Happy World Hypnotism Day (and a happy New Year to you too whilst we’re at it)! Yes, January the 4th is World Hypnotism Day. Now, you might be thinking ‘really? another “day” to celebrate something…’ but don’t worry, you don’t have to buy any gifts, send cards or even wish anyone a happy World Hypnotism Day (if you don’t want to). World Hypnotism Day is simply a time to appreciate all things hypnosis-related. Whether you think of hypnotism in terms of helping people with hypnotherapy or perhaps the ‘stage hypnosis’ side of things where hypnosis is used for entertainment, it’s undeniable that hypnotism is a fantastic skill that can help people to improve various aspects of their lives, as well as being used for a bit of light-hearted fun too!
According to ‘daysoftheyear.com’, World Hypnotism Day began in 2006 and was dedicated in the honour of Dr. Jack Gibson (1909-2005). Dr Gibson was an Irish hypnotherapist and surgeon, widely remembered for his advocacy of hypnosis as an alternative form of anaesthesia for use in surgery (instead of anaesthetic drugs). In fact, he is on record stating that he performed over 4,000+ operations using hypnotic anaesthesia as the only form of pain management! Pretty impressive, so you can see why he might have inspired World Hypnotism Day.
World Hypnotism Day was established with the sole purpose of dispelling the (many) myths surrounding hypnotism (which mostly exist thanks to Hollywood movies and popular literature). No matter how many hypnotists and hypnotherapists that are out there dispelling myths and misconceptions, people’s first ideas about what hypnosis is and how it works will often be from the media. As a student of hypnotism, it’s certainly worth learning early on about the myriad of hypnotic myths that are out there. If you’re new to the world of hypnotism, check out our blog on hypnotic myths and misconceptions.
How do you celebrate World Hypnotism Day? Well, as it’s a day dedicated to learning and sharing what we know about hypnosis, it’s a great opportunity to get out there and talk about hypnosis/hypnotherapy with people. By offering demonstrations of hypnotism, the general public can learn about what hypnosis is (and what it isn’t), as well as how they might benefit from hypnosis themselves. Word-of-mouth is a powerful tool, so if you’re out there talking to people about hypnosis, it’s likely that you’ll get lots of opportunities to use hypnosis and perhaps even pick up some clients along the way!
Some hypnotherapists like to provide ‘special offers’ for World Hypnotism Day, perhaps offering a number of discounted (or even free) sessions. Stage and street hypnotists can go out and hypnotise people for fun, demonstrating how hypnosis can be entertaining, whilst dispelling myths along the way. There are many opportunities to ‘celebrate’ World Hypnotism Day in your own way, and potentially in a way that can benefit your business as a hypnotist or hypnotherapist whilst having a bit of fun!
As World Hypnotism Day is all about learning and sharing hypnosis information, here are a whole bunch of links to useful blogs/videos that will help you on your way to learning all about hypnotism. Starting firstly with some information on the late Dr. Jack Gibson:
Interview with Dr. Jack Gibson [CLICK]
Dr. Jack Gibson video archives [CLICK]
Next, here is a link to the our YouTube channel, where you’ll find a whole bunch of videos on the topic of hypnotism. This is an invaluable resource for those people who’re looking to learn more about hypnosis and hypnotherapy and is added to frequently:
Hypnosis videos on YouTube [CLICK]
Here’s an example of the kind of videos you can expect:
Finally, here are the links to some amazing blog posts that will help you learn more about hypnosis:
How do you do hypnosis? [CLICK]
How does hypnotherapy work? [CLICK]
Hypnosis terminology explained [CLICK]
Hypnosis myths & misconceptions [CLICK]
Recommended hypnotherapy book list [CLICK]
Types of hypnotherapy training [CLICK]
How to test hypnotic suggestibility [CLICK]
Developing your hypnotic voice [CLICK]
How to find someone to practice hypnosis with [CLICK]
How to create good hypnotic suggestions [CLICK]
Conducting hypnosis research [CLICK]
That’s just a small selection of blog posts that we’ve written over the past couple of years. For a full list of our blogs, simply CLICK HERE.
So, we hope that you have a wonderful World Hypnotism Day and that this blog about it has been helpful to you. Now, go out and spread the word about all things hypnosis-related! If you have any more questions about hypnotism or anything else for that matter, do please get in touch, because we’re always happy to help!
– written by the HypnoTC team
