The widely perceived notion of how hypnotic suggestibility works is skewed at best.

Much is wrongly gleaned from b-movies about authoritarian hypno-predators, where only a lone heroic subject with the strongest mind and most powerful will can resist. It is for this reason that many people are adamant that they “can’t” be hypnotised. In reality, it’s that they simply don’t want to. For some, it’s to prove that they’re different from the herd: stronger; unswayable; impenetrable. For others, it’s the (admittedly tempting) compulsion to make Paul McKenna look like a twat.

The misconception is that to be a good hypnotic subject, you have to be a weak-minded buffoon. In fact, the opposite is true. The best participants are educated, creative people who willingly comply with the hypnotist on the understanding that he or she is not the enemy, and that what they are about to experience will be pleasant and – often in the case of my own hypnotic subjects – sexually and emotionally ecstatic. Bear that in mind the next time you begin to slip down into the warmth of the trance – resistance is futile, but for different reasons that you might imagine.