Since I do offer hypnosis training on a regular basis, the question often comes up — can anyone learn to do this and become a hypnotist?

Sometimes when people ask me if hypnotists have a special hypnotic power, I reply “Yes, and no.” And that’s a truthful answer!

The answer is “Yes” in the sense that I can teach you the techniques on how to do hypnotic inductions, or the knowledge of how to perform a specific NLP technique or a set of steps.

It’s “Yes”, anyone can learn to become a hypnotist, in the sense that we can even talk about how to gain rapport, how to do a proper pre-talk, and how to test for suggestibility (we also call them imagination games). You CAN learn all of that, and in fact you can be very effective with it.

And for most things, you can learn to do hypnosis by having no innate talents before you came to the training.

However… the answer is also “No,” in that it’s difficult to teach intuition, and true persistence, and thinking in abstract ways. These are all skills needed by someone who wishes to become “the best in the world” type of clinical hypnotist.

And it’s a quality that is difficult to quantify. It requires thinking on another level — getting rapport on another level. Not being a “yes” person, and getting deep rapport with the subconscious mind. Of course, our main course teaches you how to become damn good at clinical-style work.

So why then, if it is so easily taught, do I stubbornly insist that the answer to the question “Can anyone learn to become a hypnotist” is both Yes, AND No?

It’s because everything looks rosy until you’re dealing with a hard case. And when someone’s training gets exhausted, where do they go THEN? That’s the type of grit that you only get from actually doing it, and not giving up. Sheer persistence and confidence that you will get somewhere. Putting yourself on the line.

When someone comes into our office, we “read” them within a few minutes. We ask them specific, targeted questions which are designed to elicit what their actual problem is. It’s not uncommon for a client to begin talking, and about 5 minutes into the conversation we’ll say “Ok, I already got what the thing is. You ready to go into hypnosis?”

I honestly don’t think this is quality that can be taught, because it’s who you ARE. If you’re not grounded in yourself, then your results in supporting and empowering others might be sporadic at best.

However, I also believe that someone can go through a deep change themselves, and they will eventually develop the personality traits necessary to do “the real work” and become a hypnotist – not just do hypnosis.

But can wisdom be taught over a hypnosis weekend? Not really. It requires being actually out there in life, discovering who you are. And that’s what it takes sometimes to get past the critical factor.

Comments? Is it possible to teach intuition and wisdom? Let me hear from you.

By the way, our next training is coming up in April, in the Washington DC area. E-mail for more information.

There is no doubt about it…

Networking, meeting, and knowing other hypnotists when you wish to become better is one of the most  helpful things you can do.

Just yesterday I had a bi-weekly hypnosis lunch here in Washington DC, next week I will be going to a monthly talk that a group here does, and a couple hours from now I am due to talk hypnosis yet again.

It is priceless to attend this type of hypnosis meeting, because you will learn insider information that most people simply are not exposed to. It is akin to getting free training.

Here are the Top 5 Ways to Meet Other Hypnotists:

1)  The Sleepwalkers Organization

In most major  cities, there is a sleepwalkers hypnosis group which you can get in touch with and go to the meetings. Not all of the groups are active (for example, the one here in DC is not very active), but I have had a lot of fun by attending the sleepwalkers meetings and by instructing them.

2)  Groups on MeetUp.com

MeetUp.com allows you to create groups which have local meetings on topics that might interest you. Don’t just look for a “hypnosis meeting” but also “hypnotherapy meetups” and “NLP meetups”.

There’s at least 4 major Meetup groups near me that I could go to that are listed on the site. It happens that I know more than that, but this is a great start.

3) Visit Hypnosis Communities and Groups

Oftentimes with a simple search on a community site (such as FreeHypnosisCommunity.com), you can find people locally who are practicing in your same area. When you get active in discussions and post your name and location, you are announcing for the world to come and find you.

Also participate in groups such as the HypnosisTechniqueExchange, where you will not only find great information, but by posting your location you will attract the attention of others near you. You could even do an introductory post asking people to introduce you to other hypnotists!

4) Call up any practicing hypnotists in the area and introduce yourself.

This can be very effective. It may seem scary at first, and some hypnotists (especially some Ericksonian hypnotists who also have PhDs) may be off-putting on even talking to you, but MOST hypnotists will be more than glad to help you out and become friends with you.

Offer to buy them lunch and find out about them. You will be surprised at the high-level responses you get. Whenever someone calls me in this way, I am always VERY impressed.

5) Check with your hypnosis certification body for local events.

If you are a Certified Hypnotist or a member of any hypnosis organizations (such as the SET, NGH, IMDHA, and so on), check with your organizations to find out about local meetings. The NGH here in DC has a once-a-month meeting which I am going to in a couple of weeks.

You might be surprised that events exist that you didn’t know about. And if any or all of the above aren’t enough for you, go to The 6th Way:

6) If no groups exist, create one.

This is how I started up The Hypnosis Club, which turned into the biggest hypnosis group in my area during college. I’ll never forget the first time we got 20 people to come to a hypnosis seminar in a near-by hotel. It was an experience, and because I had put so much publicity out about it, a professional stage hypnotist (Hypnotic Blaze) decided to drive down and do a show for us.

Are you ready to lead up your own events? This is the way to go. When you get a regular amount of people coming to the group, you can sponsor professional trainers to come and do trainings there. I’ve flown across the country just because someone took the time to start up a group and followed through with it!

Whatever the way that you meet up with others, it is very important to get out there and start learning techniques. You will grow much faster, and I have learned tons from my friends who are hypnotists, completely free of charge.

Today we are pleased to announce a huge announcement, the start of a brand new blog. But this is not just “any” old blog, because we’re filling it with tons of free hypnosis videos, tips, techniques, and cutting-edge information for you to enjoy.

In about 2 weeks, we are releasing a new course called “TRANCED OUT: The Instant and Rapid Inductions Home Study Course.” To celebrate -finally- having this course done (it has taken us a long time to get this ready for you), we started up a blog and we’re loading it with all the free stuff that we’ve wanted to give away for a while now.

There will be new content posted on the blog every single day for about 2 weeks until we officially release our course, so we’ll be posting another video tomorrow, but RIGHT NOW here are 3 great things to look out for on the blog:

• 1. The “You Are The Hypnotist” video. This is a content-filled video where I take you behind the scenes and describe to you one of the most important ideas that will make you much more effective as a hypnotist.
• 2. The “Welcome” video. This video welcomes you to the blog, and tells you what it is all about. Watch this video to find out the true story about why we created the blog and the course.
• 3. The Pre-Interest List. This is our list that you can join to keep updated on the newest happenings. As a bonus for joining this list, we are giving away for free a nearly Two Hour “Troubleshooting Instant and Rapid Inductions” audio. You won’t want to miss it.

I won’t go into any more detail on this because it is covered extensively in the welcome video!

Here is the Website Address so you can go visit it now:

www.HypnoticInductionsBlog.com

See you there!

This is a video I did a while ago which is a double induction (also called a dual induction) that I did with another hypnotist, Oscar Rodriguez.

I always like to cover how to do the multiple person inductions when certifying people, because they’re lots of fun and can establish very profound states of hypnosis. In this case we “Tranced Out” an entire class of people and later conditioned them to go deeper.

This segment was part of a class we were doing on Hypnotic Language Patterns, and even though the DVDs for this one are no longer available (sorry guys and gals), we will be coming out with a Tranced Out Language Patterns product pretty soon, after our inductions set gets released. Look out for that one because it’s going to be a doozy

Here’s the video:

This is me teaching / demonstrating how to do instant inductions. Of course, people who actually came to the event got much more stuff than I’m going to post, but this should give you an idea of the level of content.