HARRIS, Mich. (WLUC) — The first day of Michigan’s second annual Hypnosis Conference got underway Wednesday morning at Harris’ Island Resort & Casino.
Co-founder Dan Goyette said the conference’s main goal was to bring together clinical hypnotherapists and hypnotists in Michigan, and that the three-day conference kicked off with a keynote speaker.
“We’ll be having discussions about medical clinical hypnotherapy and the future of hypnosis, as well as forms of hypnosis and the future of stage hypnosis,” Goyette said. “We have a lot of classes and presentations on all areas of hypnotherapy.”
Goyette also said hypnosis can help people overcome trauma, depression and insomnia and become their best selves.
Michael Brody, owner of Norbert the Puppet and stage comedy hypnotist, is one of the few comedic hypnotists in the world who uses puppets. He says he’d been a puppeteer and hypnotist for many years, until one day a friend asked him if he thought about combining the two.
“I said, ‘Well, I’d never thought of that.’ It’s like, you could put a V8 engine in it and you’d never thought of that. So they challenged me. When you challenge somebody, you know that they have to do it,” Brody said.
Brody said he and Norbert will be speaking about how to teach hypnotism in the classroom, and keynote speaker Jim Kellner said he was there to explain how artificial intelligence (AI) could lead to the decline of professions like hypnotism.
“AI is a huge issue right now, and the explosive growth it’s seen over the last eight months has been incredible,” Kellner said. “This is a call to embrace technology as long as we can, rather than fight against it.”
Kellner said the conference will conclude with an awards ceremony on Friday evening. Organizers also said they are already making preparations for next year’s conference.
Copyright 2023 WLUC. All rights reserved.
