The power of the Pre-talk
Posted by: Joshua Houghton in Hypnosis, Hypnosis Education, Hypnosis Articles, Southern Hypnosis
When I first got started in hypnosis I went around to everyone I knew asking to hypnotize them. Most of the people said no, but a few of them agreed to “try” hypnosis. These people knew nothing about hypnosis, but being a confidence newcomer I didn’t feel I had to educate them on hypnosis. I figured all I had to do was copy some youtube video’s I’ve seen.
I knew I could hypnotize someone and emerge them from hypnosis if I just followed the videos I had watched. Looking back on this situation I think I may have been to confidence in myself, which can blow up in your face sometimes. I walked up to the guy, told him to press on my hand, close his eyes and the moment he started to apply pressure to my hand I yelled “sleep” in a deep voice. As I yelled sleep I knew I was going to be successful. I glanced up to see what a person in hypnosis looks like in real life and got a surprise. His eyes were wide open; he looked at me and said did it work? My hurt ego took a moment and answered “no, it didn’t work and I’m
not sure why”.
I spent a week studying the videos and had followed what I had seen the hypnotist do on the video. I had no idea what was wrong and was about to chalk it up to he was one of the few people who couldn’t be hypnotized. Wow, I had a really big ego back then and I had some nerve assuming this was the case when this was my first attempt at hypnotizing someone. Due to a lack of financial means I couldn’t afford formal training. My education came from all the free e-books floating around and many of the youtube videos. I assumed that hypnosis was just as easy as yelling sleep and that’s not the case. There was more going on behind the scene then I realized.
It wasn’t until I ran across a certain video that a friend let me borrow that changed my future and gave me the tools for success. The hypnotist in the video mentioned how important it is to discuss hypnosis with the person before attempting to hypnotize them. The hypnotist on the tape made a statement that put it all into place for me. A person will only enter hypnosis based upon the fear they have of the subject. I had been trying to enter a locked door without the key to open it, now I had the key needed to succeed. The key to having a person enter hypnosis is called the Pre-Talk.
So the next question is what is a pre-talk? A pre-talk can either be a long or brief talk about what hypnosis is and addressing any fears the person may have about hypnosis. You basically address some of the rumors and myths about hypnosis and explain the truth to the person. You let them know they are not asleep during hypnosis, they can hear you speaking to them in hypnosis. Let them know they are in control and will never do anything against their moral or ethics. You want them to feel comfortable with hypnosis and give them the real facts. Society has programmed the general public to think hypnosis is something it isn’t. People think we perform some type of black magic or we control their minds. So you must become the expert and explain the truth to them.
It makes a lot of sense and looking back at the lesson I learned and I can’t believe I never thought of it before. Think about this for a moment. Would you sky dive off of a plane if you were afraid of heights? You might really want to experience it, but due to your fear you just can’t make that jump. Have you ever wanted to do anything in your life, but some fear held you back? If so, then you may have an idea about what might be going through the head of the person you are about to hypnotize. They don’t know what to expect and may be afraid even if they don’t tell you so.
The next part of the pre-talk to be honest is simple and is used more when using rapid or instant induction techniques. You must build up the person’s expectations of what to expect. You basically what to tell them that if they do exactly as you say nothing more and nothing less they will enter a wonderful relaxed, deep state of hypnosis and they will feel great. You want them to associate something good to the experience. Let them know how good it’s going to feel or how relaxed they are going to be when they enter hypnosis. Once you build this up all you have to do is one more thing. You must ask permission to hypnotize the person.
I usually use something called the hypnotic contract. I basically will tell the person that if they do exactly as I say nothing more and nothing less they will enter a wonderful state of hypnosis. If you do this for me I will make sure you are taking care of and no harm will come to you. If this is acceptable to you, are you ready to go into hypnosis? As you see I compounded the statement with repeating it twice and the final step is added right onto the end of the contract.
This makes the person feel you respect them by asking them formal permission. It also gives the person permission for them to enter hypnosis since all hypnosis is just self hypnosis. Once you have all of this in place all you have to do is perform your instant or rapid induction and watch the person enter hypnosis quickly and easily. A little tip to remember is to make sure you deliver your pre-talk with confidence. Confidence is a huge part of successful hypnosis. You will also find as you get better and better you will be able to get this pre-talk down within a few min.
In the beginning the mistake I made was thinking what I saw on the videos was all there was to performing hypnosis. Hypnosis isn’t magic, it’s a process. Once we understand that process we are able to use it much more efficient. I learned a lesson that day which was sometimes you have to make a mistake to succeed in the long run. The pre-talk is the most important part of what we do as hypnotists. The pre-talk allows us to educate people and make the client or person feel comfortable enough to enter hypnosis and feel comfortable with us. I recommend any beginner who is serious about the field of hypnotism to study hypnosis and learn the truth behind the rumors. This will help you in developing your own pre-talk. In the end just remember to eliminate fears, build up the clients expectations and get permission. Once you have done this you will find your success rate sore.
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It makes me wonder why dont the big pro guys do pre-talk when they do instant inductions, Peter Powers especially. They can just go up to someone and say hey want to be hypnotised, and they do it and it works. Peter powers can just go up to anyone, snap his fingers and say sleep. What do you feel about this?
Hello Anthony,
You posed a very good question and something I may address in the future. I only know a little bit about Peter Powers from what I have also seen on Youtube. Some of his videos are funny, but they can give people the wrong idea about hypnosis.
When Peter ask someone if they want to be hypnotized and they say yes they have just given Peter Permission to hypnotize them. This is called a hypnotic contract and it is basically just getting permission from the person to allow you to help them enter hypnosis. Technically speaking all you have to do is ask a person if they want too experience hypnosis. If they reply yes, then they may be ready to go. I do recommend a person have a working knowledge of hypnosis before attempting it of course.
The reason I and many other hypnotist give a pre-talk is so that we can educate the public even if it’s only one person at a time. Plus, you just never know if someone has a fear which could keep them from entering a deep state of hypnosis. Fear of hypnosis or fear of something they may learn during hypnosis can keep a person from entering trance. Street Hypnosis is very similar to stage hypnosis in the fact that people want to have fun and a excuse to act up or act a little crazy. In reality many different elements work together to create a deep level of trance within the person during a stage show or even street hypnosis show. The truth is that no one person will ever act the same in hypnosis. It is a very personal experience and different for each person. So you may get some people who really act a fool and some who are very timid.
My field of work is clinical hypnosis or in other words working with people to help manage different situations in their lives such as Smoking Cessation, Stress Management, Weight Loss and etc. In a clinical or office setting, the client is more uneasy then during a stage show. They are not coming to see me because they want to have fun. They are coming to see me because in their eyes I may be the last hope. They have been to many people before us and many of them come to us as a last resort. Many of our clients are scared at first because hypnosis is new to them. They only know that hypnosis may be helpful, but are also blinded by the myths and lies of the entertainment world. So its important to educate them and tell them the truth. This also helps to build rapport between you and the client.
So as far as just getting simple permission you will find it works some of the time and not all the time. As you get better and learn more your success rate with increase. I’m now able to hypnotize anyone as long as they give permission within a couple of seconds, but in the beginning it wasn’t as easy. I have seen the videos where Peter appears to just snap his fingers and then the person enters a deep state of hypnosis. Personally I believe that the majority of the people on his street hypnosis show and youtube clips have been pre-hypnotized. All this means is that he has worked with them before the show and has conditioned them to enter a deep state of hypnosis very quickly. Many times just the snap of a finger will send them back into trance. It may look like everyone is hypnotized on the stop, but that’s the magic of TV editing sometimes. I’m not saying all of the people have been hypnotized before hand, but a good majority have. It just makes good TV
Other Hypnotists such as Paul Mckenna and Tom Silver have had TV shows or specials dealing with hypnosis where they worked with people before hand. I like the fact that Tom tells his audience he has hypnotized them ahead of time. As we know the
producers have to edit the show to fit within the time frame they have. Editing also makes it appear as if every single person who is hypnotized actually reaches trance. The truth of the matter is editing plays a big part in this as well. Understand I am refering to a success rate just doing nothing more then asking permission. A well trained hypnotist can have a very high success rate, but beginners and middle skilled hypnotists will not be as successful. A well trained hypnotist understands the principals of hypnosis, inductions, suggestion formation and ethics. These skills combined can give you a very high success rate when combined with confidence, which is a skill that all hypnotists should have in my opinion.
So technically when doing street hypnosis you can just walk up to someone ask for permission and go from there, but I highly recommend you always do a pre-talk even if it’s just a quick 60 second one. I promise you that your success rate will be much higher and it also screams credibility. We also now have one more person in the world that understands what we do is a science and not magic. Even though it’s fun for some people to think we are mystical
I hope this answered your question and if not, let me know and i’m more then willing to help. Anytime you have a question just shoot me a comment or a e-mail at josh at southernhypnosis dot com (spelled out to reduce spam)
Have a good one Anthony
Josh,
I agree with you, with poor pretalk you work your tail off to hypnotized any one, people are scared about hypnosis because the lack of righ info.
I learned strage hypnosi form Tom Silver, Marshall Sylver, Justin Tranz and Tomme Vee, all of them talked about the prower of pretalked. for my own experience the pretalk is the 50% of my induction.
Hey Luis,
It’s nice to have you on the site. I’m a member of Hypnothoughts as well. Yeah, I think the biggest mistake beginners make is not using a pre-talk. Technically a good pre-talk can drop someone into trance
I have always wanted to meet Justin Tranz. I get a kick out of some of his stage shows. If you have a website you would like me to list drop me a line.
Thanks,
Joshua Houghton, CH