Featured Entertainment Article Part 2

Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four

Klipsun Article Part Two

Soon after being certified, he experienced something that proved hypnosis' positive potential to him.

"I had a friend who had gone through a traumatic experience and was having problems dealing with it, and I knew I could help her cope with it," Hamilton said. "I offered to practice hypnotherapy on her, free of charge and she agreed."

"It was like night and day. Her whole perspective on her trauma was changed with that one session"

"It was like night and day. Her whole perspective on her trauma was changed with that one session," he said.

She spread the word about how much Hamilton had helped her, and several people began coming to him for help with their problems, he said.

He opened and operated the New Horizons Hypnosis Center during 1989 through '90 in Payson, Ariz., to assist and help others with hypnotherapy; he was then invited to practice hypnotherapy with Dr. AlVera Paxson at You-Nique Medical Hypnotherapy and New Thought Counseling Center.

Meanwhile he furthered his hypnosis training with studies at the American Hypnotherapy Training Center, the Institute of Medical Hypnosis, and the National Board of Hypnotherapy. He earned certification and registration as a clinical hypnotherapist through both the American Board of Hypnotherapy and the National Board of Hypnotherapy and Hypnotic Anaesthesiology

Also interested in spirituality and religion, Hamilton completed a comprehensive religious counselling curriculum through the Universal Life Church in Modesto, Calif. and earned licensing as a religious counselor. He is currently taking a sabbatical from his doctorate degree studies through the American Institute of Hypnotherapy to focus on his career in the entertainment industry.

During all of this schooling, Hamilton continued to perform hypnosis as a professional entertainer. His act has headlined in such venues as the Flamingo Hilton Hotel and Casino in Laughlin Nev., the Pepsi-Cola Magic Extravaganza in Payson, Ariz., and the Phoenix Follies. He has also performed at various high schools, universities, functions and fairs across the western states, including four consecutive years at the Grant County Fair in Moses Lake, Wash.

Hamilton moved to Washington state two years ago and opened a hypnotherapy clinic called the Mind Spa in Moses Lake, while continuing his career as an entertainer. He stopped performing briefly after a "falling out" with a former manager.

Hamilton is currently rebuilding his act. Johnson is the latest addition to the show. Also a figure-skater, skating instructor and a cosmetologist, she serves as his velvet-and-sequin-clad assistant during the shows. Though Hamilton and Johnson have a smaller act with fewer toys and tools than before, they are slowly acquiring the equipment they need to bring the show back to its previous Vegas-style proportions.

Hamilton said the current, streamlined act of "mid-sized parlor magic and hypnosis" still plays big, with the charisma of it's entertainer at the heart of it.

"He works the crowds and his subjects with a practiced flair. Tall, trim and dressed crisply in black satin pants, a red satin shirt, shinny black shoes and a sequined vest and belt that glitter like Vegas marquees. He is the very image of a magic show maestro"

He seems comfortable with the audience; when they don't laugh at a joke, he unfazedly pokes fun at the fact to get a reaction. If he drops the newspaper he's working on during a trick, he doesn't miss a beat.

Continue to Part Three ..