hollywood movie and a stage hypnosis show. This means stage hypnosis is a form of entertainment and not a form of persuasion.

Video: Spectacular Autistic Artist: The Human Camera: Stephen Wiltshire

Steven Wiltshire (gallery) is an autistic man from North London and has the exceptional talent of drawing to an amazing accuracy through memory alone. In this video his mastery is tested and he takes one helicopter ride over Rome before being handed a pen and a wall of paper... the human brain is truly remarkable!!

More Research Necessary into Mind Altering Drugs?

Drug taking is one of those highly controversial topics bound to offend someone at some stage and Professor Nutt's comments are bound to cause outrage on certain fronts. But all he is saying is that more research is necessary because there is a strong possibility mind altering drugs can have a medical benefit. The article comes from BBC News.

Former government drugs adviser Prof David Nutt has said that regulations should be relaxed to enable researchers to experiment on mind-altering drugs. Prof Nutt told BBC News that magic mushrooms, LSD, ecstasy, cannabis and mephedrone all have potential therapeutic applications. However, he said they were not being studied because of the restrictions placed on researching illegal drugs.
He said the regulations were "overwhelming".
His comments followed the publication of new research by his group in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which suggests that the active ingredient in magic mushrooms could be used to treat depression.
"I feel quite passionately that these drugs are profound drugs; they change the brain in a way that no other drugs do. And I find it bizarre that no-one has studied them before and they haven't because it's hard and illegal," he said.
A Home Office spokesperson said: "The Home Office licensing regime already enables research to take place through a system of controlled drug possession licences, allowing bona fide institutions to carry out scientific research.
"This regime recognises the importance of such research and enables that to take place in an appropriate environment, ensuring the necessary safeguards are in place."
Prof Nutt was sacked by the home secretary from his government advisory role three years ago for saying that ecstasy and LSD were less harmful than alcohol.
He says his new research indicated that there were no "untoward effects" from taking magic mushrooms and that it should not be illegal to possess them. Prof Nutt and his team scanned the brains of volunteers who had been injected with a moderate dose of psilocybin, the active ingredient of magic mushrooms. They had expected higher activity in areas of the brain associated with visual imagery. But in fact they found that the drug switched off a network of interconnected regions of the brain which regulated an individual's sense of being and integration with their environment. The researchers say that this alters consciousness because individuals are less in touch with their sensations and normal way of thinking.
They also found that psilocybin also turns off a part of the brain which is over active in some forms of depression. So Prof Nutt believes that the drug could be used as an antidepressant and has applied to the Medical Research Council to carry out a small patient study to see if this is the case.
"There's some research from the US which shows that when used in a psycho-therapeutic context it can produce quite long-lasting changes to a person's sense of well-being - changes that can last for years," he says.
He also said that there was nothing in the brain scans or follow-up studies which would suggest that if taken in moderate quantities the drug was unsafe.
"People who use them regularly seem to do that. They seem to use them on an annual basis in order to enjoy the experience but also because it has this positive reaffirming effect.
"And there are certainly examples of people who take magic mushroom tea for obsessive compulsive disorder to keep it under control.
"So it may be that there are broad utilities of these kind of compounds in terms of mental well-being. I don't know - I think it's very much a question to be answered."
A second study, due to be published online by the British Journal of Psychiatry on Thursday, found that psilocybin enhanced volunteers' recollections of personal memories, which the researchers suggest could make it useful as an adjunct to psychotherapy.
However, Martin Barnes, chief executive of DrugScope, said: "The research published today does not directly address whether or not magic mushrooms are harmful.
"Instead, it looks at how psilocybin, the active chemical in magic mushrooms, affects the brain."
Prof Nutt also said that he believed that possession of magic mushrooms should not be illegal, adding that its status as a controlled drug was hampering research.
"Research has been minimal, if not non-existent, on psychedelic drugs because the regulations are so overwhelming," he said.
"I would say that this is the most obvious unexplored area of neuroscience; drugs which change the brain in a fundamental way and yet we don't bother studying them because it's too difficult or we are to scared of falling foul of the regulators or the media."
But Mr Barnes from DrugScope cautioned that the recreational or problematic use of drugs should not be conflated with the important issue of researching possible therapeutic or medical benefits that some psychoactive substances may offer.
"A carefully controlled and supervised study, using a pure formulation of psilocybin under controlled conditions, is very different from how most people would ingest the substance in magic mushrooms.
"As with medicines which use active chemicals present in cannabis, pharmaceutical products derived from any psychoactive substances will differ significantly from street drugs."
Prof Nutt resists comparisons with the 1960s guru Timothy Leary who advocated the use of LSD. His view was that if everyone took LSD all the time they would be better people. They would have nicer, happier lives.
"I'm not recommending anyone taking any drugs. I'm just suggesting we need to have a more scientific rational approach to drugs and vilifying drugs like psilocybin whilst at the same time actively promoting much more dangerous drugs like alcohol is totally stupid scientifically."

More articles on drug effects: here and here

The Alarm Clock for the Perfect Night's Sleep?

Being woken up at the wrong time can be a horrible feeling. You feel un-rested and wake up feeling grumpy to start the day on the wrong foot from the off. You want to throw your alarm clock out the window or berate the caring person who had kindly agreed to wake you up. Yet at other times you awaken feeling refreshed and ready to go despite perhaps only sleeping a few hours - why is this? Is there something that could be done to ensure a refreshing wake up every day? Perhaps this new alarm clock is the answer... Article taken from:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111020105800.htm

Writing in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology the researchers describe an alarm clock that monitors your brain activity and triggers its alarm within a time window you set in advance but only when your brain is in a more easily roused state rather than deep sleep.

"By using such an alarm clock, the user will wake feeling much more refreshed than if they were awakened by a conventional alarm clock that rings at a set time," explains Jemina Asnoth Sylvia of Jerusalem College of Engineering in Tamil Nadu.

Sleep is a behavioural state that is a natural part of every individual's life. We spend about one-third of our lives asleep. Although the precise functions of sleep remain a mystery, sleep is important for normal motor and cognitive functions as well as growth and rejuvenation of the immune, nervous, skeletal and muscular systems. After waking naturally, we recognize changes that have occurred, as we feel rested and more alert. However, many people use an alarm clock to wake them at a set time, which is when problems occur for some of us.

The researchers point out that sleep usually involves 90-minute cycles of brain activity during which there are periods when the brain is most arousable. If a person is woken, from a night's sleep, during such an arousable period in the cycle, they will feel more refreshed than if they are woken during a deeper part of the sleep cycle. To take advantage of this requires putting EEG scalp electrodes on the head to monitor brain activity and to hook the output to a modified alarm clock. Once out of the experimental stage, the team envisages a head-band worn while sleeping that uses wireless electrodes.

In tests, the alarm time is set and the monitoring process is set to begin 90 seconds before the alarm time. An on board computer determines what stage of their brain activity cycle the sleeper is in during the 90-second monitoring time. If they are in the 3rd or 4th stage of sleep, the alarm is "snoozed" automatically. However, if they are in stage 1 or 2 of sleep, the more arousable stages, the alarm is sounded to wake the sleeper.

The team adds that it is feasible to record brain activity during the night to obtain a so-called "hypnogram" to determine how well you are sleeping overall. This would allow you to adjust your alarm time so that the monitoring window coincided more often with stage 1 or 2. That might mean an earlier alarm call, up to 45 minutes earlier, but it would be a gentler more refreshed awakening. Of course, the converse would also be possible -- a "snooze" or 45 minutes and an even more rested and refreshed awakening. Just don't blame the researchers if you are late for work!

Hypnobirthing: Hypnosis for Childbirth

I posted a Hypnobirthing video last month that was received with great interest (click here to view) and so to follow that up I found a great article by Cathal O'Briain, a published author of Hypnotherapy and secretary of the Hypnotherapy Association of Ireland. Enjoy reading.


When giving birth, it is possible to change the sensation of pain to pressure. The more relaxed a mother-to-be is, the easier, faster, and less complicated labor and birth become. Some mothers become so relaxed, they find it almost impossible to identify when exactly they are having a contraction. Through self-hypnosis they turn pain into pressure. When the mother's body is this relaxed, the baby just flows out and sometimes after just a few pushes. 

From the moment a woman realizes she is pregnant, preparation for the big day using relaxation techniques and positive imagery should be used to remove fear. We should see the process of giving birth as a happy and wondrous event, eagerly anticipated. But many cultures tend to view it as something to be feared because of the pain they associate with it. This expectation of fear and pain is what makes labor so difficult. If a girl grows up believing that childbirth is a comfortable and joyous experience, providing she doesn't hear otherwise, she should remain free of fear, tension and pain when her time comes to give birth. By reprogramming your mind to expect relaxation and pressure, instead of fear and pain, less adrenaline is produced. Adrenaline is one of the main reasons why labor normally becomes dysfunctional. There is less chance of needing a cesarean section during a natural, hypno-birth. 

The woman using self-hypnosis during birth trains her mind to produce anaesthesia when and where it's needed. The feeling of building pressure is used as a cue to relax even deeper. So as labor progresses, instead of it painfully intensifying, the buildup and pressure now create a sense of relaxation in the mind and body. When the body is instructed to flow harmoniously along with the birth process, this opens up and releases tightness and tension. It also helps the downward movement to work easily and effectively, resulting in a shorter birth. By reducing the amount of trauma to the baby during the birth process, the baby is more likely to be happier and more relaxed. 

The Benefits of Using Hypnosis during Labor and Childbirth 
Hypnosis shortens labor time and the second stage of labor. This is because it minimizes the resistance of the muscles used in birth as a response to pain and stress. 
Hypnosis enhances comfort and sleep during and after pregnancy. 
Hypnosis helps control nausea and vomiting. 
Hypnosis helps to stop post-partum depression beginning. 
Hypnosis creates a stronger bond between mother and baby. 
Hypnosis creates a peaceful birthing environment. 
Hypnosis may reduce the need for episiotomies and anesthesia. 
Hypnosis helps to remove negative beliefs about the labor process. 
Hypnosis helps adjust blood pressure naturally. 
Hypnosis increases the mother's confidence in her own ability to give birth naturally, putting her in control of herself, while at the same time letting nature do its job in a proficient manner. 
Hypnosis helps to create the level of relaxation needed to stop the flow of catecholamines, the stress hormone released during labor. 
Catecholamines make it difficult for the circular muscles of the uterus to relax, causing the uterus muscles to work hard, creating longer, harder contractions. Catecholamine release is a fear-based response that creates constriction in the muscles. Self-hypnosis turns off catecholamines and switches on endorphins. 
The experience of pain in childbirth is the result of an unnatural process of fear. Fear produces tension, which then creates tightness and clamping of the muscles. Tension works in opposition to the body giving birth. Self-hypnosis removes the fear, which removes tension, which removes tightness and clamping. The end result is pressure, not pain. 
Fewer drugs or no drugs at all mean less risk of side effects for mother and baby. Birth is then completely natural; the way nature intended it to be. 
There are fewer interventions and complications during labor. 
There is a time distortion with hypnosis. This makes labor time feel much shorter than it actually is. 
Because hypnosis helps with the second and active stage of labor, including the delivery of the baby, there is less need for operational delivery. Complete anesthesia of the perineum eases delivery, episiotomy and suturing of the perineum. 
With hypnosis there is less shock to the system and a quicker recovery.