THE PREVIOUS TRANCE INDUCTION is easy and universal, for the reason that every human being has at some time experienced an altered state and reentering that experience triggers a near-identical neurochemical and behavioral response. Another way of putting it is that the more senses we use in recalling a particular experience, the more real that memory will be.
Previous Trance inductions may refer to a specific incident (with which the hypnotist will, of necessity, need to be very familiar) or they may make use of universal experiences, such as the example below.
To become adept at this and other forms of induction, you will need to study and practice. The Milton Model (see Resource File 5 on page 316) lines up the language patterns that induce altered states. You can practice by creating your own inductions, writing them out, and testing them on other people, or even on yourself (you’ll need to record them first, of course).
When I began studying hypnosis, I copied out hundreds and hundreds of inductions by experts, such as Milton Erickson, not so that I would become a carbon copy, but so that the patterns I had identified could become embedded in my unconscious, to surface whenever I needed them.
That is how I am able to create inductions such as the example below. I’ve done it a few times before…
As you begin to go back and remember that original experience…which might have been when you were hypnotized before, or even…when you went to the dentist, and maybe…he gave you nitrous oxide…you know, that gas that makes you…feel really good…or some other experience where you began to feel really comfortable and relaxed…and notice…the very first thing you heard…and the first thing you felt…and then what you remember hearing next…and the next thing you felt…so…off you go…as you sit here, looking at me, just close your eyes for a minute and recall what it felt like to be there, in that place…
And…maybe if you meditate, you can go and think about what you feel like when you’re in deep meditation…where you feel it first in your body? And which way it moves…as you become more relaxed? And then, literally, take that feeling and extend it so that it spins faster…and I have a tendency really…to just breathe at the same rate as the person in front of me…and just relax myself…and I’ll tell them that as I relax…you relax, and you’ll sit there…and you’ll wonder what’s going to happen…
And you may find you have a tendency to talk to yourself, and…if you must…talk to yourself slower…and in a lower voice, or just count…20…19…17…and with each count…keep counting down and…put in some yawns, s-l-o-w yawns…and, if you feel relaxed, just say aaah…and feel even more relaxed…
And if you feel yourself float up a little bit, don’t worry about it…just float back down…because, you know the difference between relaxation and nonrelaxation…it’s like being in water and floating…and you know the difference between down and up, so just let yourself…go down…
And the more you try to make yourself stop…and worry and wonder if you’re doing it right…if you’re worried about whether you’re relaxing…that’s not right, so what’s left is…to go deeper and deeper still…learning, still…understanding still…remembering relaxation, whenever you breathe…in and out…and think about the word…soften…and I love that word because…if you soften sum-ptuous-ly…you can soften your muscles…you can soften the focus of the images in your mind…you can soften even your internal dialogue and you can yawn more…and go deeper and deeper still, into…what it is you do not know yet in the depths and the depths of a very relaxed state…things in the back of your mind can come forward, and things that used to worry, and things you used to fret about can simply disappear…
And, if you make an image in your mind, dissolve it, push it off into the distance, and…if you have a voice talking, let it move away from you and…just float down…into a state of comfort, and as you listen to my voice, each and every word has its own meaning…because it’s a miracle of language that you understand things…before you really know what they mean, so when I say the word soft, your body knows what soft is…and, when I say the word sleep now you know what it is…
And when I say your unconscious now wants to help you…your unconscious now needs to do certain things…your unconscious has always protected you…if something begins to fly toward you, you blink…if somebody begins to move toward you, your peripheral vision notifies you and…you go into the state that’s alert, and…when you’re done, you relax, really relaxed, with a growing sense of comfort…and the deeper you go, the more comfort you have…and remember to smile, because it should feel good to know…your unconscious now is helping you to do things, which otherwise you would be unable to…it’s as if you’re in a dream, because when you have a dream, you don’t always know you’re dreaming…so the dream you should have now…is the one where your desires bubble up, where your hopes bubble up, and where your worries and your fears move backward, because…when you move backward, deep down, down deep, inside out…what happens is, your unconscious now…will help you be able to move these thoughts from a state of comfort, to one of perpetual delight…because in this state…the only thing you need to know is that…there is delight at the end of the tunnel.
Exercise: Previous Trance Induction
- Decide on three real-world universal examples of times when people relax deeply.
- Using the Milton Model (Resource File 5 on page 316) as a guide, create three ten-minute inductions designed to create and deepen the experience of comfort, peace, and relaxation by linking “artfully vague” references to each other with conjunctions, temporal phrases, and other devices discussed earlier. Keep your language nonspecific—that is, do not presume to tell the subject how to feel, but create options and possibilities from which the subject can choose.
- Overlap from each sensory modality to the next to deepen and enrich the experience.
- Test the induction, either on a partner or record it and experience it for yourself.
Note: Make sure you give clear instructions for the subject to end the trance and return, fully awake and alert.