How do I get started with conversational hypnosis? – a helping hand for the novice Hypnotist

The first thing you need to know is that hypnosis doesn’t exist in a couple of tiny boxes, like most people (and most hypnotists) think it does.

Those boxes are what stop many people getting truly excellent at hypnosis – and getting the most out of life as a consequence.

What boxes? Here we go…

To just about everyone, Hypnosis is either stage hypnosis or hypnotherapy.

Stage Hypnosis takes place in front of an audience and the whole point is to create entertaining skits using members of the public.

Hypnotherapy, on the other hand, takes place behind closed doors and its goal is therapeutic change for the client.

And that’s where the common understanding of hypnosis ends. But it’s not the whole story.

Think about it – if we can use hypnosis for entertainment and for therapeutic change, why can’t we use it for influence? Or to educate, or inspire others? Or any one of a hundred other purposes?

The answer is, of course, that we can use hypnosis for any and all of those reasons.

So what’s the problem?

As you’ve probably gathered from earlier videos in this series, it’s not a good idea to apply the same traditional methods of hypnosis to these new areas. The results are weird and unnatural.

Why?

Each set of hypnotic behaviours exists in its own box and using it outside of that is somehow ‘against the rules’.

For example, a Hypnotherapist will not make you think you are Elvis and a Stage Hypnotist will not set out to cure your fear of heights.

Fortunately, there are things those two boxes have in common. If we understand that, we can use that knowledge to build something far more flexible.

I’m not talking about dragging models from hypnotherapy into normal life. If you’ve followed these videos so far, you’ll understand why that doesn’t work very well.

I’ve built a flexible model of hypnosis which will fit any situation to serve any purpose.

You’ll see the outline of it in the next video – hypnosis in a nutshell.

First, here’s why we need a new way of looking at hypnosis.

Basically, hypnosis is a purpose-driven activity.

Purpose is a value-set, which in turn dictates the ‘rules’ of the interaction. The behaviours in that setting are bounded by those rules.

For example, in hypnotherapy, the purpose is ‘therapeutic change’. Any behaviours that are not instrumental in causing that change are, at best, useless – and at worst, unethical.

In stage hypnosis, the purpose is entertainment, so any actions which are not creating entertainment are boring or annoying to the audience.

In education, the purpose is to understand, test and refine the information being taught.

In sales, the purpose is to inform the buyer and persuade them to make a good and lasting decision.

Each area has its own box you must work within, but you can apply the hypnotic framework usefully in each one.

Want more? I draw examples from a variety of everyday frameworks in my book Hypnotic Conversations: The Secret Structure Behind Everyday Hypnosis.

Or if you want to know more first, watch my next video – Hypnosis in a nutshell – How to use Hypnotic Conversations for any purpose.