Its Colorful, Seminal Characters
Comedy hypnosis entertainment with Stage Hypnotist BLAZE is guaranteed fun you will enjoy & always remember—It's Imaginative Theater of the Mind! “This information comes partly from my own studies and mostly from the voluminous writings of far too many others to acknowledge here, and from whom I've learned much and remain thankful eternally.”                            —Stage Hypnotist BLAZE

Hypnosis is Ancient

In fact, hypnosis is as old as humankind. Older than the hieroglyphics found on tombs as early as 3,000 B.C., suggest that the Egyptians were using hypnotism in "sleep temples" linked with healing or religion or both. The ancient Greeks, Mayas of South America, Hindu fakirs, the Chinese religious teachers, Persian magi, Celtic druids, and African witch doctors also understood and practiced hypnotism medicinally and in rituals.

Wong Tai, the Father of Chinese Medicine (2,600 B.C.) left details of trance-producing incantations and healing activities. The Jewish Scriptures, the Talmud, and the Hindu Vedas gave detailed accounts of procedures we might consider today to be hypnotism. Hippocrates, the acknowledged Father of Western Medicine, wrote about “hypnotic incidents.”

Hypnotism Finally Comes of Age

For far too long until recent modern times, knowledge of the art and science of hypnotism, the unique and real benefits of therapeutic hypnosis, and an understanding of the unconscious or subconscious human mind have been restricted mostly by organized religion and medical groups to an elite few. No longer.

The First Hypnotists

In all likelihood, the first hypnotists were the first shamans, seers and sages, wise men, witch doctors, high priests and so on... or maybe the other way around. Whatever, their position and knowledge was guarded jealously. They shrouded hypnosis in mystery, magic, mysticism, "animal magnetism," divine power, spiritualism, religion, cults, politics… and modern-day faith healing. In my opinion, healing ministers and televangelists like Benny Hinn are simply very good hypnotists. Watch one sometime and see for yourself and—“Be healed!”

Since the dawn of civilization and recorded time, the knowledge and secrets of hypnotism and self-hypnosis, have been kept from the average person. That might just be because self-hypnosis teaches one how to avoid being mastered by your own mind, and the minds of others, and instead when learned and practiced, one learns how to be their own “mastermind.”

Military Geniuses & Madmen

History is rife with military leaders like Genghis Kahn and Julius Caesar to the madmen Stalin and Adolph Hitler, understood and manipulated mob psychology in a form of mass hypnosis. Such leaders were great communicators. They understood the power of persuasion, and emotional charged words. Each used the inherent powers of words in oratory, elements of mob psychology and belonging, and group suggestion to motivate peoples to amazing heights and unspeakable, inhumane lows. Each created sensory hallucinations of victory in the minds of countless armies and great peoples down through time to do all sorts of things bad and few good… most went to war and ruination.

Seminal Thinkers & Characters

There are actually thousands of people—from the unscientific to the scientific—who have contributed, and continue doing so today, to the study, refinement and collective advancement of hypnotism and therapeutic hypnosis.

Other notables who studied hypnotism include, Roger Bacon, Emile Coué, Charcot, Janet, Bramwell, Sidis, Breuer, Esdaile, Burcq, Liébeault, Bernhiem, and the infamous Sigmund Freud, the latter of whom was a most nervous and decidedly lousy hypnotist and is, in my humble opinion, single-handedly responsible for the 50-year dark age pall over hypnotism in the first half of the 20th Century, that is still perpetuated to this day by the clinical psychology establishment.

Lastly, there are also many, including myself, who believe that perhaps Jesus of Nazareth and his disciples cured illnesses with their own powerful version of the essentials of the hypnotic formula—specially belief—with many whom He healed, and that has been described basically by some scholars as hypnotherapy.

Mesmerism (the Hypnotism) of the 1700s

Arguable the most famous early practitioner was 18th century pioneer of trance, physician and bon vivant, Austrian Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), whom most people call the "Father of Hypnosis." And from whose surname the word "mesmerism" is derived.

Mozart was a fan of Mesmer. He urged Mesmer to buy a hotel in Paris, France, on the Rue Mootmarte, and become a showman demonstrating his "cures" as an art form and enterprise. And Mesmer did exactly that! Mesmer's theatrical shows used music, wild lighting and scores of highly suggestible volunteers grasping magnetized iron rods protruding from his legendary revolving "banquet," were reputed to be over-the-top productions that might warm even the most flamboyant Hollywood producer's egomaniacal and greedy heart.

Gathered around a large oaken tub filled with magnetized water, iron filings and glass, Mesmer's patients grasped iron rods, held hands and waited for healing to take effect.

Mesmer and his dramatic, live "cures" created quite a storm of adulation and outrage across France. So much so that King Louis XVI, before later losing his throne and head, appointed a "commission" to investigate Mesmer's cures. The skeptical, scientific- minded American Minister to France, Benjamin Franklin, headed Le Commission. Franklin 's commissioners concluded that Mesmer and "magnetism" were frauds. He stated rightly so that all Mesmer's cures and outrageous claims and miraculous, but unexplainable results, based on magnetism were actually caused by the "imagination" of the hypnotized people.

In other words as is widely accepted by practitioners today, 'all hypnotism is really guided self-hypnotism.' The hypnotist is a guide or facilitator, nothing more or magical.

One can also conclude from Franklin's scathing, damning report, the affects produced where caused by the combined ingredients of the modern-day hypnotic formula—and neither by the power of magnets nor Mesmer's considerable charismatic presence. The "hypnotic formula" takes places within the mind of the person entering hypnosis, not within the mind of the hypnotist.

Sadly and unfortunately for both hypnotism and Mesmer personally, he neither knew nor understood that his "cures" were due solely to his linguistic artistry of inducing guided self-hypnosis, which helped his patients use the power of their own subconscious minds. As he was driven out of Vienna, Austria, so too, was he forced to depart Paris for Switzerland, where he retired and lived out his life quietly and very modestly until his death in 1815.

In the 1780s, Armand Marc Jacques de Chastenet, the Marquis de Puységur, a student and follower of Mesmer experimented with hypnosis. It was de Puységur, not Mesmer, who in 1784 discovered hypnotism. De Puységur's famous subject Victor went into a sleep-like state instead of a convulsion while being magnetized, and in that state showed rather remarkable intelligence and stunningly apparent powers of clairvoyance. But, like Mesmer, de Puységur, too, believed mistakenly that hypnotic phenomena depended upon the special powers or supernatural skills of the "magnetizer." De Puységur is generally credited with discovering and naming the sleep-like trance state of somnambulism, a term which remains in use to this day.

Hypnosis in the 1800s
In Paris around 1815, Abbe Jose Castodi de Faria was one of the first "scientific" experimenters in hypnosis and taught that a trance couldn't be induced against one's will. He also developed the "fixed-gaze method" of induction, which is based on eye fixation and was popularized in stage hypnotism shows, television and movies of the 1950s. Two movies that influenced wrongly the modern publics perception of hypnotism in the 1930s and 1950s are "Svengali" (1931) and "The Search for Bridey Murphy" (1956). Boo.

John Elliotson
John Elliotson was a Professor at University Hospital in London, England. Around 1837, his interest in magnetism and experiments in hypnosis found that his patients could undergo major surgery without agony. Ether and concepts of anesthetizing pain were still 50 years away. Yet, Elliotson applied hypnotic techniques whenever possible—and with many reported successes.

Emile Coué
Emile Coué, a pharmacist, is known as the father of "autosuggestion," believed that there is no suggestion—only autosuggestion. Or, to state is another way, we could say that all hypnosis is guided autosuggestion or self-hypnosis. Coué is also famous for his positive- and healthful- affirmation, "Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better."

Dr. James Braid
Dr. James Braid's work helped advance "hypnotism" greatly. He developed another eye-fixation technique using bright lights to cause eyestrain. He believed that trance depended on the "suggestibility" of the individual. Experiments led him to discover how to influence and enhance the trance with much more emphasis on vocal suggestions from the hypnotist. This came to be called the "suggestions method," which is used widely today.

In 1843 he published the first work on hypnotism to be known by that name. And, in 1848 he discovered "waking hypnosis." Although discredited like many before and since, Braid found little or no honor or respectability among his peers in his own country and time. Yet, it is for these noble efforts in the understanding of the "whys" of mesmerism that Dr. James Braid is also referred to as the "Father of Hypnotism" -an honor he well deserves and shares with Mesmer and Liébeault.

Hypnosis in the 20th Century

Hypnotism was used to treat trauma cases in the two World Wars. Dentists use hypnotic-anesthesia regularly in their practices, and dental and medical associations in several countries granted recognition of the therapeutic practice of hypnotism. In fact, in 1955, the British Medical Association (now called the BHA or British Hypnotherapy Association) approved the use of hypnotherapy as a valid medical treatment. In 1958, the American Medical Association (AMA) followed suit and issued statements supporting hypnotherapy and medical uses of hypnosis.

Since the 1950s, professional associations for hypnotists have been formed in many countries, including Britain and the USA. The oldest and largest of which is the National Guild of Hypnotists.

20th Century hypnotic researchers, doctors and practitioners, and true masters of the science and art of hypnosis, include these legends in the field—John Kappas, Milton Erickson, M.D., a psychiatrist whom some call the father of counseling hypnotherapy, Ormond McGill, PhD., the Dean of American Hypnotists, Dave Elman, a hypnotherapist who taught hypnosis to many in the medical and dental fields, and Charles Tebbets, who like McGill became a living legend during his lifetime.

Others whose tireless efforts to advance hypnotism, promote greater professionalism of hypnotherapy as well as helping to assure its legal survival and acceptance as a self-regulating profession, free of control by the psychology profession or the A.M. A., include: Aarons, Abramson, Bordeux, Boyne, Damon, Erwin, Fiore, Gibbons, Gilmore, Hickman, Hunter, James, Kasner, Kiskaddon, Kouguell, LeCron, Lewis, Magonet, Menninger, Robbins, Rosen, Russell, Shenek, Siegel, A. Spencer, Weitzenhoffer, A. and P. Winkler, and Wolberg... to mention an illustrious few.

Famous historical personalities known to have used hypnosis and self-hypnosis include:
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Frederick Chopin (1810-1849)
Thomas Edison (1847-1931)
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Henry Ford (1863-1947)
Winston S. Churchill (1874-1965)
Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961)
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Hypnotherapy for Mind and Body Health

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, there is the legitimate hypnotherapy profession of countless men and women worldwide, involved in non-medical applications of hypnosis, as well as some forensic and medical applications under medical referral and/or supervision. These people devote themselves full-time to the practice of the science and art of hypnosis and are dedicated to helping people almost exclusively with hypnotherapy.

Hypnosis is Recognized & Medically Approved - At Last!

FACT: Hypnosis was first recognized as a viable therapeutic tool by the British Government through The Hypnotism Act, in 1952 and sanctioned by the British Medical Association (BMA) in 1955.

FACT: Then the American Medical Association (AMA) and the British Medical Association (BMA) sanctioned the official use of hypnosis by physicians in 1958.

FACT: Next, in 1958, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) approved hypnotherapy for use by professionally responsible individuals.

Additionally, you can click here to read how they are defined and recognized by the U.S. Department of Labor.

God bless and thank you one and all mankind for working to help promote hypnosis and hypnotherapy in ways that will finally bring it out of the dark ages once and for the benefit of all.

—Certified Master Stage Hypnotist BLAZE

* Bonus for Reading this Far—The story of how I stumbled on stage!

Quoted below in its entirety is a copy of an instructional handout written by master hypnotist Charles Tebbets in 1983 for his protégé Roy Hunter's professional hypnotherapy classes at Tacoma Community College (Tacoma, Washington).

Faith and Hypnosis are Closely Related & Belief
"Belief plays an important part in hypnosis, and in the field of medicine as well. Subconscious belief is the most powerful factor in successful living. It determines all behavior patterns. Yet belief systems are imposed upon unwary minds during childhood before our critical factors are developed to reject harmful ideas that we would reject as a later period in our lives.

Our subconscious beliefs determine whether we will succeed or fail, be happy or unhappy, sick or well, and even if we will be dead or alive.

Self-confidence is belief in yourself.
Confidence is neither conscious nor unconscious competence. They and we know that with practice most anyone could learn to excel in any endeavor they choose.

When the subconscious mind is convinced, it starts to act. As lay hypnotists (and hypnotherapists), our function is to convince the subconscious mind. While a person is in hypnosis, the more the conscious mind recedes, the more accessible the subconscious mind becomes—but consciousness does not disappear at any level.

Hypnosis is super concentration of the mind upon a single idea, and exclusion of all other thoughts.

Hypnosis could be called "mono-ideaism," in which the conscious mind agreeably slows down to a single focus.

Three Psychological Principles of Suggestion

The Law of Concentrated Attention
There is no action without a stimulus. While a person is in hypnosis he concentrates upon a single idea to the exclusion of all other thoughts, so when he is told that his arm is so rigid that it will not bend, and no other thought is allowed to inhibit this idea, his arm will not bend because there is no stimulus.

The Law of Reverse Action
This law is illustrated by the suggestion "The harder you try to bend your arm the more rigid it becomes"—and should be used with all tests to prove to the client that he is hypnotized.

The Law of Dominant Effect
A stronger emotion will always overcome a weaker one. Emotional attachment to a suggestion makes it more effective. In a conflict between the conscious and the subconscious minds, the subconscious usually wins."

*The preceding quoted passage is presented with the permission and courtesy of C. Roy Hunter, M. S./C. Ht. and is from his book "The Art of Hypnosis" published by Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, © 1994, 1992.

More Basic, Natural Laws & Rules of the Mind

The Law of Expectancy
What is expected tends to be realized. In other words, we tend to get whatever we believe or expect at a subconscious level. We become what we think about . We bring about what we think about. So, what you get about you get.

The Law of Reversed Effect
Negative words are usually ignored by the subconscious mind.

The Law of Reversed Reaction
This Law is also known widely as Reverse Psychology, simply stated, says that a person will respond to the stronger part of a suggestion if the alternative is presented as considerably weaker.

The Law of Compound Suggestion
Each suggestion acted upon creates less opposition to successive suggestion. A mental trend or habit is easier to follow and the more difficult to break. In other words once a (self-) suggestion has been accepted by your subconscious mind, it becomes easier for additional suggestions to be accepted and acted upon.

Other 'laws of suggestibility,' if you will, include, the Law of Repetition, of Dominance, of Delayed Action, and the Law of Association.

Rule of the Mind
When dealing with the subconscious mind and its functions, the greater the conscious effort, the less the subconscious response.

Rule of the Mind
Imagination is the language of the subconscious. And, therefore, imagination is more powerful than conscious knowledge when dealing with the mind. This rule dovetails into the next Law of Conflict.

The Law of Conflict
Whenever your conscious and subconscious are in conflict, your subconscious usually wins! Reason is overruled easily by imagination. Stated another way, whenever your imagination and logic are in conflict, imagination usually wins.

Rule of the Mind
Opposing ideas cannot be held by the conscious and subconscious at one and the same time.

Rule of the Mind
Every thought or idea causes a physical reaction. Your thoughts can affect all the functions of your body. A companion rule states that an emotionally induced symptom tends to cause organic change if persisted in long enough.

Rule of the Mind
Once a fixed idea has been accepted by the subconscious mind, it remains until it is replaced by another idea. A companion rule states that the longer the fixed idea remains, the more opposition there is to replacing it with a new idea.

The Hypnotic Formula: Components of Hypnosis (BICE)

BICE is an acronym for—Belief + Imagination + Conviction + Expectation = RESULTS. The hypnotic formula takes places within the mind of the person entering hypnosis, not within the mind of the hypnotist.

Importance of Imagination
Imagination is the language of the subconscious. Imagination enhances one's ability to be hypnotized—as is evidenced by the way we can all respond to something that is not real simply because we imagine it's real - a willing suspension of disbelief. If a person can imagine easily being hypnotized, then s/he will find it much easier to enter the state of hypnosis.

Power of Belief
Whatever a person believes shall happen will tend to come to pass if his/her own actions have anything to do with it.

Expectation & Conviction
People who are convinced that you can hypnotize them will most likely expect to be hypnotized. Whatever expectation is believed and imagined will most likely be either the real result or the perceived result.

Four States of Mind
The four brainwave patterns or states of mind, as measured by an E. E.G. machine are—beta, alpha, theta, and delta—or for our purposes, BATD.

When you or another guides you into the alpha state of mind by another person or thing—whether a movie, an audiotape, engrossing book, highway pavement or a person (such as a hypnotist)—you are hypnotized technically. Blaze welcomes your e-mailed questions.

Brain Wave Frequencies
Brain-wave Frequency	State of Consciousness	Brain-wave Sample
BETA 40 to 30 cps	Fully-Awake, Alert, Excitement, Tension
ALPHA 8 to 13 cps	Deeply-Relaxed, Passive-Awareness, Composed
THETA 4 to 7 cps	Drowsiness, Unconscious, Deep-Tranquility
DELTA .5 to 3.5 cps	Sleep, Unaware, Deep-Unconsciousness

What's the secret how and why does hypnosis work—what is hypnosis, really?

A: No one yet knows with certainty. The actual nature of hypnosis is not yet fully understood.

Nonetheless, there is much agreement about aspects of the hypnotic experience. Beginning with the idea that hypnosis is really all about—IMAGINATION. Imagination is the language of the subconscious mind—which is thought to be the seat of human emotions as well as the storehouse of memories.

Many thinkers and hypnosis practitioners far smarter than Hypnotist BLAZE have come close to defining the states of mind that are hypnosis. No one more so than Charles Tebbets, who defined hypnosis in the second edition of his seminal book, Miracles on Demand, this way:

"There is no legal definition of hypnosis. Webster's dictionary describes it incorrectly as an artificially induced state, but it is actually a natural state of mind and induced normally in everyday living much more often than it is induced artificially. Every time we become engrossed in a novel or a motion picture, we are in a natural hypnosis trance." (pg. 211-212).

Couple that with powers of "BICE" and hypnosis works amazingly because the subconscious human mind doesn't know the difference between fact and fantasy, and responds to what is imagined just as though it was real.

A fundamental principle on which hypnosis is based is premised on what I’ve dubbed, in everyday language, "mind over matter." In other words, hypnosis is a case of the power of the hypnotized person’s mind—their altered perceptions of matter—and thus, for example, over his or her body’s realities like feeling suggested temperature changes and seeing what isn’t there.

When you are in a hypnosis state you focus on just one thing (or one thing at a time) rather than on several things at once. This means that the critical part of the brain, often called the "conscious" mind, the part of the brain which questions, judges, analysis's and compares, is partially or completely suspended because of its focus on just one thing—the hypnotist's voice. It's this focused state that allows for excellent communication with another part of the brain—the subconscious mind directly.

Under hypnosis the conscious mind is rendered inactive and the subconscious awakened to a proportionate extent—the more "unconscious" the person is, the deeper the hypnosis trance experience.

Even though the level of awareness of one’s surroundings shifts to some degree in hypnosis, the hypnotized person is still aware of the hypnotist’s voice and his own voice. The better you are able to immerse yourself in your altered reality (in your inner world of imaginary experiences brought about by suggestion which has bypassed conscious reasoning), the less you will be self-aware and aware of your surroundings in the way you are accustomed to. Hypnosis causes that "shift" and helps the subconscious by enhancing one’s ability to imagine.

In other words, left-brain reasoning and logic, which works with the conscious mind is bypassed so that right-brain activity (creative imagination and the language of the subconscious) supersedes it... for all to enjoy!

The process of hypnosis—The induction—relaxes the brain waves into the Theta state, which sets up the subconscious mind to take information into the brain uncritically. In hypnotherapy positive suggestions and re-education are more easily accepted and new, positive behaviors replace the negative behaviors. Or, in the case of a stage show, funny, respectful routines are suggested and acted out willingly by the volunteers.

All people experience hypnosis daily. Several times a day we enter a self-induced trance-like state. This is a part of the natural activity-relaxation rhythm of the body known as the Ultradian Rhythm. We conventionally experience this as "spacing out." All about us, in every day life the principles of hypnosis are evident, though mostly unnoticed. Our very surroundings, conversations, and activities constantly offer hypnosis suggestions nearly non-stop like stopping at stoplights and billboards in peripheral vision.

Hypnosis is neither inexplicable nor occult and it is certainly not abnormal. Rather hypnosis is state of mind, a natural result of a specific application of definite and understandable laws of focused mental energy. The state of hypnosis is the logical result of thinking when, under a (self-) directed set of circumstances, there is no other way to think.

Hypnosis is a normal mental state similar to the conscious 'waking' condition known as daydreaming. Have you ever had these rather common experiences? When you were deep in thought while driving your car and you missed your exit, you were experiencing road hypnosis. If you’ve ever been “in love” then you were hypnotized to see and think only what you wanted to about the person.

Hypnosis feels surprisingly familiar!
A hypnotized person will generally experience what s/he expects to based on their own life experiences. The hypnotist's skill is, frankly, less important than the person's belief system, which is all that really matters and determines one’s “Hypnotizability” – a function of believing you can be hypnotized.

Depending on the depth of hypnosis, some people experience different bodily sensations like becoming warmer, dry mouth, their limbs tingling and feeling either very heavy or light and floating, and from profoundly, deeply relaxed to just relaxed pleasantly.

Might Hypnosis Help Me?
A: Yes. Hypnosis is used worldwide to affect positive, personal changes in a person’s life. Some areas hypnosis proves reliably effective include: stop smoking, weight lose and food in-take control, improve self-esteem, confidence, relationships, sales ability, memory enhancement and recall (forensic hypnosis).

Hypnosis can mitigate and even remove many bad habits, numerous emotionally-based fears and phobias, and unwanted behaviors like nail biting and hair pulling.

Hypnosis is used often in medical and dental practices to relief pain and discomfort. Psychologists and psychiatrists use hypnosis as an adjunct to their treatments and therapy.

Self-Hypnosis
Self-hypnosis is an integral part of mediation, yoga practice, and bio-feedback. Top athletes and leaders in many fields use self-hypnosis to focus their thinking and skills.

Anyone Can Learn Self-Hypnosis—Even You!
The fact is it’s easy with practice because you do it naturally many time daily. You just aren’t aware fully that you’re going in and out of hypnotic states. Like the old ad saying goes, “Try it. You’ll like it!”

---