The Power of Pre-Talk
by Joshua Houghton, NGH Certified Hypnotist
When I first got started in hypnosis I went around to everyone I knew asking to hypnotize them. Most of the people said no, but a few of them agreed to “try” hypnosis. These people knew nothing about hypnosis, but being a confidence newcomer I didn’t feel I had to educate them on hypnosis. I figured all I had to do was copy some youtube video’s I’ve seen.
I knew I could hypnotize someone and emerge them from hypnosis if I just followed the videos I had watched. Looking back on this situation I think I may have been to confidence in myself, which can blow up in your face sometimes. I walked up to the guy, told him to press on my hand, close his eyes and the moment he started to apply pressure to my hand I yelled “sleep” in a deep voice. As I yelled sleep I knew I was going to be successful. I glanced up to see what a person in hypnosis looks like in real life and got a surprise. His eyes were wide open; he looked at me and said did it work? My hurt ego took a moment and answered “no, it didn’t work and I’m not sure why”.
I spent a week studying the videos and had followed what I had seen the hypnotist do on the video. I had no idea what was wrong and was about to chalk it up to he was one of the few people who couldn’t be hypnotized. Wow, I had a really big ego back then and I had some nerve assuming this was the case when this was my first attempt at hypnotizing someone. Due to a lack of financial means I couldn’t afford formal training. My education came from all the free e-books floating around and many of the youtube videos. I assumed that hypnosis was just as easy as yelling sleep and that’s not the case. There was more going on behind the scene then I realized.
It wasn’t until I ran across a certain video that a friend let me borrow that changed my future and gave me the tools for success. The hypnotist in the video mentioned how important it is to discuss hypnosis with the person before attempting to hypnotize them. The hypnotist on the tape made a statement that put it all into place for me. A person will only enter hypnosis based upon the fear they have of the subject. I had been trying to enter a locked door without the key to open it, now I had the key needed to succeed. The key to having a person enter hypnosis is called the Pre-Talk.
So the next question is what is a pre-talk? A pre-talk can either be a long or brief talk about what hypnosis is and addressing any fears the person may have about hypnosis. You basically address some of the rumors and myths about hypnosis and explain the truth to the person. You let them know they are not asleep during hypnosis, they can hear you speaking to them in hypnosis. Let them know they are in control and will never do anything against their moral or ethics. You want them to feel comfortable with hypnosis and give them the real facts. Society has programmed the general public to think hypnosis is something it isn’t. People think we perform some type of black magic or we control their minds. So you must become the expert and explain the truth to them.
It makes a lot of sense and looking back at the lesson I learned and I can’t believe I never thought of it before. Think about this for a moment. Would you sky dive off of a plane if you were afraid of heights? You might really want to experience it, but due to your fear you just can’t make that jump. Have you ever wanted to do anything in your life, but some fear held you back? If so, then you may have an idea about what might be going through the head of the person you are about to hypnotize. They don’t know what to expect and may be afraid even if they don’t tell you so.
The next part of the pre-talk to be honest is simple and is used more when using rapid or instant induction techniques. You must build up the person’s expectations of what to expect. You basically what to tell them that if they do exactly as you say nothing more and nothing less they will enter a wonderful relaxed, deep state of hypnosis and they will feel great. You want them to associate something good to the experience. Let them know how good it’s going to feel or how relaxed they are going to be when they enter hypnosis. Once you build this up all you have to do is one more thing. You must ask permission to hypnotize the person.
I usually use something called the hypnotic contract. I basically will tell the person that if they do exactly as I say nothing more and nothing less they will enter a wonderful state of hypnosis. If you do this for me I will make sure you are taking care of and no harm will come to you. If this is acceptable to you, are you ready to go into hypnosis? As you see I compounded the statement with repeating it twice and the final step is added right onto the end of the contract.
This makes the person feel you respect them by asking them formal permission. It also gives the person permission for them to enter hypnosis since all hypnosis is just self hypnosis. Once you have all of this in place all you have to do is perform your instant or rapid induction and watch the person enter hypnosis quickly and easily. A little tip to remember is to make sure you deliver your pre-talk with confidence. Confidence is a huge part of successful hypnosis. You will also find as you get better and better you will be able to get this pre-talk down within a few min.
In the beginning the mistake I made was thinking what I saw on the videos was all there was to performing hypnosis. Hypnosis isn’t magic, it’s a process. Once we understand that process we are able to use it much more efficient. I learned a lesson that day which was sometimes you have to make a mistake to succeed in the long run. The pre-talk is the most important part of what we do as hypnotists. The pre-talk allows us to educate people and make the client or person feel comfortable enough to enter hypnosis and feel comfortable with us. I recommend any beginner who is serious about the field of hypnotism to study hypnosis and learn the truth behind the rumors. This will help you in developing your own pre-talk. In the end just remember to eliminate fears, build up the clients expectations and get permission. Once you have done this you will find your success rate sore.
