Your suggestion that hypnotism is intrinsically better learned in person makes a lot of sense to me, so maybe the reason there aren’t that many written how-to guides is because capable hypnotists recognize that and try and push would-be students towards in-person lessons. Unfortunately, I’m rural enough that getting in-person training is somewhat troublesome.
Have you read “Reality Is Plastic”? I haven’t, though I have read two books on the subject which both had the same problem of spending almost all their wordcount on details too advanced of where my skills were at and not enough wordcount in the basics. “Popular” doesn’t equal “useful” unfortunately :\ (You’d think this would be one area, like marketing, where you could equate popularity with author skill, but oh well.) If you have read it and think it would be useful, I’ll likely pick it up.
Hypnotism is definitely something you have to see done and do it yourself. I didn’t do any in person trainings, but since I cut my teeth with text hypnosis and found someone a couple years ahead of me to function as a mentor/peer, I was still had the opportunity to see what it looks like when it works, try doing it myself, and then get detailed feedback after the fact. I don’t necessarily think you have to have anyone in the “instructor” role if you’ve read enough, but you can’t really expect books to be enough in the same way you wouldn’t expect books to be able to teach you to ride a bike without falling every time for the first dozen times.
I’ll echo what Christian said below about emotional control and add to it a bit. I think it’s really hard to emphasize how big a deal that part is. When you’re telling people stuff that are normally outside the window of what is accepted as possible (any hypnotic phenomena, for example), they have to be able to rest on the fact that you know it’s possible, because if it were just them they’d rule it out immediately. If you’re showing self doubt, they’ll jump to the conclusion “he doesn’t really believe it but he’s ‘trying’ to see what happens if he says it” and since you don’t really seem to believe it they’re going to have a hard time seeing it as something that can be real. If you actually know it’s something they can do (because you’ve done it yourself and you’ve helped others do it too) and you can accurately model what has been stopping them, then it’s easy to have that “unshakable confidence” and to know what needs to be said.
That’s why the simple scripts and beginner stuff contained in Reality Is Plastic is going to have limited applications. “Just doing the basics” requires that you have the background abilities to congruently perform the actions described, but I have read it, the content does work when done right in the right context(s), and it seems to be exactly what you’re looking for.
From my perspective part of the basics is emotional self control. If I’m getting nervous while I’m hypnotizing there’s a good chance that will disturb the process.
A book can tell you not to be nervous but it’s unlikely to teach you the skill of not being nervous while in person training is better at teaching you to be in a certain state of mind.
If you have your own state of mind decently under control and you have a decently hypnotizeable and consenting subject you should be able to get some results by following a simple script. Reality is plastic does have a few simple scripts for hypnosis effects that can be done in an impromptu setting.
Hrm. Do you mean “emotional self control” as in “able to control what emotional signals you send via tone of voice or body language” or “you can decide what emotions you feel at to what extent”? I think I have the former, the latter is much harder for me.
What makes someone decently hypnotizeable? Is it something you can deduce from observation/measurement, or do you have to try and hypnotize someone and see whether it works or not?
Given two people with experience in hypnotism have recommended the same book, I’ll be reading it and seeing for myself soon enough I suppose :) Any important advice you’d give or pitfalls to avoid?
Having control over your tone of voice and body language is not enough. If you are in a good trance with another person the breathing rate is synced and when you are anxious your breathing rate is going to chance and the other person breathing rate is also going to change accordingly.
What makes someone decently hypnotizeable?
The ability to let go of control is useful. Unfortunately, the average rationalist is bad at letting go of mental control.
Ability to visualize well inside one’s own mind indicates good suggestibility.
Any important advice you’d give or pitfalls to avoid?
When doing hypnosis in a form where there’s no direct verbal feedback it’s useful to be able to read body language to see whether a suggestion gets accepted or whether it doesn’t and you have to try something different.
A good basis to noticing what the body of someone else is doing is to be able to notice what one’s own body is doing.
Your suggestion that hypnotism is intrinsically better learned in person makes a lot of sense to me, so maybe the reason there aren’t that many written how-to guides is because capable hypnotists recognize that and try and push would-be students towards in-person lessons. Unfortunately, I’m rural enough that getting in-person training is somewhat troublesome.
Have you read “Reality Is Plastic”? I haven’t, though I have read two books on the subject which both had the same problem of spending almost all their wordcount on details too advanced of where my skills were at and not enough wordcount in the basics. “Popular” doesn’t equal “useful” unfortunately :\ (You’d think this would be one area, like marketing, where you could equate popularity with author skill, but oh well.) If you have read it and think it would be useful, I’ll likely pick it up.
Hypnotism is definitely something you have to see done and do it yourself. I didn’t do any in person trainings, but since I cut my teeth with text hypnosis and found someone a couple years ahead of me to function as a mentor/peer, I was still had the opportunity to see what it looks like when it works, try doing it myself, and then get detailed feedback after the fact. I don’t necessarily think you have to have anyone in the “instructor” role if you’ve read enough, but you can’t really expect books to be enough in the same way you wouldn’t expect books to be able to teach you to ride a bike without falling every time for the first dozen times.
I’ll echo what Christian said below about emotional control and add to it a bit. I think it’s really hard to emphasize how big a deal that part is. When you’re telling people stuff that are normally outside the window of what is accepted as possible (any hypnotic phenomena, for example), they have to be able to rest on the fact that you know it’s possible, because if it were just them they’d rule it out immediately. If you’re showing self doubt, they’ll jump to the conclusion “he doesn’t really believe it but he’s ‘trying’ to see what happens if he says it” and since you don’t really seem to believe it they’re going to have a hard time seeing it as something that can be real. If you actually know it’s something they can do (because you’ve done it yourself and you’ve helped others do it too) and you can accurately model what has been stopping them, then it’s easy to have that “unshakable confidence” and to know what needs to be said.
That’s why the simple scripts and beginner stuff contained in Reality Is Plastic is going to have limited applications. “Just doing the basics” requires that you have the background abilities to congruently perform the actions described, but I have read it, the content does work when done right in the right context(s), and it seems to be exactly what you’re looking for.
From my perspective part of the basics is emotional self control. If I’m getting nervous while I’m hypnotizing there’s a good chance that will disturb the process. A book can tell you not to be nervous but it’s unlikely to teach you the skill of not being nervous while in person training is better at teaching you to be in a certain state of mind.
If you have your own state of mind decently under control and you have a decently hypnotizeable and consenting subject you should be able to get some results by following a simple script. Reality is plastic does have a few simple scripts for hypnosis effects that can be done in an impromptu setting.
I skimmed the book but I haven’t read it deeply.
Hrm. Do you mean “emotional self control” as in “able to control what emotional signals you send via tone of voice or body language” or “you can decide what emotions you feel at to what extent”? I think I have the former, the latter is much harder for me.
What makes someone decently hypnotizeable? Is it something you can deduce from observation/measurement, or do you have to try and hypnotize someone and see whether it works or not?
Given two people with experience in hypnotism have recommended the same book, I’ll be reading it and seeing for myself soon enough I suppose :) Any important advice you’d give or pitfalls to avoid?
Having control over your tone of voice and body language is not enough. If you are in a good trance with another person the breathing rate is synced and when you are anxious your breathing rate is going to chance and the other person breathing rate is also going to change accordingly.
The ability to let go of control is useful. Unfortunately, the average rationalist is bad at letting go of mental control. Ability to visualize well inside one’s own mind indicates good suggestibility.
When doing hypnosis in a form where there’s no direct verbal feedback it’s useful to be able to read body language to see whether a suggestion gets accepted or whether it doesn’t and you have to try something different.
A good basis to noticing what the body of someone else is doing is to be able to notice what one’s own body is doing.