What You Think Hypnosis Is… Isn’t Even Close
- Ryan DeJonghe
- Dec 1, 2025
- 5 min read
A hypnotist explains what really happens on stage, in private sessions, and in the unseen energy between people.
People think the most powerful part of hypnosis is what happens under the lights.
They imagine the moment someone on stage forgets their name, suddenly dances like they’ve never danced before, or laughs uncontrollably at the sound of a simple word. And yes — that’s fun. That’s playful. That’s entertaining. I love it.
But the truth?
The real magic of hypnosis doesn’t happen on stage. It happens in the quiet. In offices, living rooms, Zoom calls… And sometimes, in the final moments of a life.
I know this because I’ve lived on both sides of that experience — as a hypnotist, a former comedian, a former preacher, a Reiki practitioner, and someone who has sat beside people as they take their last breath.
And I know it because in 2011, I died.
A cardiac arrest dropped me into the unexplainable. Call it the unconscious collective. Call it spirit. Call it the deep mind.
Whatever it was — it changed me. It gave me a mission. A mission to AWAKEN people from stress, anxiety, trauma, and limitation, using every tool I’ve gathered across a lifetime of strange, beautiful, interconnected experiences.
Today, that mission lives inside TranceWell.
But the bridge between entertainment and healing — between the stage show and the private session — is what I want to talk about today.
Because people often ask me: “Are the people on stage faking it?" “Is hypnosis real?” “How does energy work with the mind?”
And the honest answer is this:
What you see in a show is only a small taste of what the mind is truly capable of.
Let me show you.
The Stage Is a Laboratory of the Human Mind
I haven’t yet stood on a stage in front of thousands — not yet — but I’ve been on enough stages, in enough rooms, in enough shows to know one truth:
Groups change people.
They change people fast.
When a group laughs together, breathes together, focuses together — they fall into the same rhythm. It’s the same phenomenon you see in a church service, a comedy show, a concert, or a meditation retreat. The collective nervous system syncs. People soften. Defenses drop.
This is why stage hypnosis works so well:
People are already in rhythm with each other.
Their subconscious mind is already open.
Their bodies are already ready to respond.
What looks like “mind control” is really permission + imagination + state-shift.
And once someone is in that state?
They can feel more. They can experience more. They can change faster than they ever thought possible.
But again — that’s just the surface. What happens in private sessions is far deeper.
The Quiet Session: Where Real Transformation Happens
On stage, people laugh.
But in private sessions? People cry. People release. People heal.
A woman with years of anxiety suddenly discovers an inner steadiness she didn’t know she had. A man who hasn’t slept through the night in a decade finally shuts his eyes and drifts off peacefully. People trapped by trauma or addiction find themselves untangling something that’s been gripping them for years.
It’s not the trick that creates transformation. It’s the state.
The same hypnotic state that makes someone forget the number “four” on stage… …is the same state that lets someone release a decades-old emotional wound.
The same rhythm and synchronicity that makes an audience relax into laughter… …is the same rhythm that helps a client reset their nervous system.
This brings us to the thing that ties everything together:
Energy work.
Energy Work Isn’t Magic — It’s Human Biology, Emotions, and Connection
Before I was a hypnotist, I practiced Reiki.
Before that, I stood beside the dying in hospice care — holding hands, sharing breath, listening without words.
There’s something that happens in those moments that defies simple explanation.
When someone is dying, they’re not talking with their mind. They’re talking with their body. Their breath. Their presence. Their energy.
Some people call it spiritual.
Some call it biofield interaction.
Some call it nervous system attunement.
Here’s my take:
Energy work is the scientific side of human connection.
It’s how:
your breathing influences someone else’s breathing
your calm regulates their panic
your presence shifts their internal state
your intention shapes their experience
Call it Reiki. Call it Tai Chi. Call it hypnosis. Call it life.
It’s all the same mechanism:
The human nervous system responds to attention, resonance, and safety.
This is why I say: “Energy work is hypnosis with the hands. Hypnosis is energy work with the voice.”
And this is also where stage and therapy collide.
⭐ A Moment for You
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The Bridge Between the Stage and the Soul
When someone on stage instantly responds to a suggestion, people often think:
“That’s wild! I could never do that.”
But here’s the truth: You do it every day.
Your partner’s tone can change your whole body state. Your child’s laughter can shift your stress instantly. A simple memory can make you cry, relax, smile, or ache.
These are trance states. These are energy states. These are neural patterns shifting in real time.
Stage hypnosis just happens to make the invisible visible.
Private hypnosis makes the invisible transformational.
And energy work — from hospice care to Reiki to deep subconscious change — ties it all together.
Why I Do This Work
After my cardiac arrest in 2011, I came back with something I can only describe as a message:
Wake people up. Help them remember who they are. Help them see what’s possible. Help them AWAKEN.
I spent years piecing together the tools: Comedy. Preaching. Reiki. Energy work. Hypnosis. Human connection. Performance. Presence. Science. Spirit.
TranceWell is the fusion of all of it.
And if there’s one thing I know with absolute certainty, it’s this:
Humans are capable of far more than they believe. Sometimes it just takes the right moment, the right presence, or the right voice to unlock it.
Whether I’m on stage creating laughter — or in a session creating relief — the mission is the same:
AWAKEN the mind, relax the body, restore the spirit.
And it all begins with a single experience.
One More Time — If You Haven’t Yet
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Because the doorway to transformation is often smaller, quieter, and more accessible than you think.
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