Matthew Stadlen interviews hypnotist Paul McKenna for Five Minutes with... . He speaks about his attitude to hypnosis, whether it made him feel powerful, his skill at having fun, and the ability of people to become more intelligent.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and note down the questions Matthew asks Paul McKenna.
Watch the video again and note down the main ides in Paul McKenna's answers.
The activity is suitable for intermediate 2 student.
Paul McKenna, five minutes. I’m going to ask you to count us down once I’ve put the battery in. Any views on the clock?
I think we should’ve gone with a watch, but, you know, it’s, it’s part of your character, isn’t it? Speaks a lot about you.
They wouldn’t help you with hypnosis.
I’m, I have difficulty swinging that.
Here we go, batteries going in. Here we are.
Five, four, three, two, one.
What do you think your biggest skill is?
Well, professionally, I think it’s my ability to help people change, improve, therapy. I mean really, I’d say I can cure most psychological problems and some physiological ones as well. Recently, a friend of mine who is a life coach, we were doing one of these processes at a seminar that we were working on together and we looked at things that you’re rubbish at, things that you’re okay about and then what’s the thing that you’re utterly brilliant at? Because everybody is brilliant at someone. One of the things that I listed was having fun and I actually really believe that I have a lot of fun, in fact, more fun than most, you know? And so I put that down as one of my skills.
How do you help people change?
Well, I do it through modern psychological techniques and indeed some, you know, old fashioned esoteric ones. I would use anything that works. I take a very mechanical view of it, so I look at the mind as similar to a computer and I’m helping somebody to reprogram that computer. But you know, I’m always learning; I’m always developing and learning from those people who are better than me.
And you use hypnosis?
Absolutely. Yeah, hypnosis is something I use a lot. I find it a very powerful tool for what it is I want to accomplish.
Can you summarise hypnosis very succinctly for me?
Well, there are many different schools of thought but I’m going to say it usually involves fixation of attention. It’s often synonymous with deep relaxation and imagination, and in this, some people think of it as a special state; some people don’t, but certainly in the procedure, it allows us to move beyond the limitations that we might normally have in our sort of conscious mindsets and see things from different perspectives; get access to resources that are unconscious. And so it’s a very, very powerful technique for really bringing out the best in us. All the things that we can achieve with hypnosis, I believe we can achieve in other ways but I particularly like it.
Can anyone become a hypnotist?
Yeah, absolutely. In fact, you know I think to some extent, you know, I look at the everyday hypnotists as sales people, cult leaders, politicians, even parents. The things parents say to their children, you know, particularly in the formative years, they have a power of a hypnotic suggestion, so you know, we’re all hypnotists in a sense.
How did you become a hypnotist?
I was working as a radio broadcaster and I went to interview the local hypnotist and I was very stressed that day and he said, “Look, I need to hypnotise you,” and I was open minded. I was into yoga and meditation. I felt very relaxed, quite euphoric afterwards; I borrowed some books from this guy and I began hypnotising my friends to help them lose weight and quit smoking, and it worked most of the time. Then I would be at a party and everyone would say, “Oh, turn someone into a ballerina,” or something like that and we’d fall about laughing. So I started doing shows where I got people to do daft things when they were hypnotised and at the same time, I was working with people one-to-one, helping them to improve their lives. And in the end, I decided really that was what I wanted to do and that’s what my life is dedicated to.
How long does it take you typically to hypnotise someone?
Well, it depends. I mean, the hypnotising isn’t really the important thing for me. That’s a tool. It’s what you then do with it. So it depends on the person; it depends on the skill of the operator. There’s so many variables. You know, I mean it doesn’t work every time for everything. In fact, we have a saying: anyone who says they’ve got a 100% success rate doesn’t have enough clients.
Does it make you feel powerful to be a hypnotist?
Yes, it can do. I suppose some people have that association, you know: men with goatee beards, black shirts buttoned up to the top, you know, all powerful but the modern view is that it gives you greater communication capabilities with somebody. And so I would say more important than power to me is the feeling of euphoria I get when I help somebody make a change, particularly if it’s been one that’s really dramatically impaired their life.
Have you been hypnotised?
Of course.
What’s it like? Can you describe it?
Yeah. For me, well, every trance is different but it’s very relaxing. It’s kind of like that moment just before you fall asleep at night, you know; you’re not really asleep, you’re not really awake; you’re in this lovely sort of dreamlike state. However, sometimes you can be, say, fixated on a television programme or a public speaker and you can lose your sense of time and everything around you and become totally engrossed in it. That’s equally as hypnotic.
You’ve written another self help book, I Can Make you Smarter. Can you really make people smarter?
Absolutely.
Ten seconds.
Yeah. Absolutely. Overwhelming scientific research says that we can all become smarter. It’s not just genetics; it’s environmental.
And that, Paul McKenna, is five minutes. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
