Post Hypnotic Suggestion and Post Hypnotic Act

Extract from Reality is Plastic - Proper Mental II, Anthony Jacquin

The classic idea about the flow of events we get from watching stage hypnosis is that the hypnotist puts the subject into hypnosis, gives a suggestion, wakes them up and the suggestion is acted upon immediately. This sequence is then repeated.

What happens if you give someone a post hypnotic suggestion that they will act on later at a specified time or on a particular cue?

Milton H. Erickson observed that the hypnotized subject instructed to execute some post hypnotic act invariably and spontaneously develops a hypnotic trance. The trance is usually of brief duration, occurs in direct relation to the performance of the post hypnotic act and therefore is easily overlooked.

In other words when someone is carrying out a post hypnotic act they are hypnotized. Indeed if you were to interrupt the subject midway through executing a post hypnotic act you can give them another suggestion and they will follow it as readily as if they were in a regular trance. Carrying out the act therefore encompasses an auto-induction, hence the title above ‘Invisible Induction’. It is the induction no one can see. No suggestion or instruction to go into a trance is required during the performance.

To make this a little clearer consider this definition of a post hypnotic act from Erickson himself.

A posthypnotic act has been found to be one performed by the hypnotic subject after awakening from a trance, in response to suggestions given during the trance state, with the execution of the act marked by an absence of any demonstrable conscious awareness in the subject of the underlying cause or motive for his act.

A performer using hypnosis does not have to go through a formal process of induction if they have used pre-show hypnosis and given a post hypnotic suggestion. They just have to activate the suggestion. This is done by establishing a clear trigger or cue that will set off the post hypnotic act. It is vital that this is made clear.

The real beauty of people acting on a post hypnotic act as Erickson pointed out in the definition above is that they have no conscious awareness of the motive for their act. This means that if questioned about why they thought of something, made a specific choice or behaved in a particular way they tend to justify it exactly as they would if they had not been given a suggestion. It is as if they are trying to make their new reality fit. They have to consciously justify why they did what they did. Go and test it out. Have fun with it.

Anthony

www.anthonyjacquin.com