Catalepsy

Catalepsy is a term used when a person is in whole, or in part fixed rigidly without movement in space, and is but one of the many hypnotic phenomena at one's disposal. In everyday life it is an unconscious occurrence, and often happens during the course of a conversation. For example, a person might dip into her dinner, and then as she lifts her utensil to eat, stops in mid-air to continue a conversation. Consciously, the person temporarily forgets about the arm holding the utensil, and it remains fixed in the air awaiting further direction. Catalepsy exists when there is a balanced tonicity between the antagonist and agonist muscles.

The relationship of catalepsy to healing is more of an indirect occurrence. Primarily, when one all of a sudden learns that they can have certain things happen to their body such as attaining a cataleptic arm, they become more open to the possibility of controlling other aspects of their physiology.

A very common use of catalepsy is that of analgesia, and or anesthesia which often comes arm in hand with catalepsy. Having this, the subject learns that she just created a lack of sensation in a part of her body willingly, so, the possibility of eliminating or reducing pain comes to light offering a world of unknown hypnotic possibilities.

Michael D. Yapko ("Trancework, 1990, pg. 281, 283, 283) states:
"Catalepsy is defined as the inhibition of voluntary movement associated with an intense focusing on a specific stimulus. The degree to which the client is focused on the associations triggered by the clinician is the degree to which the client can demonstrate cataleptic responses. Such responses may include a fixed gaze, general immobility, the "waxy flexibility" usually associated with the catatonic patient who maintains her limbs in whatever position the clinician places them, muscular rigidity, unconscious movements, and the slowing of basic physical processes such as breathing, blinking, and swallowing. Catalepsy must be considered one of the most basic features of trance, for it is associated directly or indirectly with virtually every other trance phenomenon. Catalepsy is the result of focusing on a new and different reality, whatever it may be, and thus paves the way to let go of the "old" reality long enough to create a therapeutic experience of age regression, analgesia, sensory distortions, or whatever."
Have a look through Dr. Yapko's website, the man is true genius.

Therapeutic purposes for obtaining catalepsy as a response are numerous, but can be described in two general ways. Catalepsy can either serve to facilitate further trance involvement through the client's recognition of her own unconscious mind's ability to respond in automatic ways, or as a target response in itself. Catalepsy as a target response may be used, for example, to assist any patient whose movements must be minimal in order to recover more quickly and comfortably. As a facilitator of further trance experience, catalepsy can be a basis for securing and maintaining attention (thus an inducer), facilitating greater independent activity of the unconscious mind and increasing the degree of involvement or focus of the client (thus a hypnotic deepener).

Catalepsy doesn’t in itself facilitate unconscious transderivational searches, but can be used as a measurable gauge of hypnosis and its depth, or of the client’s progress with her own unconscious work.

As a gauge for hypnosis, it is very useful to know that catalepsy is part and parcel a by-product of deep trance, and attainable at medium trances as well.

As a gauge for unconscious processing, it operates as a handy guide for the hypnotherapist to know how far along his client is with unconscious processing. An example of the hypnotic language I might use would be “Now I want you to lower your hand only as quickly as your unconscious can come up with a dozen new possibilities that could provide you with ‘x’” (where “x” would be the problem behavior’s highest intention).

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Dr. Frank Valente Ph.D.(c)
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© 2004, Dr. Frank Valente Ph.D.(c)

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