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Hollywood Hypnotist^™ is a master of suggestion
‘Hypnotist to the Stars,’ mesmerizes fair crowds

From staff reports

     VICTORVILLE – Putting San Bernardino County Fair patrons into a trance this year is Kevin Stone – "Master of Suggestion^™ and Hypnotist to the Stars."  From his office in Hollywood, Stone said he has worked with several stars in the entertainment industry and has helped people to quit smoking, lose weight and improve their focus.  A board-certified hypnotherapist, Stone says all hypnosis is self-hypnosis.  And hypnosis isn’t about being  unconscious or being controlled by another person.   "It’s a very close cousin to meditation or even yoga," Stone said before his show Monday night. 

     Stone’s passion for hypnosis began in his childhood.  Today, he owns two hypnosis-orientated companies – Mind Growth Technologies^™, which handles the clinical side of hypnosis, and Deep Sleep Entertainment^™, which covers the entertainment side of hypnosis.

     He received his training at the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in Tarzana and said he graduated alongside Florence Henderson, an actress on the "Brady Bunch" television show. 

     In a fair press release, Stone said he is adamant about never belittling the volunteers who participate in his shows.  He just lets them relax their minds while he focuses them on his suggestions.  His web site features products such as audio tapes to help people lose weight or quit smoking.  It also gives Web surfers a taste of hypnosis. The site’s address is www.hypnotist.com. 

     Stone will perform on the fair’s AT&T Stage through Wednesday.  On Monday, fair attendance remained down with 6,717 coming through the gates, a 42 percent drop compared to last year when 11,475 attended on day three.  Fair Marketing Director Dennis Galbraith said high winds were a factor.

     "It’s just extraordinarily windy even by High Desert standards," Galbraith said.  "The folks that did come to the fair had a good time, but for a lot of folks it was too much weather."

You are getting sleepy . . .

Such as it is
By Joal Ryan

     Actually, it is early.  The man of the hour on "Trance Night" (aka Tuesday), the
self-proclaimed Master of Suggestion^™ (and who are you to suggest he’s not) –
Kevin Stone – has yet to arrive.

     For several weeks running now, Stone has been encouraging Tuesday night
crowds at the Moose to "look into his eyes."  (Well, sort of.)  His audience
participation hypnotism show, performed on a compact corner stage at the rear of
the restaurant, can keep Cheesy Fries noshers enthralled for up to two hours.

     On this Tuesday night, members of Stone’s entourage (hypnotists all) arrive
first - setting the stage, arranging chairs, setting up video equipment.  Unfurling a
backdrop / banner with Stone’s silhouetted face.

     Soon, you are introduced to Kevin Stone his very own self.  You’re impressed.
He looks just like his banner – except his face isn’t half-obscured by darkness.  But
still, there’s the intense black eyes, the Harry Blackstone-esque black goatee, the
all-black clothing ensemble. (And, frankly, would you trust a hypnotist in a
Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda shorts?  You’d probably be put in a trance by a
clashing print patterns.)

     Stone is 34 years old.  A former radio disc jockey who now boasts a degree as a
board-certified hypnotherapist.  (Who certifies hypnotists?  The Hypnosis
Motivation Institute in Tarzana, but of course.)   He lives in the San Fernando
Valley – and travels the world (from Japan to Six Flags Magic Mountain) putting
game volunteers into deep sleeps.  Pasadena’s Moose McGillycuddy’s is "our home
base," Stone says.  "We actually get to try out new stuff, new material.  See what
works, what doesn’t work."

     His stage show is a mini-version of the $200 private hypnotherapy sessions
Stone offers from his Sherman Oaks office – sessions that clients use to help quit
smoking, lose weight, overcome phobias – and a myriad of other talk-show-era
foibles.

     Who is a candidate for hypnosis?  "Everyone is hypnotizable," Stone tells you,
his gaze as direct as Tony Robbins’ in heavy-infomercial mode. "Actually, you’re in
hypnosis right now."

     While you wait for Stone to make you act like a chicken, he explains:  Everyone
slips into something called an "alpha state" – a very light state of hypnosis –
several times during the course of a day.  When you’re driving on the freeway. 
When you’re daydreaming at your desk in the office.  When you’re writing a
column.

     Hypnosis, Stone says, is simply a matter of allowing yourself to relax. Here’s
one worry to put aside:  You’re in no danger of being made to act like a chicken at
one of Stone’s shows.  “Most people when they mention, “Oh, it’s a hypnotism
show,” they think they’re going to come out and act like a chicken or cluck like a
duck or bark like a dog,”  Stone says.  “And it just amazes me ‘cause I’ve never,
ever seen it.”

     Stone calls that “cheese-ball hypnotism.”  And while his on stage subjects may
kick off their shoes, or huddle together to find warmth from an imaginary
snowstorm, nobody does the funky chicken.

     “Everybody who comes in my show, walks away with a good feeling,” Stone
says.  “No matter what.”  Provided they didn’t overdo it in the Cheesy Fries
department.

Fair performers hypnotize and honk for attention

BY ANABELLE de GALE

     His gig:  Hollywood’s Hypnotist to the Stars.  But references are not available
upon request.  “I wish that I could tell you who, but I’m bound by ethics.  Let’s just
say that you have seen many of them on your motion picture or TV screen,” he
explained.

     From human cannonballs to high-flying stunt performers, from from racing pigs
to stilt walkers, all things circus were pitching their routines to dozens of Florida
fair scouts Friday in hopes of landing a job. The Florida Federation of Fairs Trade
Show, held at the Radisson Deauville in Miami Beach, drew more than 75
entertainers from around the country.  Among them, the Hollywood Hypnotistä, a
graduate of the Hypnosis Motivation Institute.  “Florence Henderson – you know,
Mrs. Brady – she was in my graduating class. She is also a hypnotherapist,” he
said.

    Hire him for a personal session, and he promises to help you to lose weight, stop
smoking, or forget the ex-boyfriend.  “It only takes three seconds to seven
minutes to go into hypnosis,” he said.  Give him a job at your fair, and he
guarantees to give you, “A show of a lifetime, repeat customers, sold-out standing
room only shows, and will not embarrass your audience."

                                                        NO BARKING DOGS

     "No one has to cluck like a chicken or bark like a dog.”   The master mesmerizer
said that he came to Florida Fair’s to give us the opportunity to see a different kind
of family entertainment with hypnosis.  “I am very popular in the West, I’m known
all over the world, and I would like to get more exposure in the Florida (East
Coast) market,” he said.

Performer literally hypnotizes audience
Stone shows positive values of his craft

Wes Sander

     “Most people when they mention, “Oh, it’s a hypnotism show,” they think
they’re going to come out and act like a chicken or cluck like a duck or bark like a
dog,” Stone said in a press release.  But that sort of entertainment, he explains,
has little to do with the enlightening experience in which he specializes.

     Because of the heightened power of suggestion over a person under hypnosis,
entertainers in the past have claimed the ability to manipulate the behavior of their
subjects, to make them “act like a chicken or cluck like a duck.”  Stone calls such
practices “cheese-ball hypnotism,” and although his show certainly lies within the
realm of entertainment, Stone uses his act to express the positive values and
practical uses of his craft.

     He will perform three times daily at the fair from Wednesday through
Saturday.  Stones expresses through his stage show the same hypnotherapy
services he offers through his Southern California-based company, Mind Growth
Technologies^ä, which he operates with the backing of an official board certification
from California’s Hypnosis Motivation Institute.

     It is the focus of Stone’s technique to achieve and manipulate what he calls the
“alpha state,” a light state of hypnosis.  Everyone, he says, experiences this level
of consciousness a few times each day – while daydreaming at the office, while
driving, or while moving along through the day’s standard routines.

     "Hypnosis is not being unconscious, or being controlled,” Stone said. “It is
actually very similar to the state of meditation.  Hypnosis is a very natural state,
really just a matter of allowing oneself to relax,” he said. “The average person,
will feel, hear and remember everything,” he added.

     “People use the hypnotic state regularly, they just don’t realize it,” Stone said.
  “Our brains pass through this level of consciousness each night before going to
sleep, and then again the next morning on the way back to consciousness.”

     By Stone’s definition, the hypnotic state is one in which the subject remains well
aware of his surroundings, although the level of consciousness becomes altered
slightly.  This altered state allows the hypnotizer to help subject, through the
power of suggestion, to tap into the subconscious part of the mind – that which
most people cannot access at will.

     So what’s the point of it all?  Manipulation of the hypnotic state, with its ability
to access parts of the mind not normally used, can help people in therapy
situations.  It allows a person to see his or her own life situations from a new
perspective – an angle from which one’s personal quandaries might assume a new
clarity.

     Stone mentions the time an audience volunteer requested during a show to
receive the suggestion under hypnosis that he quit smoking.  "The man had
smoked two packs a day for the past 35 years, but after that experience he never
smoked again," Stone said.

     He describes his techniques as a safe and enlightening method, in contrast to
the route taken by the modern era of drug use, of attaining an altered state of
consciousness.  “Everyone who comes in my show, walks away with a good
feeling, no matter what,” he said.

Fair is a hypnotic experience
Entertainment is more than a song and dance

By Lori Roniger

     Four men and boys wearing long wigs and colorful sequined halter tops over
their shorts and T-shirts stood on stage and lip-synced to a “Spice Girls” song in
front of about 100 people Thursday at the Yuba-Sutter Fair.

     They contributed to the eclectic entertainment at the fair provided by fairgoers
who elected to participate in fair events.   Unfortunately for the “Spice Guys,” they
weren’t necessarily willing participants in their antics.  They were among 15
audience members who volunteered to be hypnotized by Kevin Stone, who calls
himself the “Hollywood Hypnotist^ä.”  He entertains regularly at fairs and aids
people in enhancing self-esteem and quitting unwanted habits, such as smoking. 
Stone said that he has treated celebrities and well known athletes.

     After hypnotizing 14 of the people who came up on stage – one little girl failed
initially to fall under his spell and was sent back to the audience.  Stone
commanded his flock to lip sync to the music of various pop stars.
     Tambra Garricck, who was the second runner-up in the Miss Yuba-Sutter competition Wednesday, got up and enthusiastically performed to music by country music star Shania Twain, rhythmically moving her body and outstretched arms to the music.
“I thought I was Shania Twain,” she said afterwards.  “I felt my whole body
getting so heavy,” Garrick said about the whole experience.
  “You knew what was going on, but you don’t care,” said 37-year-old Randy Florer, who lip-synched and sang to the “Spice Girls.”

Hollywood Hypnotist™ Kevin Stone

By Elizabeth Chandler

     Kevin is eager to dispel some of the myths and sensationalism about
hypnotism.  Contrary to popular belief, a hypnotherapist does not control a
patient, or have the power to make people jump off cliffs and such.  Rather it is
the patient who holds the power, and Kevin’s job is just to help guide the patient
in getting where he wants to go.  Kevin explains that under hypnosis, all senses
are amplified eight times, creating a powerful state.  Everyone experiences a form
of self-hypnosis, he says, when they find themselves daydreaming, or notice
 they’ve passed their freeway exit three miles ago (what Kevin calls “Freeway
Hypnosis.”)

    For those who want a better look at this process, as well as a delightful evening,
Kevin can be seen performing in his live act on Tuesdays at 8pm at Moose
McGillycuddy’s in Pasadena.  In addition to a Vegas-style theatrical show,
hypnotherapy sessions with audience members are included in the program at no
cost.  And the uneasy can rest assured that Kevin does not believe in using any
silly embarrassing tricks, but rather engenders as enlightened outlook that leaves
the subject with a positive experience.

     The hypnotherapy process is far quicker than traditional therapy because it
utilizes the subconscious mind, which is more powerful than the conscious mind.
By reprogramming the mind like one might a computer, a person can create new,
positive conditioned reflexes to replace old negative ones, often when nothing
else works.

     In the first appointment, Kevin evaluates the patient and leads an initial
hypnosis session.  Apparently everyone can be hypnotized, it’s just a question of
how, and Kevin works with both the open-minded and the highly skeptical, who
often become his most enthusiastic clients.  The number of sessions needed
depends entirely on the individual and the area they wish to change.  Smoking, for
instance, often takes from one to six sessions to conquer.  Kevin also teaches
self-hypnosis, which he describes as a close cousin to meditation, but with greater
control.

     Kevin genuinely enjoys this fascinating field and all the interesting people he
feels privileged to work with.  He finds it very exciting to allow people to help
themselves, which is how he views his role in their therapy.