Last updated: 16 December 2015
Check out the video above from the TV show “America’s Got Talent.”
On it a contestant, called Chris Jones, hypnotizes one of the judges as part of his act!
The video has been on YouTube for only a few days and will soon break 1 million views.
Chris is a confident hypnotist who gets a great reaction from the audience and does a superb job of using stage hypnosis techniques in a high-pressure situation.
If you’d like to be able to put anyone into a hypnotic trance like Chris can, then get started with the Instant Hypnotic Inductions DVD training program – you can get yours free here (just cover shipping).
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It seems that the Chris Jones video we posted recently has created quite a stir in the hypnosis community – and rightly so.
On the one hand we have a stage hypnosis performer who performed in a technically brilliant way. There is no doubt about it that Chris Jones is talented and a good Stage Hypnotist. He also clearly has an flair for drama – as was shown when he pulled the stunt with Howie Mandel.
This has raised two big issues in the hypnosis community:
1. Was it real?
2. Was it ethical?
Lets look at the first question first. Just looking at the whole scene, and taking into account Howie Mandel’s well known germ phobia, I’d say that nothing happened to suggest that this was not a real hypnotic effect. The use of a latex glove (a medical symbol) to “trick” Howie into shaking hands was very clever. If you look at Howie when he opens his eyes, he has that slightly distant look that can be very characteristic of someone emerging from trance – and is a hallmark of someone responding to a post hypnotic suggestion. Whether Chris did any “pre-show” work or not I honestly could not say. Either he did that to be sure (and of course left a post hypnotic amnesia for the drama) or he took a gamble and decided to go for it anyway.
This kind of gamble is not unheard of, by the way. Tony Robbins did the same on daytime TV when he boasted he could remove phobias in under 10mins. He was very successful, but has been quoted afterwards as saying that he was very lucky – he took a big gamble and it paid off. I suspect that Chris did the same thing here.
So Chris is a genuine hypnotist and he demonstrated the power of hypnosis in a very dramatic way.
The next question is: was it ethical?
Did he do hypnosis more harm than good?
Actually, believe it or not those two questions are, in my opinion, NOT the same.
First of all lets look at the ethics. I for one do not think that what Chris did was right in any way. He abused someone’s trust for the sake of a dramatic display. It is highly unprofessional to force someone to confront an issue they have not chosen to confront (taking aside some extreme cases where people’s lives might be endangered otherwise.) Howie has every right to be mad at Chris. He was taken advantage of.
This of course does send a bad message out there. It reinforces the “power of the hypnotist” stereotype. But unlike some people in the hypnosis community, I do not think that the harm from this performance outweighed the good.
Here’s why I say that: Howie was taken advantage of, and for him personally this might lead to greater harm (he will no doubt mistrust all hypnotists going forward!) But we have to look at the rest of he world (and at least America) and ask ourselves what THEY saw.
Yes they did see someone doing something “unbelievable” that they COULD NOT DO in their normal state of consciousness. But did they see the abuse? I don’t think that most people would think that far ahead. I suspect that more people have been INSPIRED by the power of hypnosis from watching this stunt than people have been turned off by the hypnotists abuse of his role.
Please let me emphasise – I do NOT think that Chris was right to do what he did. I think it was unethical in the same way that Stanely Milgram’s “Shock Experiments” (to test responses to authority figures) and Philip Zimbardo’s “Stanford Prison Experiment” were unethical. The fact that nobody was PHYSICALLY harmed is not very relevant. It is the psychological harm, the sense of being tricked into something and the POTENTIAL for someone to feel helpless because another human being took away their right to choose for themselves… these things are unethical.
And I think this is where Chris fell down. I don’t think he thought it all the way through. He probably stopped at the point where he realised it would be VERY dramatic (and it was!) and would likely get him into round 2 (which it did!) I don’t think he bothered to think through the follow up question: was it RIGHT!?!
So, was Chris right to do what he did? No I don’t think so.
But do I think he harmed the PUBLIC perception of hypnosis? Overall I’d say NO. If you want proof of this, look at how quickly the celebrity panel voted Chris in. They were amazed by what this meant. They did not stop to think how belittling this might have been for Howie, largely because they probably never took his germ phobia seriously either.
This stunt for me holds the same place as Milgram’s & Zimbardo’s experiments: it proves a very valuable point in a very dramatic way. It should never have been allowed (and in academic circles experiments like those two are no longer permitted) but now that it’s out there, it is definitely worth learning something from.
All the best,
i
I actually was hypnotized in one of his stage shows in Wisconsin…as part of the audience that was given the usual tests to see which people seem to be more suggestible… because I was on a cane…he told me to just remain in my seat…I had name amnesia…and was one who would have been a good participant on stage. Chris is funny…and confident. He is quite young and really kept the crowd going. He had many who didn’ t want to come on stage at first…but later some of the people in the audience…they ended up on stage…as they went into trance easily…and used that to his advantage. It was a couple hours of laughter and fun. He had one lady thinking she was the presidents wife… it was hilarious.
Hi Theresa! Thanks for sharing. Sounds like you had a really great time!
Crazy shit man. I love it
Thanks Anrol!
that was cool ,wish i could do that
Hi Thomas! Thanks for writing in. With practice, you can get better at hypnosis.
This incident is not being well received in the hypnosis world whether stage or therapy. This act was unethical and detrimental to the well being of the judge. The hypnotist did not have a therapeutic contract with the judge however used a diagnosed condition (without a referral from the judge’s therapist) to further his own career and create a “wow” factor.
The judge voiced his upset in subsequent interviews.
I know from one very prominent stage hypnotist that this was very bad for his business.
ethics…ethics…ethics….