The news today is as quirky as ever with a story about Simon Cowell being hypnotised by a dog called Princess on Britain's Got Talent during the auditions.

I spoke to Jonathan Ross as a clinical hypnotherapist on BBC Radio 2 all about the story to give my take on whether Simon Cowell was really under hypnosis caused by a dog staring into his eyes. You can listen to the interview from the BBC iPlayer below...

Here's how the story is being reported..

Apparently Simon Cowell fell into his seat in a trance after saying that he felt unwell following some staring into the eyes of the dog called Princess. The auditions for the new series of Britain's Got Talent were taking place at the Lowry theatre in Manchester. The German Spitz dog is owned by stage hypntost Krystyna Lennon and has performed all over the country. But can a dog really hypnotise someone?

You may be interested to know that on the day of the auditions the audience were told not to boo the act because they could see that Simon Cowell was playing along and not really hypnotised by a dog...not surprising really though! It took over 40 minutes to film the sequence and the audience were getting restless as the outcome had not yet been quite what the production team wanted to see.

I'm afraid that I really don't think they can do that! Stage hypnosis is very different from what happens in Clinical hypnosis like I practice. Have a listen to the interview from Radio 2 that I did to get my full explanation of what is happening !

You can read all about the new ITV hypnotism gameshow called "You're Back in the Room" and some of the behind the scenes secrets in this blog about it:

Are they really hypnotised on You're back in the Room ?

Is all what it seems on the ITV hypnosis gameshow "You're back in the Room" and are the contestants really hypnotised by Keith Barry?

As a clinical hypnotherapist what I do is very different from what happens on stage. At it's heart what I am doing is helping people to learn to let go and relax, whilst when performing a stage hypnotist is looking for people who want to show off to their friends. That's it in a nutshell but there is a little more to it than that of course.

Here's a youtube video where I explain some of the differences in the way that people behave on stage and why they do it. It may not surprise you to hear about the hypnotists who offer money to people who come on stage....

If you want to read more about my opinion on whether they are hypnotised or not on You're back in the Room based upon what was seen behind the scenes at the filming you can find that here:

http://www.markpowlett.co.uk/myblog/read_123451/are-they-really-hypnotised-on-youre-back-in-the-room.html

and there is lots more information about the show with Phil Schofield and the Hypnotist and mentalist Keith Barry here:

http://www.markpowlett.co.uk/myblog/read_115112/phil-schofield-to-host-new-hypnosis-gameshow-on-itv-with-keith-barry.html

A full review of the show will appear here once it has aired so as not to provide spoilers in the meantime.

Watch out for DIversity and Ashley Banjo and some of the stars of Coronation Street including Samia Ghadie Jack Shepard and Ryan Thomas, and a picture of Ant and Dec involved in the hypnosis.