"The Purple Duck Experiment" (hypnotism routine)

May 21, 2014
127
6
Staunton, VA

Hello all!

I've been looking to branch into hypnotism for a while because it's a subject that interests me. I've had very little exposure to performance hypnotism (a handful of youtube videos and nothing else), and most of my experience and reading on the subject regards self-hypnotism, meditation, and hypnotism as a scientific phenomenon under research conditions. I have what I consider a layman's understanding of the subject; I have no training or experience with hypnotizing other people, I consider my reading on the subject to be superficial at best, and I haven't really had any compelling or successful experiences with self hypnosis any of the times that I've tried to produce a demonstrable effect with it (like hypnotic paralysis, for example).

Nevertheless, I've been wanting to explore it as a possible direction for my character, and I have some personal theories about what hypnotism is and how and why it works the way it does in performance settings. As a kind of pre-test, I decided to attempt to develop my own routine prior to consulting any teaching materials regarding performance hypnotism. I wanted to see if I my own ideas had anything to them before I started adding in other stuff. As a point of comparison I did aim to achieve some of the same kinds of results I'd seen other performers get, but I wanted to see if I could do it using patter and techniques that were as original as possible. I had a couple of goals with this routine:

  1. Keep the whole thing in a safe, positive headspace for everyone involved
  2. Cause someone to have a semi-involuntary emotional response to something that isn't really in the room
  3. Cause someone to temporarily forget an obvious bit of information

I'd been conceiving the patter and steps I wanted to use in the routine for a while now, and last night I got to test it out to a surprising degree of success. I wanted to choose the right place, time, and person to try it with because I believe that's part of the process with making this kind of hypnosis work, and last night at my wife's birthday party I was jazzing my magic and had the opportunity to work with someone that I thought would be great for the effect.

The idea for the routine started with a simple image: a purple duck. I had seen another hypnotist make someone laugh involuntarily somehow until commanded to stop (either I don't remember how exactly or the video didn't show the full lead-in), and I wanted to see if I could get the same thing to happen without reading a method for doing it first. I figured I could probably do it by getting someone in a relaxed state, getting them to follow a few simple mental directions to activate the imagination, and then getting the imagination to insist upon a purple duck sitting somewhere in the room.

I openly work within the imagination when I patter this routine because I believe people are very open to the suggestion of imagining something as opposed to seeing or believing it. I honestly think that's part of the reason this worked as well as it did the first time out. Once I had her picturing the duck, I made the suggestion to trigger the laughter, and she started laughing uncontrollably and suddenly stopped when I suggested that the duck was gone, along with the impulse to laugh. I don't think it could have gone more perfectly.

From there I moved into the "stolen thought" portion of the routine. I had seen someone do it with the person's own name before, and I wanted to give that a try because it seemed like an interesting challenge for someone just starting out. This was the one portion of the routine that I borrowed from one that I saw online because it seemed like a more difficult task, so I wanted to be using a method that I was sure could work. The uncertainty lay in the fact that I didn't know if my own methods and lead-in would have someone with me enough to even pretend to forget a thought, especially something as personal as her own name. I was hoping that if the laughing thing worked on both the start, crescendo, and stop, the name thing might work too. It turns out, at least on the first time around, I was right. I had her say her name a few times, point to where it is in her head, then I "pulled it out" of that spot, "hid" it from her in my hand, and asked what her name was. She couldn't say it. I pattered through that for a few seconds, then opened my hand, "showed" her the name, and asked again. She spat it right out with no hesitation. This part actually spooked me a little bit. I was not expecting this part of the routine to succeed on the first try, even with a well-selected volunteer.

After that I moved into my cold-reading routine, but I want to focus on the hypnosis bits because that's what I have questions about right now.

First off, what do you guys think of the routine and the ideas behind it? I didn't want to go into too much detail about my exact patter and execution because the post would have been even longer and I didn't want to expose too much of it, but what do you think about what's described here? I realize it's probably basic compared to the scope of performance hypnotism, and I'm interested in the opinion of people who are better at this than I am.

Second, I'd like to know more about the origins of the two effects produced with this routine (involuntary laughter and forgetting a thought) , especially the execution of the name steal. It's performed exactly like it sounds: I pantomime grabbing the name from the person's head and hiding it while giving a verbal suggestion to match, and the name leaves the person's brain. I saw it somewhere in a performance online, and now I'm having trouble finding/remembering it. If anyone can tell me where they think that came from I'd really appreciate it. I'd like to know both for my own curiosity and for credit reasons if it ever comes up in conversation with other performers, and on the off-chance that it's original enough to someone that I'd need to take steps to gain permission to be doing it for people.
 
Sep 1, 2013
305
15
South Africa
I actually think that it is a fantastic routine and i applaud you for actually executing it based on your own knowledge which in itself would have answered some of your questions. As for the origins I had first seen involuntary laughter in The Manchurian Approach by Anthony Jacquin but he didn't claim it as his own and the thought steal is seen in many sources as well.

Hypnosis differs from magic in the sense of what you make the volunteer do can't really be original to one person as once you induce a trance you can literally make them do anything, it's just up to imagination. Originality comes down to the types of inductions used and sometimes the patter. All in all i think consulting a source won't ruin the routine you've created as it's quite solid as it is, it can only give you pointers to the things you didn't know.

All of these are opinions from myself at a hypnosis stand point so don't just take my word for it. There are other hypnotists that are going to reply here at a later stage so I'd probably be stumped. Good job on the routine I really like it though, looking at your process and execution I can only recommend you look into some sources as hypnosis would really work well with you.
 
Dec 18, 2007
1,610
14
64
Northampton, MA - USA
BALLS! you need really big ones to do effective stage hypnosis and brother, you're seriously taking the bull by the horns. :)

I would strongly encourage you to get some proper foundation however, it will take your thinking quite a ways forward;

The Encyclopedia of Stage Hypnosis by Ormond McGill is the bible to this area of work but then all of Ormond's books deliver strong benefit as well as anything you can find by Arnold Furst or Jerry Valley.

Reality is Plastic by Anthony Jacquin is in my opinion, a more contemporary resource that every serious student should pick-up

These two resources will take you a very long way but I would encourage you to invest in some of the other, far more expensive materials that are out there as well, over time;

Bridge & Pygmalion Effects by Aaron Alexander being at the top of this list; followed by all of Jerome Finley's material on the topic of Hypnosis & Trance Work.
 
Dec 5, 2013
146
2
Boston
RedBeardthePink, thank you for sharing this; this really inspired me. I am in pretty much the same positions that you were in (no actually knowledge of hypnotism but have an interest). I have only been in magic for about two years so I'm sure that I'm not ready to get into hypnotism but this really served as an inspiration for me for when I am ready in the future.
Thank you!
 
May 21, 2014
127
6
Staunton, VA
I actually think that it is a fantastic routine and i applaud you for actually executing it based on your own knowledge which in itself would have answered some of your questions. As for the origins I had first seen involuntary laughter in The Manchurian Approach by Anthony Jacquin but he didn't claim it as his own and the thought steal is seen in many sources as well.

Hypnosis differs from magic in the sense of what you make the volunteer do can't really be original to one person as once you induce a trance you can literally make them do anything, it's just up to imagination. Originality comes down to the types of inductions used and sometimes the patter. All in all i think consulting a source won't ruin the routine you've created as it's quite solid as it is, it can only give you pointers to the things you didn't know.

All of these are opinions from myself at a hypnosis stand point so don't just take my word for it. There are other hypnotists that are going to reply here at a later stage so I'd probably be stumped. Good job on the routine I really like it though, looking at your process and execution I can only recommend you look into some sources as hypnosis would really work well with you.


Thanks! I wasn't so much worried about polluting the routine with other people's ideas; I was more interested in testing out some theories I had about stage hypnosis before I'd read anything about it. I'm a big believer in the usefulness of what Buddhists call the "Beginner's Mind," a state of being where you're experimenting with something new but haven't been taught anything yet and so are learning by pure discovery and invention. Still, actual teaching is often necessary for progress, so I'll be looking into some teaching materials soon, probably.

Also, as a side note, my model for hypnosis doesn't really use the idea of "trance" so much as manipulating the imagination. It functions on two basic premises: that the imagination tends to be highly suggestible even in less suggestible people, and the brain does not always distinguish well between things that are imagined and things that are real.

I start by asking the person to relax, close their eyes, take some breaths, etc., but that's mostly to get them used to following my directions and because it's an expected part of a hypnosis demonstration. I mainly work by giving small suggestions and directions at first and gradually build into giving mental tasks that can't be accomplished without making the imagination really wake up and stretch itself into the forward part of the subject's thinking. This all sounds like inducing a trance to some people, but really all I'm doing is asking them to picture things that are difficult to conceive even with the involvement of the imagination.

Craig, thanks for the info and the vote of confidence :) I thought you might have something to add along the way, considering your vast experience with this kind of thing. I'll definitely look into the sources you suggested. You and Chris Thisse both suggested Jacquin and McGill, so I'll probably wind up starting there.

Isaac, glad I could be an inspiration! I've been in magic since I was a small child (20+ years), and hypnosis is the closest thing to real magic I've done because as far as I know, I'm doing exactly what I say I'm doing. It does involve an understanding of people and the way their minds work, and that's come from various areas of study in my case, including magic, acting, psychology, and sociology. If your social skills around strangers are pretty sharp, though, I don't see any reason why you couldn't look into hypnosis if it's something that interests you. Even if they aren't, looking into the subject might give you an idea of what skills you need to cultivate to get yourself there.
 
Jan 10, 2009
150
0
University Park PA
Based on your model, I would suggest looking into Anthony Jacquin's material on his Automatic Imagination model, it is very similar to what you've just described and may help further develop your own ideas.
 
Dec 5, 2013
146
2
Boston

Isaac, glad I could be an inspiration! I've been in magic since I was a small child (20+ years), and hypnosis is the closest thing to real magic I've done because as far as I know, I'm doing exactly what I say I'm doing. It does involve an understanding of people and the way their minds work, and that's come from various areas of study in my case, including magic, acting, psychology, and sociology. If your social skills around strangers are pretty sharp, though, I don't see any reason why you couldn't look into hypnosis if it's something that interests you. Even if they aren't, looking into the subject might give you an idea of what skills you need to cultivate to get yourself there.

I have quite good social skills and have no trouble talking to strangers. The reason I say I don't think that I'm ready is because I want to grow as a performer first.
Thanks again,
 

WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
5,877
2,945
I have quite good social skills and have no trouble talking to strangers. The reason I say I don't think that I'm ready is because I want to grow as a performer first.
Thanks again,

My personal approach was to study the theory behind it for about a year before I tried it at all. I was also just building performance skill in that interval, but when my skill had gotten to the point where I was ready to try, I had the knowledge already.
 
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