Not to appear too eager, we arrived at around 21.00 and then proceeded to do the awkward introductions to the people that Alan knew while I attempted to look suitably hypnotic.

After a while I found myself free of the small talk and took a moment to adjust myself into a more “street hypnosis” state. What I mean by this is that for most of us, meeting and talking to people is usually for the end purpose of making friends and connections. From a street hypnosis point of view, where I may have to approach several people in order to find someone who would actively like to experience trance, I need to get myself into a state of mind where if the first people I talk to aren’t interested, I can simply dismiss them (it sounds harsh to my mind which is why I have to adjust my state to do this) and head off in search of people who are interested. Once in this state, it is relatively easy to maintain. Anyway, I digress….

Having achieved the desired state, I immediately headed over to a nearby group of about 10-12 young creative looking people and sat down and introduced myself as Ben: hypnotist. Unfortunately, only a couple of people actually noticed and heard me and these weren’t interested in hypnosis, but they were kind enough to point out the other side of the table as likely to be more receptive. I strode up and interrupted them with their names (which had kindly been provided by the other side of the table) which immediately gave me an air of knowing stuff I wouldn’t, as a stranger, be expected to know. All to my benefit…

Upon introducing myself, one chap immediately (was) volunteered and was highly enthusiastic about being hypnotised. Great!

These opportunities are NOT to be turned down!

Now as it turns out, I had not only chosen someone with a really powerful and creative mind but was also a personality! Chris Cohen: Comedian and songwriter as it turns out, so before we go any further, here are his website and YouTube pages (I can recommend a perusal of his videos as they’re very funny).

I got him to pull his chair round to face me and I told him we were going to “warm up his mind” (aka suggestibility test/set piece). I decided against a pre-talk as I really couldn’t be bothered: if it didn’t work, the bar was full of groups of people so there were plenty of fishes in the pool to have a stab at (gives you an idea of the frame that I access in order to do the street stuff).

Induction

OK, so I quickly ran through magnetic fingers and I then got him to hold his hands out for magnetic hands (where the subject holds their hands at arms length, palm facing in towards each other about 6-8 inches apart and imagines magnets in the palm of each hand) and before I’d even finished explaining what would happen when they touched, they were already only about 2 inches apart! (either he’s not very good at following instructions or he’s going to be able to access the power of his mind really easily I thought). As soon as his fingers were about to touch, I grabbed his hands and forced them into his lap at the same time as gently encouraging his head to come forward (classic shock magnetic hands induction) and then proceeded to deepen.

Deepening

As I count from 10 to 1 you can double the sensation of relaxation so by the time we get to 1, you will be 100 times more relaxed and deeper than the sate you have already been able to achieve. Every number doubling that sense of relaxation, every breath you take doubling, every word I say allowing you to concentrate on the suggestions I’m giving you taking you deeper and deeper because you have such a super powerful subconscious mind: able to achieve all the things that you want in your life and as you continue to… 9…. double that sense of relaxation now to… 8… etc. etc.

Throughout the process I chucked in all sorts of pacing stuff:

• Someone remarked he was smiling, so I built that in: “you can smile as you enjoy the process of going deeper…”
• Camera flashes were going off as we’d instantly gathered a crowd: “each flash enables you to double the sense of relaxation…”
• His friends were gasping and talking: “and all the voices and sounds around us allow you to concentrate even more on the words I am saying…”

Delivering the first suggestion

Anyway so I had him at 1 and at this point I was not sure whether he’d followed my instructions to go into hypnosis so I was not going to waste time starting with small stuff and hoping to build up, so I went straight in with:

When I count to 3, you will return to the room: eyes open and alert feeling great, however you won’t be able to tell me your name. Perhaps, like a dream in the morning, the harder you try and find it the further and further away it goes. Or perhaps you will simply find that your tongue is unable to form the words. whatever you choose: when I count to 3, you will not be able to tell me your name. 1 2 3 eyes open!

Of course from there I introduced myself and asked for his name and of course he was completely unable to tell me…

When I touch your forehead, you name will return to you……… “Charlotte!” I exclaim popping him on the forehead… Hi I’m Ben…

Hi I’m Charles comes the reply.

So I’d told him his name was Charlotte but said “Charles”. (“Damn” I thought: it didn’t work) but then I heard someone in the audience refer to him by his real name (Chris), so I figured he must have mis-heard me.

Have you got any ID with you I asked.

Sure he says pulling out his wallet.

Chris/Charles then proceeds to pull out a credit card which only has his first initial (which of course was “C” for… Charles he assured me), so I asked if he had his driving licence with him: sure enough out came his driving licence followed by a puzzled expression as he realised that he had somehow ended up with someone else’s wallet! (well how else would you explain not seeing your name on a driving licence that you’d pulled from your pocket!?)

Escalation

Putting him back to sleep with a hand shake interrupt induction and returning him to his normal name, I woke Chris up after telling him that you will not be able to lift your glass from the table. 1 2 3 eyes open.

After re-introducing ourselves (properly this time), it was at this point that another member of the party sat herself between us and demanded that I help her with a therapy issue. Of course I had to explain that I don’t do therapy in public (especially when the subject has been drinking) and we then had a bit of a conversation about how hypnosis may or may not be an actual state. I start to become aware of a small commotion in the background behind my current interviewer as Chris seemed to be having some problem getting his glass off the table (oh yeah! I’d forgotten about that!)

Of course one of his kind (and intelligent) friends picks the glass up for him so that he could at least have a drink, but then uh oh: he puts it down…

At this point, as I know that he’s is enjoying this enormously and his subconscious mind is happy and playing along (much to the amusement of his conscious mind and his friends), I lightly tap the back of his hand as he strains to pick up his glass and say

You can now pick up the glass… but you can’t let it go!

We then have a bit of fun discovering that he can actually switch the glass between hands, he just can’t let go of it entirely. Until I tell him that both his hands are now stuck to the glass (Oh I’m so mean! ).

An interesting thing happens at this point: my host (who was not known to Chris) wanders in and touches the back of his hand and says released! and sure enough it is! Chris then looks round and I think realises that my host is not actually a hypnotist so when the host tells him that his other hand is now free: it isn’t! (just goes to show what expectation and the “power” of the hypnotist can do).

Anyway, I release my subject’s hands from the glass, but with every reaction there is an equal and opposite reaction, so of course his feet were now stuck to the floor! And then his hands were stuck in his pockets! (oh the power of the subconscious!)

What do you do with a hypnotic subject who can’t move?

Why you offer them money of course!

£10, then another £10 on offer but could he get his hands out of his pockets? he’d have had more luck asking Fern Cotton for a date!

It was at this point that I thought I’d best give the poor chap a break and did a full wake up procedure clearing him of all suggestions. We then had a good chat about his experience and I had to contend with an non-hypnotic abreaction from one of the onlookers (I’ll blog about this another time).

…

A little while later, Chris comes back to me with a request: Can you hypnotise me again so that my girlfriend can get some photos?

Well what kind of impromptu hypnotist would I be if I turned down an request like that!?

A triple handshake later and his shoe starts ringing…

Conversations with your sole can be most rewarding

…nothing like a good long conversation with one’s sole about how being hypnotised is a fantastic experience and what a great time you’re having!

Sadly by then it was closing time, so another full wake up and we were all on the way home, though not before being invited back another time…

Thanks to Chris and our hosts for being good sports and having a great time exploring the incredible power of the mind.