Apart from being used to change behavioral patterns for the treatment of certain problems of patients, hypnosis has also been used for entertainment. When used in this form, it is called a hypnosis show. The effects of the trance in a hypnosis show only lasts as long as the performance is. There are no permanent effects.
The hypnotist while performing in front of an large audience need to choose his subject matter wisely. The choices he makes regarding his volunteer have to be picked with care. Normally, the hypnotist has to pick out volunteers to put under a trance and once under a trance, he can plant any suggestions into the mind of that particular person.
Just like when hypnosis is used for therapy, for the hypnosis show, the hypnotist also requires the total cooperation of his volunteer for him to be able to put the volunteer under a trance. To help the hypnotist pick out suitable candidates for his show, he has to choose those who will listen to his command. By using a process call induction, he can tell from the audience who are more susceptible to his command. For example, he will ask the audiences to close their eyes and listen to his command. From this action, it is easy to see the willing participants from those who are not cooperative.
A person who resists the command of the hypnotist will never be selected. Any person who is sitting very alert in the audience is one such person. Any person who seems willing to participate in the performance of the hypnotist is the perfect volunteer.
The actual stage performance of the hypnotist starts when he starts to call upon the volunteers on stage. There are certain techniques that the hypnotist uses to call upon the willing volunteers. One such trick is to arrange lesser number of chairs than the number of people actually required. This will help in creating a competition amongst the audience to participate in the show.
When the hypnotist puts all the volunteers under a trance, he will be able to make them anything by commanding them. While under a trance, the volunteers are totality susceptible to the commands of the hypnotist. If the hypnotist wishes the volunteers to act out that they are drunk, then the volunteers will follow as commanded. Or if the hypnotist wishes the volunteers to pretend that they are aliens conversing in a strange tongue, the volunteers will do so as well. Once the show is over, the volunteers will come out of the trance with no effect at all.
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