A Story of Birthdays, Trance and the Gift of Deep Love from True Friends

Street Hypnosis is a skill used most often by hypnotists to entertain.  It involves finding a volunteer, putting them into trance performing a few hypnotic gambits and moving on to the next volunteer.    Of all the hypnotic skills it is perhaps the most dramatic, if for no other reason, the sheer speed of the discipline.

I was in Las Vegas for a hypnosis convention of sorts.  Master Instructor Igor Ledochowski’s Advanced Mind Bending Language event, four solid days of Deep Trance Phenomenon with 180 other dedicated and aspiring hypnotists and preceded by a bonus day with Don Spencer “The World’s Fastest Hypnotist”.  Spence is a stage performer, who spends most of his time coaching other hypnotists to hone their craft.

On the fifth day of intensive instruction and “trance camp” several of us decided it was time to head to the Strip.  We had dinner at Tao, were comped admission to Blush, a medium sized dance club at the Wynn Resort.

Blush is a fairly progressive dance club, loud music and heavy bass, which attract a young, beautiful crowd, wanting to be seen in the right place with the right people.  For a group of hypnotists (significantly older than the average clientele) that rely on conversation as their stock and trade, this wasn’t exactly our milieu.

We took a vote and decided to leave, only one problem, our friend Alex K had disappeared to find a restroom and we hadn’t seen him since, no doubt an interesting diversion had presented herself!  I volunteered to track him down.

Initially, I thought the fact that he shaves his head would make him easy to find, surprisingly (or not) “clean” is quite the style, and hence his specific location remained a bit of a mystery.

On my second lap of the club, a group of young girls made a request of me, “Excuse me sir, could you do us, like this really huge huge favor and take our picture please?  It would mean so much!”

I had stumbled upon a gaggle of gorgeous young girls full of excitement, optimism, and everything that is Las Vegas!

“Sure, I would be happy to; what are you celebrating?”

“Jazzi’s birthday”, came the chorus. Their excitement was palpable, a large group of friends all on the ultimate birthday adventure.   They seemed very close and very happy.

“Hmm, in that case I would not only be honored to take your picture but also offer you a gift that will make this the best birthday ever.”.

“Really, what’s that?” All eyes were on Jazzi, seemingly wondering, “Can this day possibly get even better?”

Jazzi looked up with a cherubic smile and glanced at her friends, at more than twice her age, my curiosity piquing promise, no doubt created a bit of a paradox (sounds like fun but who exactly is this older dude, was a thought that was no doubt running through some of their minds).  “What do you mean a gift?” she queried.

“Well, I am a hypnotist and one of my favorite things to do in the whole world is a special birthday trance, are you interested?”  I had hardly gotten the words “hypno” out of my mouth before a shrill, excited cacophony of joy erupted from the friends.  No risk from their standpoint, they were game, Jazzi, however, was a bit unsure.

“I don’t know if I can be hypnotized”, she said, hoping to create a little conversational wiggle room.

“You can,” I replied.

“How do you know?” She shot back.

“Because anybody can”, I parried (this is not quite true, mentally handicapped and those currently pursuing altered states of consciousness via drugs and alcohol have a difficult time due to their inability to concentrate, however, for anyone else it is a rather effortless process, once you suspend your disbelief).

“Really?” she asked in a hopeful tone, “you think that I really can?’

“Jazzi, I can both guarantee it and tell you it will create a memory you will cherish for the rest of your life”.

At this point, peer pressure from the covey of cuties went into hyper drive, half encouraging her to “do it” and half asking me, “what will you make her do?”

This was a critical point in the process, many people think of hypnosis as some sort of covert mind control, when in reality it is actually a collaborative process.  I needed to get the girls to follow me if this was going to be the ultimate gift that I had envisioned.

“Ok, here is the deal ladies, this is not about ‘getting Jazzi’ to do anything, this is about giving her an wonderful memory on her birthday and to make the most of this, I need you guys to all think of a very special wish you would like to give her.  So while we are getting ready, think of how you would like to finish this sentence, ‘Jazzi, my wish for you is…’ It can be anything but I would like to have you state it in the positive, meaning if you are thinking you would like her to “not have any problems” you might say, “My wish for you is that you have a stress-free life”.

Then I turned to Jazzi and said, “here is want we are going to do, I am going to hypnotize you and you will go into a deep trance state and it will be wonderful.  The first time will only last 15-20 seconds.  Then I am going to bring you back up, and ask you how it was.  You can tell me it was really good, or ask me to stop.  If you say stop, the adventure ends.  You will love it though and when you tell me you to, I will take you back down again”.

The part of the club that we were in at the time was a bit too crowded and loud.  This is not ideal for our purposes (and I still hadn’t located my buddy Alex). So we decided to relocate.  Even though the girls didn’t know Alex, I knew their siren song would prove to be quite magnetic.

I said, “all right ladies, here’s the deal.  If we go back to the outside deck, it will be quieter and give Jazzi a better experience.  I also need to find my friend Alex so as we walk back there, could you just call out to him?  I am certain he will find you all quite irresistible”.

We walked through the club and the girls called Alex; he was nowhere to be found.  We entered the deck with the girls still chanting and I immediately saw Alex, he had an even bigger smile than usual, he wondered what in the world could be going on?  It was a bizarre site for certain, a fifty year old man seeming to be a pied piper to a group of young girls dressed in their finest club wear; and all calling out the name Alex.  Alex’s attention would not be the last that we attracted that night!

We found a remote spot that was lightly peopled and got ready for the process.  Street Hypnosis is often done standing up, (since most the world doesn’t happen to have a couple of folding cars standing by). It is not however a requirement, so we grabbed some chairs and arranged them face-to-face.

The process of the hypnosis started at the initial offer, creating a vision of a journey that Jazzi would like to take, and now it was going to continue in an even more earnest fashion.  Jazzi sat down and I immediately started to move her around.  This served two purposes, I wanted her to be as comfortable as possible and I wanted her to get used to following my suggestions.  She crossed her legs and leaned back, I asked her to put both feet flat on the floor and sit up.  I was across from her much closer than the hypnosis of social conditioning would have allowed based on our 5-minute friendship.

I turned to speak to her, our faces where about 10 inches apart, our eyes directly in front of each other.  I placed my left hand on her right shoulder and began a technique called the hypnotic gaze.  I said, “Remember you are going to think of a gift for yourself, it can be a dream, a wish, a goal or a mission or anything else that you would like it to be.  If you can’t think of one right now you can just let your unconscious mind pick it for you.  If you pick one now and think of another later, you can change it or just use both…it is after all Jazzi, your birthday, and on your birthday, you get to make a wish.  We are going to start in a second but not just yet.”

Next, I turned to her friends.  They were gathered around in a state of eager anticipation, the odd site was gaining the attention of others on the deck, and the game was afoot.  Talking to the friends, served to remind them of what was going to happen again, communicate with Jazzi’s unconscious mind and give her a slight break from the pressure she was probably experiencing being the center of a growing bit of attention.  I told them, I would tell them when I wanted them to come in and tell Jazzi their wish for her, I reminded to form it in the positive and told them not to speak too loudly just talk plainly into her ear.

Then I turned back to Jazzi, reconnected the hypnotic gaze and commanded my unconscious mind to beam the unconditional love of a parent directly into her eyes.  I told her to look directly into my eyes as I moved the first two fingers of my right hand in between our eyes.  This causes a bit of physiological confusion, I asked her to take a nice deep cleansing breath, blow it all the way out, then pulled her forward slightly and commanded her to sleep.  She flopped down deeply and I immediately began to deepen her even more.  The hypnotic patter flowing from me in an unbroken “stream of unconsciousness”.

“Deeper and deeper more relaxed, with every breath you take allow any stress or strain you feel to melt away, easily and effortless.  As you breathe in, feel the love of the wonderful friends that are surrounding you fill every fiber of your being and as you exhale continue to allow any remaining stress melt away.  As you continue to relax notice the deeper you go the better you feel, and the better you feel the easier it is to go even deeper now…that’s right you are doing very well.”

Jazzi is what hypnotists often call a good subject.  Someone with a mind open enough to experience trance on a deep level quickly, they tend to have good powers of concentration and above average intelligence.

At this point, I told her that I was going to bring her up.  She probably didn’t want it but I had made that commitment earlier and I wanted to honor it. Also it gave me the ability to fractionate the trance (a process of quickly putting people into and out of trance, which causes the trance to go deeper with each evolution).  “At the count of three I want to bring you back up and see how you are doing.  Then we will go even deeper and you will feel even better.  1-2-3, ok come on up, how are you doing?”

“Really good!”

“You are aren’t you? wanna do even better?”

“Yes”

“Sleep, deeper and deeper more relaxed, with every breath you take you can deepen the level of profound relaxation that you are experiencing right now, and the exciting thing Jazzi there is no limit to how deeply you can relax or how good you can feel.”

At this point, we are facing one another, her head is on my shoulder and my head is on hers.  I am streaming dulcet tones directly into her ear.  My hands are on her shoulders and I am gently rocking her.  When I pulled her forward she braced herself by positioning her arm on her knees, this is a very common unconscious reaction to being pulled forward and provides an excellent opportunity to shock the body into an even deeper experience.  I suggest a nice deep breath and when she exhales I pull her wrist and command her to go even deeper.

Our heads on each other’s shoulders formed a supportive structure of sorts.  Her hands dangled loosely like two ropes; I gently rolled them around and gave her more deepening suggestions.

She was now ready for the gifts from her friends.  I raised my head and had them circle around and offer their birthday wishes.

The first friend leaned into her other ear, “Jazzi, I love you, you are my best friend, my wish for you is that you achieve every thing that you want, and have an incredible life”.

As she stepped out another around leaned in, “Jazzi, find the perfect man and fall deeply in love with someone that loves you the way that we do, happy birthday sweetie’.

“Jazzi, I want you to do really at good at school and get a great job and meet a great man have a great life, your life is just beginning and it will be more wonderful than you can imagine”.

One after another the girls leaned in and gave heartfelt wishes and perhaps communicated feelings in a way that friends rarely do, although they are there, and it is understood they often go unsaid.  Somewhere around the 4^th of 5^th I heard her sniffling; it was a very moving experience.  When the last friend had finished, I started talking again.

“Jazzi, those are wonderful gifts from your wonderful friends and you will never forget them, and now you can give a gift to yourself, and in a moment I am going to ask you to think of your wish.  It can be one that you have already thought of, it can be one that pops into you mind when I snap my fingers or both…because today Jazzi is your birthday and on your birthday you get to make a wish.  In a second Jazzi I am going to count to three and when I get to three I am going to snap my fingers and when I snap my fingers I want you to make a wish.  1-2-3″ Snap.

For the next few seconds, I let her think quietly, and gently rocked her with a special hypnotic rocking motion.  Then I asked if she had made her wish, and she nodded yes.  Then I began the patter again.

“Jazzi, I want you to see that birthday wish and follow it like a shooting star out into the future.  I want you to see the you that you will be in the now that is not yet.  I want you to know, that this wish is alive and well and will come true because it is the wish that your unconscious mind offered up for you today, right here, right now, your gift for yourself on your birthday.  Your unconscious mind did that because it knows this is the perfect wish, for you today.  So as you follow that wish out into the future have a look at the you, in the then and see and be the woman that you have become.  Go down and just for a moment be that future you.  And just for a moment see what you have seen, know what you have learned and see that path that you traveled to get realize the dream that you just made.  Have a peak at all the memories you will have then and notice how wonderful the journey as been and now let’s travel fast from then to the now, see the things that you will see in the now that is not yet.  Travel back fast to here and now and just notice the path and see that this dream will come true, but lets come back to now and here so there can still be some surprises along the way, because in some ways the destination is rewarding but in many others the journey is the reward.  Are you here with me now?”

“Yes”

“Yes you are, that was certainly fun was it not?”

“It was”

Yes it was, it really, really was.

“Now, Jazzi I have just one more gift for you, and it is the gift from me.  My gift to you Jazzi is this moment, and the memory you will carry with you.  You might have heard that sometimes people don’t remember what they experience in hypnosis and that is sometimes true.  It only happens though if the hypnotist makes a suggestion and the subject accepts it and we are not going to do that today are we?”

“No”

“No we are not.  We are in fact, going to do the exact opposite.  My gift for you is this moment and this memory and I am going to make sure that you never forget this.  In fact, Jazzi this moment and its memory will be vivid for the rest of your life.  You will never forget your 21^st birthday and the wonderful adventure that you are having.  You will never forget the wonderful wishes of all of your wonderful friends and you will never forget the gift that you just gave to yourself.  And as your co-pilot for this little hypnotic flight I hereby command your unconscious mind to store this memory in a place that it can retrieve it easily and effortlessly anytime it needs to…to remind you of this wonderful time, and to use this as a resource anytime that you need to…you see Jazzi life does give us some challenges but it also give us resources and one of the best resources is the love and support of our family and friends. And your friends have shown you an just how much they love you, they showed you by being here with you on your birthday and they have shown you by being here and giving you all the gifts they have given you tonight.  So if you ever feel down, and I am not sure you ever would with all the wonderful things that you have before you, your unconscious mind can remind you of this moment and the memory will be as clear as it is right.

Now, in a second I am going to bring you back up, but only as fast as you need to come to fully integrate all the wonderful wishes and experiences you just had.  Take a nice deep breath and enjoy this moment, being here surrounded by your friends, and a fun hypnotic adventure, and start to come up as I count upward from one to five.”

“One taking in a nice deep breath and fully integrating this experience”.

“Two, you are becoming more and more aware of your surroundings including the love of all of your friends”.

“Three, feeling the energy return to your body, relaxed and rested as you would feel after a wonderful night of deep sleep”.

“Four, noticing now consciously just how good hypnosis makes you feel and realizing it is a powerful tool that can help you do magical things”.

“Five, eyes open, wide awake, fully integrated and ready to continue the best birthday that you have every had…so far.”

As she brought her face up, her friends we startled.  She had tears streaming down her cheeks, her mascara was running and she looked as if she might have had a bad experience.  I knew that was far from the case, somewhere along the friends giving her their birthday wishes her sniffles had turned to tears.  Her friends were very generous with their wishes for her and she was deeply touched.  The girls in the moment, meaning to comfort her got a bit excited which is not what you want immediately after trance.  I quickly quieted them, looked at Jazzi and said, tell them how you are feeling.

She turned to them and said, “You guys, you have no idea that was incredible and I love you guys so much; thanks so much for being here with me”.

At this point, tears and hugs were sprinkled liberally around the group including a thankful hug for your hypnotist.  I wished them all a wonderful trip and Jazzi a happy birthday, and they disappeared into the night, all nine of them talking at the same time, as only young girls can.