Apart from being used to change behavioral patterns for the treatment of certain problems of patients, hypnosis has also been used for entertainment. When used in this form, it is called a hypnosis show. The effects of the trance in a hypnosis show only lasts as long as the performance is. There are no permanent effects.



The hypnotist while performing in front of an large audience need to choose his subject matter wisely. The choices he makes regarding his volunteer have to be picked with care. Normally, the hypnotist has to pick out volunteers to put under a trance and once under a trance, he can plant any suggestions into the mind of that particular person.

Like any other therapy, the hypnotist needs the total support of the person who is trying to put in to a hypnotic trance. It is a general norm that the hypnotist starts their shows by asking the audience to close their eyes and listen to what they are saying. This process is the most crucial one and is known as induction. This process will help him to find out the people who ate susceptible to his command and thus will in turn help him to choose his volunteers.

Those people who resistant to the hypnotist commands will be alert within the audiences. Based on this observations, these people will not be selected as volunteers. Only those who represent the willing participants will be selected as volunteers.

The actual stage performance of the hypnotist starts when he starts to call upon the volunteers on stage. There are certain techniques that the hypnotist uses to call upon the willing volunteers. One such trick is to arrange lesser number of chairs than the number of people actually required. This will help in creating a competition amongst the audience to participate in the show.

Once under a trance, the hypnotist can command the volunteers to do whatever he wishes with them. The volunteers will totally be under his command as if they are sleeping. He can make the volunteers think that they are intoxicated. Or he can also make them think that they are from another planet speaking an unknown language. The volunteers will actually starts speaking in an unknown language. However, once the show is over, they will awaken from the trance and will show no effects or have any recollection of what just happened.