I hesitated before posting my thoughts about this step because I consider myself a novice in hypnotism, but I felt like this step was not worth it's money, to take such a big subject and to try to explain even an introduction to it in 33 minutes(that follows a 17 minutes of performance) is simply impossible.

Richard is clearly a professional, but I felt it was a bad introduction to the subject, I saw Addison(I know her name because he tried to show her forgetting her name and failed, as well as trying to force a leg jumping with someone else which also failed) taking this whole demonstration as a joke matter(and Richard did not notice she wasn't as suggestible), and it didn't feel like a good performance either.

Richard clearly knows his material but the explanation section was disorganized and lacking for me, he doesn't go through any subject deep enough or clearly enough and I felt key points were mentioned but only briefly and in a manner that anyone without a background on the subject would ignore, it felt more like a conversation with Richard where he just answers the question "how did you do that?", and not a well rehearsed and planned lecture.

I think anyone new to hypnosis would probably think that you can just go out and be a hypnotist with only learning how to do the Hand Clasping test, and the "Discuss" section at Penguin shows that as well.(people asking "wait where was the explanation?", "Does anyone else know much about inductions? He doesn't really go over any in the video...")

Did Richard share pragmatic advice? Yes. But I thought this whole step was not a step at all, but a conversation off stage with someone who is telling you "get this book and learn it from there"(Richard mentions "The New Encyclopedia Of Stage Hypnotism" as a thorough book on the subject). Now obviously this is way too big of a topic to cover in 33 minutes of instructions, but that does not mean that it needed to be such a short step, if Richard really felt that hypnotism should have been included in his 13 steps he should not have made it such a short step, he could have even split it into 2 parts, but the 33 minutes of explanations you got are disorganized, lacking and don't stress any point hard enough except the hand clasping test script.

Afterall we all respect Richard for his contributions to the art, but this step was not worth my money, I am the target audience for this kind of step, and not experienced hypnotists, and I feel like the value I got out of it was not worth the discounted 14.9$, if I could get my money back, I would.

This opens with a nice 25 minutes set with Osterlind. I do enjoy that his set is focused more on a psychological demonstration rather than on making people look stupid.

At about 50 minutes in length, he didn't really demonstrate how to hypnotize, he just talked about it. I would have liked to have seen a more in-depth teaching. Still, his approach is much better than most I have seen. It's about what I expected.

Once again, Richard Osterlind has provided a valuable lesson for mentalists. Numerous great mentalists, such as Kreskin, use hypnosis in their performances. Richard demonstrated how it could be used with respect for the participants and still be entertaining for an audience. He suggested a valuable reference, The New Encyclopedia of Stage Hypnotism by Ormond McGill, available at Amazon. This lecture is a solid introduction to the hypnosis and suggestion. For those comments suggesting that Richard teach a specific technique, there are some important aspects they do not understand. First, demonstrating how to hypnotize someone may cause members of the audience to actually become hypnotized. Second, Richards lesson on hypnosis will be viewed by an international audience. Many countries limit what can be broadcast during a hypnosis demonstration. For example, here is the relevant regulation that British television must follow: "Elements of the hypnotist's routine may be broadcast to set the scene. However, it is important not to broadcast the routine in its entirety, nor to broadcast elements that may cause a member of the audience to believe they are being influenced in some way."

Richard's approach was to provide a meaningful introduction that demonstrated how hypnosis could be used respectfully and entertainingly. For specific techniques he provided a valuable reference. Taken together, this lesson is well worth its modest price and your valuable time.

I saw some reviews about this step. Believe it or not this is all you need to be one of the best Hypnotist. I myself is a hypnotist and an author of a book called Hypnosis, the gist and I strongly recommend this video to become one of the best Hypnotist because to do group hypnosis or stage hypnosis all you need is the guts and belief that it works. Just do what he is doing in the demo or performance and you will see your subjects going into trance 8 to 10 out of 20 participant will always go into trance if you just simply recite any stage hypnosis script just say what Richard says in his performance and you will see the miracle happening if you have the guts and confidence.