Self Hypnosis In The Modern Day Age
In the early days hype before a hypnotic show would begin to appear weeks and sometimes months before the show with daunting posters billed all over town showing the hypnotist glaring down with piercing eyes. The caption would usually challenge, “Dare you look into his eyes and not obey his every command?” This method of creating hype proved very successful in the early days of hypnosis and as the show grew closer, excitement would build and people would dare one another to be put under the hypnotist’s spell.
Then, on the night of the show, everybody would be seated in the theater and, as the lights went down, a mixture of fear and excitement would engulf the audience. Suddenly, in the eerie silence a single spotlight would appear at the edge of the stage. The hypnotist would stride to the center of the stage and turn to the audience. With arms outstretched the hypnotist would sweep the entire theater, electrifying the onlookers with his hypnotic power. The hypnotist would stand on the stage dominating the whole of the audience with his intimidating glare. He would stand tall and dressed from head to toe in mysterious black, his menacing face would come to a point at his chin as his ‘goatee’ style beard echoed that of the devil. His hair slicked back ready for business allowed full access to those piercing eyes and as he passed his hands back over the audience an explosive whisper could be heard throughout the whole theater. “He’s doing something to me, he’s doing something to me.” would be the cry of the vulnerable, and as the hypnotist preyed on his reluctant, but brave, victims the fear of what was about to be was nearly enough in itself to hypnotize into the trance state the least suggestible of people!
This method of creating hype worked wonders for the hypnotist of its time. However, such a demonstration would be useless today. People are beginning to accept that hypnosis and self hypnosis are natural phenomena now and, probably due to television coverage, people are becoming more knowledgeable about the whole subject. This is not a problem for the hypnotist as the fact that hypnosis is commonly used in the medical profession gives the whole subject more credibility, so the need for hype is not so important.