How to Put Someone into a Trance

The fastest way to put someone into a trance involves what's known as the handshake induction, where your volunteer inductee expects a certain set of circumstances to happen and becomes utterly baffled when something happens that they don't expect, thus paving the way for you to lure them into a true hypnotic trance.

The first step is to confidently make eye contact with your volunteer and say that you're pleased to meet them while extending your hand as if to shake it only to break the pattern at the last moment.

Than, while maintaining focused eye contact, you do some unexpected things such as:

Adjusting your cuff link

Grabbing them by the wrist and lifting their hand

Grabbing your ankle

Scratching your nose

As you do this, you need to play the part of falling into a trance and play it effectively. You do this simply by releasing your mind, letting it go blank and allowing your facial expressions to fall into a relaxed position. If you've practiced this enough to the point that the procedure is embedded in your unconscious mind, you will be convincing enough to cause your volunteer target to unknowingly follow your lead and slip out of consciousnesses almost instantaneously.

You then continue with the following dialogue: "I'm sorry. I understand what you must be thinking. You're completely out of it...we are all like that when this happens. Just relax, sleep. I appreciate that you're taking the time to think harder about it. It's like your unconscious mind is creating a trance for you to sleep through. Right now you're drifting, relaxing, and listening...breathing deeper as you go into this wonderful trance..."

At this point, the individual should be putty in your hands. You should be able to walk around them, adjust their clothing, and do other things without them having any awareness of it.

When you are ready to release your subject from their trance, just use a simple counting script such as: "when I count from 1 - 5 you will awake feeling refreshed, relaxed and alert. One, two - you're beginning to feel wide awake. 3 - 4 wide awake; five - you are wide awake, with your mind and body having returned to their normal state.

If you have mastered the art, the individual will have no memory of it. The best way to practice this is with a willing friend. You will probably fail terribly at first, but the more you practice your hypnotic voice, and the more routine it gets, you should eventually be able to place anyone into a hypnotic trance, if they agree to be your subject but are not knowledgeable of the tricks of your trade.

Source -

Easy Mentalism, By Darren Brown