I am an out and out fan of Derren Brown. I have read his books, watched all of his shows and have seen him live with Trick of the Mind. There has only been one occasion where he has let me down and not lived up to expectation! That was when he did the "Stuck to your sofa" show, which didn't work on me or many other people from what i can see.

In his book Trick of the Mind, Derren Brown explains how you can hypnotize someone.

Again, just like everything else Derren does, hypnotizing someone works by using suggestion. It works best on those people that believe it will work, so probably those paying for it, or going to see a show, or those that really want it to work, i.e. perhaps someone giving up smoking. - it will not work on everyone.

You may notice that hypnotists usually dangle a watch or something in front of their target and ask them to follow the watch with their eyes etc. The reason for this is because anybody looking in an upwards position, moving their eyes from left to right will be begin too feel slightly tired as their eyes will feel heavt due to the muscles the eye is using at that point in time. This instantly has the target thinking ....my eyes are feeling heavy, this must be working. Almost immediately becoming more susceptable to the whole thing, and therefore becomes more open to suggestion. From there on you should continue to relax the target further. You do this by telling him something he already knows and then giving him a command.

For example:- "As you sit there, eyes feeling more and more heavy, slightly unsure of the experience so far - you will find yourself almost falling into a conscious sleep".

The principle behind what you are doing, is that you are telling the target something he already knows - Therefore he is agreeing with you in his mind, which therefore makes him susceptable to the command that follows.

Hypnosis can take many years of practice before getting it right. It will not work if you try to test on friends and family, which also makes it a very difficult skill to learn. The atmosphere in which the hypnosis is taken out is also very very important as if set correct it will help to suggest that the hypnosis will work. For example imagine a quiet doctors surgery, and the way in which the doctor is dressed...This would probably lead to someone being more susceptable and therefore better results with the hypnosis.