Street Hypnosis Masterclass

For The Next Generation Of Hypnosis Masters

How To Tell Spellbinding Stories So That People Hang On Every Word You Say As They Slip Easily Into Hypnosis
Session 1: Creativity & Spontaneity Remember the core idea of Street Hypnosis is: Storytelling is easy & natural. It only stops being easy when you stop making it natural! So sit back, relax... and let your unconscious do the work! Creativity Exercises: 1. Word Association Game (2 people take it in turns to come up with an association) 2. Magic Box (imagine a box in front of you. Reach inside and pull something out. Say whatever flashes through your mind (words or pictures) without thinking or censoring) 3. Strange New World (imagine a strange new world. Describe in sensory rich detail what you see and experience there. Only take it one step at a time, e.g. see and egg, then notice its lying in a nest, then notice above it a golden eagle protecting it, then notice you're on a mountainside etc...) 4. Hypnotic World choose a hypnotic theme (e.g. relaxation, focus, fascination, trance) Go First! (i.e. start to feel the feelings of the hypnotic theme in your own neurology) allow a mental scene to arise from the feelings (this is like the strange new world, you just started it differently) describe the scene out loud (use sensory rich descriptions. Its important you speak out loud as it makes your mind work differently) use your hypnotic voice (alter your rhythm, timing, pace, tonality etc.)

5. Basic Hypnotic Story (same as hypnotic world, just add a conversational introduction that fits the scene, e.g. "I had a strange dream last night..." or "I went sailing last week...")

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Creativity Blocks: Remember the main killers of creativity are Blocking and Evading behaviours. Just Accept whatever your unconscious mind gives you. You are not responsible for the content. This is simply a training exercise. In time you can harness the creativity and shape the content to fit the circumstances. Session 2: Storytelling This session is about telling stories. A lot of stories. Remember creativity is limitless and it is free. So instead of trying to fix a "broken" story - one where the life seems to have been drained from it - simply drop it and start a fresh, vibrant, new one. In time you'll know which stories are worth polishing. Now raw storytelling experience is more important! Also remember that storytelling is easy, natural & fun. If it stops being any of these, then check your mind for blocking or evading behaviour and correct it. If you notice yourself about to block or evade something, make yourself jump into the experience instead. Make a character talk to you, say something before you can think it through. Burst through the walls your mind is trying to erect to contain or suppress your creativity. Your unconscious mind will always make you good offers to move the story on to the next step. Your job is to recognise the offer and then to accept it! You do not have to be good, clever, funny, witty or anything else. You just have to get out of your own way long enough to let your unconscious mind do its job. The easiest way to accept what your mind offers is to think "Yes and..." instead of "No but..." And stop trying to be clever. YOU don't make up the story, your unconscious does! The 3 Golden Rules of Storytelling: 1. Start with an Event or a normal Routine 2. The Event/Routine is Interrupted in some way 3. Ultimately someone has to be Changed, emotionally affected by the experience An additional element that adds real charm to a story is called Re-incorporation. That is when you go full circle and reuse items in the story that you seemed to have finished with

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Character & Drama: What makes the story compelling is that we care what happens to the characters. To care for a character we have to have an emotional connection. You cannot logically describe the character (he's lonely, she's noble, he's funny...) - there is no emotional connection to that. To experience a character as lonely, noble or funny we must see it in action. The character must be up against some unusual or tough situation and respond by nobly, with humour or by isolating himself. Storytelling Exercises: 1. Internal imagery (notice your internal imagery and describe it out loud) 2. Strange New World (as in Session 1. To make it more interesting make an item or a character start to speak. This will add a little pressure and make things more dramatic) 3. Partial Storyteller (in a small group (2-5 people) start telling a story. Only make one offer, move the story along just one step and then hand it over to the next person. Don't mention the mysterious woman and the expensive boat and the secret treasure: that's three offers - and we only want one!) 4. Incorporation Game (simply get a "seed" item (butterfly, knife, sea, stars, kitchen etc) and somehow weave it into your story. For more advanced use, make the item an important part of the story) 5. Magic Number 3 (like the Incorporation Game, only now you have 3 items to include.) 6. Full Circle (Like Magic Number 3. The added challenge then is to start and end with the same item - e.g. book, shoe, toilet and back to book at the end.) 7. Drama Cubed Take 3 names, 3 places and 3 dreams/problems. Now set 3 scenes introducing character 1 in place 1 with dream/problem 1. Do the same for 2 & 3. Once all three are established, bring them together in a scene. First, one by one, they discover each other's dream or problem. Next, those that have a dream must almost lose it somehow (now they all have a problem). Finally, one by one, they overcome the problem. This is the perfect time to come full circle and use stuff that came up in the other scenes!

Session 3: Hypnotic Storytelling This session is about making your stories do something hypnotic. Essentially you will combine the skills you build in the first two sessions and feed them through a new set of "hypnotic filters" that will make your stories hypnotic.

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Hypnotic Story Exercises: 1. Item Chain (After a warm up do the regular Incorporation Game from Session 2. This time as soon as you get into a flow, interrupt the story and start a brand new one with a new seed item. If you have a partner get him to interrupt you and offer you the seed item. It is important that you start a NEW story each time. Don't try and incorporate the new item into the old story!) 2. Emotional Theme (This is like the Hypnotic World exercise in Session 1, except now you get to use any emotional them (love, excitement, anger etc.) The other improvement is that you will use the principles of Character & Drama to set a scene in a way that will evoke the desired emotions. So talking about a mother caring for her baby may evoke the emotion of love or nurture, but a story about an attack in a dark alley will tend to evoke fear or anxiety. Explore a range of emotions with your stories.) 3. Emotional Roller-Coaster (This combines the skills from the Item Chain and the Emotional Theme exercises above. You now choose three separate emotions. You tell a story designed to evoke each of the emotions in turn. Remember the keys to subtly evoking the desired emotion are Character & Drama - let the scene you create do the work. Review your learnings from the Drama Cubed exercise in Session 2 if you need to refresh your mind about these.) 4. Emotional Chain (This is identical to the Emotional Roller-Coaster above except this time you will fine tune the emotions. The purpose is to move from an undesired emotional state (e.g. depression) into a desired one (e.g. joy). The way to do this is to carefully sequence the emotions so that the "emotional energy" gradually rises with each story. An example of an Emotional Chain might be: Depression to Fed Up to Frustration to Determination to Enthusiasm to Joy. Note how the chain can have as many steps as you need to elegantly move people through emotional states.) Stories As Vehicles For Hypnosis: Stories are essentially vehicles that allow you to express hypnotic ideas in different forms. Here are the most useful ways to use stories in hypnosis: 1. Emotional Chains - as you have practiced in the Hypnotic Story Exercises, the Emotional Chain is a very powerful vehicle for influencing others. You can do a whole coaching or therapeutic session this way. Salesmen can move people from hesitation to wanton desire, business leaders can enthuse their employees. The applications are as endless as your imagination! 2. Isomorphism - an isomorphic story is one which has a linear relationship to the problem or situation to be resolved. As the story finds a solution so the unconscious will tend to find a similar solution to the real situation. A simplistic every day example would be someone helping a friend through a tough spot by telling a story of how he went through the same kind of problem. Isomorphic stories can be more indirect though. So the old Fairy
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Tale of "Little Red Riding Hood" was once a teaching tale to warn young girls about protecting their virtue from men. 3. Blending Realities (Audience Participation) - this is a very powerful process that stories offer the hypnotist. Whilst you tell your story you begin to blend realities by incorporating things that are happening to your audience into the stories. So if there is a sudden breeze in the room, your story develops a sudden storm; a loud noise outside becomes a crash of thunder in the story and so on. You can even use this to pace the onset of trance in your audience: changes in blinking, breathing, time distortions, comfort... all these can be suggested and paced within the story. The simplest example of Blending Realities is the "My Friend John" Technique. In this you tell someone about a hypnosis session you did with "John". As you describe John's experience, you actually hypnotise the hypnosis target in front of you. 4. Interspersal Technique - This is the classic way that "Ericksonians" like to use stories. In the Interspersal Technique you tell any story (the content is irrelevant) and you mark out with consistent analogues (e.g. a gesture) or tonal changes certain words and phrases that are the actual suggestions. So in the Classic Storyteller Induction that you have a transcript for you will see the following suggestions interspersed in the story: "And with these pleasant memories inside his mind, little Allan would go to the Barn in order to accomplish the task that waited for him inside. " 5. Parallel Processes & Dual Realities - these are related to isomorphic stories, only this time you are shifting the emphasis to giving your hypnosis target a suggestion to engage in a mental process that will get the desired outcome. So you might suggest that they have a dream in which they overcome something bad. You can do this isomorphically - i.e. the character in the story has the same kind of dream. You can also do it as a dual reality where you talk to your hypnotic target directly, but weave this into your story enough for some doubt to exist as to whether you are doing this. The simplest way to do this is to use extended quotes: e.g. "... and the magician said to charlie "now go inside and have a powerful dream from which you will learn something of great importance!" The important thing to remember when you use these five vehicles is that you can use them ALL at the SAME time! That's when your stories develop an incredibly hypnotic character!

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Hypnotic Structures For Storytellers: Now that you know what to make the story do, you can refine things further by using these six simple techniques that make stories even more hypnotic. 1. Nested Loops - this is the classic way that stories are made more hypnotic. You use the Zeigarnik effect in your favour by telling between 3 - 12 stories in a row. You do not finish any of them, but break near the end and start the next story. Once the final story is told you can start to "close your loops" by finishing your stories in reverse order (i.e. the last story is finished first). This has a tendency to create amnesia which is useful to prevent the conscious mind from over-analysing what you did. Nested Loops can be made more sophisticated by incorporating the hypnotic story vehicles discussed above (see diagram)

2. Extended Quotes - this is a great way to talk directly to your hypnotic target without breaking out of the story. Essentially have one character in the story tell another exactly what you want to suggest to your target. This creates a dual reality where the target is left guessing if you're talking to her or not.

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3. Stacked Realities - this takes extended quotes to a new level. Now you're going to have multiple extended quotes fitted together in a story so that its hard to figure out who is saying what to whom. Whilst the conscious mind is trying to work this out, your suggestions slip in unchallenged. A simple way to do this is to fill the story with minor characters and name them: "John, who is the brother of my brother's Alex' wife Mary, was talking to his brother-in-law Andy - who is married to his eldest sister Angela, about a conversation he had with Alex. He said "..." " Note how all the names tend to overload conscious processing and how at the end we don't know who was actually talking (was it Alex, John or Andy??) 4. Ambiguities - what comes to mind when I say "Bank"? A place with money? The side of a river? An aeronautical maneouvre? The fact is your unconscious will process all these meanings and offer to consciousness only the one that fits the context best. So using ambiguities with a consistent theme will allow you to activate unconscious associations outside of any conscious mediation. They can also be used more blatantly as embedded suggestions, e.g. "I didn't know if I should... go inside... 5. Switch Referential Index - this is an underused but powerful technique. To put it simply you make a "mistake" as you tell the story and switch to the second person pronoun "you". So if the story calls for saying "As John walked in, he started to do the work he came here to do" you might say "As John walked in, start to do the work you came here to do" If you keep telling the story they don't get a chance to analyse the mistake fully and the phrase ends up sticking out inside their mind as a direct suggestion to the unconscious. 6. Analogues - again this is an underused technique in hypnosis. An analogue is when you use your body-language to add an additional layer of meaning to what you're doing. So your story might say "And John took a deep breath and went into hypnosis" - if you now pointed at your hypnotic target and nodded meaningfully as you said this, it becomes a powerful suggestion that she do likewise. This is another way in which you can use the Dual Reality Principle. Linguistic Tricks For Improving Hypnotic Stories: 1. Puns & Wordplay - most people enjoy puns, wordplays and word related humour. using this as part of your story creates a kind of rhythm that is more "seductive" - in the sense that your target wants to keep listening. This is kind of like entertaining them into hypnosis. 2. Hot Words - this is something that many poor hypnotists and poor storytellers miss out on. Words have a tremendous power over us. Some words have a strong emotional impact. A "baby" makes you feel more than an "infant" igor@StreetHypnosis.com USA +1 310 402 6589 +44 (0)7970 710 726 7

though technically they refer to the same thing. Be aware of the emotional undertones in words and use more emotional heavy-hitters like: power, now, baby, love, hate, beautiful, wonder, mother (or mum, mom, mami with the right people), sunny etc. 3. Conceptual Trance Themes - a conceptual trance theme is a hypnotic theme or word that you "rift" around in order to evoke the experience in someone. This is essentially what you did in the Hypnotic World exercise in Session 1. All you are doing is talking about a theme that is hypnotic: e.g. relaxation, trance, sleep, hypnosis, focus, absorption, dreams. Talking about any of these topics will tend to open the doors to hypnotic states. You can talk about these themes as a philosopher, scientist, doctor, guru or simply as a friend sharing an experience. The point is that in doing this you tend to activate useful associations. This also creates a great opportunity for using embedded suggestions. 4. Ambient Trance Themes - the themes will be the same kind of themes mentioned above in Conceptual Trance Themes (CTTs). The key difference is that this is more indirect. Whilst CTTs allow you to talk about your theme directly (e.g. "People normally have 90 minute sleep cycles. When you enter a sleep cycle at first you don't dream."), with Ambient Trance Themes (ATTs) you never directly mention the trance theme, you evoke it through Characterisation & Drama as you did in the Emotional Theme exercise above. Talking about a soldier fighting for days, and his battle against fatigue can create a context that will allow your audience to feel tires just by listening to your description. I remember reading a book about a man who was lost in the desert. For some reason I ended up drinking a lot of water that day! 5. Sensory Rich Descriptions - simply use the language of the five senses. Add in descriptions of what can be seen, heard, felt, smelt and tasted to bring the experience to life. You can do this as a guided process or an open process. A guided process gives details - essentially like a novel - which the hypnotic target must adapt to. The open process is "artfully vague" so that the target can choose his own way of experiencing what you describe. Here is a guided description of a beach "the sand was pale yellow and warm from the hot sun overhead. The sky was deep blue and the ocean an exquisite aquamarine. The water felt warm against his skin.." Here is the same scene as an open process "The beach had a unique colour and he could feel the temperature of the air. The colour of the ocean contrasted to the colour of the beach and the temperature of the water could be felt against his skin..."
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