Is hypnosis real? Or are hypnotised subjects just pleasing the hypnotist?

It's amazing how many people have told me (very matter of factly!) that there is no such thing as hypnosis. 

Usually, people say it's not real because it's one of the follow:

1. Some people think it's all acting.
2. Some people say it's placebo.
3. Some people think that a hypnotised subject is just 'trying to please the hypnotist'. 

I agree that all of these are a factor in many cases, but I also believe that hypnosis is definitely real. Here's why...

The first person I ever hypnotised

When I was 18, back in 1992, I was crazy about hypnosis. I studied it religiously but I was too scared to try it, and I wasn't even sure if I actually believed it. But I knew enough about hypnotic induction scripts to give it a go. So when my sister's friend Mark saw me reading a book on hypnosis and asked me if I would hypnotise him I decided it was time to find out once and for all if it really was real. 

I used a basic progressive relaxation induction and Mark seemed to be responding well.

To begin I gave him some really simple suggestions. The kind of stuff you might expect to see at a cheesy stage hypnosis show, and he did everything exactly as instructed. 

Of course, I had no way of knowing if it was really genuine or if he was just playing along. I actually started to feel like a bit of an idiot and expected him to suddenly start laughing at me, but he didn't. Instead, something amazing happened....

Something amazing happened that proved hypnosis is real!

I gave Mark the suggestion that he was getting colder and colder.

Almost immediately he started to shiver. He was wearing a short sleeved top so I could see his bare arms and within seconds all of the tiny hairs on his arms stood on end and he got goosebumps! 

I told Mark it was getting cold and he got Goosebumps!
For me this proved that hypnosis is real! 

WOW!!! I couldn't believe it. You can't fake goosebumps! This was the real deal. Mark was actually having a physical reaction to my suggestion. I was chuffed to bits!!!

Then I switched from cold to hot and the tiny hairs all lay back down and the goosebumps vanished immediately. 

He started breathing heavily and pulling at his top around his neck. His face flushed red and within seconds there were beads of sweat running down his face.

That moment was a turning point in my life. It was all the confirmation I needed that hypnosis is indeed real. You simply can't fake such physical reactions no matter how much you want to 'please the hypnotist'. 

Before that moment I'd been obsessed with hypnosis. I had studied everything I could get my hands on about the subject. I'd even volunteered for stage hypnotic shows to see if the hypnotist whispered secret instructions to me during the induction. But seeing Marks reaction kicked my obsession up to a whole new level. I became a hypnojunky! 

Within a year of that first induction experience I was doing stage hypnotic shows in pubs and clubs around my local town. I later ventured into hypnotherapy and ran a very successful clinic from my home and over time I refined my skills and started to teach others how to hypnotise. 

I've now taught over 25,000 people how to hypnotise. And I've developed a complete course on hypnosis that I give away for free from my website at https://freehypnosislessons.com