Imagine this scenario. You are walking around or enjoying a night on the town with your buddies. Suddenly a total stranger walks up to you. Before you know what has occurred, the conversation turns to hypnosis. About 20 minutes later, you are wondering what happened to the time. Your friends are also standing there looking shocked. Now imagine this second chain of events. You are at an event and someone comes up, tells you that he or she is a professional hypnotist. This person mentions that he or she was hired as entertainment and would like you to participate. Just 10 minutes later you wake up. An audience is applauding for you and for this person you just met.
Of these two scenarios, I have no problem with the second. In this case, you can be assured that the hypnotist wants to protect his or her reputation and also payment for services rendered. In the same vein, if you are somewhere and you hear someone discussing hypnosis and mentioning that he or she is a therapist, this is also a safe scenario. If you ask to be hypnotized and this person complies, you also have the security that this is a professional demonstration. First of all, you have instigated this situation. Also you can be assured that this is a client building exercise. In both the circumstances I described above, you can tell that this isn’t just an exercise for someone building up his or her ego.
However, the bottom line is that often you need to recognize when you are being affected by hypnosis. This is true when it occurs in places when you aren’t looking for it. So what should you look for to avoid NLP or street hypnosis? The procedure of approach, set-up and induction almost always occurs in a certain order. Here is what you should look for:
If someone holds out their hand and pulls it away as you got to shake it, this is a sign that something is going on. Another possibility is that they will shake your hand and then not let it go. They could put their free hand on your elbow or shoulder. During this process, they may ask you if you have been hypnotized before. If they are seeking to be more powerful, they may even ask if you have “imagined yourself floating or daydreaming.”
For example, one of my favorite terms is very simple. I say, “Just imagine.” This term gets people into a subconscious state instantly. Another thing that someone may try is to get you to stare at something. This can be anything- it doesn’t matter. Often people will also ask you to look into their eyes or at your finger. Once you let someone past this point, they can get into your head. At this moment, they become your conscious and conscience as well. They are making all the decisions for you. Additionally, your subconscious hasn’t even been given the idea that it won’t do anything against your morals.
At this point, you are hypnotized. You are not in control any more. So why would someone do this to you? Often street hypnotists are trying to gratify their own egos. This is especially true with convert hypnosis. So is there a tinfoil hat you get make to stop the hypnotic rays from getting to you? Can you go out and purchase a hypnosis detector? Unfortunately, the answer to these questions is no.
Here are two ideas:
First, you can visit a hypnotist and ask them to install the suggestion to not allow any inappropriate hypnotism. You will not be able to allow someone to put you in a hypnotic state if you are not willing.
You can also learn hypnosis. At that point you will be in a zone where your subconscious can take over and reverse the direction. At this point you can hypnotize the hypnotist.