The First Time with Pete Hummon
Photograph by Erik Kolstad
I regularly give public talks on hypnosis and mentor new hypnotists. As a result, I’m always telling and retelling these two stories:
FIRST TIME HYPNOTIZED: The first time I was hypnotized, I was scared stiff. I should explain that at the time, I had just founded my own hypnosis practice group in the hopes of learning as much as I could from experienced hypnotists. I’d only ever read about hypnosis, never really seen it, let alone experienced it or tried it. In the group’s very first meeting, there was an awkward moment when one of the hypnotists said, “So, are we going to get some practice in, or what?” I figured that if I wanted my group to be a success, I’d better be the first volunteer.
I fully expected that my brain would go into a fog, my thoughts would fade away, the hypnotist’s voice would boom over the loudspeakers of my mind, and I’d be doing and saying things without having any idea of what was going on. Despite that, I followed the hypnotist’s instructions. I remember feeling very tranquil and lethargic, still expecting my brain to go off-line at any moment. At one point, I guessed the hypnotist must be trying to get me to relax a little before he rolled up his sleeves and really zapped me with full-blown hypnosis.
And immediately after that thought passed through my head, the hypnotist said, “Congratulations! You’ve just reached the state of deep hypnosis.”
I was STUNNED. I felt unbelievably relaxed and pretty good all over… but THIS was deep hypnosis?!? I knew I could open my eyes and walk away at any moment. The revelation was a thunderclap of insight for me.
Since then, I’ve been hypnotized by expert practitioners, hypnosis instructors, Las Vegas stage hypnotists, and many, many others. But I’ve never been afraid of being hypnotized since.
FIRST TIME BEING THE HYPNOTIST: I also remember the first time I hypnotized someone myself. By that point, my practice group was only a few weeks old. I’d been tranced myself more than a few times by that point, plus studied the more experienced hypnotists when they performed inductions. I was anxious to do an induction myself.
Still, I was nervous. Though I’d studied my induction scripts like an actor preparing a monologue, I wasn’t certain I knew what to say. What if I sounded like I didn’t know what I was doing? What if I screwed up the instructions? What if I couldn’t improvise? What if I did improvise and then I picked the wrong wording?
My first subject was a good-natured fellow, an experienced trance subject and who was quite encouraging. “Just go for it,” he told me.
After a little more coaxing, I did. The whole procedure felt awful; I stammered, I hesitated between sentences wondering what I should say next, I kept tripping over my own wording then apologized for it… and worse. The entire induction took about fifteen minutes, which didn’t include the two false starts. When it was over, I felt just horrible.
But my subject shrugged off a lot of my own negative reactions. “I wasn’t much better when I first began hypnotizing,” he told me, “but you still got me into a pretty decent trance. Nice work.”
I was pretty surprised. Despite all my rookie blunders, I’d still hypnotized someone! It felt good.
Visit Pete Hummon’s Princeton University Hypnosis Workshop.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Pete was the first person who ever hypnotized me. I still remember the visuals and empowering statements. All were referring to how I would be a confident and intuitive hypnotist. Thanks Pete! And thanks Ellie for your always interesting blog.
January 7th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Thanks Jamie!
That is so awesome about your experience with Pete. Have you read his answers to my 10 Questions? It is at http://theunwindingpath.com/transhypno/2008/11/21/10-questions-with-pete-hummon/.