Customer Reviews

Ronning Guide to Modern Stage Hypnosis

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Geoffrey Ronning has written the book all others will be compared to. The field of Stage Hypnosis has not seen a book quite this good ever before. One part detailed instruction manual, one part exercise work book, and one part collection of secret tips and inside tricks learned from a lifetime of practice as a full-time performing Stage Hypnotist, this book is the modern classic on the art of Comedy Stage Hypnosis.

There are only a handful of good books on Stage Hypnosis. While Ormond McGill's books, such as The Art of Stage Hypnotism and The New Encyclopedia of Stage Hypnotism are classics to be admired, they aren't particularly useful for the individual who wants to quickly learn Stage Hypnosis and begin performing shows. Jonathan Chase's Deeper and Deeper is a very good book, but it is nowhere near as thorough or complete as this new work by Ronning.

Well written, comprehensive and filled with immediately actionable tools and exercises, Stage Hypnosis by Geoffrey Ronning would be the # 1 recommended book I would suggest to the individual wanting to learn Stage Hypnosis and get started performing shows quickly.

It's been said that you can't learn to ride a bike by reading a book. And that is certainly true. But you can learn a great deal about Stage Hypnosis from this excellent book. I would say it's much more than a book, it is a Training Manual. If you will diligently study and apply what Ronning teaches in this book, you will have enough knowledge to begin performing Stage Hypnosis shows. Then get out there and perform a few shows to earn enough money to take Ronning's live training. The live training will give you confidence you cannot get from a book.

Highly recommended.

This Book should be renamed `A Brief Introduction to Stage Hypnosis' because that is all it truly is, a Intro Book.

I was rereading the reviews on this book and felt that there needs to be a true balance with his work. I became interested in Hypnosis about a year ago and this is one of the first books that I bought, only because it was up there on the amazon list and had so many positive reviews. When I got it in the mail I was excited, I read through it with a pen and notebook but after a few days it ended up on the shelf where it remains. To be totally honest this book only introduced me to some minor concepts and terms, that as a beginner I didn't know, like `pre talk' and `inductions' but that is it, any serious student who is truly doing their homework and research into the subject matter will quickly see that it falls short on so many other issues.

The NLP stuff is superficial at best and can be found by scratching the surface of any NLP book. I was disappointed further with his book after studying "Hypnotherapy" by Dave Elman and realized that his EKG Induction is nothing but a rewritten work of Dave Elman's masterpiece.

Again any diligent student will see the difference between a book written by a man of Knowledge and Experience like Elman, Dr. Preston, Mcgill, Dr. Kappas and Boyne and one who is only trying to fill a hole in the market place with loose sand rather than firm concrete.

After reading many other Books on the history, theory, and practice of all forms of Hypnosis I likened Ronning to be like an old time wild west Snake Oil Salesman whose skilled pitch is better than his empty product.

I bought real full-length Stage Hypnosis Shows from other Hypnotist off the Internet and E bay. I spent hours breaking the shows down and learning from them and I cannot find one Geoff Ronning show to study. There is none on the internet nor at his website. A Real Teacher, a Real Artist will be proud of his work and his work will stand as his testimony, other people opinions is secondary to the original work.

In the beginning I spent a lot of my hard-earned money on his products. I have his EKG DVDs and his home study course and I examined them and dissected them and quickly moved on to higher learning stuff and found his products to be exactly only `intro stuff', no real meat and potatoes.

I would give his book 2 stars because His marketing advice is much better than his Hypnosis advice. By reading between the lines I could tell that he has more experience in marketing than in Hypnosis. This book is an Ok read but will eventually take up space in your library, it is not for the serious student.

This book is a vanity book. It is a self published compendium of the authors adventures as a stage hypnotist "somewhere in the United States". There are lots of pictures of happy smiling faces, but none of them help me to learn much about stage hypnosis. There are shots of Geoff on a cell phone, Geoff carrying a brief case, his wife sitting somewhere, etc. etc. There are dim and fuzzy shots that look like stock footage from a Billy Graham crusade... only you can't see Billy. There are references to a Mister Hypnosis. But Mr, Hypnosis is a guy named Richard Rumble who really is a stage hypnotist and who is all over youtube actually being one.

The book is very very basic, there is little technical "meat". The language or NLP section reminds one of those free ebooks you get when you give some guy your email address to get free stuff over the internet. The ebook is usually worth what you paid for it of course. There is a brief discussion of something called an EKG induction. Trust me it has nothing to do with the EKG depth of trance measurements guys like Tom Silver are known for. It is apparently a reworking of the concepts of famous Hypnotists (such as Erickson/Elman, etc.} that never did do stage hypnosis themselves. I'll leave you to figure out who the G stood for.

Sixty percent of the book is "by" the author. The other forty percent is by guest authors who recount different but similar adventures as stage hypnotists. It is somewhat entertaining if you don't mind wading through copies of page-count bulking email transcripts and such.

If this is Modern Stage Hypnosis, give me the old time stuff. To those interested in real stage hypnosis, I would recommend a book like "Sleep you Bastard" by Martin St. James. Martin is a true legend and his real adventures as a stage hypnotist make exciting and educational reading for laymen and hypnotist alike. Perhaps the Perennial "Encyclopedia of Stage Hypnosis" by Ormond McGill might be interesting to the more technically minded.. But please, spare me the marketing hype on Ronnings Guide to Modern Stage Hypnosis. Is it a surprise that the coauthors are also five-star giving reviewers... Give me a break.

I'll explain the bizarre nature of the title of this review in just a moment, but first, the book.

As far as books about Stage Hypnosis go, this has to be, without a doubt, one of the best and comprehensive ones I've come across. But it's important you understand exactly what this book is about; it may not be what you're looking for.

If you're simply searching for Hypnosis, there's a strong possibility that what you're really after are Induction scripts. And, if you've already got that under your belt, you're most likely looking for clever ideas once people are under. Yes, you'll find them both, tersely spread across about 15 pages in an otherwise thick book. But then again that's not really what this book is about.

This book is an excellent resource about performance: how to market yourself, how to handle a booking, how to build rapport with the audience, how to arrange your stage, how to select a sound system, how to deal with disruptive people, what to do if something goes wrong, and most importantly not to use a precanned script or static show. The author, correctly, emphasizes that learning hypnosis is the easy part, but to be entertaining requires you understand the bigger picture of what you're doing so well that you don't do rote memorization. That's what this book is all about, and it's filled with fantastic information about _that_ subject.

The only distraction I found was that the author comes across as loving the sound of his own name, and interjects it -everywhere-. And his wife's, Wendy. And the pages are punctuated with low resolution, bad quality photographs of the two of them on location. Perhaps this is the point, get your name out there, but if I had any complaint, it would be that I didn't have a nickel for every time the words Geoffery Ronning appeared on the page. Hence the title of this review.

What I wouldn't have given to have this book when I started out in stage hypnosis. There is no fluff, it's right to the point and gives you the true nuts and bolts of performing stage hypnosis. I know many people, myself included, jumped at the chance to pay a lot of money, take off work for a week, hop on a plane and travel to in my case Seattle, just to study under Geoffrey and Wendy Ronning. He absolutely didn't hold anything back and you get it all in the comfort of your own home for a ridiculously low price. My only complaint is that he didn't charge more money for the book to keep the curious away.

I really do love everything about this book, but the one subject I find to be priceless is what to do when no one gets hypnotized. I think it is the biggest fear of every beginning hypnotist. I know that it was mine. I still remember beginning to learn about stage hypnosis and literally going on a quest to discover a plan B when the show goes wrong. I E-mailed every hypnotist I could Google and only got one response. His solution was to bring some magic tricks along with you and if all else fails, turn your hypnosis show into a magic show. I didn't think a corporate client would find that very acceptable after they just flew me across the country when they could have just hired a magician instead. I remember traveling twelve hours to attend a hypnosis seminar from a noted stage hypnotist specifically to find out what to do when no one was hypnotized but still didn't get a satisfactory answer. I just couldn't believe that all these hypnotists got hired to do a show, just threw fate to the wind, and had absolutely no plan B to go with when things went wrong. And I don't care who you are. If you do anything enough times, eventually things will go wrong.

Geoffrey gives you a very detailed solution so you will never have to worry about what you are going to do if no one will volunteer, if no one gets hypnotized, or if none of the volunteers will respond to your suggestions and you have no show. Now you get a plan B that turns what could be a very awkward situation into a great show. I know first hand it's a solution that works because I have personally used this technique to save my reputation, and my dignity, and my show. As far as I am concerned, this information alone is priceless, as is everything else in the book. Run and get this book. I highly recommend it!

Okay, I'll tell you exactly what's in this book.

Geoffrey Ronning is a great hypnotist, that's why I decided to purchase his book... little did I know that 50% of this book didn't have anything to do with hypnosis...

CONS: I have the book with me right now: there are 385 pages and page 247 to 385 (138 pages!) talk about random guys that had Mr.Ronning as a teacher and that are now successful. ''Ohh look at me, I now make over 34 billion $ a minute thanks to Ronning! He's DA BEST BLABALBALA!! (I'm exaggerating, but you understand my point)''. I didn't buy this book to learn about other peoples success with hypnosis.. certainly not 138 pages of it! I bought this book to enhance my knowledge about hypnosis and maybe even learn how to perform it. Also, almost every few pages, Ronning will mention money: ''By using this method, you'll be able to have more bookings and make more profit!''.

There's only 1 pretalk script (it doesn't matter for the pre-talk, I'll tell you why after) and 1 induction script. The induction is the one he made up (and apparently with other people.. whatever): EKG rapid induction. Though it's just stupid that he would only teach us 1 method.. He doesn't even talk about instant or progressive because they're either ''boring'' (progressive) or ''too dangerous'' (instant).. which is not entirely true. He talks about how to set up a stage and where to put the microphone and the chairs ... which is ... not what I was looking for..

PROS: This book teaches you everything from the start. It's only good for people who are starting off. The pre-talk is very well explained. There's one pre-talk script (sadly, it was written for a large audience.. and like we're starting off.. we'd most likely start on a smaller group like our friends...), BUT he explains thoroughly how to CREATE your own pre-talk. I must say that I was able to make my own. So that's not a problem.

He also give you a good list of things you can put people under (skits) hypnosis. This book is only good to learn the basics of hypnosis but nothing more.

Basically this book is great for people like me who started looking at Youtube videos on hypnosis and thought it was cool and wanted to learn more. Keep in mind that if you have the slightest knowledge about hypnosis, this book is not for you, you really have to be a pure beginner. If you which to learn how to perform hypnosis, you're better off buying hypnosis DVDs or attend a course in your area.

I agree with the basic reviews above and will take a slightly different approach here. I will look at specific items that interested me as a stage hypnotist.

First, the EKG Induction...I wanted to see if this is the same induction I bought many years earlier. It is the same induction and is taught very well.

My experience with the EKG is it is a very, very good stage induction. In this book you get an induction that is either taught at his expensive seminars or you buy separate for a couple hundred bucks. It is an incredible value to have in a stage hypnotism book.

I was also interested in how he handled the two boogeymen of stage hypnotism...what do you do when no one volunteers for your show or no one gets hypnotized.

These are things you will run into eventually. They are far less common than you might think but still need to be prepared for.

His advice for getting volunteers is practical and time-tested. It won't work 100% of the time but it will work enough so that this doesn't become an issue. Once in a great while, maybe once every several years if you do shows, you won't get volunteers ( a little more often with image-conscious groups). With his strategies even these few times will be minimized.

So what do you do when no one goes into trance? Ronning gives four strategies that eliminate this as a concern for me.

I was also interested in skit development. This is a tough section as I haven't seen a writer or video that has satisfied me on this. An example...I recently watched a person demonstrate amnesia...he had the girl forget her name. He had a number of bits of business in his routine that may be standard to him but were new to me.

Here I would have liked to see more in the book. He lists a number of good routines. He does discuss development better than most anywhere I've seen so far but I was still hoping for more. Still, it is better than what else is out there so it is a step forward.

Ronning does do a wonderful job structuring a show though and suggests what skits could go in what show positions (first skit, second skit...) for good effect. This is very valuable advice for the person just starting out in stage.

I was also very interested in his claim that you can have as many bookings as you want in 21 days. He suggests a very bread-and-butter hypnotism market and how to approach it. The market is a good, proven market. Many successful hypnotists still work this market on a regular basis. I thought Ronning's treatment here good but a little glossed-over. My initial impression is there is a bit more to working this market than he examines.

However this is dealt with at the end of the book. Ronning has several guest writers just write about whatever they wanted to at the end of the book. Some of it is a bit rambling but overall this is a very nice section.

The gem is when Chris Frolic prints his posts of how he started in stage hypnotism with this entry-level market that Ronning suggests. This series of internet posts give an accurate feel for what this market is like. It completes what I thought was missing in the initial discussion of the market earlier in the book and I think prepares a new hypnotist to start as much as any book can.

I've seen a couple of Ronning's stage hypnotism courses on DVD and I can say that this book really covers much of the same material but for a fraction of the price. I really must agree with the other reviewers...this is a very, very good book on stage hypnotism.

In my opinion, this is the new standard and surpasses Ormond McGill's New Encyclopedia of Stage Hypnotism. Ronning's book is more modern, better instruction, and about half the price.

Different of others books of hypnosis. This book really explaine in details. A "how to do book".

There are many hypnosis books on the market today, some gems, but too many which read like school essays simply rehashing the same old fashioned information.

I am delighted to say the Ronning Guide To Modern Stage Hypnosis is very much one of these rare Gems.

The book is written in a punchy, fast paced and no BS manner which allows you to quickly learn exactly what you want to know.

Rather than just sticking to stage basics, Geoff Ronning teaches you hypnotic language skills and other exercises to allow you to hone your craft.

The exercises in the book after every section are essential for focusing on your goals and allowing you to better absorb and understand the material. These alone make this far more than just another stage hypnosis book.

Much to my surprise this book actually does give you all the tools to start from scratch and be a stage hypnotist - fully recommended.

Cheers

Nathan Thomas

[...]

This is the best book I have read on how to become a stage hypnotist. Not only does Ronning teach you how to hypnotize, he also covers a variety of problems a stage hypnotist may encounter. Using personal experiences of his own and testimonials from his students he thoroughly explains what is involved to become a successful stage hypnotist. The book is full of a variety of exercises to help you understand the concepts Ronning teaches. Most importantly, these teach you how to develop your own language for your show. You will learn how to put your personality into your show. Ronning claims you can become a stage hypnotist in 21 days. With this book that can become a reality. After all, the first person you hypnotize is yourself.