(And are you going to make me cluck like a chicken?)

I get asked this question all the time.

Are those people hypnotized? Absolutely! Once you understand the process, you won’t find it so unbelievable. Hopefully, you’ll enjoy your next stage show even more.

I interviewed several people who have been hypnotized onstage so I could give you a vicarious experience of what it is like for them up there.

A stage hypnotist friend told me that when he is choosing people to go on stage, he looks for someone who would dance with a lampshade on his head at the office Christmas party. That means he wants someone who is not only willing, but eager to entertain by doing outrageous things in front of an audience. The first element necessary for hypnosis is consent. The second element is the participant’s depth of hypnosis. During a show, the hypnotist will often invite someone to leave the stage if he feels they are not in hypnosis and are just going through the motions. Now you have a stage full of willing performers who are deeply hypnotized. The fun begins.

One man I interviewed was a television journalist (and a skeptic) who became a volunteer in order to “expose” the hypnotic process. He decided to surrender to the experience, went deeply into hypnosis, and found himself being the star of the show. He described it as a highly focused state in which he really wanted to do what the hypnotist asked of him, although when the group was asked to do something against his moral code, he had no trouble rejecting the suggestion. When he was told the person next to him had a terrible smell, he re-experienced a bad smell from somewhere in his past. He didn’t analyze it. He was not aware of the audience. He was just having fun. This experience so impressed him that he decided to study hypnosis and became a professional hypnotherapist. Honestly!

The others I spoke with described a similar experience of being deeply focused and either being unaware of the audience’s laughter or experiencing it as ambient noise. All said they wanted to do what the hypnotist asked of them and all said they were having great fun. One told me, “My life isn’t fun, so I can’t wait to get onstage. It’s like fantasy and playing pretend—like a little kid”. She said, “One part knows it’s not real, but the other part feels compelled to follow along. It’s like I’m in my own little world”.

Often the hypnotist will give a post hypnotic suggestion of temporary amnesia about the experience and many people don’t remember what they did until a day or two later. Some remember vaguely.

I saw one show in which the hypnotist suggested that on the count of three, the performers would realize that they were naked. One, two, three….and then we heard a crash as a beautiful young woman knocked down the chairs next to her to leap behind her chair. We roared. After the show I asked her what had been going on in her mind. She said “All I could think of was that they could see my breasts”.

By the way, if you have been in the audience of a show and haven’t gone into hypnosis when the hypnotist suggested that your hands were stuck together, it doesn’t mean you can’t be hypnotized. It means that this venue is not the right time or place for you. Although I go quickly and easily into hypnosis in a therapeutic setting, I have never allowed myself to be hypnotized during a stage show. I don’t want to perform there. (I had enough of that when I was a children’s entertainer.) No one can hypnotize me without my permission.

Am I going to make you cluck like a chicken? Only if you want to, and it will help you reach the goal you want to achieve in hypnosis. So far in the past 11 years, it has never happened.

If you can become the star of a stage show; if you can think you have the talent of Elvis, imagine how you can use hypnosis to convince yourself that you have the power to meet your goals and follow your dreams.

Here are two videos of some pretty funny shows:

My friend David Skale. The woman with a turkey baster cracks me up:

http://davidskale.com/www.davidskale.com/Hypnotism.html

Try not to laugh at the 1:30 mark on this video.

Richard Nongard:

Thanks to Julie Labes, http://www.fierceover50travel.com , for asking the question so that I could answer it in this newsletter.

I welcome any questions you might have. Send them to me at Lynda@powerjourneys.com.

Warm wishes until the next issue,

Lynda

Have you ever driven yourself crazy trying to find something you’ve misplaced?

Earlier this year “Mary” came to me to see if I could help her remember the name and address of a Notary she had gone to in 1995. She didn’t even know what city it was in.  

I’ve seen an article circulating on Twitter warning people about the horrible withdrawal symptoms they will get when they quit smoking. Aside from giving negative hypnotic suggestions which may create a self-fulfilling prophecy, in my experience this is JUST NOT TRUE.  I’ve helped 2 pack-a-day smokers quit and they had no physical withdrawal symptoms the next day or the next week.  They almost all report they slept better the night after our hypnosis session than they have in years. 

If nicotine were truly addictive, people would be craving a fix every four hours or so and waking up in the middle of the night to smoke.  The true cause of the “addiction” is the habitual daily use of tobacco to distract from uncomfortable feelings or situations.  This goes on frequently throughout the day so it is viewed as an “addiction more difficult to break than heroine.”

 A well trained, competent hypnotist can help you find the causes of the smoking habit, not just treat the behavior.  By getting to the source of the problem you can become a calm, comfortable non-smoker who feels more peaceful in all areas of your life.  

What’s your addiction? Food? Work? Shopping? Not speaking up for yourself? The answers to your freedom lie in your subconsious mind.

If you are near Los Angeles, you can contact me at www.powerjourneys.com and I will help you.

I wish you health,

Lynda Malerstein

www.powerjourneys.com

Feel the Freedom of Letting Go!

In order to nurture the creative spark within, Julia Cameron suggests in her book “The Artist’s Way; A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity”, that you spend two hours a week going on an “artist date” with yourself. That means you make a commitment to find a place where you can go alone and browse, wander, dream, think, and experience. For some people this might be going to a bead shop or a car museum or a fabric store. For others a poetry reading, a museum or a design showroom. What might that be for you? 

For me, it was cultural experiences. I did her 12 week program and had a blast doing things alone that I might never had tried if it had not been a homework assignment.  I visited the largest Buddhist Temple in the United States, The Roy Rogers Museum, and took in several plays and ballets all by myself.  I was surprised to find that even alone I was a hot date! 

Taking yourself out for a date might be the most enjoyable time you’ve had in years. You don’t have to be at the mercy of anyone else’s schedule and you will be with someone you will really want to get to know better. 

Have fun!

Lynda Malerstein

http://www.powerjourneys.com