- This is an extract from Reality is Plastic - The Art of Impromptu Hypnosis -
Whether someone believes in hypnosis or not, whether they have experienced it or not, they are still likely to have a strong personal concept of what hypnosis is and how it typically proceeds. This may be based on something they have read, seen in movies or on T.V shows. They may have first hand experience as a subject or spectator or just be relying on hearsay and urban myth. Even most children by the age of 7 or 8 have a concept of hypnosis.
So before we begin it might be useful to ask yourself a few questions and note what you come up with.
Firstly, what do you think hypnosis is? What images spring to mind when you think of hypnosis, hypnotists and the hypnotized? Which words or phrases would a hypnotist most commonly use? What does it feel like to be hypnotized? How do people act when hypnotized? Do you think you can be hypnotized? Can hypnotists make you do things against your will?
When you have learnt more about hypnosis and accept yourself as The Hypnotist it is likely that your ideas about what hypnosis is and how it can be used will be quite different from the view of the general public. It is wise not to forget what most people believe it to be. Using their mental models of hypnosis is fine - even if their not that accurate – just as long as their models do not leave them afraid of hypnosis for some reason. If they do then it is useful to remove their fears prior to hypnotising them and this is simple enough to do.
I have asked hundreds of students of hypnosis, thousands of therapy clients and many hypnotists the question, ‘What do you think hypnosis is?’
The answers vary quite dramatically, even amongst hypnotists. However several common themes run throughout the public perception of this art.
Sleep, a relaxed state, swinging watches, stage hypnosis, getting in touch with the subconscious, telling someone what to do, a comfy chair, a slow sleepy or gravely voice, a snap of the fingers and more recently Little Britain and the phrase ‘you’re under’* are common answers when the general public try to give you a sense of what they think hypnosis is all about. (Little
Images of people slumped in a chair with their eyes closed under the mesmerizing gaze and command of the hypnotist might come to mind. A row of empty chairs, ‘sleeping’ subjects, people doing ridiculous things or experiencing amnesia for their experience are also relatively common ideas.
Even in our modern rather sceptical society popular belief often still ascribes some significance to the devices and rituals of hypnosis such as making passes with the hands, spinning hypnotic watches, spirals, the hypnotic stare and the authoritarian command. A few years ago my wife gave me a pocket watch on a chain as a present. The first time I got it out to show some friends in a pub they scattered – as if looking at it would immediately put them under.
There are dozens of definitions of hypnosis – some more accurate than others and most quite unsatisfactory. Whatever definition is in vogue does not seem to affect a great deal of change in the actual practical application of hypnosis or the phenomena elicited.
Definitions often describe hypnosis as a ‘state’ of some kind. Just what kind of state however is up for debate. A ‘state like sleep’, ‘a unique or special state’, ‘a trance state’, ‘any altered state’ and of course ‘a relaxed state’. These definitions all have some value but upon examination can all be found to be equally unsatisfactory.
Given that we are always in a state of some kind and many studies have found little significant difference between someone in hypnosis and someone in a normal state, critics of these definitions suggest that hypnosis cannot be defined in terms of state. Some go as far to say that because hypnosis cannot be proved to be a unique state hypnosis does not exist. All of that said with recent advances in brain imaging equipment more evidence is coming forward that there are significant changes in brain function when hypnotized.
Another way to define hypnosis is as a process or an art. Certainly it is possible to be an excellent hypnotist without knowledge of psychology or brain function or state theory. Talent, flair and the pure force of personality will take you far as a hypnotist. So will accepting that hypnosis is really just the artful application of suggestion to someone who is in a focussed state.
Hippolyte Bernheim (1840-1919) the Father of 20th century Hypnosis, famously said,
‘It is suggestion that rules hypnotism’
Hippolyte Bernheim (1).
He believed hypnosis was inherently a suggestion based process. It is a useful assumption although difficult to get to grips with scientifically.
Although trance has certainly been used for the purposes of healing and as an aid to creativity for thousands of years we really trace the trance we call hypnosis back to the work of an Austrian physician, Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815). Mesmer came up with a theory and a way of treating people that helped many to health. His ideas were based almost entirely on untested hypothesis and faulty science, but they led to more accurate ideas about hypnosis in the nineteenth century.
Mesmer believed that among all the fields known to science at that time there was another field which might be called an animate field or fluid or life force. He defined good health as the free flow of this field or fluid through thousands of channels in our bodies. Illness resulted from obstructions to the free flow of this fluid. Overcoming these obstacles and restoring flow restored health. When nature failed to do this spontaneously, contact with a conductor of ‘animal magnetism’ was a necessary and sufficient remedy. Mesmer in other words believed that he was a conductor of animal magnetism and that this could influence the flow of the fluid like life force. Mesmer aimed to aid Natures effort to heal. He treated patients both individually and in groups. With individuals he would sit in front of his patient with his knees touching the patient's knees, pressing the patient's thumbs in his hands, looking fixedly into the patient's eyes. Mesmer made "passes", moving his hands from patient’s shoulders down along their arms. Prior to him it was common practice to do this with magnets. Many patients felt peculiar sensations or had convulsions that were regarded as crises that were supposed to bring about the cure (2).
In the nineteenth century the idea that there was some invisible fluid or influence travelling from the hypnotist to the subject crumbled and eventually hypnosis became viewed by many as something that the subject is responsible for, or more accurately capable of, given the right instruction. This eventually led some to conclude that all hypnosis is self hypnosis. More recently hypnosis has become viewed by many as a peculiarity of the social relationship between the hypnotist and the subject – the hypnotist and the subject ‘playing’ their parts as they believe they should. In other words it is social compliance or role play.
The debate has gone on for decades and will probably continue to do so. For our purposes we will first look at the definitions of arguably the most influential hypnotists that walked the planet, James Braid, Milton Erickson and Dave Elman.
James Braid (1795 – 1860) caused a paradigm shift from the mesmerists of the 18th and early 19th century. Braid was a Doctor and after observing a demonstration of mesmerism believed he had figured out why people went into this peculiar state and it had nothing to do with an invisible magnetic fluid. He suggested a physiological basis for hypnosis. It is generally agreed that his initial insightful but inaccurate view was that the mesmerised state (hypnosis) was caused by the tiring of an optic nerve as it became fixated – hence the association with focussing on spinning watches or in his case a silver cigarette case. It seems he missed the fact that his verbal suggestions to his subjects that their eyes would feel tired were also having an effect. Later in his writings he seems to shift emphasis, although does not abandon eye fixation altogether, noting that it is not just the gaze that becomes fixated but the minds eye as well. In other words when hypnotized the mind becomes locked around a single idea.
‘The real origin and essence of the hypnotic condition is the induction of a habit of abstraction or mental concentration, in which, as in reverie or spontaneous abstraction, the powers of the mind are so much engrossed with a single idea or train of thought, as, for the nonce, to render the individual unconscious of, or indifferently conscious to, all other ideas, impressions, or trains of thought.’
James Braid (3).
Note that Braid says hypnosis renders the individual unconscious or indifferently conscious to all other ideas. This is important. When hypnotized you can still have an experience you can reflect on as you are having it and as far as you are concerned a fully conscious experience. For example if you are hypnotized to believe you cannot remove your hand from your face because it has been glued there, you are still able to reflect on the fact that it is stuck and even wonder why it is stuck. However the only reality you have is that it is stuck nonetheless. If you are hypnotized to believe that beer bottle tops are pound coins then even when pointed out that they are bottle tops you will know without doubt or question that they are not bottle tops they are coins and will accept them as such. You are indifferent to ideas other than the one your mind has locked onto as reality.
The hypnotist directs the subject’s perception of reality by locking the mind around ideas.
From the time of Braid right up into the twentieth century hypnosis was typically induced using a direct and authoritarian approach.
In the 20th Century Milton Erickson (1901 – 1980) caused a seismic shift in the way to induce hypnosis, developing a permissive and indirect approach that is very popular with 21st Century Hypnotherapists. By the end of his career he appeared to simply be having conversations with his patients who would go into trance without any mention of the word hypnosis. Of course Erickson knew exactly what he was saying and what he was doing and why it caused hypnosis. His insights with regard to personal change have revolutionised modern therapy. I encourage you to read his work and you will discover many incredible ways you can use hypnosis. He experimented with hypnosis pretty much every day from 1920 to 1980. He covered a lot of ground. Because his permissive approach to hypnosis is so popular, it is often overlooked that Erickson was a master of rapid direct impromptu hypnosis too and would use it just as readily as the more cultivated covert or indirect approach. It is said he used the handshake induction so often that by the end of his career no one actually wanted to shake his hand. Many of his statements have been quoted as his definition of hypnosis – all are worth reading. What follows is just one of them.
‘A state of special awareness characterized by receptiveness to ideas.’
Milton Erickson (4).
Two things are worth noting from this succinct definition. He emphasises that the mind becomes receptive to the ideas the hypnotist presents. This can be interpreted as a person becoming more suggestible or more open to the ideas being presented to them when they are hypnotized. The emphasis Erickson places on ‘awareness’ rather than on being unconscious, inattentive or unaware is also interesting. It is in line with his thinking that hypnosis allows you to deal with the bigger beast in all of us, the subconscious mind or what he called the unconscious mind. When hypnotized, the unconscious seems to assume more responsibility or come to the fore. The unconscious regulates all of your bodily processes, stores and manages your memories, every learning from every experience as well as the mental patterns and templates that allow us to function. This part of the mind is intuitive. It can call up your potentials and instantly change the way you think, feel and respond. By contrast the conscious mind is limited. It is logical and linear in its approach to problem solving. It is the here and now.
Erickson was not interested in talking to the conscious mind. Neither should you be when you are in the process of hypnotizing. Aim to communicate directly with the unconscious.
Next is one of the most well known and quoted definitions from a modern innovator and perhaps the most influential hypnotist of all time, Dave Elman (1900 – 1967).
‘Hypnosis is a state of mind in which the critical faculty of the human is bypassed, and selective thinking established.’
Dave Elman (5).
Elman refers to a state where ‘…the critical faculty of the human is bypassed…’.
So what is the critical faculty? It does not seem to correlate to any physical part of the brain or neurological process. It is more conceptual – think of it as being a filter between the conscious and unconscious minds. It can be thought of as the sense of judgement. It has certain characteristics. It is rational, logical, it is limited and it is typified by inductive thinking – proceeding from certain facts to a logical conclusion.
The critical faculty is the bit of you that thinks it knows what reality is! It thinks it knows hot from cold. It thinks it knows that a mop is not the person you are in love with. It thinks it will hurt if you stick a needle through your arm. It thinks that you could lift your feet up if you wished to. It believes you do know your own name.
Bypassing the critical faculty does not establish hypnosis, but it does represent, as Elman put it, the ‘entering wedge.’
When the critical faculty is bypassed, your sense of judgement, inductive reasoning and logical faculties become suspended or inattentive. How inattentive and for how long they remain suspended is reliant on the attitude of the subject and the ability of the hypnotist. When attitude and ability are both conducive to hypnosis the unconscious mind of your subject becomes dominant and with further direction from the hypnotist selective thinking can be established swiftly. According to Elman, selective thinking is whatever you believe wholeheartedly.
By unconscious mind I mean everything else other than the conscious critical mind – all of your memories, every learning, resource, pattern and template. By selective thinking I mean a style of thinking where inductive reasoning is suspended and the mind becomes locked around an idea. When this occurs The Hypnotists suggestions will be listened to by the unconscious uncritically. They will be acted upon uncritically.
That does not mean the unconscious cannot refuse to go in your direction, it can. It does not mean the critical faculty will continue to remain bypassed; it can pop back into play. However as The Hypnotist understand and be clear that to all intents and purposes hypnotising someone results in their unquestioning acceptance of the ideas, suggestions and directions delivered by The Hypnotist.
The critical faculty can be bypassed in a variety of ways quite naturally without hypnosis. Experiencing confusion, shock, high emotion, information overload, being drunk or high on drugs, laughter, play and performance are all common instances where are sense of judgement and logic can be temporarily suspended. It is the rabbit in the headlights moment. Whatever follows is generally driven by our unconscious, instinctive, automatic mind.
The Hypnotist can create such moments artificially and utilise the result to establish selective thinking. The techniques that follow in section three will show you how to do that.
It is useful to note that in none of these definitions is there any mention of sleep or relaxation. That is because hypnosis is not sleep and does not require even a smidgen of relaxation. What is emphasised is that when hypnotized the subject’s attention narrows and becomes fixed around selected ideas or a single idea. Wider environmental stimuli are ignored.
Recently a fresh theory of hypnosis and the mind entranced has emerged from the Human Givens pioneers Jo Griffin and Ivan Tyrell (6). They suggest that hypnosis is the result of accessing the REM state. In the REM state we access the imagination, what they refer to as ‘the reality generator’, that is responsible for our dreams. One of the functions of dreaming is to discharge unresolved emotional arousal. In another words it allows us to complete emotional ruminations of the day through the metaphoric imagery and connections of our dream. Its other key function is to update our instinctive templates or behavioural and emotional responses. In other words the learning state is also an REM state. Whenever we act without conscious effort we are reliant on pattern matching, going back to an earlier learned response or behaviour that was set in the REM state. So when we act instinctively we are, in effect, acting on a post hypnotic suggestion. In the same way when a hypnotized subject acts on a post hypnotic suggestion given by the hypnotist they will do so with the same effectiveness, immediacy and instinct they do other unconscious behaviours.
So when we put someone into hypnosis we are simply activating the same processes that the brain activates during dream sleep, including the reality generator - this is what makes it so effective.
For your purposes as The Hypnotist it is useful to keep these definitions in mind. Revisit them in light of your experience. Read the work of those who coined them. However there really is no need to get hung up on exactly what hypnosis is or why it occurs. There is no point being concerned over whether the ’critical faculty’ is something we can pin point physically or not. Even less point trying to prove that hypnosis is real.
The mind exists as a model. Hypnosis exists as a phenomenon. We must use a conceptual model to describe how it works. Hypnosis may not have the reality of a house brick but that is of no consequence to you. The fact is you can hold any of the major views about hypnosis and still be a good hypnotist.
For practical purposes as The Hypnotist think of it this way.
‘Hypnosis is the art of presenting ideas directly to the receptive unconscious mind.’ (7)
Anthony Jacquin
So understand, as The Hypnotist you are presenting ideas and giving directions. You are doing this to your subject’s unconscious mind and it is receptive to the directions and ideas you are presenting. Believe, want and expect that it will interpret them and act on them with a genuine unconscious response.
(1) Bernheim, H. (
(2) Pattie, Frank A. Mesmer and Animal Magnetism: A Chapter in the History of Medicine. Edmonston Publishing, Inc, 1994.
(3) Braid, James. Magic, witchcraft, animal magnetism, hypnotism and electro-biology.
(4) Erickson, Milton H. Life Reframing in Hypnosis.Ernest L. Rossi (Editor), Margaret O. Ryan (Editor). 1985
(5) Elman, Dave. Hypnotherapy – Findings in Hypnosis. 1964
(6)
(7) Jacquin, A. Reality is Plastic: The Art of Impromptu Hypnosis. 2007. Anthony Jacquin
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