HYPNOSIS AND LIFE SCRIPTS

“TA” (Transactional Analysis) therapists follow a concept they call “Life Scripts.” They believe that individuals are given a “script” to follow, that, if painful and not changed, will cause that individual to act in ways that are self-defeating. “You can’t drink kid, you can’t drink until you are a man.”

That kind of message can translate unconsciously into: “To be a man, I have to drink.” Here is the implantation of a suggestion that may take such firm hold that the individual ends up an alcoholic. In fact, the “TA” people contend that this is not uncommon. Another way of looking at this example would be: The words used caused the individual to fill in his own meaning.

This meaning became a post-hypnotic suggestion, which he later carries out successfully…by becoming a drunk.

One case reported by a therapist was of a homosexual who, as a young boy, had been told, “Don’t you ever do that [the ‘that’ being getting caught playing doctor] with girls.” He was then beaten with a strap. The boy translated this transaction into, “It is bad to do this with girls, but it is OK to do it with boys.” Years later he is labeled “homosexual” as a result of being such a good hypnotic subject.

In the above examples of the alcoholic and the homosexual, we can find something important to consider. As a result of what I call hypnotic transactions, those individuals learned to believe certain ideas. From their ideas, they learned to behave in ways that some would label painful. Before we go forward, I would like to take you back…to our friend, the waiter.

Several months after the incident I described, I returned to that restaurant with several friends. As fate would have it, we were given a table in his section. When he came to get our order, he stopped, stared at me, and said, “Don’t I know you from somewhere?” I replied, “I came here often in the past.” He accepted this explanation and went about his business. I explained to my friends what I had done with him in the past. We all agreed he was a friendly and cheerful person. Toward the end of our meal, he came by and asked us if we wanted anything else. Several of us ordered coffee.

He returned holding the coffee pot, stopped, stared, smiled, and said, “Now I know who you are. I still don’t know how you knew about all of that.” With that he sat down in an empty chair and began to tell us about how I had reminded him of a certain girl, and now they were engaged. After he finished, I attempted to explain to him what I had done, but he wouldn’t believe it. He continued to insist that I had inside information.

Remember now…that when I had “talked funny” to him, he was holding a coffee pot in his hand. Part of what I had said involved the feeling of warmth. In a way I could have never predicted, his mind had made an instant connection to the coffee pot, the incident, the feelings, and me. In short, a one trial learning experience. Seeing me only triggered a small part

of the experience. The coffee pot triggered the whole thing. We could call the whole transaction a learning experience. It may have been a weird one, but a learning experience nonetheless. As a point of fact, there are many hypnosis researchers who contend that all learning takes place in a state that is very much like a hypnotic one. Some would even say that learning and hypnosis are merely two different words that describe the same thing.

2 + 2 = HYPNOSIS

Now, if someone were to ask you to add 2 + 2, I am confident that you would respond with the correct answer. If you were asked how you knew the answer, you might reply that you learned it as a child. In other words, the question itself caused you to go back into your personal history and find the “proper” associational connection. You would have done that instantly, without conscious awareness of the process. Another way of stating the 2 + 2 example might be as follows: When you were a child, an individual who was an authority figure—called a teacher—stood in front of your class.

S/he wrote on a blackboard 2 + 2 = 4, and verbally repeated that information many times. In addition, s/he asked the class to remember the answer so that when you were asked to add 2 + 2, you would automatically respond, 4. We might agree that the above transaction could be given the labels: teaching and learning. If we examine the transaction more carefully, and from a different perspective, we might also agree that it bears a striking resemblance to the classical definition of “hypnotic suggestion” and “post-hypnotic response.” Now…think about the waiter and his pot of coffee and his response. It is as if the pot of coffee had become the trigger (just like the question about 2 + 2) which caused him to go back into his personal history and find the “answer.” In this case, the answer was to respond to me with full memory, etc.

Now, speaking of stage hypnosis, a volunteer is brought up on the stage and put into “that” state, and told repeatedly that when s/he hears the snapping of the hypnotist’s fingers, s/he will respond by singing Dixie. The hypnotist then snaps his/her fingers and the subject responds with the “right answer” by singing Dixie. Ask yourself…NOW…other than the shorter time factor involved, what is the difference between “learning” 2 + 2 = 4 and the transaction between the stage hypnotist and the subject?

The stage hypnotist now chooses another volunteer and suggests that when a red light is turned on, the subject will raise her left hand. Several

minutes later, the hypnotist turns on the red light, and the subject raises her left hand. So what?! We could call that an example of a post-hypnotic suggestion.

You are driving down a busy street, listening to the radio, and deep into your own thoughts. Suddenly, a traffic light turns red and—guess what? You stop (hopefully) without thought and almost automatically. You might call your action a “conditioned response,” and you might contend that it is different from the stage hypnotist red light example. Yet, if the red light/hand raising suggestion and response were repeated several times, you might imagine what the subject would do whenever she saw a red light.

In addition to the definitions of hypnotic transactions and communication you have read thus far, I would like to add: hypnosis is a form of education.

Ideas, beliefs, possibilities, fantasies, and much more, may be “suggested”

and, if accepted, and acted upon several times, they may become a conditioned part of your behavior. In addition, under certain circumstances, a conditioned response can be established in one trial without repetition, and without “practice.” Again, think about the waiter. We never “practiced”

his response, or my “suggestion,” and yet months later, he responded. It is my belief that all behaviors, useful or not, are learned via some kind of hypnotic transaction.