Although this trick is quite difficult to execute, I will explain it in great detail so that anyone can do it. It’s best suited for a one-on-one scenario where you want to demonstrate hypnosis to someone, or you can perform it on an individual person versus a group. If you’re having trouble with this trick, I recommend looking for some easier tricks to practice first.
This trick uses awake hypnosis. You will not put anyone into a trance and the person you are performing it on will be fully conscious at all times. In fact, that’s one of the things that makes this trick so great.
It works on this principle. Have you ever had a really bad headache that just wouldn’t go away? You would have noticed that the pain would often be intermittent. If you were paying attention to something else, you might even momentarily forget about the pain before it assaulted you again. It is a signal from the body to the brain that something is wrong and you experience it, consciously, as pain. Because we are able to intermittently perceive pain while focusing on other things, we can actually completely distract ourselves from the sensation of pain and make it go away. This trick makes the pain go away so completely that the person is left feeling numb. In the end you use it to numb people’s faces so they even have trouble speaking.
To start this trick, have the participant place their hand flat on a table. Make sure you sit next to them instead of facing them. Sitting across from each other puts you in an adversarial position and may cause the person to resist. Tell them to take a deep breath and then relax. Say something like, “The trick I’m about to show you is really cool, but in order for us to pull it off, I need you to listen carefully to what I’m saying. Can you do that for me?”
This does several things. First you frame the trick as “we” instead of you being the hypnotist and them being the subject. They are doing it together. Second, you establish that the trick is fun and cool. Third, you establish that it needs their participation to function correctly. You have already made them obey you by putting your hand on the table. You get them to comply with the request to take a deep breath. Now get them to acknowledge that they are going to comply by asking them your question “can you do that for me?”
Now it’s time to tell them a story, rich in metaphors, that subtly establishes the nature of the trick. Start talking about bread. Tell a story about a time when she was injured and how much it really hurt and how it relates to the pain that is only in the mind. This is a story I use from my childhood: “When I was a kid, I used to treat everything as an adventure. I was always running, climbing, jumping and rolling. One day I was with a friend exploring some rocks on the beach. My friend pointed out my hand and said ‘you’re bleeding’. I looked down and saw that my hand was covered in blood and had been bleeding for some time. Then the pain hit me. Just a cut, but I felt the pain go to the bone. Suddenly, it was so unbelievably painful that I started screaming and ran to find my mother. Isn’t it funny that I didn’t start to feel any pain until I saw that I was hurt?”
Now to the next step. There is a pressure point between the thumb bone and the rest of the palm. To find it, place your finger on the piece of skin between your thumb and forefinger and move it toward your wrist until you feel the bone. If you press on it, it will hurt more than if you press on it anywhere else. What you want to do is apply gentle pressure to that pressure point on the participant’s hand. Then ask, “can you feel that?” Wait for them to acknowledge it and say “isn’t it interesting the way we feel pain? At first there’s nothing there, then it’s like a sharp stab” – at this point press your finger into their hand a little harder – “And it’s like though the pain shoots through your whole body.” Then press even harder on their hand and ask “how does it feel?” they should say it hurts.Push down even harder one last time and then quickly withdraw your finger.
Now say, “Isn’t it interesting that even though my finger is gone, it still hurts? How, even though the pressure is gone, can you still feel the pain?” Drag the word pain as if it literally hurts to say it. Now place your hand on top of theirs and push down as if you were pushing air right into the place you were pressing with your finger. Now say, “Notice that the memory of the pain is so strong that even though my hand isn’t touching you, you can still feel it. It feels like I’m pressing on it again. Can you feel it?” Ask them the question and wait for them to say yes.
Now say “if pain were a color, I would think it would be black. I want you to imagine the pain as a black decomposition that gets stronger as my hand presses on it.” Then slowly press your hand down on that spot one more time, still hovering over it so it doesn’t touch it. Now say “and it’s interesting the way bread can be spread. How it starts in one place and just spreads.” When you say “spreading,” raise your hand and quickly spread your fingers apart, suggesting that the pain is spreading. Say “Can you imagine the black decay spreading out, like radiating from that point.” Then start moving your hand towards your wrist and say “you can feel it reaching towards your wrist”, then move it towards your fingers and say “you can feel it reaching towards your fingers”.
At this point, your participant should feel quite uncomfortable. We want to push this a bit further before offering any relief. He says, “And as it spreads, you can feel it getting blacker and blacker. You can feel the pain getting more and more intense.” Raise your hand a little bit and start pressing down as if you were pushing a heavy weight on them, “and as my hand pushes down harder and harder, you can feel the pain getting stronger and stronger.”
In NLP this is called creating a “loop”. We started talking about the pain, which created the loop. Then when you press your finger into their hand, it opens the loop and exposes them to pain. You keep the cycle going by implanting the suggestion that they can still feel the pain even though your finger is gone. You then anchor the pain to your hand by pressing down on the place that hurts. Then you anchor the pain to the color black and make them imagine that it is there. As you move your hand around theirs, that anchor still exists, so it makes them feel pain wherever your hand is. This makes them imagine that the blackness is spreading, reinforcing the pain. Make sure as you say the part “as my hand pushes down harder and harder you can feel the pain getting stronger” and really emphasize harder and harder plus stronger and STRONGER.
Your participant can at any time break the sensation of pain by breaking the loop. They just have to wave their hand, stand up, or even say “I don’t want to do this anymore.” That’s why it’s important to make sure you have a good relationship with the participant. Make sure they think this is “cool.” And make sure they feel safe.
At this point it is time to close the loop. Immediately after saying the words “louder and louder,” quickly raise your hand, snap your fingers, and tap them on the center of your forehead. This uses what is called a “pattern interrupt”. You interrupt the thought pattern the person is going through by doing something completely unexpected. You also make a loud clicking noise that wakes them up from the pain. He then provides them with the first real physical sensory input they have received since he was pressing on their pressure point. This shocks your system. It reminds them of what real pain feels like and completely distracts them from the artificial pain you were making them feel.
Use the moment when they are shocked and dazed by the interruption to implant a suggestion. Immediately after clicking and tapping them on the head you say “And so the pain is gone. It’s completely gone and there’s nothing left and you can’t feel the pain anymore…” then you pause briefly and almost like a afterthought you say “…in fact, you can’t feel anything anymore.” You let this thought settle for a moment and before they have time to process it properly, you start speaking again “it’s like all feeling has left your hand. It’s like your whole hand has gone numb.”
Important: Every time you say numb during the rest of this trick, always extend the last syllable. It’s like your mouth goes numb every time you say the word.
Now say “your hand is so numb that you couldn’t lift it even if you tried.” This subtly tells them not to try to raise their hand. But because they want to, they want to try if they really can, but you just told them not to, it reinforces the idea that their hand is numb. Pause for a moment and let the idea sink in your mind.
Now say “as you sit there, listening to the sound of my voice, your hand pressed to the table, completely numb and without feeling, can you imagine yourself trying to raise your hand. And the more and more you try to raise your hand the more and more numb it gets.” it goes back…until…it is completely devoid of feeling and has become completely numb. The first part of this statement contextualizes the last part. In fact, they are sitting there listening to you. Then you reinforce the suggestion you have been working on Saying “your hand hit the table” as if it were a fact, you could just as easily have said “the sky is blue” and your tone of voice would have been the same. When you ask them how it feels, it really drags the word “feel”.
They must say that their hand feels completely numb. Use two fingers to lift your hand by the wrist and lift it up. She must fall completely limp on the table as if she doesn’t feel anything. Ask “can you feel that?” and they should say no. Press on the top of your palm (one of the less sensational areas in your hand) and ask if you feel that and you should say no.
Now say “I want you to imagine the numbness slipping out of your hand” – at this point put your hand on top of theirs – “and imagine it slipping out into my hand. That the numbness slips out of your hand and going into mine” – now lift your hand from theirs – “and it’s all gone and you can move your hand”. They should be relieved when they raise their hand in the air and regain full sensation.
Now look them straight in the eye and don’t look away. They must be so impressed with what you’ve done that it’s hard for them to look away and look you directly in the eye. Now say “That feeling of numbness exists in my hand. Wherever it touches it will be like a paintbrush, painting numbness on your body. Wherever it touches it will go numb.” This time he really drags the word numb as if her whole face goes numb when he says it. Then take your hand and put it on his face. He touches his face as if you are lightly grabbing his jaw. Your thumb at one end of his jaw aligns your fingers at the other.
Now stand back and snap your fingers and say “and suddenly all feeling was gone from your face, mouth and jaw. Everything my hand touched went numb. And that feeling spreads rapidly across your face until you cannot feel nothing at all and You are completely numb. How do you feel? At this point, they should say numb as if they really are numb. It should sound like their entire faces are numb. It is usually accompanied by a look of surprise.
Now click your fingers and touch them once more to your forehead and say “and so the numbness is gone and all feeling is back in your face. You feel calm, refreshed and relieved. And you have come out of this knowing that pain is alone.” in the mind”.
As a conclusion I would like to point out that this trick is difficult. It may be a good idea to do this after you have already demonstrated hypnotic ability on the participant or someone else before them. And remember, practice makes perfect.