AND STACKING REALITIES
This section was heavily influenced by the book “TRANCE-FORMATIONS” by Richard Bandler and John Grinder. I highly recommend that you seek out a copy of this book in order to become even more proficient at these five kinds of induction. I also recommend that you look into the works of Milton H. Erickson and of Anthony Jacquin.
In this section I shall share five kinds of inductions: Leverage Inductions, Pattern Interruption, Overload, Personal Power, and Stacking Realities.
Use suggestions while having a person put and hold their arm in the air. People do not normally hold their arm in the air without reason. Ask, “May I borrow your arm for a moment?”3 Slightly shake the arm as you hold it in the air and it will become cataleptic.
You are now well on your way to inducing trance. Simply tell them that as their arm slowly lowers, they will go deeper and deeper into trance…just as fast…or as slow…as their arm moves downward.
In a Leverage Induction, you have the subject take an action outside of normal
parameters and then “leverage” this action into a trance state. Arm catalepsy is great for this, because you can raise the person’s arm and hold it there until you feel it going cataleptic.
PATTERN INTERRUPTION
The most classic, in my opinion, form of a Pattern Interruption is the Handshake Interrupt. This technique is used by many professionals, both in the hypnosis field and the hypnotherapy field. NLP, in my opinion, boosted the awareness of Handshake Interrupts and after modeling several proficient masters, Neurolinguistic Programmers were able to come up with better and better solutions to the Handshake Interruption. Milton H. Erickson is often cited as one of the geniuses that helped Bandler and Grinder to create their version of the Handshake Interrupt.
“Hi my name is…” then reach out to shake the client’s hand. But then lift up your left hand and grab their wrist gently, lift their hand up near their face and point to their palm with your right forefinger. Then tell them to look at their hand. Tell them to “consider carefully all the color changes and shadows that occur. Study the lines and creases with interest as you allow your arm to drift down slowly.”4
Pattern Interruption Inductions could be considered a variation or subset of Leverage Inductions. Take any process that is automatic in culture or for the specific person you are dealing with, and interrupt the process. This creates an “open loop” where they are waiting for you to “close the loop”. In other words, you have started something, and now the client needs it finished.
By interrupting a handshake, you get the subject to wonder what is going to happen next, and you gently guide them to what they are to do in order to close the open loop. They will comply because there is no reason for them to not comply…by complying they end the interrupt when you tell them so.
It is the same thing as if I were to start a story…Once upon a time there was a giant ogre and a friendly elf…but I don’t finish the story, I leave you hanging so to speak. Your mind then races for ways to end that story. Likewise, the subject’s mind will race for ways to end the pattern interrupt but before their mind can do that you are already telling them how to end the interrupt.
You will find a Pattern Interrupt discussed in “THE LIGHTER INTERRUPT 1” in this manuscript. In that specific scenario, you interrupt the pattern of smoking a cigarette. I have found this to be quite powerful.
Ask yourself the following question and write down as many answers as come to you over the next few days: “What are patterns or behaviors that I can interrupt to more easily leverage a trance in another person?”
OVERLOAD
“Whenever a person’s conscious processing is overloaded, you can pass information directly to the unconscious, and the person will respond to that information. The easiest way to overload someone’s attention is by having her pay attention to a complex internal experience”5
Overload Inductions can be very fast and very effective. They also slip by conscious filters and go directly to the unconscious/subconscious. Complex internal experiences can be used to overload the conscious mind and give your suggestions to the
subconscious. One way to overload the conscious mind is to make the conscious more and more aware of Sensory Memory or Sense Perception.
Sensory memory generally lasts anywhere from a nanosecond to a few seconds. Short term memory can handle seven (plus or minus two) items at once. Long-term memory is where short-term memories go when there is enough meaning, confusion, or other source of pushing into the long-term memory. We will be utilizing Sensory memory and Short Term Memory to overload the conscious mind.
Have the subject starting paying attention to details that are not generally kept track of by short term or long term memory. If you counted your blinking eyes every time you blinked, you’d be able to do little else. Focus attention on the person’s rate of breathing, their pulse, their blinking of their eyes, the movement of their eyes, the surface and internal temperature of their skin, their tone of voice inside their mind, and you will soon overload the conscious and be able to sneak in some subconscious
commands/directions/suggestions.
Here is another way of overloading the conscious: have the subject count back, out loud, from 200 by three’s. As they do that, you turn them, seated, in circles. Then you deliver the following suggestion: “If at any point you discover it is more comfortable for you to drop into a deep trance, do so with full realization you are in good hands.”6
Any time a person goes “on hold” is the time to offer them clear suggestions as to what to do next.
PERSONAL POWER
This is the direct form of inductions. You tell the subject to go into trance and they will go into trance. Of course, you have to be congruent and truly believe that this will work. You have to be congruent in your expectations. Simply tell the person “When I am done counting backwards from three, you will go into a trance.”
Using Personal Power can be easy for some and difficult for others. As Anthony Jacquin says “You must be THE HYPNOTIST”. In other words, they must know that you are capable of putting the subject into trance in any way you desire, and that this time you simply desire them to go into trance by telling them so.
STACKING REALITIES
This is a variation on the Overload Induction. Embed story inside story inside story inside story inside story until the conscious mind is overloaded. The stories you tell can each be about induction or relaxation or whatever you want to accomplish. Deliver induction messages throughout the stories. You can also use quotes to help remain congruent and to relate specific trance phenomena throughout the entire story of stories.
“Soon a client gives up trying to keep track of which reality I’m talking about. Inside of those realties, I can then embed a process instruction to make changes.”7
In order to be effective at Stacking Realities Inductions you must have Personal Power and Rapport with the subject.