Hypnotic Formula

The secret ingredients within the hypnotic formula for results are Belief, Imagination, Conviction and Expectation.

The combination of these ingredients within both subject and guide can either inhibit or insure the hypnotic state, and it is therefore imperative that they be understood.

Belief – “Whatever a person believes will happen, will tend to come to pass if his/her own actions have anything to do with it.” This statement comes from thousands of years of examples, and one of today’s most common is the placebo effect. Research has found that with 85% of medications tested in conjunction with a placebo, the patient once given the belief that the drug will work, the belief causes it to work, even if it was a placebo. Most profound is the fact that the placebo, more often than not surpasses the actual medication in effectiveness.

Imagination – So wonderfully put, that the role of imagination in the hypnotic process, makes it the “holodeck” of the mind. This truly is the correct word to use. With imagination we can be anywhere, anytime, and create anything desired both known and unknown.

Expectation and Conviction – Having an association to each other, this states that one gets what they expect. Thereby, if one expects to be hypnotized, one will be, and not if they don’t. (I still believe that we are always in some form of trance.)

In Milton Erickson's old story about the "Tomato Plant", Erickson’s client had a dislike of hypnosis, and didn’t want anything to do with it. Yet with Erickson’s own conviction, and subtle way, he still produced results and helped the poor farmer by by-passing his conscious mind, and via metaphor, provided the hypnotic suggestion the farmer’s unconscious required to comfort the old soul.

Not everyone comes visiting a hypnotherapist with the above beliefs and convictions, so what is it that we do in order to re-adjust our clients belief structure. The answer is in the pre-induction interview.

Charles Tebbetts covers four main objectives for the pre-induction interview of which should remain at the forefront of every hypnotherapists mind when handling new clients.
These are, “Building and Maintaining Rapport, Allaying Fears, Building Mental Expectancy, and Gathering Information.”

Building and Maintaining Rapport:
Beginning with the first moment of contact, one must project a willingness to be a good listener, yet provide a sense of control showing that time will be productively spent.

Secondly, the image one projects should be one of professionalism, shown by one’s office, and oneself. Personally, I believe that when possible, the hypnotherapist should convey an impression that causes the client to think, “I like you, because you are similar to me; I trust you, so I’m willing, and wanting to learn from you. I further believe that if anyone can help me , it’s you.”

The office should be pleasant, relaxing, and professional.

One should get acquainted with the client, without appearing too friendly, and ensure that the time spent with the client remains uninterrupted.

Most importantly, maintain rapport throughout the relationship, because rapport lost is tough to regain.

Allaying Fears:
For an effective introduction to the newcomer of hypnosis, relaxation and beliefs play an integral role. The client’s fears must be alleviated, and his belief system re-educated.

In the words of Charles Tebbetts about allaying fears,
“The usual fears expressed by clients who are not familiar with hypnotism are that they will reveal their secrets, that they will be unable to come out of the trance, and that they will be made to do things they don’t want to do. Contrary to average beliefs, these fears are all unfounded. Although the conscious analytical mind is dormant during hypnosis, it is always functioning. A person can choose to lie when deeply hypnotized, and will not reveal any information he doesn’t want others to know. He can remember things he couldn’t remember consciously, but he chooses what he wishes to tell. He can come out of hypnosis any time he wishes, and if he chooses to remain hypnotized, he will eventually go to sleep, and awaken as usual. He will also refuse to do anything that he doesn’t want to do. He will do things while in hypnosis that he wouldn’t do otherwise, but only those things that he doesn’t mind doing”.

These fears are all very real, and without personally experiencing the event of formalized hypnosis, one’s mind will remain fixed, holding onto such thoughts.
To educate the client, the effective use of suggestibility tests is essential to minimizing fears of hypnosis, as well as, building mental expectancy. These tests provide the client with personal experience, the knowledge that they are in control, and that it is their very own mind when used in a special way that causes the effects presented with such tests.

By providing hypnotic suggestibility tests, and revealing to one’s clients that all hypnosis is self hypnosis, then further explaining that imagination is the language of the unconscious, we in turn teach our clients how to communicate effectively with their unconscious minds.

The final step is in further explaining that one of the primary goals is to help them “claim the power of choice”, by teaching them how to get the unconscious to accept the choices of the conscious mind, or to attain their ideal empowerment.

Building Mental Expectancy:
This is best put in the words of the late Charles Tebbetts:
“The fact that the client chose to come to you suggests that he recognized you as a hypnotist. Your own confidence in your ability to guide him into hypnosis is your greatest asset for building the client’s expectancy. The statement, ‘If you can follow my simple directions, no power on earth can prevent you from becoming hypnotized’, suggests to the client that you are capable of doing your part and that it is up to him to do his. Inform him that all hypnosis is self hypnosis, and that you are an expert in guiding him into the trance state. Always project the attitude that a good hypnotist never fails. It is only the subject (client) who can fail.”

These few words alone, “If you can follow my simple directions, no power on earth can prevent you from becoming hypnotized”, combined with the hypnotist’s confidence and conviction builds it all.

Gathering Information:
Here we have the final step, which provides the hypnotist with the information required to create an easy hypnotic induction, and the information required to help the client achieve what he desires.

The types of questions to have answered before the hypnotic induction are as follows:
Have you ever been, or made the attempt to be hypnotized? If so, when, how, why and if it was helpful?

Never assume, always ask what the client hopes to accomplish.

If there is a medical problem, ask for a medical referral, and advise that pain is a warning sign.

Ask about the client’s history and development of the challenge, and if the client believes there is anything else relevant to the matter at hand.

Ask about a client’s ability to visualize, and whether they have any phobias.

Let the client know if you will be using any touch techniques, and find out if they are comfortable with them.

Then there are standard questions, which might be pertinent to the work to be done. These relate to marital status, family and medical background.

Most importantly, the question I believe should always come first is why they want a change, and how it will serve them. The answer to these questions lets the hypnotist know whether the desire, and conviction to change is present before any time is wasted.

The reader might wonder how belief, and conviction are instrumental in inducing a hypnotic trance.

Words have the power to produce associative conditioning, and belief is based on experiential conditioning, it can therefore be stated that when the sensory spiral of belief is cumulative, it leads to hypnotic conviction.
“Conviction of hypnosis leads to hypnosis”.

West states, “When there occurs a marked narrowing of focus of awareness on a particular aspect of reality, to the exclusion of much of the rest (as in the initiation of hypnotic trance), then sensory data (verbal suggestions) taken in through an open channel (rapport) become effective because they are not subjected to ordinary reality testing."
It is precisely for this reason that post hypnotic suggestions can be carried out. The degree of effectiveness of a post hypnotic suggestion is based on the degree of suspension of cortical discrimination.

Arnold states, “The connection of the hippocampal action circuit (which seems to be the repository of neuronal mechanisms that preserve the stream of consciousness) which mediates recall of the memory image together with the diffuse thalamic system allows the inhibition of irrelevant impulses from the visual area and thus prevents a correction of the hallucinations by the visual impression – as long as the single-minded concentration lasts he is incapable of seeing any incongruity either in his actions or perceptions.”

Thus, if a hypnotic suggestion seems to be a certainty, because of belief and conviction, it has the power to effect an appropriate response in the organism. Conviction consists of two types, one of which is based on pooling present and past information. In this type, the brain functions logically because the validation results from past and present circumstances which are real. The other type, hypnotic or nonvalidated conviction, requires no checking against stored information because the suggestions are accepted with a literalness as if they are real.

Briefly, then, a hypnotic induction procedure makes full use of cortical and subcortical mechanisms. The hypnotic induction technique, regardless of the methodology, provides the validation necessary for acceptance of beliefs.

Hypnotic susceptibility also has a high content of thought-out conviction. For instance, if a person expects to be hypnotized by someone in a prestigious position, the expectancy level is raised.

In summary, the ability to achieve hypnosis is often based on a single “learned” response, and once it has been achieved it is easy to develop more complex responses. The induction of hypnosis results from conditions which preclude logical thinking. If an individual has the conviction that he has been hypnotized, then further beliefs wholly or partially unrelated to reality are accepted as convictions. Stated simply, acceptance of hypnosis allows acceptance of all that follows, provided that the beliefs do not mobilize critical attitudes.

First, cortical awareness is required to establish the sensory meaningfulness of the stimuli leading to hypnosis. This, in turn, allows the summation of convictions to gain control over critical faculties. Now, with reality held in abeyance, information that cannot be checked can be directly implanted to produce appropriate responses.

So given the above-mentioned information, one would assume that conviction is a necessary faculty to the induction of hypnosis. More correctly put, levels of hypnosis are natural mental states learned from birth, and further developed through life growth, and re-achieved via personal re-associations.

Milton Erickson has studied if not hundreds but thousands of somnambulistic subjects, many of which required a great many hours of training to achieve certain hypnotic phenomena. At the same time, Mr. Erickson has experienced (in public settings), many instances in which subjects lacking conviction, and for that matter any belief in hypnosis, suddenly developing a somnambulistic trance. One such example can be found on pg. 41 of the Collected Papers of Milton Erickson, Vol. 1.

“Similarly the nontrance state of concentration can be contrasted with a deep somnambulistic trance suddenly induced in willing subjects by measures not consciously recognizable by them. For example a woman intensely concentration on her own understandings aggressively mounted the speaker’s platform and interrupted the author’s lecture by assertively declaring, “I dare you to put me into a trance because there is no such thing as hypnosis. “ The author replied with complete simplicity, “Oh, I wouldn’t dare. That’s what you will have to do all by yourself”, and turned back to the audience and continued his lecture, thereby rendering the woman completely vulnerable psychologically by virtue of the fact that his reply had left her with no target for her aggression except herself. As a result, in a few moments the woman developed a deep, recognizable, somnambulistic trance as was apparent to the various observant students of hypnosis present. As the author continued his lecture, she merely stood immobile, eyes unblinking, totally unresponsive until the author turned to her and asked her if she were willing to demonstrate hypnotic phenomena. She agreed readily and proved to be an excellent demonstration subject. When aroused from the trance, she expressed bewilderment at her presence on the speaker’s platform. She was subsequently informed of the sequence of events by friends present at that lecture. She expressed simple unconcerned disbelief in their accounts, neither arguing nor protesting, not even asking for any further information. She simply dismissed their jointly proffered information by stating that she would like to be hypnotized some time.”


Dave Elmans Perspective:
Similar to Milton H. Erickson, Mr. Dave Elman was ahead of the rest when it came to his knowledge of hypnosis. Many people of his time believed that fixation was the only manner of attaining hypnosis, but Elman believed that any method could be used to attain hypnosis, provided the operator had a good understanding of how to utilize hypnotic suggestion in order to attain the desired result.

That desired result is, the bypassing of the critical faculty, and establishing selective thinking as previously mentioned.

Both the bypassing of the critical faculty and establishment of selective thinking can be accomplished in one easy step simply by asking someone to imagine something, and informing her that as long as she maintain the attention on the thought presented, nothing else will bother her. This provides the subject something to focus her attention upon, and at the same time bypasses her critical faculty because what happens within the mind, is real to that person at that time, whether it be going for a swim, lying under the stars, or going for a country drive. So long as the person accepts and experiences something that isn’t real, the critical faculty is bypassed, and if the focus of attention is maintained on the thought, selective thinking has been established.

The key to the effect is, belief in what is stated, such as, “so long as you keep (doing what you’re doing), nothing else will bother you”, so the suggestion should be provided convincingly with an intention of fact.

Other means of inducing the hypnotic state would be fixation, monotony, rhythm, levitation, and imitation, and I believe that all the methods are worthy of attention, and have their place in the hypnotist’s arsenal. It is my belief to use whatever works, and if something is already in place, such as a rhythm of some kind whether it be auditory, or physically, go with it in order to stick with the rapport already present. The reason most hypnotists in years past have failed is because of being too rigid in their beliefs. Go with the flow and use what works, if a person is already focused, guide him or her further in, no sense in stopping a rock from falling, if your intent is to make it drop way down, deeper, ...and deeper, that's right...

For those of you that would like a live example, we have a hypnotic induction program with two wonderful inductions that you can practice and learn from, and since they are set with some nice soft music in the background for a period of thirty minutes each you can use them for your own hypnotic work, so have a look here below.

Hypnotic Inductions - Only $24.95
In this series you get two inductions along with their respective scripts and complete explanations of how to proceed and what to look for. The inductions provided are the classic Dave Elman type which I configured as described in this website, as well as a Progressive relaxation induction. Both inductions are recorded upon a background of soft hypnotic music which continues for about twenty minutes before ending so that you can even use them as your own personal induction for personal trancework when desired.

email: dr_frank@hypnoticadvancements.com

Mailing address:
Dr. Frank Valente Ph.D.(c)
Hypnotic Advancements
3126 McCarthy Court
Mississauga , ON
Canada L4Y-3Z5

© 2004, Dr. Frank Valente Ph.D.(c)

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