CHENNAI: Magicians who make objects disappear from your hands are aplenty, but what about a magician who can make thoughts disappear from your mind? Famed magician and hypnotist Magic Leo, who was in the city to conduct a motivational hypnosis course, talks to City Express and mesmerises us with his experience.
Leo teaches self-hypnosis as a motivational tool which helps people become self-aware and control their thoughts and emotions, including overcoming their fears and addictions. However, it does not work on people psychiatric problems which, he says, needs a clinical diagnosis.
“I specialise in conversational hypnosis which has made a dramatic change in my professional life and for others too,” Leo explains. There are only two types of conversation in life — your conversation with others, and with yourself. “Often you can control the conversation with other people, but not with yourself. Once you can manage the latter, dealing with others will be a cakewalk. The whole world is in here,” he says tapping his temple.
Leo forayed into magic as a child after meeting a travelling magician who showed him a trick and challenged him to best him. Gradually, he started performing magic for a Children’s Forest Programme hosted by the Organisation for Industrial Scientific and Cultural Advancement (OISCA) and also worked as an in-house magician at Magic World in Kozhikode, Kerala. “But my skills at performing and customer interaction were honed while ‘table-hopping’ at the Taj Residency in Kozhikode,” he says.
Though he has also travelled to Europe for performances, Leo broadened his horizons while working as a magician on Carnival Cruise Lines, the luxury cruise company. “I have crossed the Equator once, and also the Panama Canal twice,” he smiles.
Leo adapted his style from an amalgam of two famous magicians – Paul Daniels and David Copperfield. “Both have unique styles. While David is primarily an illusionist who preferred to let his tricks amaze the audience, Paul was a prattler; he would talk a lot to his audience while setting up his performance before moving onto his act. So I combined both their styles to create my own,” he chuckles.
However, he moved on to studying hypnosis and also created a hypnosis course that he believes will allow people to change their lives. “Initially, even I was sceptical of hypnosis and the claims of other performers. But later it help me so much that I wanted to teach others to be happy,” he says.
But doesn’t that sound similar to a motivational speaker? “It does, but there’s a difference in what I do,” he explains.
“Inspiration does not work unless it’s planted inside the brain. I use inspirational thoughts and also make sure they are firmly implanted in the person’s mind, like writing on a blank slate. That’s where I differ from motivational speakers. After all, even meditation is a type of self-hypnosis, because it is clearing your mind of unwanted thoughts.”
Leo claims the art of hypnotic suggestion is so powerful that he could make people do anything he wanted as long as it was not against basic human nature. “It’s all about having the confidence to look people in their eyes and make them believe what I’m saying is right,” he says.