3D Mind is a process taught by Tom Vizzini that operates rather quickly and elegantly for dealing with drivers that operate behind fears, compulsions, habits, whatever. It’s an simple procedure that works quickly in an eyes-open associated manner. It’s actually quite fun to run folks through it and notice how their bodies and attitudes immediately change after the process. Basically, you take the fear or whatever and extend it into 3D space – that is, you handle keep it associated with the client while manipulating it visually outside of the body by dividing it and determine what the driver states are that are behind whatever the presenting issue is. You can get the seminar tapes at http://www.essential-skills.com or read a summary at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/essential-skills or read critiques and discussion in the archives at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mindlist (particularly the posts at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mindlist/message/17071 – http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mindlist/message/17155 – and – http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mindlist/message/17044.

Folks who have the material, can join the 3D Mind discussion list for more at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/3dmind.

I know . . . I know . . . 3D Mind isn’t a trancework process. It isn’t like a six-part-reframe or hypnotic parts therapy. However . . . I find it works wonderfully as a process within a hypnosis session. Besides . . . I love hypnosis and really enjoy working in that context . . . and given the folks I work with and the fact that they know who I am and what I do, even when I am not using a hypnotic process per se they tend to zap into waking hypnosis anyway so I’d might as well give them what they expect.

Since my clients come to me for “hypnotherapy” I frame my work within that context. For a number of issues, I find running them through a series of suggestibility testing followed by a standard Elman induction with trance depth tests and convincers and then having them open their eyes while “hanging on to that feeling of being deeply in trance” that their wide open in terms of suggestibility. When I run them through the 3D Mind process at this point, it works beautifully. Now, WE KNOW that the process works fine without the hypnotic context frame but since that’s what my clients expect I give it to them. Within this context, they respond very very well to the process. The kinesthetic qualities coupled with the emotional responses are very powerful and quite obvious to see. Once we’ve gone through the process and I’ve got them back into eyes-closed breathe deeply trancework I will give them affirmations and support suggestions and then we’re good to go.

I may not be using the process in “pure” form within this context, but I find it very useful when applied this way.

I have used the 3D Mind without trancework and have found it to be quite effective . . . albeit, in my experience (which is certainly not indicative of the experience of others) I do find that the folks who respond most powerfully to the non-hypnotic context tend to be higher suggestibles on standard scales (since I do a lot of suggestibility testing with university students for my studies on communication apprehension, I can compare numbers and note this pattern). Adding the “hypnotic context” tends to increase suggestibility and response.

I haven’t done any sort of “study” on 3D Mind (although one of my students did a quick comparison of using the process and using another process based upon nonsense patterns she just made up out of thin air compared to doing nothing and she found that 3D Mind responded higher than the placebo process which was higher than doing nothing). She also found that women in her groups responded better to both 3D Mind and to the placebo process (we have found this to be common for suggestibility testing as well). However, she only used ten people for each set and didn’t really quantify enough for her conclusions to be particularly useful beyond anecdote (my students were doing mini-experiments to learn certain experimental processes and were not concerned with doing a full-blown study).

In any case, for those of you who do professional trancework, the 3D Mind process is one that works well for many folks. If the client expects trancework (and my profesisonal bias is towards doing that sort of work anyway), then you can still use the process within that context and do very well with it.

After my original post on this subject, I received the following in an email:

I am very curious as to what you did and how you did it. You might even want to include the Elman for those who don’t understand, how to use or do it.

First. Suggestibility testing. Thse can be done quickly and in a playful manner (the more playful, the better as putting too much into them and coming off as all serious and heavy only puts pressure on the client . . . https://briandavidphillips.net/2004/02/suggestibility_.html.

Second. Elman induction. It is a standard induction with some build in tests and convincers. http://www.omnihypnosis.com/dave-art.htm.

Note, if folks are unfamiliar with the Elman induction, Gerry Kein at http://www.omnihypnosis.com has very affordable and particularly excellent courses on VHS and DVD. Most of his approach is Elman-based but the specific piece on the Elman alone is well worth having if the more advanced topics are of less interest. I love Gerry’s tapes as they’re very very informative with wall-to-wall useful info and very very little fluff. There are some variations of the Elman, including some of my own, at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HypnosisTechniqueExchange.

When I do the Elman, I will often add in some components intended to be further tests and convincers. These include, the “balloons” on the arms test in which the person feels balloons on the wrists pulling the arms into the air with every few breaths compounding with additional balloons (when the arms are about half-way up I will add in the rider suggestion that the wind carrying the balloons is making them float back and forth and that the higher they float, the happier and more joyful they feel). I then convert this to positive hallucination by having them open their eyes and see the “pretty” balloons and notice all the different colors. Either with eyes open or eyes closed (depending upon how well they respond to the previous steps) I convert the pulling sensation to a stiffening of the arms for muscular catalepsy (the harder you try to bend your arms, the tighter they become). Then I give the suggestion that when I count backwards from three to one, at each number their arms get tighter and at the number one I cut the strings of the balloons and they drop like rag dolls, loose, limp, and relaxed, and they go even deeper. Then I go into another deepening sequence timed to breathing out. It seems long but it only takes half a minute or so and works very well as a deepener, trainer for response, and convincer. If the client doesn’t respond to any of these challenges, you basically shift into another set of deepeners or induction sequence as deepener without the client being aware of it. At no time . . . that is NEVER . . . give a client the impression that they’ve failed a test, they haven’t . . . just switch gears and keep on going another route. Check for automatic responses to suggestion rather than thoughtful or anticipated responses (the Elman has this built in).

Once there, I will do the elevator deepener to various levels of trance (level A is twice as deep as you are right now, level B is twice that deep, etc. so they control their levels within the constructs I setup).

Throughout my sessions, I continue to use tests, convincers, and deepeners. I just pop ’em in unobtrusively at various moments. They continue the responsiveness training and work well as deepeners in and of themselves (particularly if you always give rider deepening suggestions with each and every suggestion, test, whatever).

Depending upon the client’s presenting issues, I will then use whatever process seems appropriate (I like to have a whole bag of tricks rather than a one trick pony approach). If I have opted for the 3D Mind, I will have them “hand on to this state” and open their eyes and do an eyes-open session (they’ve already been trained for response and are very suggestible by this point). Watch the eye condition as you run the process – reddness and tearing is often a good sign and many folks will have that slightly out of focus glazed look, get all of it and you’re golden.

I will then use 3D Mind pretty much the way it’s presented as Tom Vizzini teaches it on his video with the exception that the client is in somnambulism, a very responsive hypnotic context. I will start by having the client describe the presenting issue and then note the feelings that occur when whatever they want change for occurs. I then use suggestions to increase this feeling, have them imagine it becoming very very powerful (similar to the way we would start with the Watkins Affect Bridge for the regression part of hypnoanalysis) and once it’s being felt powerfully, I take it ouside of the body and go through the 3D mind process. Through the use of hypnotic suggestions, I guide the client into increasing the response so that the client is very vividly experiencing the sensations of having the feelings taken out while still connected to the body and feeling very very powerfully what happens when the drivers are mixed about with adding this or that and then melting it all back together. Often, they will make grunts or groans as I move this in or out of the driver, sprinkling in confidence or optimism or whatever . . . http://www.essential-skills.com . . . depending upon the issue, there are usually very kinesthetic reactions to the entire process and you often see complete changes in postures or tears streaming down the face as positive changes are created.

Once I have finished with the process, I run through a more detailed timeline (future progression) and bring all those resources back to the present and lock ’em all down followed by affirmations (particularly confidence and habitual response suggestions with perhaps “you now notice how well you respond in context” type material). Compound, repeat, compound, deepen, compound, repeat, compound, lock, lock, lock.

While 3D Mind is intended as non-hypnotic process, I have found it to be very worthwhile as one for hypnotherapy. Personally, I have had more success with it this way than as a non-trance process. I would be very interested to hear of others’ experiences with it within a hypnotic context.

– Brian