A woman on one of the many hypnosis email lists I belong to recently posted a query regarding instant hypnosis inductions. This piece has both my responses to her and comments regarding my hunches or thoughts regarding the situation in general.

She starts by letting us know that she has recently watched Gerald Kein’s "instant inductions" DVD and reviewed it in the morning. Personally, I believe that is an excellent resource for a trained hypnotist. Jerry’s material has a lot of content value. These are wonderful inductions. Personally, I tend to work in the Instant and Rapid mode when doing hypnosis. Rapid for new faces who may be new to the entire experience or who aren’t sure what to expect and instants for anyone and everyone else or if it’s late in the day.

Now, her colleague came by and she found that none of the inductions she learned form the DVD worked:

…not one of the inductions I used were successful. His head dropped, he was totally relaxed, but took none of the suggestions I gave him. He said "Well, I told you I was very analytical." and remarked how his thoughts were on the similarities of a play he directed once.

Hmmm. Sounds like he’s given himself the suggestion that he can’t be hypnotized? Hmmm. Maybe he might like to give another tact a go. Pretend, really pretend so that he feels it, that he CAN be hypnotized. That everything suggested is really happening . . . just so he can get a feeling for it. As these folks are practicing hypnotists who often hypnotize one another, there is no good reason for intant inductions to work, especially when working with someone who has guided one into trance before. Heck, any competent hypnotist should create a reinduction signal and have built a relationship of reinduction at any time desirable. So, if these folks are having difficulty it ain’t the inductions There is something else going on.

He tried one or two on me with the same result. This is disheartening. I wanted to be hypnotized, and yet was not able.

In one of her posts she said that she and he hypnotize one another regularly? This puzzles me . . . especially if they are practicing hypnotists who have experienced hypnosis before . . . if that is the case then these inductions should be working with NO difficulty at all, assuming you do indeed wish to enter hypnosis at the time.

Whenever I work with someone, I always give a reinduction suggestion while they’re in hypnosis. Even when I don’t use the exact trigger, they usually enter deep hypnosis just from the habit response of going directly into hypnosis when we have both agreed this is what we’re up to.

An instant induction is merely a ritual to enter trance – same as any induction – if the hypnotist and trance partner are ready and willing and eager to go, then it would normally work fine . . . and this is most especially true when working with someone who you’ve hypnotized before.

Stop trying and just do it. These inductions are not intended for a lot of conscous backtalk, they are meant to bypass all that. Stay in the moment.

As he "deepened", my thoughts went something like this: "Why are you going on and on like this is a relaxation induction?

A helpful reminder I give my trance partners is to concentrate on the moment when entering hypnosis. You don’t need to bother with how long the deepener is, concentrate in the moment and follow the instructions right now rather than anticipate or wonder. Focus on the words and let yourself follow those suggestions and feel the sensations in that moment, the cross-talk chatter is not helping you or him, it just gets in the way of you enjoying the feeling so let it go and focus on enjoying the actual suggestions rather than thinking about them. Do you enjoy a movie more, the actual experience of the film, when you chatter about it and note every little detail that seems to have gone wrong or when you just suspend disbelief and enjoy the experience of the moment? As hypnotists, we often want to keep one part of ourselves detatched from the experience as we’re interested in the process and want to see how it is done but that can get in the way of just letting go and enjoying it. You can go back and be critical later, but for now just enjoy it. You know what I mean?

Why don’t you just get to it?" blah blah blah.

Instant and rapids are meant to be done instantly and rapidly. Setup (with hypnotic contract and agreement to follow through), shock, sleep, deepen. Don’t take too much time getting to it. Also, make certain the client is good to go at start up.

It seems the problem is the same on both sides: Our minds race on, and we stay engaged in thought. Any suggestions?

Stop trying to drive and start focusing on the moment. One of Jerry’s inductions is intended for the analytical client. Give that a go. However, I have found that allowing that the "pretend AS IF it is real" tact works for many. That is, since they’re not sure what hypnosis feels like then have ’em pretend they’re hypnotized to the point that they can FEEL AS IF it is really happening. For many, that degree of "pretending" will lead into state.

Another tact is to hand over the driving controls to the analytical client (albeit, many analytical clients are really just cross-talkers who for one reason or another do not wish to give up control – that is not the same animal as analytical, they just like to consider themselves overly-analytical rather than resistant). Ask the client if they’ve ever been hypnotized, been in trance, meditated, or daydreamed very vividly or even had a powerful dream . . . use the question as a wedge so that you get a positive response . . . do not accept a negative response (but ask in such a way so that the likelihood of one is unlikely) . . . have ’em describe what that felt like (engaging imagination) so that they’re not just talking about it with their head but with their feelings ("so when you are hypnotized or whatever, how does that FEEL? What do you notice about the feeling in your body? Where do you feel it?" and such). Then, once you notice some physical and emotional recall, give the instruction for ’em to close their eyes and take a few seconds to recall completely how that feels and then just go ahead and go into that feeling.

Yet another tact is to do some parts therapy on the feeling that is analytical. You can do Core Transformation or Tebbets Parts Therapy (without a formal induction) or even the Six Part Reframe.

BTW, does anyone know how to do instant inductions on oneself?

Remember what it feels like to be hypnotized or in trance or loopy, associate into it, and step into the experience.

Go to the Omni site http://www.omnihypnosis.com and check out Jerry’s "Light Switch" self-hypnosis protocol. It is very worthwhile. Or, go to the Hypnosis Technique Exchange at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HypnosisTechniqueExchange for discussion of this and similar topics. A snoop around Life of Brian will find some helpful articles as well (check the hypnosis categories in the right sidebar).

You said that none of the "suggestions" took when you used an instant with your colleague. Do the same sort of suggestions normally "take" when you use slow or lengthy iductions with him? I would be very surprised if they did. If they did, then something other than induction set is going on here.

From your posts, it seems that you are skeptical of instants or rapids actually working . . . I can assure you that they do . . . although if you don’t know me from Adam then that won’t mean a thing other than adding my voice to Jerry’s and Cal’s and Don’s and a whole lot of folks.

BTW, while I agree that stage hypnotists are a joy to watch (I love stage hypnosis and teach that as well) and they developed the really powerful instant and rapid induction sets, it is hypnotherapists who use them in clinical settings who you may want to learn these processes from as they’ve adapted them to situations closer to the setting you would most likely use them with.

Stage hypnotists will hedge their bets by testing and selecting the most highly suggestible individuals for the performance . . . many of them are natural somnambules with whom ANYTHING will work perfectly.

Oh, and contrary to what one poster said, not all trainers will prep demo subjects or hedge their bets in the way you described . . . at least I know that for me, that is not the case . . . rather than use folks who are prepped . . . when I teach a workshop, I will often single out the newcomers who have never experienced hypnosis before for my demonstrations – cold turkey as you put it – rather than the ones who I have worked with before or whose experience I am familiar with. So far, I have never failed with a demonstration of this type (not that it couldn’t happen and now that I’ve mentioned it karma is probably lookin’ out to let it happen, the point being that I know from my experience that they still work without prior experience . . . albeit, I do know of at least one trainer for instant and rapid sets who has publicly said that he will use highly suggestible persons for his demonstrations on the grounds that it is more useful for students to see a process run smoothly than for a demonstration to fail).

All the best,
Brian

Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [phillips@nccu.edu.tw]Certified Hypnotherapist
Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan
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