A day at the Bali Hypnotist Centre (BHC) in Denpasar – Pusat Hipnotis Bali
By Kristofer Bech
The Bali Hypnotist Centre or “BHC” is a collective of hypnotists, mind readers, magicians and snake charmers. Their two main areas of specialty are therapy for life problems, and magic shows around Bali. They are a light-hearted bunch of people who have a serious side in regard to therapy and a not so serious side when it comes to magic and entertaining. So I should start by first introducing them.
Sandya Arta is the master of hypnotism and therapy. Ray ‘the bizarre’ is the master of magic, mind reading and sleight of hand magic. Dadang Imut is the snake charmer, and he is the specialist with the lethal king cobra. Lisa does the snake-dance, with the python and the rainbow snakes. Chico and Sandy are the apprentice street magicians. They do tricks using cards and coins, and can even lie down on the bed of glass. I have also seen them eat glass, quite scary really! Sandya Arta is the man who put this all together, and he runs a variety of programs, such as courses for troubled youth, therapy for recovering drug addicts, and he also conducts workshops for the local youth so that they may learn hypnotism and magic tricks. Eventually Sandya Arta has plans for a small reptile zoo.
I found out about this place through a friend who went with his wife for some marriage counseling, though Sandya Arta prefers the word ‘hypnotism’, as he uses the power of suggestion to access your subconscious as a means to solve your problems. Anyway, I digress, the session was successful, and after seeing the additional skills of the collective my friend took me along to see some ‘magic tricks’, and some ‘real magic’.
The BHC offers courses in teaching magic and hypnotism, but they also use hypnotism as a curing therapy. They do a lot of the standard ‘magic’ as we know it, such as card tricks, sleight of hand and bending objects. Refreshingly these are the first magicians that I have met that will readily admit to you that things such as that are in fact not magic, but merely a trick. For example, eating glass, that’s just a trick, but being walked on whilst lying on a bed of glass, that is real magic. They will show you the difference between a trick and real magic. The real magic that they do are things like walking on fire, being walked on whilst lying on the bed of glass or driving a motorcycle whilst blind-folded.
Ray “the bizarre” has a talent for mind reading. Now I was a skeptic as most of you all probably are, but I was quite shocked at the accuracy at with which he could know about personal attributes about my life. He could pin-point details such past and current health issues that I have had, and other personal information. From where he got this information I truly do not know, though he claims it is a matter of concentration and looking into the eyes of the subject. He also offered natural healing solutions. For example, if you have a sensitive stomach he offered two simple solutions. One was to use a papaya leaf as a straw. Break the leaf off at the tree trunk, then also cut the leaf and use the remaining stalk as a straw when drinking water. Another solution was to regularly eat guava leaf fresh from the tree.
In regard to the magic or tricks, the BHC perform, several are Manipulation and Sleight of Hand magic. These forms of magic are performed by few magicians, because they are difficult to learn. It takes a lot of practice, discipline, and patience. Sleight of hand relies on the use of psychology and misdirection, in accomplishing a magical effect. Misdirection is the most important component of the art of sleight of hand. The magician choreographs his actions so that all spectators are likely to look where he or she wants them to. More importantly, they do not look where the performer does not wish them to look. The advantage of this type of magic is that it looks more like true magic to audiences. Sleight of hand is done with all different types of objects, such as coins, cards, ropes, balls, linking rings, anything you can think of. When you first learn sleight of hand, your first big worry is that you try the sleights and they don’t work. Your hands are too big, or too small, or the object just won’t move right, or won’t stay where it should and falls on the floor. If you wish to learn sleight of hand, think of it as similar to learning a musical instrument. You go thru an awkward stage, when people would probably prefer you don’t perform at all. Then you start getting it down, until gradually you can impress anybody, including yourself! Ray the bizarre also reads Tarot and palmistry and offers courses for people who wish to learn these ‘arts’ though he informs me that it can take years and a lot of concentration to master the Tarot. I also have to mention the man named Jaka Rimba, who performs ‘debus’, which is a more hardcore form of self hypnosis or mind over matter style of real magic. He will do crazy things such as put a nails through his cheek and pull it out the other side. He can break a metal bar over his leg. He can meditate on a bed of glass whilst being run over by motorbike. Now that’s crazy!
The BHC regularly perform hypnosis as part of their stage magic, but also provide hypnotherapies for curing any number of problems. Meditation and visualization are also important aspects of this. Hypnosis, meditation and visualization are three similar processes for accessing a creative area of the sub-conscious mind.
Hypnosis is medically proven as a solution for a variety of problems, and here at BHC they offer hypnotherapy for many behavioral and medical problems such as, aspects of addictive behavior, stress, relief from migraine headaches, accessing repressed or hidden memories, and even past life regression for those of you into spiritualism. They conduct a course over a few nights for troubled local youth. This therapy program consists of meditation and visualization. Parents send their kids to this course due to a variety of disciplinary problems, and it almost always has success in solving the issues behind those behavioral problems. I also know that recovering drug addicts regularly seek out Sandya Arta for his expertise and methods in which he can treat addiction. There are also hypnotherapies for more common things such as reducing stress, relationship problems, low self esteem or even quitting smoking. Hypnotherapy can be used to solve many life problems, and the list is almost endless.
On the lighter-side I witnessed a very comedic hypnosis session amongst the hypnosis students. These students are more like assistants and they are part of a workshop, whereby they are trained by Sandya Arta so that they may learn their own skills and either become part of the show, or even head off, and do their own thing. This hypnosis I witnessed was purely as training for the show and not for therapy. The subject was put through a variety of scenarios, from being a monkey, to a sexy bikini model posing for a photo shoot. Then the master advised the subject that he was an officer of the army, who was to report to me and take direct orders. I won’t tell you what the specific order was that I gave, but let’s just say that he did what I said, and everybody was overtaken by uncontrollable laughter! Having said that, it is important to remember that in regards to hypnosis, the subject must be willing to be hypnotized, and if you are not willing, then it is not possible for someone to hypnotize you. In other words, you cannot be forced to do something that you do not want to do. The subconscious mind is in a highly accessible state during hypnosis, but still embodied by its moral value, so, he or she will not agree to things he or she feels wrongly about.
This collective perform magic shows at private functions and parties, additionally Sandya Arta conducts workshops, on hypnosis, mind control (self hypnosis) and healing. At their workshop based in Denpasar is where they perform hypnosis and meditation therapies and is also the place where you can study magic or sulap, as it is known in Indonesia. The BHC has strong links with the hypnotism and magic community throughout Indonesia.
If you are interested in going along to have a look and maybe try some hypnotherapy or perhaps learn some magic yourself, they are located at Jl Dukuh Sari No 1, Sesetan, Denpasar, which is not far from Kuta. If you need more information or directions call the manager Agus on 081 933 100 888 or email rv.agus@gmail.com. Whatever happens, it is most likely that you will have a good laugh, and walk away with a smile on your face!
