Bubbles the Happy Hypnotized Clown

I saw a bit where a hypnotist put a guy deeply under while at a tattoo parlor and then woke him some time later to reveal he'd had the poor guy's face tattooed. The image is one I'll not soon forget, as the hapless subject gaped into a mirror to see his entire face covered in the unwanted tat, cursing as the hypnotic showman laughed at his predicament. A video clip of this was up on YouTube, and one of the viewers leaving comments remarked that she had seen the entire program when it was broadcast, and that the tattoo was not permanent but actually done with temporary henna. (I still would have been pissed, as the average henna tattoo lasts for close to a month before fading. I looked it up.) While the whole gag pretty much infuriated me, and I felt that I would never do such a malicious thing to any subject of mine, it did give me an idea.

If a subject could be put under only to wake to find himself altered solely for shock value to induce rage, why not do something similar for fun and create the response of joy?

Enter Alec, my friend's son, and one of the best subject's it's been my joy to work with. Alec goes under very deeply and responds to suggestion brilliantly. In this instance, I had him go under quite deeply, and then pulled out a costume for him. As I brought him to his feet, sound asleep and deep in trance, he was completely unaware as he stepped into a pair of baggy plaid suspender pants, gigantic clown shoes, then pulled on a black T-shirt and white cotton gloves. I told him he was reliving a moment from his childhood when his mom helped dress him, and he just went through the motions, eyes closed and fully accepting as he unknowingly duded up like a circus clown.

Now, I had previously altered Alec's name hypnotically. He already accepted that his name was Bubbles the Happy Clown. Before even pulling out the costume, I had engaged the sharp and cheerful Alec in conversation and he spoke very easily about how his friends called him "B.C." for short and so on. Once in costume, seated comfortably on a chair in my studio, Bubbles sat entranced with eyes closed as I applied circus paint to his face, giving him a big red smile, blue accents under his eyes, black definition for his lips and even added a big red sponge rubber nose to top it all off.

I picked up a few tricks from some professional hypnotists I'd seen online and as I applied the face paint, I repeated softly to Bubbles, "You're sleeping peacefully, very relaxed, very comfortable." And the one I really liked- "You don't remember this, it never happened."

When Bubbles awoke some 15 minutes later, as far as he was concerned, no time had passed and no changes had taken place. In fact, when he stood before the full-length mirror in my studio, he saw his reflection as if he were still in his normal clothes and his face was as it had always been. But with a trigger word and a snap of my fingers, Ta-DAA! Bubbles could see himself completely as he was, a clown.

Here's the fun part: I had programmed Bubbles while he was under to feel a sense of joy and supreme happiness every time he saw his clown reflection in the mirror. Moving about in his brightly-colored costume and giant shoes, even just looking down at himself, would inspire a feeling of incredible, almost intoxicating joy. Bubbles LOVED it. In fact, one would think he was a bit full of himself given how he kept jumping in front of the mirror and smiling and laughing. Even after I gave him back his name of Alec, he wanted to remain a clown. The soft-spoken, outwardly reserved fellow that he was, he was now sold on looking like a sideshow act. It took some time, but reluctantly, Bubbles agreed to go back to the way he was. So I performed another trick.

I stood Alec in front of the mirror again (still smiling brightly), and put him back under. This time I had him step out of the clown costume to reveal his own clothes underneath, step back into his tennis shoes, and then carefully, with damp cloth and such, removed all his face paint. Then when I woke him up, THIS time Alec still saw himself as a clown. I had him hold up his hands, fingers ready to snap. I had him say, "Back to Alec!" then snap his fingers. ZING! As far as he was concerned, he had just instantaneously transformed back into the remarkable boy he always was. It was something to see the tall, gangly young man looking himself over, lifting his size twelve shoes from the floor, and checking his shirt to find them all restored, marveling at his "sudden" alteration.

We both had a wonderful time. It seemed to take ages for me to pull off, whereas for Alec/Bubbles, it wasn't nearly as long, but the smiles remained on both our faces long after we parted company. There's a lesson in all this, I suppose. If you see a powerful hypnotic suggestion or trick applied in a way that irritates or offends you, find a way to make it your own and change it to your liking rather than just fuss and fume about it. It's a lot more fun, and far more beneficial for both you and your subject. Just ask Bubbles. He freakin' loved it.

-Briz