In my own life I have engaged in self-hypnosis and have downloaded hypnosis mp3 files that have helped me to deal with problems in my life. I am not qualified to attempt to explain the science of it to you, but know that it is real. Of course, since we are dealing with the question of suggestion, it may only be helpful because I believe that it is. But then again, isn’t that good enough?

Thinking about this got me thinking about making money through hypnotism. Being a hypnotist could be rewarding, fun, and exciting. It may take a little time to learn the basics, but you are ready to go once you do.

The first thing to consider before going into this line of work is that there are potential legal issues involved. Your state or local government may have regulations in place that determine who can offer hypnotic services and who cannot. Hypnotism is a legitimate technique to use in therapy. You don’t want to be holding yourself out as a hypnotherapist or claim that you can cure mental conditions, unless you have the proper education and licensing as a mental health professional. You will get yourself in trouble very quickly if you start offering mental health services without the proper license or make crazy claims about what you are trying to do. You do not cure medical or mental health conditions. You merely help others to achieve a hynotic state on their own. This is an important difference.

But this does not mean that the field of hypnotism is closed to you. Check all your local laws, but chances are you can still make some extra money selling your services as a hypnotist on the market.

The first thing you will want to do is read up on the history and theory behind it. Read some books or articles on the subject. Next, maybe take a free hypnotism course online or watch some training videos. If you look around you can find some group that will claim that they can “certify” you in hypnotism. That means little. If you take their course, you still can’t hold yourself out as a hypnotherapist, unless you are licensed by your state to do mental health treatment. So again, be careful about what you claim.

There are three types of hypnotic services that you can likely offer to the general public. Stage hypnotism, teaching self-hypnotism, and putting out audio tracks on the internet for sale.

Stage hypnotism is fairly simple. You are doing a show, not treating a condition. Everyone understands that. Also, everyone loves a good hypnotism show. Pull up video of shows on the internet and also see if you can get out and see one in person. Watch what little tricks the hypnotist has people do. Take and tweak some of the ideas. Come up with others of your own. Write it up and see if you can get friends to practice and go along.

Now stage hypnotism is not real hypnotism. Essentially the people from the audience who you bring up on stage will want to be hypnotized. Even if they are completely awake and aware, they will always go along with whatever is asked of them. They will want to follow your commands and do what they are told. The audience, of course, does not know this and you look like you have super powers.

Know your audience. Don’t have members of a church group making out with each other. Don’t have school children doing things that are inappropriate. Don’t be a jerk or creepy about it either. Keep everything in a fun and happy spirit and people will love you.

Set up a website and Facebook page, of course, and invite your audience to visit them. Post videos of successful shows and make it easy for people to contact you they want to hire you. Check and see what other stage hypnotists are charging in your general area and charge a bit less.

To offer your services to teach self-hypnosis could be a bit more troublesome, depending on what your local laws are regarding offering mental health treatment. You might be able to set-up a course where you promise “to teach the secrets of self-hypnosis”. All hypnosis is really self-hypnosis. But you want to stress that you are not hypnotizing anyone nor are you trying to treat any condition. You are merely explaining to others the theory under which hypnotism works and the various methods historically used to achieve this state. You use some of these methods with your clients, but only for the purpose of demonstrating the method.

You can teach courses on how to self-hypnotize for weight-loss, stress reduction, and other problems. You are merely a teacher, not offering therapy. You are offering to cure no diseases or conditions, but merely informing people of methods used by some to treat these conditions.

Finally, you can make hypnotism tracks and upload them to the internet. Either give them away through a website and/or app store and try to make money from advertising or just sell them for what they are.

On the internet you will find plenty of people offering hypnotism tracks that claim to cure various conditions. You probably could get away with this pretty easily. But I still don’t recommend this. At some point on your page, you should instruct people that you are not offering medical or mental health advice or therapy, but rather offering people an example of how one might engage in self-hypnosis by offering up a track of guided self-hypnosis. Look at some of the disclaimers that others use as examples.

You should also be aware that some people have a bad opinion of hypnotism. They consider it mind manipulation, spiritually harmful, or just a waste of time. These people are seriously mistaken and do not represent the majority of people. Still you should be prepared to deal with these people if and when you run across them. Reading up on the history and theories behind the technique before you get started will help you to refute these people. Don’t let these people discourage you.

Hypnotism is helpful to many and could be rewarding to you. Investigate, study, practice, and have fun with it.