Bristol. Bristol hypnotist, Bristol hypnosis, Bristol hypnotherapy, Bristol stage hypnotist, Bristol psychological illusionist, Bristol CBT, Bristol NLP, Bristol well being, Bristol practitioner, Bristol office, Bristol personality, Venue, Bristol entertainment.
Over two decades I have repeatedly and consistently argued in the press and broadcast media that “hypnosis” as a “state” does not exist and that hypnotism is the art of creating the illusion of “hypnosis”. For example, in The Stage & Television Today in January 1995. Just as a magician creates the illusion of magic the hypnotist creates the illusion of "hypnosis". It is entertaining and can be instructive, but the "effects" are not to be taken literally. Few people really believe that magic is real. Unfortunately, a great many people still believe that “hypnosis” is real!
Before all of this my ambition had been to be an artist. Whilst engaged in various dead-end jobs from the mindless sink-pit of retail (photographic or otherwise) to gallery-guard, from cloakroom attendant to English teacher, I developed concepts in the theory of art which I had picked up before and during my time as a student of History of Art at De Montfort University (in those days, Leicester Polytechnic). I first had drawings published in 1976, painting exhibited in 1978 at Southampton museum of art. Then the beginning of work using Xerox machines shown at Winchester School of Art in 1979. In 1981 I was one of a dozen people short-listed by Tony Cragg to appear in a show at the Serpentine Gallery. But didn’t make the final six. In 1990 I put aside the art ambition to concentrate on hypnotism.
Come the new Millenium I decided to resurrect the art. From working with constructions documented using photography I progressed to my concept of “photo-constructions”. This grew out of the fact that I had been an amateur photographer since the early Eighties and during the nineties used the camera as an aid to my work as a fetish club promoter and then as a tool of portraiture as resident photographer at Bristol’s Comedy Box. The spin-off of these peripheral activities were two books: White Tights & Fetish Nights (ISBN 0-09550731-2-X) and Mirth Merchants (ISBN 0-9550731-3-8).
The latter of those titles contains some of my portraits of a wide range of today's comedy performers and writers, which include Al Murray, Alan Carr, Johnny Vegas, Stephen Merchant (The Office), Reg Hunter, Shazia Mirza, Stewart Lee (Jerry Springer The Opera), Richard Herring, Russel Howard, Mark Thomas, Dave Spikey, Dara O'Briain, Priorite a Gauche, Danny Bhoy, Rod Ghilbert, Kev Sutherland, Geoff Whiting (Mirth Control), Milton Jones, Earl Okin, Adam Hills, Will Smith, Die Klatterschenkenfettermaus, Waen Shepherd (Gary Le Strange) and many more.
As an aside, I might mention that my galleries of fetish images on Flickr took a quarter of a million hits and countless "favourites" in less than two years, before I deleted them. I no longer believe something so popular should be given away so freely!
In art, during this past decade I have shown solo at least once per year, somewhere every year and taken part in various group shows. I was short-listed in round one of Channel Fives “Big Art Challenge” but (thankfully) declined to accept the invitation to take it further. Who needs the snide comments of a reprobate like Brian Sewell when one can pick up plenty of them in the obloquy at the opening night of any two-bit photo-exhibition in Bristol.
So how does all this lead into a blog called "Bristol Hypnotist, Bristol "Hypnosis""?
Well, after years of concentrating on the art and only using hypnotism as an income, a task, at times a grind, I became aware that, though I may only be a foot-note in the history of hypnotism, an "also-ran" on the coat-tails of bigger names, I am virtually unknown on my own doorstep.
Putting my name into Google brings up tens of thousands of results globally. Putting the phrase "bristol hypnotist" brought back only one un-representative image and nothing more.
As I am without a doubt one of the most extensively experienced and definitely most knowledgeable hypnotists on the planet, it is irritating to find my local turf occupied by a shoal of minnows fit only for the shallows and their tiresome, trite guff aimed at the general punter, rooted in the perennial self-deception that is the scientifically long-discredited "lore of hypnosis".
In other words, its overdue that folks entering "bristol hypnotist" into Google can came up with some results from a practitioner who has a genuinely well-founded knowledge of the topic and been demonstrating decent technique since a time when most were still in diapers. I dont "do" "therapy" (or as Jeffry Masson famously calls it, "the rapey". I dont exploit peoples hopes or pretend that "hypnosis" can cure anything. I just tell it like it is, based upon almost a century of research by bona-fide psychologists at leading universities and having worked as a hypnotist with tens of thousands of people over the past two decades.
A little exercise to part with, for now. When reading Google results for "hypnotherapist" an "bristol hypnotist", notice how many hypnotists in Bristol link Bristol " hypnosis " and Bristol " hypnotherapy " with "CBT". Excuse my strange phrasing of that, its a bit of SEO. Given that Google prefers certain parts of the text this is one part in which I have to repeat relevant phrases. To whit: Bristol hypnotist, "Bristol hypnosis ", just the word hypnosis, or " hypnotherapy ", or hypnotist, quite apart from phrases such as "stage hypnotist", "hypnotherapy clinic", or "psychological illusionist". Now to continue: CBT is an unfortunate acronym which more worldly people are liable to misunderstand. However, as "Cognitive Behavioural Therapy" it refers to a genuine and sometimes effective behaviour-modification technique. However, when a "hypnotherapist" advertises their use of that technique, they in effect admit that the "hypno" part of the "therapy" is merely window-dressing. Any results they achieve are due to the CBT, a technique based solidly inthe hard research of Behaviourism, dating originally to our friend Pavlov and his dogs. It is at odds with the "eupsychian" image now being purveyed by most "hypnotherapists" because it is hard, scientific, being the product of a school in psychology, Behaviourism, which explicitly denied the existence of "the mind". It works. On the other hand, hypnotism makes good entertainment. "." !
Well, before I close I should throw in those SEO words again: Bristol, Bristol hypnotist, Bristol hypnosis, Bristol hypnotherapy, hypnotherapy clinic, Bristol stage hypnotist, Bristol vetertan hypnotist. Plus Somerset, Gloucestershire, Berkshire, Herefordshire, Devon, Buckinghamshire, among all counties, England, Britain, British, UK. International.
Well, before I close I should throw in those SEO words again: Bristol, Bristol hypnotist, Bristol hypnosis, Bristol hypnotherapy, hypnotherapy clinic, Bristol stage hypnotist, Bristol vetertan hypnotist. Plus Somerset, Gloucestershire, Berkshire, Herefordshire, Devon, Buckinghamshire, among all counties, England, Britain, British, UK. International.
