The Essence of Hypnotic Trance Induction

    As a subject enters a trance state, her unconscious mind guides her conscious mind so that she experiences the hypnotic state in a way that is satisfying and informative to her total personality. With the subliminal mind in control, the hypnotic situation becomes her reality. Previously agreed-upon conceptions, memories, and actions suggested by the facilitator constitute her world while she is in deep trance. The external world no longer constitutes her personal reality. She lives in a world limited to the focus of the facilitator's suggestions.

"Your conscious mind is very intelligent . . . but your unconscious is a lot smarter . . . and so I'm not asking you to learn any new skills . . . I'm only asking you to be willing to utilize the skills you already have, but do not yet fully know about." Milton H. Erickson

     Our ordinary life experience occurs primarily in the waking state in which our conscious mind is in control. We must learn how to function with the subconscious mind being dominant. For example, we must learn that in a deep trance where our subconscious mind is in control, we are able to talk without awakening from the trance. We've had a lifetime of experience in which talking is done only on a conscious level; we have no realization that talking is possible at a purely unconscious level of awareness. In the trance state, we often need to be taught to realize our capabilities to function in supra-normal ways, with both our conscious and unconscious minds playing their effective part.

     We should look at trance as an opportunity to get to know ourselves at a different level of experience and awareness. We need to learn that the unconscious is intelligent and can operate autonomously. The unconscious is our ally.

"In making suggestions, moreover, the hypnotiser finds that he has to consider and meet the patient's own subjective feelings, describing the intended relief as the patient wishes it to be described, and not attempting technical language which the patient could not follow. In a word, it is plain that in this class, as in other classes, we are addressing ourselves to a mind, an intelligence, which can of itself select and combine, and not merely to a tissue or a gland responsive in a merely automatic way." Frederic W. H. Myers, Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death, 1903

     Recognizing that we are engaged in a collaborative effort in which the facilitator assists the subject to achieve a trance state, we must explore the ideas, feelings, and goals of the subject before beginning the experimentation. We can use a specifically-designed input form to begin to get an idea of the subject's preferences and experiences. Along with information which the subject inputs into a form, the facilitator and subject need to spend a good deal of time becoming completely familiar with the subject's mind-set and feelings.

     We should look at the process of trance induction as an exploration, an adventure to be enjoyed, rather than a job to be done. Both the facilitator and the subject must be aware that their conscious minds can never be sure of the results; it is a learning experience for both of them. In trance induction, the conscious mind is really the dependent partner. The process is one in which the subject's subconscious mind develops specific skills in relating to the conscious mind. The purpose is for the subject to gain proficiency in using subconscious capabilities in ways she chooses.

     Braid's method of helping to induce a trance through having subjects stare at an object (see the image to the left) just above their line of vision is still a useful technique. Is is also sometimes effective for subjects to fix their vision on a moving image while listening to a repetitive suggestion.

     Most of the induction process should be, to begin with, centered around the Ericksonian techniques outlined above. The facilitator should have a comprehensive understanding of the subject's mind as she begins the induction process. The subject is encouraged to focus his conscious mind on breathing, remaining constantly aware of inhalation and exhalation.

The Induction Process

Allow yourself to sit in a comfortable position, with both feet on the floor. Begin to focus with your conscious mind on your breathing, concentrating on your inhaling and exhaling. Each time you exhale, say within yourself: "relax." Listen to yourself speaking the word "relax" internally with each exhalation. Let your breathing relax you more and more, as you inhale and exhale, relax more and more. Let your conscious mind focus on breathing and relaxing and saying to yourself "relax" each time you exhale.

From this point on, listen only with your subconscious mind to what I am saying, ignoring any other sound, feeling, or thought. As we begin, realize that only the subconscious mind experiences and understands trance induction. You are entering your subconscious mind, moving into your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind responds automatically, cooperatively with the suggestions I am making. Your conscious mind is occupied by focusing on your breathing and relaxing, so it doesn't interfere with your subconscious mind automatically, cooperatively following the suggestions I'm making.

As soon as you become aware of a response, go ahead to enhance it. Your aim is to obtain a complete response, and not just a sign of it. Feel the expected effect as much as possible. Imagine what is to happen as vividly as you can. Feel it happening. Recall the feelings associated with similar experiences in your past and re-experience them in your subconscious mind. Use whatever images, feelings, and ideas help you to let your conscious mind go deeper and deeper into sleep.

I am speaking only to your subconscious mind which is active and can hear me. Let your conscious mind focus on your breathing and relaxing. I am speaking only to your unconscious mind, and it is listening to me because it is within hearing distance. Your conscious mind is getting bored and distracted by your focusing on breathing, and this is leading to your conscious mind becoming uninterested, distracted, and going to sleep. ¹¹ As you continue to focus your conscious mind on your breathing, you'll relax more and more and go deeper and deeper to sleep.

If your eyes get tired, it will be all right to close them but be sure to keep an alert mental or visual image actively in your mind. Just be comfortable while I am talking to your unconscious mind, since I don't care if your conscious mind is or isn't listening to me.

Rest your hands palm down on your thighs, and listen very carefully to a question that I'm going to ask. This question can be answered only by your subconscious mind, not by your conscious mind. Your conscious mind might have an idea of a possible reply to this question, but it can't be certain precisely how your subconscious mind will answer the question. If there's such a conscious guess, it's not an actual reply to the question; only your subconscious mind can answer this question.

Now for the question I am asking only of your subconscious mind, which only your subconscious mind can answer: "Is your subconscious mind going to raise your right hand or your left hand automatically?

Your conscious mind cannot know how your unconscious mind will answer this question. But your unconscious mind can tell my conscious mind what it thinks or understands by simply causing either your right or your left hand to rise in the air automatically. Your subconscious mind can show me visibly what it knows. Now be aware of your hands and see what the answer is. Neither you nor I know what your unconscious mind thinks, but as you feel one or the other of your hands lifting, you do know. Feel the slight movement in one of your hands, feel it beginning to move upward, and enjoy the sensation of its lifting. Be pleased to learn how your unconscious mind is responding to this question.

As your hand is beginning to rise in the air, it feels as though it's something separate from you, you're not controlling it, it's acting on its own. As your arm rises in the air, it is your subconscious mind answering the question in its own way.

Good! Now, notice that your hand is continuing to rise toward your face. When it touches your face, you will be able to go into an even deeper trance state of sleep and relaxation. Good! Sleep! Now let your hand relax and return to your lap.

It is very pleasing to discover that your unconscious can communicate with my conscious mind in this way, and there are many other things that your unconscious can learn to do. Now that it has learned that it can attain a trance state and do it remarkably well, it can learn various trance phenomena. Hereafter, you can go into a trance just as easily and quickly as your unconscious answered that question.

Now you can return to a fully consciousness wakefulness.

Higher Consciousness
     Since our purpose is to use hypnotic trance to enter into and learn about Higher Consciousness, we must realize that the induction of a hypnotic trance is only the first step in this process. Entering into Higher Consciousness is a capability possessed only by those who have prepared themselves intellectually, morally, and spiritually.

     The higher trance state was precisely that state of consciousness induced by the Mystery Traditions of Egypt and Greece and incorporated into Esoteric Christianity.

"Although this process of initiation [into the Higher Mysteries] bore all the outward semblance of expert hypnotism, it was something that went far beyond the entrancement methods of our modern experimenters, who tap the subconscious mind of man but who cannot make their subjects conscious of still profounder planes of existence."

"Moreover, to confuse such a sublime experience with the mental handiwork of the modem hypnotist would be a grave error. The latter plunges his subject into a strange condition which neither fully understands, whereas the hierophant of the Mysteries was in the possession of a secret traditional knowledge which enabled him to exercise his power as one fully armed with complete understanding. The hypnotist taps the subconscious mentality of his entranced subject down to a certain level, without himself sharing the change of condition, whereas the hierophant watched and controlled every such change by his own percipient powers. Above all, the hypnotist is only able to elucidate from his subject such matters as concern our material world and life, or to perform abnormal feats with the material body. The hierophant went deeper, and could lead the mind of the candidate step by step through an experience involving the spiritual worlds--a feat beyond the power of any modern hypnotist to achieve."

"There existed an exalted and final degree of initiation where the souls of men were not merely freed temporarily from their bodies in a condition of simulated death, in order to prove the truth of survival, after the great change, but where they were actually carried up to the loftiest spheres of being, to the realm of the Creator Himself. In this marvellous experience the finite mind of man was drawn into contact with the infinite mind of his superior divinity. He was able for a brief while to enter into silent, spell-bound communion with the Father of All, and this fleeting contact of incomparable ecstasy was enough to change his entire attitude towards life. He had partaken of the holiest food that exists in life. He had discovered the ineffable ray of Deity which was his true innermost self, and of which the soul-body which survives death was merely the intangible vesture. He was, in verity and fact, born again in the highest sense. He who had thus been initiated became a perfect Adept, and the hieroglyphic texts speak of him as one who could expect the favour of the gods during life and the state of paradise after death.

"Such an experience came with an entrancement which, although outwardly similar, was inwardly completely different from the hypnotic entrancements of the earlier degrees of initiation. No hypnotic power could ever confer it, no magical ceremony could ever evoke it. Only the supreme hierophants, themselves at one with their divinities, their wills bent with his, could by their astonishing divine force arouse the candidate to consciousness of his superior nature. This was the noblest and most impressive revelation then possible to Egyptian man, and still possible, albeit through other ways, to modern man."

Paul Brunton, A Search in Secret Egypt, 1936