An Introduction to Hypnosis

“Anyone can become a competent hypnotist after just a weekend’s training with Andrew Newton… provided of course they understand that there is no such thing as hypnosis, only suggestion..!”

ANDREW NEWTON is one of the most successful Hypnotists ever. In 25 years, Andrew has hypnotised over 50,000 people worldwide. His achievements include selling out major theatres in Britain, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the Far East, regularly attracting audiences of more than 2,500. He holds the world record for the largest hypnotic show ever at York Castle with an audience of over 30,000!

With over 5,000 live performances and TV shows under his belt, Andrew was the first hypnotist ever to appear in London’s West End, and was the first hypnotist in the world to appear on television. The 22 part ‘Andrew Newton Hypnotic Experience’ has aired around the globe, from Australia to Zimbabwe, showing in South Africa in 1997.

Andrew’s training seminars are widely regarded as a ‘must’ for established hypnotists and beginners alike.

Have you ever heard the story of the five blind men and the elephant? Each blind man is led up to the elephant and reaches out to touch it. The first blind man takes hold of the elephant’s trunk and says “Ah-ha! The elephant is like a snake!”  The second takes hold of the elephant’s tail, and confidently declares that the elephant is like a piece of rope. The third, taking hold of one of the elephant’s tusks, is satisfied with the discovery that an elephant is like a spear, and so on. The fourth, chancing to come up against the side of the elephant’s body remarks that the elephant is like a vast wall, while the fifth blind man, taking hold of the leg, returns in the belief that the elephant is like a tree.

Each in their own way of course is right, and yet at the same time, each of them is hopelessly wrong - none of them are able to see the bigger picture, and the same is true of the study of hypnosis. Ask a hypnotist to define hypnosis and he is likely to say that hypnosis is a state of mind induced by relaxation combined with suggestion. Some hypnotists might even agree that the hypnotist is really surplus to requirements and that the subject really just hypnotises themselves and that the hypnotist simply acts as a guide. Others would argue, and with a certain degree of accuracy, that the hypnotic induction is nothing more than a ritual which helps the subject focus and concentrate their attention, while others would claim that the phenomenon is the result of an artificially induced, albeit very mild, hysteria.

After nearly 200 years of study, the truth seems to be even stranger than the fiction surrounding it. Researchers in the United States, using modern computer imaging techniques have been able to map the areas of the brain that are affected by ‘hypnosis’, or suggestion, giving the closest thing to a snap-shot of a trance. People who are engaged in vigorous physical exercise can be hypnotised just as easily as those who lie back on the couch with eyes closed, dreaming of warm sunny beaches and forest idylls. Stage hypnotists play on the public’s preconceptions of the hypnotists as someone with a special power, and most stage hypnotists try their level best to live up to this Svengali like image. Despite the portrayal of hypnosis (and hypnotists) in B-movies and sensational tabloid stories, hypnosis is completely safe and no more distressing than attending a lecture and while some lectures may well send people to sleep, hypnosis is very definitely not sleep. The hypnotic state much more closely resembles the feeling of lethargy we all experience when we are dozing – aware of everything that is going on around us and at the same time making us infinitely more suggestible.

And it’s this suggestibility that is the real key. At the very basic level it’s why advertising works and its how therapists persuade their clients to pack in smoking, lose weight or simply feel better about themselves. At the other end of the scale, the same techniques make it possible for charismatic ‘healers’ like Benny Hinn and Reinhardt Bonnke to perform their ‘miracles’. Adolf Hitler fully understood the tremendous power of suggestion and used it ruthlessly to entrance an entire nation. And in case you’re wondering, stage hypnotists all over the planet use precisely these same techniques to manipulate not only their subjects but their audiences too on a nightly basis.

All these techniques are explained on Newton’s weekend courses. Almost without exception, attendees come away feeling that they have had a massive eye-opener. But the real beauty is the way Newton puts across his side of the story, making hypnosis accessible to all… Whether you are already in practice as a therapist or counsellor, or just want to learn more about the phenomena, everyone who attends walks out at the end with the basic skills needed to successfully hypnotise virtually anyone. Andrew Newton taught many of the famous names in the business today, including Paul McKenna.

The public misunderstanding of hypnosis as a phenomenon is equalled only by the misunderstanding of the psychology behind it. The two most common misconceptions are that psychology is the study of the mind and that hypnosis takes place in the subconscious. Both assumptions are wrong. Psychology is the study of behaviour and not the study of the mind which is too difficult to define or quantify. Second, there is no such thing as the subconscious – any first year psychology student knows this and yet the word keeps turning up like the proverbial bad penny. Simply put, there is only the conscious and the unconscious.

So where then does hypnotism fit in? The simple answer..? There is no such thing as hypnosis, there is only suggestion and that’s all there is to it. Hypnosis is a bad word to describe what hypnotists actually do because of the preconceived associations with sleep. There’s nothing supernatural or mysterious about it, in fact once you understand the concept, it’s very much akin to being astonished by a spectacular conjuring trick and then having the trick explained. A few choice words and people’s entire belief systems can be changed in the flickering of an eye… In conjunction with some very deft slight of hand, Uri Geller relies heavily on the use of verbal suggestion to persuade us that the teaspoon really is bending before our very eyes. Derren Brown uses the same sort of hocus-pocus on his television shows. Suggestion is all around us. Even politicians resort to tried and tested tricks of the trade to refocus our attention away from the real issues.

Lawyers use words very carefully to elicit the desired responses from witnesses. For example, prosecuting a case, an advocate will very likely ask the question “when you first saw the vehicle, how fast was it going?” but if defending, the same advocate would more likely ask “when you first saw the vehicle, how slowly was it going?”  By changing one word only, the question takes on a whole new meaning, painting a completely different picture in the mind. Advertisers seldom waste much time selling the product, they are going to generate more sales by selling the lifestyle associated with it. Yes folks, you too can have a happier life if only you change to Brand X!

It’s easy to learn these basic techniques and even easier to put them into practice once you know what you’re looking for. The fact is, its part of the human condition to respond to suggestion and we all do it to some degree or other on a daily basis. Take another example; during the filming of the original film of ‘Planet of the Apes’, Many extras were engaged by the film studio to play the chorus of humans and apes. In Hollywood, being a film extra is almost a career in itself and many of the extras knew each other from previous movies. Within the first week of filming, actors who had been good and long-time friends started to form new alliances. Suddenly, all the human extras started taking lunch together whilst the ape extras formed new cliques.
By the end of the second week, the ape extras had separated into distinct and recognisable groups, chimpanzees only dining with chimpanzees, gorillas with gorillas and orangutans forming their own elitist group (in keeping with the script).

The father of modern advertising, John B. Watson, was convinced that human behaviour is both predictable and controllable. It is. Hypnosis gives psychologists and behaviourists another tool in the box… and a very powerful one at that. One of the premises of Watson’s work is that people can train themselves to do anything. This is in harmony with modern ideas of self-improvement. In Rogerian psychology, the therapist is not responsible for changes in the client. “The client must consciously and rationally decide for themselves what is wrong and what should be done about it. The therapist is more of a confidant or counsellor who listens and encourages on an equal level.”

It certainly helps to have a mentor, someone who is able to guide the person to their goal. This is where hypnosis comes into its own. It enables the therapist or counsellor to take short cuts that otherwise would be dead end streets. So that’s it then… a little relaxation and a few choice words. Understanding and knowing how to use the power of suggestion can make a world of difference, and it really is powerful stuff. Newton himself regards the skill as portable wealth. And for a man who became a millionaire hypnotist at the age of 24, that is no idle boast.

So in the end, it doesn’t matter whether you call it hypnosis, suggestion, or Tibetan Mind Control, it’s the same dance, just a different tune. Above all, hypnosis is, like the elephant, all these things and more. In other words, the phenomenon of hypnosis is greater than the sum of all its parts.