Best Practices of Dave Elman

Title: Best Practices of Dave Elman
Author: The Dave Elman Institute of Hypnosis (Donald Patterson and Colonel Larry Elman)
Format: 4-DVD set
Source: http://daveelmancollection.com/
Price: $179.95
Rating: Good

Let's face it—-live hypnosis trainings are just plain fun. I'd love to have the money to run around and train in person from all the best teachers and hypnotists out there. It's not a matter of doubting my own abilities—-I don't—-but simply that every workshop has some fascinating nuance.

And I'd love to travel back in time to train with such greats as Elman, Erickson, McGill, Esdaile, Braid, and Boyne. Who wouldn't?

Well, the next best thing to actually attending live training is watching a good video recorded at a live training. Of course, you don't get the chance to immediately practice or receive individual coaching, but for me the worst part is that you don't get to volunteer. In fact, when I was watching Don Patterson's Best Practices of Dave Elman videos, I was rather jealous of the volunteers and had to work hard to keep from trancing out every time there was a demonstration.

The product is a four DVD set—-really three with a Bonus Disk—-created by Don Patterson (also known as Sean Michael Andrews, the world's fastest URL registrant) along with Colonel Larry Elman, son of the famous Dave Elman. In addition to the seminar video, each disk starts with footage from an interview with the colonel—-interesting stuff, though the Windows Movie Maker old-timey film effect wears thin pretty quickly. That effect, along with a few audio drops, is really my only technical complaint about the product. Past experience has shown me that if the flaws were serious enough to warrant asking for replacements or refunds, Patterson would make sure I was satisfied; his integrity always comes through in his customer service.

While Patterson's previous videos with Colonel Elman focused just on the famous Elman Induction, this workshop really covered the gamut of techniques discussed in Elman's Hypnotherapy and in his classes, including waking hypnosis, pain management, techniques for children, how to induce and deepen trance, how to break the hypnotic seal, how to perform regression-to-cause hypnotherapy, how to handle a "hypnotic hangover," how to induce the Esdaile state, and how to bring people out when they appear "stuck" in the Esdaile state. The demonstration of the hypnotic seal and how to break it was particularly fun to watch, even though it saddens me that we have to address that issue in this day and age. The material on deepening and even the chance utilization of the airplane taking off were simply great.

If I have any complaints about the mostly excellent instruction, they are very slight: There's some unnecessary scorn expressed for Progressive Muscle Relaxation and for Ericksonian language. Likewise, there's an important element of the Elman Induction that Patterson, otherwise the best teacher of the induction around, always seems to leave out, and that's the use of expectancy. The induction is not merely a series of steps, but at every step, the hypnotist says, "This is what I'll do, and this is how you'll react," before he does the step. Also, I'd love it if the only time I heard the term "hypnotic coma" was in the sentences beginning, "The misnomer 'hypnotic coma,' properly termed the Esdaile state, refers to . . . " It's a misleading and inaccurate term we should do our best to stamp out.

Overall, though, there's a lot of great material covered, and the experience is enhanced by commentary from Larry Elman. It's fascinating to see him demonstrate an "antique" version of the Elman Induction and discuss the evolution of his father's techniques from stage to medical classroom. Likewise, I enjoyed hearing him credit his mother, an oft-overlooked figure in the male-dominated history of hypnosis, with the idea for the Esdaile technique.

On the other hand, there was a bit of a disconnect between Patterson's teaching and some of the colonel's comments. For example, on disk one, Patterson uses the word "push" when he tells a trancer to "push" the numbers out of her head. When a student copies Patterson's language, Larry Elman critiques her use of that word, suggesting it's not a good choice. Then later in the video, Patterson uses the term again; I suspect it's a part of the patter that he uses automatically. Mind you, I don't think it's that bad a usage, but it was interesting observing the tension there.

And that leads me to note another curious tension present in this training. By teaming up with the colonel, Patterson has bought the Elman franchise, in a manner of speaking, even going so far as to rename a portion of his business "The Dave Elman Institute of Hypnosis." (Founded 1949!) This is brilliant marketing, but at times I could see Patterson straining against the strictures of just teaching Elman's methods. He does comment that his out if a client doesn't lose the numbers is to go to one of his rapid inductions. At one point, Patterson demonstrates a twenty-second headache cure he learned from Norm Caldwell—-something totally outside of the Elman canon.

(As an aside, a transcript of that twenty-second technique would be awfully nice to have.)

All of this leads me to a more profound tension I see in the work of the Dave Elman Institute. Dave Elman's importance to hypnosis was not simply that he gave us some great techniques that we can pass along to other generations. His importance comes from his innovation, his willingness to adapt what he knew to a new setting, his ability to package hypnosis in a form that was useful to medical doctors, and his skill at letting hypnotic techniques evolve over time. Enshrining Elman's innovations seems to me counter to the spirit of his work. Like any great hypnotist, he produced ideas and methods that should be examined, learned, and then modified to become part of a hypnotist's repertoire.

Of course, this is what Patterson has done, and that's why I could detect a bit of struggling on his part to teach only Elman's methods. I doubt that any hypnotist today does things exactly as Elman did them, even though we are all influenced by his work. Perhaps Patterson should relax and accept that he can teach neo-Elmanian techniques while still honoring the great hypnotist.

So where does that leave us in regards to this product?

Despite a few mild reservations, I'm happy to recommend it. The videos are well made, thoroughly enjoyable, and very informative, definitely worth repeated watching and study. Hearing Colonel Elman's stories of his father is as close to time traveling back to one of Elman's classes in the fifties as we're going to get—and what hypnotist hasn't dreamed of doing that?

[Full disclosure: Patterson is a friend of mine, and he has sent me several videos for review. Nonetheless, I maintain that I am as objective as possible in reviewing his materials.]

The Phone Book by Zarro and Blum

Title: The Phone Book: Breakthrough Neurolinguistic Phone Skills for Profit and Enlightenment
Author: Richard A. Zarro and Peter Blum
Format: book
Source: http://www.soundsforhealing.com/Products.html#phonebook or Amazon (link below)
Price: varies
Rating: Excellent



When I requested that author Peter Blum send a copy of his 1989 classic The Phone Book for review, he graciously agreed, but added a caveat, which I will paraphrase: The book was written 22 years ago, with an intent "to counterbalance the overly wordy, academic, and intellectualized works that were out at that time explaining NLP." The author, looking back at it, explains that some parts strike him as childish and possibly condescending, and he adds, a bit apologetically, that he hopes he has learned some humility since then.

Well, primed as I was to read a book I wouldn't like, I have to say that I detected none of that condescension or arrogance. It just goes to show that even a long-time NLPer like Blum is still his own worst critic, drawing up a map that is far more dire than the actual territory. There's a lesson in that for all of us, I think.

Anyway, on to the review:

Cleverly titled, The Phone Book is written in the form of a novel, wisely employing the Ericksonian technique of encapsulating information in a narrative format. Our hero, Bob O'Ryan, is a former liberal arts major turned struggling salesman who simply detests cold calling and virtually any other use of the telephone. By a stroke of luck, Bob meets John Deltone, a highly capable salesman and communication expert who takes Bob under his wing, helping him re-discover the magic of the telephone.

Admittedly, it's not the Great American Novel, but it is engaging enough to avoid the trap of being dry and academic. More importantly, it cuts to the quick, briefly but effectively teaching a number of basic NLP concepts: reframing, the meta model, submodalities, and anchoring peak performance, to name a few. One particularly good part of the book describes the three primary representational systems in catchy terms: the eye-phoner, the ear-phoner, and the feel-phoner. Each one even comes with a caricature, for the visual learners—um, I mean, eye-phoners—in the readership.

During a visit with an extremely Ericksonian hypnotist, the main character even learns to look at the phone as a metaphor for our spiritual connection to the Divine, thus tying sales and spirituality together in a neat package. (As an aside, I want to thank the authors for helping re-frame hypnosis in the public eye.)

Of course, one problem with presenting information in a narrative format is that it can be difficult to review, but the authors cleverly took that into account: Protagonist Bob O'Ryan keeps a set of "phone notes" that are conveniently shared at the end of each chapter. I find that placing the book near my toilet for a quick glance through a few phone notes is a great way to internalize the information.

(By the way, readers should know that mentioning that I keep a book in my bathroom is possibly the highest praise I can give it.)

Is there anything to complain about in The Phone Book? Perhaps it's a bit dated, considering how much communication technology, the book's central metaphor, has changed over the last 22 years. That said, the basic ideas still apply even with today's technology. I found myself using them to great effect in a business email just yesterday.

While The Phone Book may not contain much that is new to someone thoroughly steeped in NLP, it is definitely a work I would recommend to anyone new to the subject, and especially anyone going into sales. In fact, I did recommend it to my nephew for just that purpose.

Many thanks to my online friend Michael Ellner for recommending The Phone Book to me.

Inductions and Deepeners by Richard K. Nongard

Title: Inductions and Deepeners: Styles & Approaches for Effective Hypnosis
Author: Richard K. Nongard
Format: book
Source: www.amazon.com
Price: $22.45
Rating: mixed

Disclaimer: Richard Nongard is a friend of mine, and his magnanimous advice and encouragement has made him one of the hypnotists I truly admire. Of course, as a reviewer, I have to set that aside and approach every work I review with a critical eye. I feel that I have successfully done that in this case, and I hope my readers will agree that I am unbiased by the end of this review.


As I've stated other times, I'm a bit of an induction collector. There are thousands of varied ways to induce trance, and I love looking at as many as I can, partly so that I can take them apart and figure out what makes them tick. So when I was attending Nongard's two-day basic hypnosis course and he offered me a couple of books to review, I was delighted that Inductions and Deepeners was one of them.

As an aside, I should mention that I thought Nongard's basic course was excellent. It was aimed at counselors and other health-care professionals who need CEUs. In two days, he took them through the basics of intake, pretalk, induction, deepeners, suggestions, and returns, in addition to addressing safety and professionalism issues. The course was very well put-together. When discussing it with Nongard, he mentioned that many instructors want to impress their fellow hypnotists, so they teach lots of fancy inductions instead of serving their students with good, solid, simple inductions. He certainly does a good job in his course of providing counselors with exactly what they need to start helping their clients with hypnosis.

But back to the review at hand. When viewed as an adjunct or extension of Nongard's basic course, the book shines, serving well to expand on the induction and deepeners he teaches his basic students. The techniques are simple and easy to use, making this an ideal book for that niche: counselors who are going to learn enough about hypnosis to use it as a tool while counseling, but who are not necessarily interested in devoting their lives to being hypnotists.

That said, for a dedicated professional hypnotist, the book left me disappointed. All of the inductions are in pretty much the same vein: a combination of progressive muscle relaxation, eye fixation, and visualization. Now there's nothing wrong with those approaches, and I have to admit that they are probably the best ones for counselors and therapists to use. But in terms of a book on the art of induction, the range seems very narrow.

The same problem occurs with the deepeners. They're pretty much all variations of counting down and fractionation. Before I was done, I kept having the feeling that I'd read the same passage more than once. Even the addition of the "reverse hypnosis" script—in which the trancer keeps his or her eyes open while imagining going up—does not present a radical departure from the rest of the book, educational as it may be to the novice hypnotist.

I was similarly disappointed to find little discussion of why the techniques work. Again, this may be simply a matter of me not being the ideal reader for this work.

All in all, if I'm right about the intended audience and purpose of this book, then I can certainly recommend it to those who attend Nongard's basic and advanced training courses, or for therapists who want simple methods for incorporating hypnosis into their practices. Those readers will definitely benefit, and their money will be well spent.

Nicotine: The Drug that Never Was by Chris Holmes

Title: Nicotine: The Drug that Never Was (Volume I: The Biggest Medical Mistake of the 20th Century)
Author: Chris Holmes
Format: Book
Source: Amazon.com
Price: $36
Rating: Good


Most hypnotists work with smokers at some point, and even those that don't will still field a lot of questions about smoking cessation. I've found in my own practice that no matter what I advertise, I get smokers calling me to ask if I can make them quit. In short, the nature of cigarette smoking is something every hypnotist spends some time thinking about.

British hypnotherapist Chris Holmes spent so much time thinking about it that he wrote a book, in two volumes, about the subject. Not surprisingly, he finds grounds to disagree with a lot of what the establishment has told us about nicotine and cigarette smoking. While I can pick a number of nits with his book, overall I have to say that Holmes' views make good sense and are presented in an enjoyable format.

Nicotine: The Drug that Never Was (Volume I: The Biggest Medical Mistake of the 20th Century) presents a rollicking look at why hypnotherapy works when Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) doesn't. The title is slightly misleading—the book is as much about hypnosis as it is about nicotine. A glance at the cover of the book (all black with a skull and crossbones above the title) leads the reader to expect an investigative expose, rife with uncovered details of how nicotine came to be regarded as an addictive drug rather than a deadly poison.

If you are expecting an investigative work, the book falls short. Though some studies are noted, especially in the later chapters, Holmes' work is not primarily investigative. He does restate his arguments a number of times without presenting new evidence, a technique that reminds me a bit of simply repeating a suggestion enough times that the unconscious mind accepts it—a fine technique for hypnotherapy, but a little bit annoying in a book.

Ultimately, the work is aimed more at potential clients than at hypnotherapists. In one sense, it's an expanded pre-talk. It makes the argument that hypnosis is the best tool for smoking cessation, but it doesn't provide a working hypnotist with much specific information on how to do a good smoking session for a client. I'm not criticizing; I just want to be sure that my readers (mostly hypnotists) know what they're getting.

Before I discuss the numerous good points about Nicotine: The Drug that Never Was, I'd like to briefly address a few flaws.

First off, there are several contradictions in argument. The author claims that the success of NRT in clinical trials was the result of the widespread myth of nicotine addiction, yet he also claims that the myth arose alongside the use and marketing of NRT. That timeline doesn't work; if the myth is part of the marketing, then the myth couldn't have influenced the initial trials involving NRT. Similarly, he insists that smokers don't actually know the effects of nicotine, which may well be true. But he then argues that smokers in patch trials must have recognized the presence of nicotine, thus enhancing the placebo effect and invalidating the results. Either smokers know the effects of nicotine or they don't—you can't have it both ways.

That said, most of Holmes' arguments stand up to scrutiny. More on that later.

There are a few other points I didn't like, but only a few. For instance, in his explanation of hypnosis, the author is somewhat derisive of stage hypnotists, though he stops short of calling for total condemnation and legislation to ban performance hypnosis. As readers of my blog already know, I believe performance and clinical hypnotists can work together for mutual benefit. I don't believe in deriding one to bolster the other.

Likewise, Holmes' attacks on the accuracy of animal testing of NRT are marred by his rants on the immorality of the same, undermining his argument. Finally, he makes some unsubstantiated claims that NRT producers funded the trials of NRT, thus biasing the results. While that may be true, speculation without evidence again undermines the author's otherwise convincing arguments.

Those criticisms aside, the book is otherwise quite good. It is built around clear, simple, common-sense arguments about the nature of nicotine. For example, Holmes debunks the idea that smokers enjoy nicotine; if that were the case, he argues, teens would be sneaking nicotine gum to each other, and smokers on airplanes would gladly wear the patch so as to enjoy transatlantic flights. I'd give more examples, but I'm sure the author would like it if you read his book to learn more.

Holmes provides "Case Mysteries" as interludes between his chapters, and these are highly entertaining and illuminating. Filled with anecdotes about quirky clients and unusual cases, the interludes do a lot to spice up the book, especially for the hypnotists amongst the readers. One such interlude de-constructs the work of Allen Carr, a British smoking cessation guru. By the time Holmes is done with Carr, there is not much left; it's a great read that made me laugh out loud.

The book is self-published, but relatively free of the numerous typos and grammatical errors that plague many self-published tomes on hypnosis. The author might have benefitted a bit from working with a professional editor, if only to rein him in now and then. Holmes comments that his wife took on the job of telling him when to stop trying to be funny. While I do believe humor has great value, and I did guffaw a number of times while reading, there were other times when I wish that Mrs. Holmes had been more strenuous in her duties.

I especially enjoyed this book's discussion of hypnosis and the subconscious mind. Holmes compares talking to the conscious mind to effect change as being like trying to persuade the receptionist of a major corporation to make a company-wide policy decision. The subconscious, he explains, is truly the CEO. That's a brilliant comparison I now use with my own clients.

Overall, I can point out a number of minor flaws in Nicotine, but in the end, the arguments make sense. Just as importantly, they are presented in an entertaining and insightful way, making this book useful to hypnotists and those who would like to stop smoking. I'd like to check out Volume II when I get a chance.

Medical Meditation by Richard Nongard, Ph.D.

Title: Medical Meditation
Author: Richard Nongard, PhD
Format: Book
Source: www.subliminalscience.com
Price: $14.95
Rating: Excellent

[Full Disclosure: Richard Nongard is a friend of mine who has provided a great deal of advice and encouragement. He gave me a complimentary copy of Medical Meditation to review, fully aware that I might give it a bad review despite our friendship. So what follows is my unbiased opinion.]

Regular readers of my hypnosis reviews blog might wonder why I'm reviewing a book about meditation. Well, the reason is simple. As the author explains on page 3, meditation and self-hypnosis are sister arts; indeed, for his purposes, the terms are interchangeable. Kudos for calling a spade a spade.

At first glance, Medical Meditation might seem like a slim offering in the world of mind-body medicine. How much can an author teach in just 74 pages?

Quite a lot, as it turns out.

Dr. Nongard has a talent for stripping a topic down to its barest essentials and then teaching it in simple baby steps, and that's exactly what he does in this volume that is conveniently light enough for even the weakest of invalids to hold.

Though the book lists a number of applications for medical meditation, the text mostly focusses on chronic pain, cancer recovery, and meditation for pre- and post-surgery. This makes sense, as these are the areas with which the author or close associates have first-hand knowledge. Though the work is aimed primarily at patients with no prior knowledge of mind-body medicine, it's a good read for hypnotists; I can envision building an entire series of workshops around these methods for my local cancer center.

The book carefully guides non-meditators through the steps of deep breathing, mindfulness, progressive muscle relaxation, visualization, and autogenic training, first with simple, brief exercises, and later with expansions on each. Along with a brief chapter on lifestyle changes for the chronically ill, these simple but powerful techniques make up the core of the book.

The instructions for basic autogenic training are especially exciting, as information on that topic is surprisingly rare. The author has also created a five-week autogenic course that is available on DVD; perhaps I will review that at some point.

Best of all, Dr. Nongard explains and teaches meditation in a way that is free from all metaphysical trappings—other than a brief statement that positive belief really does foster positive outcomes in ways that defy explanation—thus making meditation accessible to anyone who needs it, despite religious background. For those who fear that meditation is about chanting with gurus, living in communes, eating vegetarian, and seeking enlightenment, this book is a welcome breath of fresh air. A deep abdominal breath, at that.

Can I complain about the book? Not much. I do have a pet peeve for typos, and the text is mostly free of them. There is, however, one typo of a sort I see over and over in the writing of hypnotists. How many times have I seen the words "breath" and "breathe" mixed up? Usually it's "breath deeply." That error sets my teeth on edge.

Well, the good news is that the typo only appears once in Medical Meditation. The bad news is that it appears in a very prominent, all-bold section title. Ouch.

Otherwise, though, I really can't complain about Medical Meditation. It's a practical guide, light enough in the hand that even the bedridden can use it, and light enough on the wallet that anyone can afford to give it as a gift. I wouldn't be surprised if some doctors kept a stack to hand out one to every patient. There are even some affordable recordings available to support the exercises in the book.

All in all, a deceptively simple text—like the practice of "doing nothing" for a while each day, it has a value far beyond what is apparent at first glance. I'm tempted to give it to a friendly doctor, but I think I'll be keeping it for myself.

Inducing the Trance by Sean Michael Andrews

Title: Inducing the Trance
Author: Sean Michael Andrews
Format: video
Source: Amazon
Price: $79.95
Rating: Good

More and more people are eager to learn hypnosis these days, and Sean Michael Andrews is meeting that need with high-quality, affordable video instruction.

In Inducing the Trance, Andrews explains and demonstrates fifteen different inductions as well as providing a few details about deepening, a simple approach to handling abreactions, and of course instructions on how to emerge someone from trance. As an added bonus for the male viewers, he manages to have an attractive woman on the screen at all times, proving either that he's a marketing genius or that hypnosis really does enhance a man's charisma.

Though designed primarily for the aspiring hypnotists, this video is enjoyable and even informative for the more seasoned practitioner. Even though I've been studying and using hypnosis for years, I found some of Sean's subtler tips to be quite valuable, and I think that a new hypnotist could certainly learn volumes from this concise but well-made video.

The range of material is impressive. Besides some of the instant inductions Sean Michael Andrews is famous for, he also demonstrates how to do a progressive muscle relaxation induction, an ambiguous touch induction, and the cockroach-on-the-bar induction—he even demonstrates the stereotypical watch-swinging induction that is used so rarely today. Each induction is clearly explained and demonstrated. When necessary, Andrews stops the demo recording to provide commentary or plays the demonstration in slow motion to point out tiny but important details. The man makes learning easy!

Do I have any complaints about Inducing the Trance? A few--none serious, but worth noting as this is a review after all.

Despite the overall high production values, I found the volume to be uneven. I had to adjust it several times during the viewing. Andrews is rather dismissive of progressive muscle relaxation--not surprising for someone who bills himself as "The World's Fastest Hypnotist"--which I feel has a place in the hypnotic repertoire. (Admittedly, its proper place is not quite as prominent as many hypnotists have made it in the past.) He classifies the Bandler Handshake Interrupt as a confusion induction rather than as a pattern-interrupt. While that's not entirely a misnomer, as pattern-interruption is a sub-category of confusion, I feel the two categories are more useful if kept discrete.

Perhaps my biggest disappointment is that Andrews turns the Elman 3-Handshake Induction into a pattern-interrupt and shock induction. Of course, in practice, there's nothing wrong with that, but it misses the point. Elman taught that induction to illustrate the power of pure expectancy to his students. Andrews does his own students a disservice when he fails to pass on that lesson.

Despite the minor nits I've picked here, I still have to say that a learning hypnotist can hardly go wrong with this video. If you're considering a present for the new hypnotist in your life, this is the one to get. If you're more experienced, you can still pick up some great pointers and expand your repertoire by watching this video from a master.

Reality is Plastic by Anthony Jacquin

Title: Reality is Plastic
Author: Anthony Jacquin
Format: book and video
Source: www.vegasstagehypnosis.com (video no longer available)
Price: $69 ($39.95 for book only)
Rating: Good

Reality is Plastic is a book with a companion video (sold separately). Taken together, the two present a great introduction to "impromptu hypnosis"—Jacquin's more accurate term for what is often called "street hypnosis" or "speed trance."

The video is a particularly engaging piece of instruction. Apparently recognizing that high production values were out of his reach, Jacquin has made the video artfully low-budget: oddly lit, black and white, with static-filled transitions, as though it were created in a post-apocalyptic underground bunker. As he leans a little too close to the camera, I almost expect Jacquin to say, "I am John Connor, and if you are watching this, you are the resistance."

Instead, he opens the video with something equally as striking, showing his natural performer's flair for the dramatic:

"I am Anthony Jacquin, and I am The Hypnotist." He then leans forward almost menacingly, getting right up to that camera. "And that's the first thing you've got to learn."

Indeed, the most important lesson in the book is about taking on the persona of The Hypnotist. (Jacquin capitalizes the term every time for emphasis.) It's clear watching him that The Hypnotist is a persona he takes on, and takes on perfectly. In fact, he's so wry and unsmiling that his occasional humor is powerfully hilarious.

Unlike some authoritarian hypnotists who have bought into their own hype, Jacquin seems to simply recognize the benefits of using public expectation about hypnosis by stepping into the role of The Hypnotist. But like any good actor, he makes the role his, adapting it to suit his purposes.

In fact, it could be argued that by utilizing the popular conception of hypnosis, Jacquin's authoritarian moments are Ericksonian in origin. I try not to think about that too much; it makes me dizzy.

All paradoxes aside, it is a joy to see a book about hypnosis that cites Elman and McGill as readily as it cites Erickson and Rossi, and I have to say that Jacquin's style easily synthesizes the two different approaches to hypnosis. His interactions shift from permissive to authoritarian so subtly that there's no clear dividing line.

The book contains quite a bit of explanation that's not present in the videos, but even so it is relatively light on theory. This is nuts-and-bolts, working-class hypnotism. Jacquin's chapter on definitions of hypnosis touches on history while not getting bogged down repeating the same information we've seen in many other texts. Ultimately, the point of that chapter is that effectiveness is more important than theory. Though I would have liked a bit more explication of principles—for instance, Jacquin never points out the fractionation inherent to the structure of his interactions—I have to agree with his overall point: Theories come and go, so results matter more.

The real meat of both the book and the video consists of several "set pieces," a small number of inductions, and a few applications for entertainment and therapy. The "set pieces" are what others would call suggestibility tests, convincers, waking hypnosis, or even "hypno-tricks." While they are time-honored methods, Jacquin's brilliant execution of them is well worth studying.

The several inductions Jacquin presents were mostly new to me, which is refreshing. There are only a few, but Jacquin urges his readers to learn a small number of inductions and learn them well. His purpose is to warn new hypnotists not to waste their lives in a quest for what I call "The One True Induction"—the mythical induction that outstrips all others and works perfectly in every situation. While I agree that mistake is best avoided, I'm personally a bit of an induction collector; I believe that the more inductions you explore, the better your understanding of the principles behind them.

Then again, Jacquin does a great job of summing up an important principle that underlies all inductions: "An induction technique is a vehicle for your confidence, your persona, your intent to hypnotize."

To conclude, while I could argue here and there about minor theoretical points, there's no argument at all with Jacquin's clear and utilitarian presentation of the material. His prose is fluent and easy to grasp, even if a proofreader might have helped in a few spots. Though the language is very British at times, I had no problem sorting it out as an American reader.

I could complain that the video lacks footage of some of the more spectacular stunts described in the book, but I suspect there is a copyright issue at the heart of that.

Most surprising to me is that Jacquin changed my view of authoritarian techniques. Even his use of the term "subject" doesn't bother me the way it usually does. When Jacquin says it, he sounds not like he's a scientist referring to a lab rat, but more like a feudal lord referring to someone under his benevolent influence. He made me realize that taking charge is not all bad—so long as you don't believe your own advertising.

All in all, a very good product.

Post Script: After reading this review, Jacquin sent me a PDF entitled Reality is Plastic: Reloaded. It's fifty pages of additional material, new tips, clarifications, and trouble-shooting. And it's free to owners of Reality is Plastic, making the book an even better investment.