A Teacher
Paul McKenna
Hypnotic suggestion for self-change
The transmission
Paul William McKenna was born on 8 November 1963 in Hackney, East London. He began his career as a radio DJ before moving into stage hypnosis, where televised demonstrations in the late 1980s and 1990s made him one of Britain’s best-known hypnotists.
Inspired by a radio appearance by Richard Bandler, the co-creator of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), McKenna travelled to Los Angeles to train with him and became a certified NLP practitioner, subsequently collaborating with Bandler on workshops and books.
From the late 1990s onward McKenna shifted from stage performance toward mass-market self-help, building a publishing franchise around the “I Can Make You.” formula, including the bestselling I Can Make You Thin (2005) and Change Your Life in Seven Days (2004).
His method blends hypnotic suggestion, guided visualisation, and NLP “anchoring” techniques, typically packaged with audio recordings intended to re-pattern habitual behaviour around weight, confidence, sleep, and anxiety.
While his clinical claims attract scientific scepticism, his cultural reach has made hypnotic self-suggestion a familiar idea to a very wide popular audience.
What they gave
Mass popularisation of hypnotic self-change: Brought the mesmeric-hypnotic lineage of mind-over-habit into mainstream British and global culture through television and bestselling books.
- NLP synthesis for the public: Translated Bandler and Grinder’s NLP and Ericksonian hypnotic language into accessible, repeatable self-help protocols.
- Suggestion as a daily practice: Popularised the idea that recorded hypnotic suggestion and visualisation can reshape subconscious patterns governing weight, confidence, and emotion.
- The “I Can Make You.” franchise: Established a memetic self-improvement brand that frames the mind as directly programmable.
In their words
Success and happiness are not accidents that happen to some people and not others – they are created by certain ways of thinking and acting.
The line they stand in
Taught by / Influenced by: Richard Bandler and John Grinder (NLP), the Ericksonian hypnotic tradition behind it, and the broader stage-hypnosis lineage descending from Mesmer and his successors.
- Taught / Influenced: a vast mass-market self-help readership and a generation of popular hypnotherapy and NLP practitioners who adopted his suggestion-based, results-framed style.
Revelations they taught
Essential Works
- Change Your Life in 7 Days2004
- I Can Make You Thin2005
- I Can Make You Rich2007