McKenna hypnosis

[Dom Tuk]

Saw a few days ago on TV. Paul Mckenna hypnotised a TopGear TV presenter (the short smiley fella) into forgetting how to start a car. Is it real or is it staged. He has done this before with other celebrities and i reckon they are paid to act and pretend that they are doing it under hypnosis and thus make Mackenna famous.

[hopalong]

I always suspected at least one of his 'victims' was a plant. I remember on one show he told a row of people he hypnotised they would see the people in the audience naked when they put on magic glasses. He asked one guy if he would like to buy them. The guy brought a five from his front jacket pocket immediately, not from his wallet but his front pocket. It was all too quick for me. He then asks one young girl to look at him (Mckenna) she gasped. But he's was NOT part of the audience

[Philtaz]

I was always sceptical of hypnotic acts until I saw one when in Germany the Army.  This guy came for a Corporal's Mess function and had big roughy toughy soldiers thinking they were Michael Jackson on the dance floor, some believing they had undergone surgical removal of their penis, as well as other things way beyond any acting skills.

It most definitely was not faked.

[Headtime]

Hypnosis is an interesting thing. I have seen a stage hypnotist and the results were amazing. However, I have been hypnotised myself (to stop smoking) and you don't go into an unconcious trance where you will do anything that is suggested to you.

I think rather than pretending or staging their trance, the hypnotisee (?) is in such a relaxed state that they are very suggestable. And probably with camera's and lights around them it's easier to 'play' along, rather than stop the entertainment and say "Hang on. I'm not actually unconcious".

[gerry]

I went to see Paul Mckenna stage show last year with some friends.One of the girls in our group ended up being one of the people chosen to be hypnotised & trust me it isn't faked.Some of the stuff that she did in front of a sell out crowd i know if she hadn't been hypnotised she would have been embarassed.But when Paul asked her to do something she would react to it with no problem.

[landie]

It appears to be possible to hypnotise someone to be oblivious to pain, ( needles, surgery etc). How do they achieve this if it's fake?

[El D]

I know I couldnt be hypnotised . . . personally I think most of it is a load of tosh

[jake-the-peg]

I don't know about MacKenna but remember a lot of stage hypnotists get to choose their victims - I was part of a show once and at the start everybody was asked to lie down and do a number of relaxation excercises whist the hypnotist walked about.

He then invited certain selected individuals to be part of the main show - I wasn't one - I don't think I showed enough "promise" as a subject.

He then weeded his selection out further by various amusing suggestion routines until he settled on one or two victims for the main body of the show.

I suspect most demonstrations of "cold" hypnotism are set ups.

[Dom Tuk]

The trick is to invite 500 lay public and have 3-4 plants in them. Thus 497 go away convinced that the trick is real although they were not chosen. Derren Brown used this in his russian roullette stunt. he made a big show pf inviting members of the public and whittled them down till only his plant remained to pull the trigger. he let himself down when he selected one of his plants to reveal his drawing which was identical to his own. He is not a magician he is a gardner.

[jake-the-peg]

I think there are two parts to this question 1) Is hypnotism real? 2) is stage hypnotism real?

In terms of 1) I'd defer to University College London who have a hypnotism unit http://www.ucl.ac.uk/hypnosis/training.html and clearly think it's real enough to research and teach in it.

As for 2) I suspect it's likely to be a mix of some genuine and some stooge based - Some may even have a stooge on standby in case it starts going badly.

I think you're right about the Top Gear one though because he didn't get a choice of subject.

[brentfordfan]

El D, I don't know how you know you couldn't be hypnotised if it's never been tried on you by a trained hypnotist.  You have no way of knowing how quickly you would go into a light trance.

I don't think hypnotism is bunkum but I think a lot of stage shows are and I'm surprised Paul McKenna is still doing these gigs.  I think it detracts from his reputation in helping people change their behaviour for the better e.g. weight loss.

Derren Brown is a very, very clever illusionist, NLP practitioner and reader of body language and he's never pretended to be anything else.  He's never claimed to be psychic.