Street hypnosis it brings up some controversy in some people's minds, other people's mind it's a right laugh, we'll have a lot of fun doing it. What we'll find is...And I do all three of these forms of hypnosis. But you tend to find hypnotists go into one of three camps, they'll be the stage hypnotists which'll count for quite a few, they'll be the therapeutic hypnotherapist that will probably count for a bit more, and they'll be the bastard child, we'll call the street hypnotists. Not so many, not such a big group. Now, typically the hypnotherapists don't quite get along with the stage hypnotists usually, usually. But one thing they both have in common is they usually don't like the street hypnotists.
Now as someone that has done all three, most of the stuff being therapeutic, I say that street hypnosis is amazing. And I will tell you why. Every therapeutic hypnotist should do street hypnosis, every stage hypnotist should do street hypnosis. They should uncover the bastard child of hypnosis. All right? I'll tell you street hypnotist when you get stage hypnotist and you got the stage hypnotist gets together with the hypnotherapist and have the bastard child, that's what street hypnotism is and it's beautiful and I fucking love it.
So, basically, here's the thing. When you do therapeutic hypnosis, you probably screen someone over the phone and they've paid you a bunch of money to be there, you've booked out a session, they filled out a questionnaire if you only think like me, right? And so there's a level of compliance there already because they're asking for your help. So you do some therapy with them. But the odds are they're probably gonna do what you ask them to do because they've jumped through multiple hoops at that point. It should not be that difficult to get that type of person who wants to be in hypnosis to have essentially metaphorically maybe physically put up their hands. Okay? So there is a level of skill but they've not as much skill as we like to think as hypnotherapists.
You've got a stage hypnotist on the other hand. Now, whereas a therapeutic hypnotist, we in the first session we might do a 30-minute pre-talk if you were taught anything like me back in the day. So maybe put away people's myths and apprehensions about hypnosis and fears and apprehensions all that stuff. You might have 30 minutes to build up that kind of rapport. Now a stage hypnotist doesn't have 30 minutes because the audience are gonna get bored, be on their Tinder swiping right or left or they're just gonna ask for a refund or leave. So the stage hypnotist has maybe 5, maybe 10 minutes maximum to do that stay in pre-talk to alleviate the punters, the spectators, fears, apprehensions and to set the frame about what hypnosis is and what it isn't.
Impressive. However, the street hypnotist probably has 90 seconds, maybe a minute maximum to get what it takes the therapeutic hypnotists 30 minutes, what it takes the stage hypnotist maybe 5 to 10 minutes, a street hypnotist has 1 minute to break that talk down. They have condensed it. The best street performance in the world have condensed it into such a way they can get that message across to a complete stranger, not someone who's bought a ticket for the show, not someone who's purchased a package of sessions there that has talked to you over the phone or seen your posters doing it cold. That's another reason why street hypnotists are so very, very powerful and we should all study it as change workers to make us better at what we do.
Now, if people come to a stage show, they've probably bought a ticket, they've put their hand up on some level they want to be entertained or they wanna be part of the entertainment, hence they probably wouldn't have bought the ticket and taken a night out of their schedule. Therapeutically, once again, they're there because they want help. You've talked to them on the phone, they filled out a comprehensive questionnaire. They want help. I don't know many people that wake up in the morning and they say, "You know what? When I'm walking from A to B today, when I'm walking from my home to work, I hope a hypnotist comes up to me and makes me forget my name." That very very rarely happens. There's no expectation there, there's no frame that's been set. So if a street hypnotist is to go up to somebody cold in the street and to give them a great hypnotic experience is absolutely amazing because these people have not been pre-warned, they have not been preconditioned they have not been pre-framed. It's the purest form of hypnosis there is because there's been no money exchange, they have not seen your posters or promotional material.
Basically doing street hypnosis even if you don't consider yourself a performer will make you a better stage performer, it will make you a better therapeutic performer because you will do things faster, better, you will cut the fat out of what you do and it will also make what you do therapeutically a lot more fun. Because here's the thing. Most people, when they think of hypnosis they tend to really think about the stage shows, when the hypnotist makes the person bark like a cat, or meow like a dog, or dance around and do the moon dance like Michael Jackson, or sing the dulcet tones of Lady Gaga because she's the thing of the moment, right? So when they come in to see us as hypnotherapists, we're all very, very serious and we don't want to humiliate our clients and that's what stage hypnotists do, right? They humiliate clients. And I don't necessarily buy into that but I've had many talks with hypnotherapists who do share that opinion.
So when it comes down to them coming to see us therapeutically, they are, they do want help obviously therapeutically but they're also looking for a bit, a glitz, a glamour, a bit of magic because that's what they think most of the time what hypnosis is. So you've got to give them a little bit of what they think hypnosis is, so then around the back you can do that great therapeutic change work.
Now, I know many stage hypnotists who are great stage hypnotists. They're okay therapeutic hypnotherapists, but they're shit scared of going out cold into the street to an audience that has not been preconditioned and approaching them and doing street hypnosis. I know many hypnotherapists who kind of poopoo the idea of a street hypnotist. It's bad. It's like I say, it's the bastard child of hypnotherapists and stage hypnotists. And when you look through that and you question it more, really what it is, is they're...not everyone, by all means not everyone, but many hypnotherapists are just shit scared if the stuff they do doesn't work they look like a complete fool. Hence it's the story of the hypnotherapist who goes to a networking meeting and you've got the accountant, you've got the Arbonne person, you've got the personal trainer, you have got the massage therapist, and he got the hypnotist. So automatically, you're the most interesting person in the room. They've never met anyone like you. And inevitably, someone's gonna ask, "Oh, you do the hypnosis. Can you do some on me now?" And typically, that sentence right there it just makes a hypnotist and the hypnotherapist themselves because like, they end up going into excuse mode, and hey, I've done this before in the past as well. "Oh well, no, no. I can't do it because it's very serious and you need to come into my office and I need to do screening with you, and a full screening before we do that and see if you'd be appropriate to do hypnosis, and they usually take about 30 minutes in my office in these perfect test situations. So now if you like let's do it." By that point the person switched their mind off because they see hypnotists that says, "Sleep," and suddenly the person in front of them is doing mad, crazy, and miraculous things. You've already turned yourself off to them at that point. You've already exposed yourself as being a fraud on some points. Sorry to say it but I am gonna say it.
I used to be like that too. But I think the power now that when you do have the ability to hypnotize people who are cold, who are at least open to being hypnotized, and you hypnotize them. And when someone comes up to you at said networking meeting, a family get-together party, like, "You're a hypnotist, hypnotize me," and you're like, "Great, let's go." Or like, "Hypnotist, can you tell me about that?" and you're like, "Well, I could tell you about it or I could just show you. Is it okay if I show you?" And they're like, "What? You can show me?" And then you go into some kind of hypnotic phenomenon, some kind of convincer for them to experience magic of that moment right there. Their mind is blown and you've given
'em exactly what you wanted and you've raised your credibility by giving 'em a bit of entertainment up front. You then get to do that miraculous change work you wanna do. You give 'em some bells and whistles upfront because they want to be entertained. And if you're in therapy, to quote Richard Bandler, you're also in entertainment, so learn to be fucking entertaining.
So street hypnosis is the purest form of hypnosis you can do, and it does take balls of steel. I've had the pleasure of going out with some of the best street hypnotists in the world from the very, very best in the world. And I've also had the pleasure of meeting many hypnotherapists and many stage hypnotists. And they can't transfer that skill onto a cold party, onto a random stranger. And it always makes me chuckle because oftentimes as hypnotists we've all probably worked with somebody who wants more self-confidence and more self-esteem, yet when it comes to us performing, we can say, "Whoa, no, no. I just don't wanna do it." And it's not that we don't wanna do it, because who doesn't want to have the superpower of hypnotizing someone cold one day in the middle of the street? It's a cool fucking thing to do. It's amazing and the people you do it with love it, and it brings our standard up high because people are like, "Shit. This stuff works because he stuck my lips together, he stuck my feet to the ground, he made me forget the number six, he made forget my name. He made me see Channing Tatum or Lady Gaga and they weren't really here. He made me disappear my foot. He said, 'Freeze,' and I just froze. He said, 'Mute,' and I just muted. He said speak in Martian, that's all I could speak in." Yes, it's entertainment. Yes, it's skit. But in their mind, they're thinking, "Well, if he could do all that cool stuff with me, he can make me stop smoking. She can make me stop drinking alcohol. He can give me confidence. She can get me over my fear or phobia." So you're leading heavy first with that hypnotic phenomenon. It's very, very important and I would encourage all hypnotists stage to just go out there and do some street hypnosis.
Stayed tuned for part 2 of this article coming soon!
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