The April Meet

Another month, another London HypnoMeet.

I really look forward to these meetings; they're great social occasions and I learn so much from watching other hypnotists at work.

This month I was a little bit later in arriving at venue due to onward travel plans and luggage (These were travel plans that didn't actually involve Mexico, although the look on Ben's face was priceless when I said they did! Sorry Ben...). The usual pub was as crowded as always but this time without yours truly, aka Muggins, having arrived early in order to secure a table we were standing at the bar. As it turned out there were just five of us this time too.

We decided to seek an alternative pub. So, pausing only to unfold the Brompton folding bicycle of hypnosis and re-inflate the tyres of somnambulism (you had to be there!) we made our merry way to a a nice quiet pub near Leicester Square.

Andy, who came to the last meet had come along again this time and brought his girlfriend Ali with him. Ben demonstrated to her his latest party trick which is an induction where he links the position of a person's hand to going in and out of trance. This was the induction he had demonstrated on me last month in fact, and there's a video of him doing it on the post for that meet. For her part Ali was definitely showing all of the signs of someone who enjoys going into trance, as Ben's routine fractionated her deeper. Soon she was in a nice deep trance.

In these situations I think it's important to fein disinterest in the proceedings, regardless of how impressive, so that the subject doesn't become self conscious. The wide eyed gawping can always wait until they have closed their eyes.

The discussion then moved on to Andy, who is relative new to being a hypnotist, commenting that he's been lacking confidence recently, and not being sure what to say. Personally, having seen Andy at work on Will at last month's meet I don't believe that he has anything to worry about. Of course the deciding factor for a hypnotist will always be confidence, not the perfect usage of words, so in order to convince Andy that he is as good as he actually is we ended up in a situation where he was hypnotising the other four of us using magnetic hands.

As always, our highly public demonstration of hypnosis barely drew any attention from anybody else in the room. Not even with four of us at once slumped over in our chairs. It never ceases to amaze me!

Likewise when Ali commented that she'd like to give being the hypnotist a try herself, and so hypnotised me with a magnetic hands induction and a staircase deepener.

There had been a distinct lack of phenomena taking place, so as a parting shot at this meet I decided to demonstrate a bit of waking hypnosis on Ali. The most enjoyable experiences I have had as a hypnotist have always been when I have been able to share it with a receptive subject who is willing to have a bit of fun, and this was one of those occasions.

I got to demonstrate my Ericksonian handshake, which is an induction that I really enjoy doing. Unusually my subject had trouble keeping her eyes open; very quickly they closed and then she went limp. Of course this isn't quite the desired effect, but given that it induced a trance I wasn't too bothered. As I have said before, everything that happens is always exactly what the hypnotist intended to happen. Always.

What followed was a fun little demonstration of waking hypnosis. I told her that her right hand was stuck to the table, then said it was time to go and offered my hand to her to shake. Of course she couldn't lift her hand to respond, so I told her that her right hand was now free, because her left hand was now stuck to her leg.

I find the "(this) ...because... (this)" is a very useful approach in waking hypnosis. After all, if one is true, why shouldn't the other be?

Eventually I got her to release her left hand by putting a finger in her right ear, which of course became stuck. I then had her release that by putting a finger in her left ear. I told her she knew how it worked now; put a finger in one ear to release the finger in the other. Finger in, finger out. Finger in, finger out. How do you escape? Why, you go really fast and eventually... that's it... they both come free. Amazing!

Okay it's a routine I stole off a YouTube video I saw a while back, but I don't care. It was a lot of fun.

Anyway, as usual I had to dash off to catch a train and as always I'm already looking forward to the next London meet.