I just watched Darren Brown’s special “Showman” (whole thing available on YouTube in my area). I really have to admire his work — half the show comprised a couple of very basic hypnosis routines, but through storytelling, staging, dramatic lighting, and sound design he made them into a big compelling set piece. He is a fine but not exceptional hypnotist, but as a showman he ranks among the very best.
northeyes hypnosis
- 83 Followers
- 42 Following
- 144 Posts
Friendly university-trained hypnotist with 30+ years of experience. Happy to chat about hypnosis, the psychology of sex and power, and lots of other things. Appreciator of exhibitionists. General goof. Canadian, so a polite dom.
HairyHypnotistRE: https://mastodon.hypnoguys.com/@Frank_NL/116364320140209481
Come and join us for the #Need2Obey #hypno social event in Amsterdam! Looking forward to a fun & hypnotic event 😈
@anandamide I visited Stonehenge when I was just out of University, with three good friends. There were no fences anywhere then. We arrived at 7am, not long after sunrise, and there was nobody at all there. Just us, plus ten thousand sheep. We left when the first tourist bus pulled in.
@roger Oh yeah. Huxley wrote a short book about his experience taking mescaline, called “The Doors of Perception”. I read it last year. Odd that it’s never mentioned in high school English class along with his better known works. :-)
@roger That’s a great question, but I can’t say that I’ve looked into it in great depth. My own practice of mindfulness meditation is not very advanced. But I will say that Aldous Huxley, who did meditation, hypnosis (and psychedelics) said that at least for him, meditation and hypnosis were very different states of mind. I have my own theories, but I’d like to hear what more experienced meditators think.
I would love to hear from any hypnotic subjects out there who have improved their abilities in selective amnesia. What made it work for you? I am always looking for new ideas to help people with this.
Like many things in hypnosis, there can be a certain fake-it-till-your-make-it element to improvement. But what’s important is *how* you fake it. The trick is to imagine ‘what thoughts would be in my head right now if I actually couldn’t remember?’ and conjure those thoughts or visions up. Fill your mind with them. Notice what it feels like the next time you actually can’t remember something you are trying to, and remember that feeling. You can use it later to your advantage.
8/8 end
NLP suggests a bunch of other things that you can try, involving playing around with your internal representation of a memory, which can be unique to individuals. For example, if you think of your own name, then another name that is not yours, how are they different in your mind? Is there a different feel or look or placement or sound? What if you imagined ‘moving’ your name far away or behind you where you can’t see it, or inside a box that says “I CAN’T REMEMBER” on it in big letters?
7/8
So how do you activate this ability on demand? How do you Not Think of a White Elephant? From conversations I’ve had with my subjects, I think most importantly, you need to not care about forgetting the things you are asked to forget. And second, you have to think about other things. That is, fill your mind with something else, unrelated. If you are worried about whether or not it will “work”, the anxiety itself will draw your attention back, and guarantee you remember.
6/8
Despondent subjects will complain to me that they never forget, even when they want to. But we all have the capacity to forget selectively – it’s an everyday thing. Like when you wake from a vivid dream, but 30 minutes later you can’t recall it. Or when you walk into a room to get something and can’t remember what it is when you arrive. Or when you drive home while thinking about something else, and get there without remembering the drive.
5/8