At the Hypnosis Technique Exchange, the question of borrowing or taking advantage of pre-established post-hypnotic trigger suggestions has come up.

A member of the group has asked for the group’s opinion regarding "borrowing triggers" with a hypothetical bent but using my Deep Relaxation Trigger Response Conditioning (DRTRC) set’s triggers as an example . . .

By "borrowing triggers", I mean to use another hypnotist’s trigger words as part of one’s own trancework. For instance, Brian sets the trigger "Xanadu" in the DRTRC recordings he makes freely available. If I were to use that trigger when working with somebody (knowing that Brian’s MP3s had set it), I would be borrowing the trigger.

Just some quick thoughts on this . . . all of this really depends upon the context of the work.

There are no "copyrights" to trigger phrases so unless someone specifically "trademarked" a trigger phrase for the hypnosis market, you are legally clear to use pretty much anything along the lines of triggers . . . especially if you are only talking about individual one-on-one sessions.

However, you will want to make certain that there aren’t any multiplestate suggestions associated to the trigger. For instance, while most folks use my Xanadu trigger for deep relaxation, there are few folks who participated in the old experimental group that I ran some years back where the recordings were used the same phrase but with compound state effects, many of which would be extremely unhelpful or inappropriate to a clinical environment (some of the experimental work was working with creating multiple trigger systems and compound states specifically aimed at the women in the experimental group in ways appropriate to that context and to the context of exploring intimate relations with their significant others but which would be highly inappropriate for a therapeutic relationship. While the trigger suggestions were specific to context and person in this case, some folks do not make such triggers specific (some of the Warp My Mind triggers by EMG come to mind as they can be set off by anyone who knows the trigger as that was part of the original experimental intent of that material – of course, much of that material is intended as a conditioning set for folks to then allow their significant others to use the triggers – obviously, the various training and trigger response sets are built for that use).

Of course, once you know someone’s triggers for one effect, even a moderately skilled hypnotist (or a lucky beginner) can then use cascade suggestions to piggy back the specific effect into a full on trance session and appropriation of the trigger effects (this is one of the techniques for breaking a particular type of seal). Recently, one of the members of the exchange asked about giving suggestions to a woman who wished to safeguard herself as a few rather creepy fellows in that community had begun using such trigger piggybacking effects and taking advantage of folks.

For the most part, using a pre-established "clean" reinduction trigger is fine when working with a trance partner who wishes to do so. Heck one of the easiest induction processes to use when working with a trance partner or client who has been previously hypnotized is to ask the client to remember the induction that was used with them and then imagine going through it in their mind’s eye and just float right back into trance . . . now . . . as if you have been hypnotized by the hypnotist who last guided you deeply into a deep, deeper, deeply wonderful hypnotic state where you just let go, surrender, and float free, right now entering a wonderful state of deep deeper deeply wonderful hypnosis . . . and when you find yourself in that wonderful floaty feeling that wonderful deep deeper deeply wonderful hypnotic state you can just let yourself go even deeper and even more deeply into that wonderful feeling as you listen to my voice or just imagine my voice guiding you down, down, deeper down right now deeply hypnotized.

You know what I mean?

As you can see clearly, and are alert to the point now you can certainly understand that using another’s reinduction trigger is based upon the same principle.

If you are working with others in a commercial setting, then it is wise to set your own triggers as it is considered poor form to use a trigger professionally that is intended to be unique to another professional hypnotist.

I use Xanadu (and have used it for many many years, since about 1978) because it brings up images of one of my favorite poems and is easily associated to an imaginary paradise or pleasure garden and because the word isn’t very often used in everyday conversation. It is a farily specific trigger word. However some triggers are not so specific and aren’t so unique . . . for instance, a few tapes out there use the triggers "hypnosis now" or "relax" which aren’t unique and are certainly fair game.

Most hypnotists will play fair, especially if you ask permission to piggyback their triggers. However some are not so gentle. You can go back a couple years in the group’s archives to find an example of someone who was deeply offended that one of my "erotic" hypnosis scripts used the word "explode" in it as the trigger suggestion for orgasm. This hypnotist considered that word to be her private property and demanded that I stop using it . . . even after it was established that the script she was objecting to was written well before her own products that used the word (in fact, she had even been a member of the experimental group where I routinely used that word in example scripts prior to releasing her own products). To overclaim the language is going too far (words like relax, surrender, deeper, and the like are going to appear in different types of hypnosis scripts and folks who do erotic (consenting adult) trancework are going to use words like explode, cum, orgasm, desire, excitement, and more.

If a hypnotist does wish to lay claim to certain triggers as their own, then they need to make them fairly unique. Albeit, if you are knowingly piggybacking on someone else’s triggers as in the case you describe then asking permission is the way to go, or just come up with your own.

The DRTRC trigger set is intended for folks to use for themselves and for those who, like the gracious ladies who were part of the old experimental group, wished to use it as a couples intimacy exploration trigger, for their significant others to use responsibly and appropriately. Those who have previously commented on my old "Rosebud" script will note that it was actually written as a trigger response test for appropriate persons and assumes preconditioning to a trigger along the lines of the DRTRC set but with compound states of hypnosis, mental relaxation, and very powerful physical experiential responsiveness, especially in terms of heightened sexual arousal, excitation, orgasm, climax, and intensified imaginative desire states.

As far as I am concerned, the DRTRC set is intended as a conditioning set and what the person who uses the material wishes to do with that conditioning afterwards is their own business. If they wish to give the triggers to others for consensual trancework or tranceplay, then they are welcome to. However, as I put a LOT of work into that set and the other sets that use the same trigger set (nearly one hundred recordings of various sessions), I would hope that folks who respect or appreciate that work who are producing either commercial products or recordings for any sort of distribution, commercial or free, would come up with their own trigger sets rather than use mine.

BTW, do note thatthe DRTRC sets are not just conditioning to the obvious trigger words used in the recordings. They are also conditioning to the music in the background (which is why I use a consistent piece rather than a hundred different trance tunes, I stick with the same Comanche chant to peace – my father’s family are descendants of Quanah Parker for those who know who the name; my mother’s people are Cherokee), the sound of my voice, and – for a number of the pieces – a suggested affective response to the color purple which is also used as a kind of affect bridge into trance response when a person enters my office as I have a number of purple objects in the room, including a very large purple dream catcher . . . my waking dream metaphor for experiential hypnosis. All this helps compound and deepen responsiveness the effectiveness of the program. For the Xanadu phrase, I also use complex state suggestions so that it is NOT just simple trance that is being suggested (obviously, that is the thrust but the overt suggestion is deep relaxation, not simple relaxation but deep relaxation which gets compounded in and of itself within the program).

So: In which cases is this OK or not? What caveats do you see around it? Who should be asked – the client (person being hypnotised), the other hypnotist, nobody? How about triggers that aren’t just relaxation/trance triggers, but more complex effects?

All of the above. For complex effects, I would consider piggybacking them only if the effects are of use to the outcome goals I have with the trance partner. In all honesty, I would probably just avoid any issues and set my own triggers and responsiveness patterns once the initial induction is done. If they’ve been preconditioned to respond once, then they’ll respond even more powerfully and easily with my sets as they’re already trained trance responders. I’d just avoid confusion or static noise in my suggestions and start with a clean signal (my own suggestions and within my own sessions).

Rambling out . . . hope it’s a bit clearer than mud.

All the best,
Brian

Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [phillips@nccu.edu.tw]Certified Hypnotherapist
Executive Director, Society of Experiential Trance
Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan
http://www.briandavidphillips.com

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