This Friday I am in Central London running a fully booked self-hypnosis seminar. Although I give all the delegates the opportunity to get some proof of how self-hypnosis can produce incredible results, it is great when they have ways of practicing their skills and responsiveness without practicing catalepsy, local anaesthesia and the like.

One such way I thought I’d share here today. Many street hypnotists and stage hypnotists use this process in inducing hypnosis and preparing people for hypnosis induction and I have seen Jon Chase, Anthony Jacquin and many others use this kind of process when hypnotising others – I thought I’d show how to use the same process to help develop your own self-hypnosis skills.

This is all about ‘magnetic palms.’

Before hypnosis was officially even called hypnosis, before it existed in the way we know it today, Mesmerists used to believe that there was an invisible magnetic energy that flowed through each and every one of us. Out of that era came a number of tests that are used today within the field of hypnosis and though they really have nothing to do with actual magnetism, they are really useful in developing hypnotic responsiveness, and tuning up self-hypnosis skills.

This process of ‘magnetic palms’ is very simple to do, you just hold your hands out in front of you with your palms facing each other, just 10-20 centimetres or so apart. The aim for you is to then use your imagination and self-hypnosis suggestions to get the hands to move together without actually closing them in a usual deliberate manner.

It won’t happen magically and there is not actually a Mesmeric ‘magnetic force’ pulling your hands in towards each other. Your muscles still do that for you. It is just that instead of you moving them in a voluntary, deliberate fashion as you usually would, you are now using your imagination and a number of different sensations instead of conscious control.

As with the vast majority of self-hypnosis skills, this requires some practice to help develop fluency and overall betterment of your self-hypnosis.

Firstly, on a physical level, if you position the hands 10-20 centimetres apart and have your arms relaxed and at ease, with your eyes fixed on the space in between them, gravity will help them to feel as if they are drawing in that direction.

If you run the hands together immediately prior to doing this, really rub them together fast and generate some heat in the palms, then the heat in the hands and the ‘energy’ created from that movement will enhance the physical tendency for them to feel as if they are drawing closer together anyway.

To really advance this in order to subsequently advance your self-hypnosis skills though, you need to engage your thoughts and imagination.

This can be done in a wide variety of ways, but I recommend you start by imagining that there is a magnetic force pulling your hands together. Imagine that you can feel it happening, as if it is a distinct sensation all of its own that is drawing the hands in. You might also say to yourself the words “my hands draw closer together with each breath I breathe” to advance the flavour of the action happening is response to your imagination.

For those that prefer something more visual, you might like to imagine the ‘magnetic force’ as a light or a colour that aids the process of drawing the hands in together. Or you may wish to imagine that string is tied around the hands and is being pulled tighter as the hands draw closer. You could imagine someone pressing the backs of the hands and they are getting closer… Basically, anything that you can imagine that would force the hands closer together, make it as vivid as you can and let the process happen.

Keep the remainder of you relaxed and be fascinated in the process, enjoy it and it’ll be much more effective as you will not be clouded with any unwanted feelings or thoughts.

I have written many times before about expectation and how powerful it is with hypnosis. The same is true here. If you expect the hands to move closer together, then they will. Be positive about it, really expect it to happen and engage your imagination as best as you can and you’ll start to develop your self-hypnosis skills for use in a wide variety of other ways.

Have fun!

For a full, evidence based approach to learning self-hypnosis and it’s many applications, grab a copy of my book The Science of Self-Hypnosis: The Evidence Based Way to Hypnotise Yourself.