It was put in place more than 70 years ago to protect citizens from the “dark arts”, but now an old-fashioned law banning hypnosis and hypnosis has been overturned by a comedy hypnotist, and he’s done it without putting anyone under him.
Robert Temple was due to present his show Red Raw, described as “improvisational comedy under the influence of hypnosis”, to an audience of hundreds at Bolton’s Albert Halls this Saturday.
But he discovered that his demonstration contravened the Hypnotism Act 1952, a historic law that banned public hypnosis without permission from local authorities; This law affects hypnosis, which makes a person “suggestible,” hypnosis, and similar actions that induce sleep or trance. or direction”.
While most councils repealed the law in later years or opted to grant perfunctory approval to hypnotists, Temple found that Bolton took the opposite approach: he prevented hypnosis by imposing a “blanket ban” on hypnosis in the 1980s. performing in town.
Temple said: “Most councils put a form on their website but Bolton didn’t have one so we got in touch to ask for it. “When they came back they said, ‘This is a general ban.'”
This meant that the only way Temple’s show could go ahead was if he appealed to the council’s licensing committee to have the law repealed entirely.
Temple, who has been performing for 20 years, said: “I’ve talked about my proposal and what I want them to do going forward, which is to give me permission, but as part of that, let’s look at the process right away, so that it’s not a one-off show that will never happen again, me and other hypnotists so we can continue working in the city.”
His four-page application was accepted Wednesday afternoon.
During the committee meeting, Labor councilor Sean Fielding tabled a motion to repeal what he described as the “rather old and arcane” rule.
Fielding said: “Hopefully we won’t have to meet again to consider hypnotic acts and we can rewrite the policy.”
Fellow Labor councilor Debbie Newall supported the motion. He said: “There’s something really interesting and old-fashioned about it, isn’t there, that in 1952 hypnotism – they also talk about hypnosis – were almost dark arts that had to be controlled and looked at very, very carefully. Whereas now hypnotism is really part of mainstream entertainment , isn’t it?
“So even though these kinds of laws have no place in modern life, there’s something – I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’m old – that’s nice to see these old-fashioned laws that we used to have. .”
Speaking after his historic victory, Sunderland’s Temple said: “It’s actually a big day for us. It seems like a really small, insignificant, weird little thing in the grand scheme of things, but yeah, it’s nice to see a 40-year-old rule overturned.
Temple’s show is “basically everything people might like about stand-up comedy, sketch comedy, and improv comedy; it’s all three types of comedy rolled into one, but the people on the show are just a group rather than a cast of professional actors.” “A group of random people from the audience who want to volunteer and explore their own imaginations on stage.”
As a child, whom he describes as a “weird, shy kid” who was not good at sports, he learned to perform magic tricks and eventually transitioned from magic show to stage hypnosis, performing it all over the world, including the West. Finish in London and Las Vegas.
“Touring is my favorite thing in the world,” he said. I want to bring this back to a mainstream audience like it was when I started doing it 20 years ago.
His show will tour towns and cities across the UK until the end of March.
What are the dangers of stage hypnosis?
While the public’s attitude towards hypnosis has become more positive, with the increasing use of hypnosis in healthcare, the number of people resorting to hypnosis is fewer than ever.
Most councils have no problem with stage hypnosis being practiced in their towns and cities as it is considered a fairly low-risk pastime.
In 1996, the government published a review involving psychology experts and hypnotists that called for the rules on hypnosis to be relaxed after it became clear that hypnosis was no riskier than other types of performance.
“For example, they’ve moved from saying ‘you need a million pounds of public liability insurance’ to ‘you need a decent amount of public liability insurance’,” Temple said.
The art form was not without controversy, however.
In 1998, 24-year-old Sharon Tabarn died hours after being hypnotized by a stage hypnotist in a bar in Lancashire. An inquest has found there is insufficient evidence to suggest that hypnosis played a role in the death of a healthy woman who died after choking on vomit in her sleep.
But his mother, Margaret Harper, unsuccessfully appealed to the attorney general for a second inquest into the death of Tabarn, who was brought out of his trance by the hypnotist’s suggestion that 10,000 volts of electricity be passed through his body.
Harper said her daughter had a “terrible fear of electricity” after being electrocuted as a child by being thrown across the room.
Temple said hypnosis should always be done by someone who knows what they are doing and was in favor of it being regulated.
“Hypnosis is only dangerous if it is used by the wrong people and in the wrong way,” he said. “I’m all for regulations and making sure people are insured and have been assessed for high risk and have some sort of training and know what they’re doing.”