The Day I Didn’t Get Hypnotized

By Rachel Belle

Listen to Rachel & Sean Attempt To Get Hypnotized

When I think about hypnosis, I think about the classic image of a pocket watch swinging from side to side in front of someone’s face while the hypnotist says “You’re getting verrrrrrry sleeeeeeepy…” Oh, and like most people, I think that I’d be really tough to hypnotize. So I decided to try it out with Ron Stubbs, a local hypnotist who does stage shows worldwide and teaches hypnotherapy at Evergreen Community College.

“Clinical hypnosis is the process of bypassing the critical faculty, or the anti-suggestive barrier, of the mind. In layman’s terms: your BS detector. That little part that kind of goes ‘Ehhhh, I don’t think so.’ That’s it. What I do is I keep the conscious mind occupied, over here, while I go in and play with the subconscious.”

Hypnosis doesn’t always mean a bunch of people on stage barking like dogs. Ron says we are naturally hypnotized daily.

“You go into hypnosis three or four hours a day, every single day of your life. If you were ever driving down the street, got somewhere and didn’t remember driving there, and you didn’t have a bottle of Jack Daniels between your legs, that’s hypnosis! Any time you zone out, watching TV, video gamers; they’re focused on something and everything else kind of disappears around them? That’s a form of hypnosis.”

To be hypnotized, you have to be willing to be hypnotized. Ron says he reads people and then uses the power of suggestion.

“A lot of people think hypnosis is sleep and it’s not. It’s actually a hyper state of awareness. You’re more alert. Being on stage with me, it’s kind of like having a couple of drinks and everything sounds like a good idea. Your inhibitions are down and it’s like ‘What the heck, why not?'”

He says you don’t actually have to be on stage to get hypnotized. You can sit in the audience, close your eyes and focus on what Ron’s saying.

“There is one lady who comes up to a casino I perform at twice a month. In six months she’s down 65 pounds, and she’s never been on stage with me.”

I asked Ron if he’s able to tell the fakers from people who are really under his spell.

“Always. Yes, once you learn to read the signs. There are certain things that the body will do that people have no control over and that’s what I look for.”

On and off-the-mic Sean and I settled down, in a quiet room, so that Ron could hypnotize us. First he gave us a bit of advice.

“I don’t want you to try. If you’ve never been hypnotized, a lot of people go ‘Oh, I’ll try really hard!’ Don’t try. The word ‘try’ actually means ‘fail’ to your subconscious mind. All you gotta do is nothing.”

Ron had us take a series of deep breaths, but despite the relaxing breathing, I was struck with a bad case of the giggles. Ron pushed on and slowly tried to put Sean and I into a trance. I wanted it to happen but I didn’t feel anything but relaxed. Ron does a move where he yanks your shoulder and you’re supposed to collapse forward, onto your lap. But since I wasn’t hypnotized, I didn’t collapse. No disrespect to Ron, who is a much loved stage hypnotist, but Sean and I continue to remain in the conscious realm.

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