The Truth Behind Stage Hypnosis

The truth behind stage hypnosis is more than just what many people see in movies and story plots written in novels or stage plays.

Hypnosis has indeed unlocked many secrets behind the mystery that is the human mind.

Many people believe that stage hypnotists possess mysterious mystical powers that allow them to control the human mind and have subjects do their every bidding.

The truth actually is that the ‘power’ rests with the subject being hypnotized rather than the stage hypnotist.

Point being that the hypnotist only serves as a guide or an instrument that causes the subject to ‘produce’ the hypnotic state, since the state of mind of the person being hypnotized rests solely on the person himself, which makes it possible for him to be hypnotized.

The fact that self-hypnosis can be done proves the fact that even if a person is in a hypnotic state, he can, at any time and as he wills it, can break off a hypnotic state.

Contrary to popular belief that hypnotism can control people, causing people to lose independent will and submit totally to the hypnotist.

This misconception of stage hypnosis is more of a storyline for scriptwriters or stage hypnotists, but in reality, if a subject is guided by the hypnotist to do something extraordinary, something dangerous or something that could be construed as something different from the subject’s state of mind, the subject can only either become fully alert and break off from the hypnotic state or simply ignore the hypnotist’s suggestion.

The belief that stage hypnosis is a supernatural, unusual or a strange state is not true, since man is unconsciously subjected to a similar state everyday of our lives.

These day to day situations similar to a hypnotic state, albeit on different and varying degrees, are day dreaming, imagining ones self with characters in a television show or movie, getting immersed with characters and storylines in a book or when taking long drives that somewhat gets the driver to a state of ‘highway hypnosis’.

There are people who claim that a person who goes through stage hypnotism forgets the entire episode, however, people actually do remember everything that happened while they were going through hypnosis.

There are people who may not be able to recall what happened right away due to a suggestion by the hypnotist that they will not be able to recall, but will eventually remember the whole episode at one time or another.

The memory, upon the suggestion of the hypnotist, will temporarily reside in the part of the conscious mind where it cannot be accessed for a while, but the memory will be recalled eventually when subject to the right stimuli causing the subject to remember the hypnotic episode.

Surely, stage hypnosis cannot give a person extra abilities, despite verbal suggestions by the hypnotist.

This is mainly so since the only abilities people can do are those that are limited within the boundaries or the possibilities that the human mind can achieve, not supernatural or mystical powers.

When stage hypnotists, usually for entertainment, allow a subject to have ‘extrasensory’ abilities by correctly guessing game card numbers through random selection, it is so because such feats can be achieved by the human brain through heightened concentration and mathematical calculations operating in the subconscious mind.

These are but some of the common yet unfallible truths behind stage hypnosis that will dispel any of its sinister and dark reputation.