A Subversive’s View of Hypnosis and Therapy

The talk will be split into 4 parts, plus some time for questions at the end.

• Understanding the culture of stage hypnosis/problems encountered in stage hypnosis / practical remedies:
  • As a stage hypnotist, why do I hate stage hypnosis?
  • When stage hypnosis goes wrong – illustrated with some film.
  • Why the 1952 Hypnotism Act is no longer fit for purpose and why the licensing system needs changing,
  • How to deal with people who have been adversely affected by taking part in a stage show.
• My vision of therapy:
  • How I used my experience as a stage hypnotist to communicate better with hypnotherapy clients
  • ‘Your client is not your friend…’ but a less formal approach seems to work best and be more effective…
  • Why it’s ok to share some humour with your client,
  • Keep it simple: “Big words don’t help the client!!!
  • Why my ideas do not necessarily align with the traditional way of doing things, but I get results,
  • Why my sessions can last three hours or more,
  • Why I am a great fan of Dr. Irving Kirsch’s work on NLP
  • Why I believe that Hypnosis beats all other ‘mind therapies’ hands down (although EFT can be useful.)
• Working online with clients:
  • Advantages of working online,
  • Embraced technology to maintain progress with clients: ‘the therapist in your pocket’ – the ideal solution to ‘top-ups’
  • Advantages of using platforms such as Zoom to form support groups.
• Group Sessions:
  • Managing small groups for Weight Loss
• Q & A

Andrew Newton attended the Xaverian College in Manchester where he developed a keen interest in music, literature, classics and history. He was rubbish at maths physics and chemistry, refused to learn German on the grounds that we won the War, and excelled at remaining invisible. He played percussion in amateur orchestras and at the age of 18 became the conductor of the Manchester Concert Orchestra. Leaving school, he worked in the music library of the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra (now the BBC Philharmonic) spending most of the day watching some of the world's greatest conductors and musicians. He remains a passionate fan of classical music.

1975: Studied percussion at the Royal Northern College of Music and worked with the Hallé, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestras. By "mainly by being in the right place at the right time" he got the percussion job with the Max Jaffa Orchestra in Scarborough, giving two different concerts a day, seven days a week, and Sunday evening live Radio 2 broadcasts without any rehearsal! "Over the four month season, you basically sight-read your way through the whole classical repertoire."

1981: Discovered a natural ability for hypnosis and hired the 1,500 seat Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool, performing there more than 400 times. This success was repeated in most of Britain's top regional theatres. He had no manager or agent, and accomplished everything by following his own instinct and a ready, acerbic wit. In the 1980’s, he was virtually alone in the business, but his success inspired others.

1986: Andrew gained his pilot's licence and acquired his own aircraft, and just so he could say he'd done it, flew it into Heathrow!

1987: Sold out a three month season at the Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, appearing on the stage previously occupied by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Ginger Rogers, Louis Armstrong, Sammy Davis Jr, Liberace, Barbara Streisand and Elvis Presley! Andrew hated Las Vegas and everything it stood for, and at the end of he run, left the last night party early and swore never to go there again.

1987: After negotiating with Westminster City Council, he became the first hypnotist to be allowed to appear in London since 1948, at Wyndham’s Theatre in the heart of the West End. Radio DJ Paul McKenna attended his London shows, and often turned up at other venues around the country. As well as annual tours of the UK, there have been 39 tours of New Zealand, nine tours of Australia and 13 of South Africa, selling out major venues in all those countries. He has also appeared in Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai. Andrew is a household name in New Zealand and was mentioned in the New Zealand Parliament by former Prime Minister David Lange, who asked the House if “perhaps Andrew Newton would be able to hypnotise the opposition!”

1992: Took six months off to fly his aeroplane from Manchester to Nairobi, Kenya. It took ten days to get to Nairobi, stopping in Nice, Naples, Corfu, Crete, Cairo, following the Nile to Luxor, then hopping over the Red Sea to Jeddah (to refuel), before flying to Addis Ababa and finally over northern Kenya to Nairobi. In Kenya, he flew around the Masai Mara and parts of the country that would normally be inaccessible to tourists, once spending the night in a Masai village. He flew via Lake Victoria to Rwanda and Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) where he visited Gorillas in the Ruwenzori Mountains and to Tanzania where he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.

1992: First hypnotist to appear on British television; The 22 part SKY TV series The Andrew Newton Hypnotic Experience shown in territories as far afield as Brazil, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. “For me, it was a mistake and despite being paid £100k for two week's work, I regretted doing it.”

1998: Invited to perform in Beijing, China... "When I arrived in China, I was the only hypnotist ever to appear in China... Six weeks later, I was one of two hundred hypnotists appearing in China!"

2000: Deciding enough was enough, Andrew settled in Cape Town, where he is still based and where his son was born. In Cape Town he focussed on Hypnotherapy, but continued to do short annual tours of South Africa and New Zealand. He joined the South African Police as a volunteer and is a member of the International Police Association.

2008: Began speaking at Student Psychology Conferences and in 2008 was engaged as principal trainer in Hypnosis at Hypnoseakademiet in Oslo, Norway, Europe's premier Hypnosis and EFT training school.

2014: Invited by the City of Melbourne to make four groundbreaking films, The Land of In-Between, using hypnosis to change Melbourne's residents' perception of their city.

2015: Invitation to lecture in India at universities in Delhi, Jodphur, Rajasthan, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda Gujarat, and Bits Pilani University, Goa. Thousands of psychology students attended these lectures.

2017: Associate Member of the Royal Society of Medicine.

PRESENT: Over 1million people have seen Andrew perform live; he has hypnotised over 60,000 people worldwide and has more than 6,000 performances under his belt. He is also one of stage hypnosis' fiercest critics and would like to see radical changes to the 1952 Hypnotism Act. He has written 30 books on Hypnosis, Psychology, Drug Addiction, Technology Addiction and Stage Hypnosis. Now semi-retired, he continues seeing clients online. In his spare time he plays timpani & percussion with the local amateur orchestra and is the conductor of an occasional semi-professional chamber orchestra.