Ideokinesis . . . . . . clarifications and whatnot discussion on . . .. . . Workshop on Utilizing Ideomotor Effect and More | Brian David Phillips Shifting eXperiential Reality

A few comments, queries, and clarifications from the Hypnosis Technique Exchange related to the upcoming workshop on
UTILIZING IDEOMOTOR EFFECT (Using Programmed Unconscious Movement within Trance Sessions) . . .

Oh Brian, you keep teasing with these announcements. you’re too far away.

You’re welcome. 🙂 Actually, I thought I was just the right distance from myself to make these convenient. Hmmm. 🙂 For these "free" workshops, it just isn’t practical for me to travel and as they’re usually just the one afternoon, it isn’t really practical for folks outside Taiwan to come either (although the occassional visits from folks as far afield as Hong Kong, Japan, France, Turkey, and the US have been delightful).

However, if folks have a group of at least twenty folks willing and able to commit to one of the commercial workshops or trainings, I could be persuaded to travel hold a seminar either on one of the advanced topics, a new topic, or my basic introductory spiel, assuming we can find a spot in my calendar that would allow the travel and all other considerations are satisfactory.

Lorraine and I will be mapping out our training schedule for next year within the next couple months.

Are you recording these?

We haven’t been recording the workshops as yet but a number of the members have asked us to consider it. However, I have druthers that go both ways. They are not intended as commercial ventures but as skills sharing and primarily as community development activities. Occassionally, they are also our experimental fun time community as well where we can try out new ideas and play with them. I’m not sure if I would want to formalize the presentation enough to make recording useful to others. For the most part, my workshops are very interactive and intended to be hands-on so we follow a briefing_presentation-demonstration-feedback-practice-practice-practice-debrief model. During the feedback, practice, and debriefing stages we get very interactive and will sometimes go to tangents that are less useful for folks who aren’t there in the moment. I would be wary of formalizing or streamlining the approach to make it more linear and therefore palatable to a viewing or listning audience that isn’t participating. Much of the benefit comes from the participation.

Can you explain ideokinesis?

Yes, I can.

Hmmmm.

La, la, la la la, la. Tra la, la, la, la.

Hmm. Hmm. Hmmmm.

Oh, you mean now? 🙂

Ideokinesis is Lulu Sweigard’s term but it’s grown from her work and has taken a new life in the instruction of dance, acting, and athletics.

A list related to hypnosis will have many folks already familiar with the term "ideomotor" effect which describes movement that is unconsciously controlled or movement that allows us to communicate with the unconscious without consciously being aware of the movement ("it feels as if the body moves by itself"). Unconscious movement without conscious volition. Ideomotor = ideo (idea) + motor (movement) = the idea creates the movement, not the conscious will. Classic examples of this for hypnotherapy include yes/no/maybe finger signals, pendulums in an analytical session, or the like. Stage hypnotists will use ideomotor effect and automatisms as part and parcel to a number of physically manifested hypnotic and post-hypnotic suggestions.

Within her work at Julliard, Sweigard began using the idea of ideokinesis, or imagined movement, is “the idea of movement occurring within one’s body in a specific place and direction, but not being voluntarily performed.” Ideokinesis = ideo (idea) + kinesis (motion) = hmmm, sound familiar? Some folks focus on creating a neuromuscular response pattern through ideokinesis type imagery exercises. Others use it in a similar way to what some folks who use focused trance guided imagery for sports improvement do when they use modelling processes. A great deal of the work in ideokinesis has been done in creating equilibrium within the body and developing correct posture appropriate to the outcome task or context. A number of the folks who have done followup work have developed imagery exercises where folks use the imagination to affect physical systems for movement and relaxation. There is an introductory article on the concepts here for those with further interest.

Ideokinesis is now used in dance training, acting movement training, and for certain sports (particularly those where flexibility and movement dynamics are key).

When I teach acting at the university (I have BA and MA degrees in Theatre/Communication, I combine certain aspects of ideokinesis with Stanislavski’s concept of Sense Memory and throw in a whole slew of focused trance style methods that allow perfomers to FEEL the physical and emotional aspects of the role while using controlled association to begin "taking on" the character of the role.

In the workshop, we will approach these sorts of effects as they are useful for skill improvement and leverage them alongside the waking dream effects. The obvious uses are for dance, theatre, and sports but ideokinesis and related approaches can be used for any number of physically manifested skills or attributes ranging from posture correction to martial arts to modelling to sexual performance to well, the gamut of human movement. Those undergoing physical therapy can also use it to improve their movement and those performing massage or touch processes might find it useful to use gentle imagery along with the massage or touch to intensify the muscle release or response potential (for therapeutic or even intimate or erotic response). In addition to the practical applications, we’ll also play a bit with creative artistic and recreational uses of ideomotor effect including automatic drawing, automatic painting, ideodance, whirling, trance dance, and more. Specific applications are very wide while the concept is fairly straightforward.

Here are some quick and dirty links to some other webpages related to ideomotor effect and art or the like or more: