How to Use Hypnosis and Self-Hypnosis to Make a Motion Picture, Stage, or Television Drama Come Alive

How to Use Hypnosis or Self Hypnosis to Make a Motion Picture, Stage, or Television Drama Come Alive

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Even the most dramatic special effects in motion pictures such as Avatar make use of just the two senses of sight and sound. But in hypnosis or self-hypnosis, your entire being can become so involved in the events portrayed that you feel like you are part of the action instead of part of the audience. If you are among the imaginatively and experientially gifted who respond well to suggestion, get ready for some exciting new experiences!

Steps

1. Prepare yourself ahead of time. You can either use self-hypnosis or have someone else hypnotize you. Since you want to be as responsive as possible, it may be helpfulfor you or your hypnotist to use a hyperempiric[1] induction, based on suggestions of alertness, mind expansion, and enhanced awareness and sensitivity, instead of a more traditional hypnotic induction based on expressed or implied suggestions of drowsiness, lethargy, and sleep (Gibbons, 2000, 2001, 2010).
   
2. Structure your suggestions to make sure that you include all the major dimensions of experience. These include: Beliefs, Emotions, Sensations and physical perceptions, Thoughts and images, Motives, and Expectations, which can be summed up by their initials, "BEST ME," as in this illustration.
   
   • (B) The presentation you are about to see will be one of the most interesting and thrilling experiences of your life, because you are going to feel like you are part of the action instead of part of the audience. But any time you want to, you can let yourself out the experience just by touching your thumb and index finger together in a circle, to make the letter "o," which will immediately return you to an everyday state of consciousness.
     
   • (E) You will be able to feel just as much of the excitement and emotion as you want to, but never more than you want to feel.
     
   • (S) The experience will be so real to you that it will involve all five of your senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell.
     
   • (T) Your mind will be filled with amazement at how real everything around you seems to be.
     
   • (M) And you will want to experience more adventures like this again and again.
     
   • (E) Now, your anticipation and excitement is going to get stronger and stronger until the performance begins, and when it is over you will always remember it fondly as one of the most enjoyable experiences you have ever had.
     
   
   
3. You can also use these techniques to re-live a favorite part of a performance you have already seen. A person who enjoyed the motion picture, Sea Biscuit, for example, might be able to derive a considerable amount of satisfaction in hypnosis or self-hypnosis by riding the horse to victory, with considerable elaboration to capture the full detail and excitement of the race as it progresses, using suggestions such as these:
   
   • Belief systems. You are a jockey mounted astride Sea Biscuit, ready to ride him to victory in the race of his life.
     
   • Emotions. Feel the excitement in both you and Sea Biscuit rise to a fever pitch in the starting gate as the race is about to begin.
     
   • Sensations and physical perceptions. See the assembled throng cheering you on as the race begins, and hear their roars of approval mixing with the sound of hooves all around you, as you feel Sea Biscuit giving his all in just the right manner which will lead you to final victory.
     
   • Thoughts and images. You already know are headed for a certain success, which will provide memories and inspiration to last a lifetime.
     
   • Motives. As you approach the finish line, your desire for the inevitable triumph rises to an intensity stronger than anything you have ever known before.
     
   • Expectations. You cross the finish line, dismount, and walk your steed to the winner’s circle to bask in the glory of your victory. And the triumph you have just experienced will be but echoed in the satisfaction you feel in the future in the fulfillment of a job well done.
     
   
   
4. If you are able to enjoy hypnosis and hyperempiria as a form of experiential theater, the entire range of life’s fulfillments and adventures are yours to experience just as if they were happening right now.
   
   • For example, you may be able to experience YouTube postings to find out what what it would feel like to receive a Nobel Prize, win an international beauty pageant, or be crowned a British monarch, or elected President of the United States.
     
   • If you prefer fictional adventures, you could experience DVD presentations to feel as if you actually are Juliet on her balcony, or Indiana Jones in pursuit of hidden treasure, or Dr. Who and his companion traveling through time. The choice is yours!
     
   
   
5. At the conclusion of the experience, it may be terminated by providing the appropriate suggestions in the links cited in Step 1.
   

Tips

1. Not everyone is among the experientially gifted elite who are able to respond well to suggestion (Spiegel, 1974). But many people can derive at least some benefit from these procedures. (We can't all be Fred Astaire or Ginger Rogers, but most of us like to dance!)
   
2. Be sure to include suggestions for canceling the experience as described above if for any reason it should become unpleasant and you need an "escape hatch" (Phillips, 2007).
   

Warnings

1. Do not attempt to use any form of enhanced experience ("hyperempiria") to undergo a scary or frightening episode such as a horror movie, or anything else which you may be afraid of.
   
2. Do not attempt to utilize hypnosis or hyperempiria for any form of psychotherapy unless you are professionally qualified to do so.
   

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Sources and Citations

• Gibbons, D. E. (2005, August). Kicking it up a notch: Multimodal hyperempiria. Paper presented at: the annual meeting of Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, Charleston, SC.
  
• Gibbons, D. E. (2003, July). The Best Me technique for constructing hypnotic suggestions. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the British Societies of Medical, Clinical, Dental, and Experimental Hypnosis: Royal Society of Medicine, London.
  
• Gibbons, D. E. (2001). Experience as an art form: Hypnosis, hyperempiria, and the Best Me Technique. New York, NY: Authors Choice Press.
  
• Gibbons, D. E. (2000). Applied hypnosis and hyperempiria. Lincoln, NE: Authors Choice Press (originally published 1979 by Plenum Press).
  
• Gibbons, D. E., & Lynn, S. J. (2010). Hypnotic inductions: A primer. In Ruhe, J. W., Lynn, S. J., & Kirsch, I. (Eds.) Handbook of Clinical Hypnosis, 2nd ed. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
  
• Phillips, B. D. (2007). Tranceplay: Experimental approaches to interactive drama involving experiential trance. Journal of Interactive Drama, 2(1), pp. 15-55.
  
• Spiegel, H. (1974). The grade 5 syndrome: The highly hypnotizable person. International Journal of clinical and experimental hypnosis, 22(4), 303-319.
  

1. ↑ www.hyperempiria.com

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Hypnosis: Reincarnation, Co-Incarnation, Intercarnation, or Experiential Theater?

As a scientist-practitioner who has been rigorously trained in the methods of experimental psychology, I frankly do not know whether or not reincarnation exists, though half the world believes in it. After reviewing the experimental evidence, Lynn and Kirsch (2006, p. 204) flatly state, "In summary, hypnotically induced past-life experiences are fantasies constructed from available clinical narratives about past lives and known or surmised facts regarding historical periods, as well as cues present in the hypnotic situation." But it is also true that we cannot "prove a negative." That is, we cannot conclusively demonstrate that something does not exist, somewhere and in some form, because it is impossible to investigate all the possibilities.

There is an old Chinese saying which goes, "It doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice." From a constructivist point of view, since we can never fully know what "truth" is, if one particular set of beliefs helps a client towards a well-adjusted life and a more comfortable view of the world, then so be it. Personally, I would not hesitate to take clients to whatever form of alternate lifetime they would like to visit if it will help them to feel better and make sense of their present existence. In the words of one correspondent who had previously been to several therapists of varying orientations (including past-life regression) without success, "It was the absolute professionalism, kindness and profound patience from my regression therapist that enabled me to trust enough to release my fears."

But another interpretation is also possible. If we are willing to conceptualize hypnosis as a form of experiential theater based upon "believed-in imaginings," then that is "a cat of a different color" which will allow us to account for both the experiential and the experimental evidence -- and we can catch a lot of mice with it!

When they are taken to see their first motion picture, very young children have to be cautioned, as I was, "It's only a movie," so that they can enter into the spirit of the narrative without becoming unduly excited or upset. If we think of hypnosis as a form of experiential theater, we can experience an event "inside and out," not merely with the two senses of sight and hearing, with an absorption so complete that it allows us to work with the ultimate art form -- human experience itself!

See also:

My Life as a Chicken: Implications for Hypnosis

Sources and Citations

Lynn, S. J., & Kirsch, I.(2006). Essentials of clinical hypnosis: An evidence-based approach. Washington, D.C: American Psychological Association.

Gibbons, D. E. (2001). Experience as an art form: Hypnosis, hyperempiria, and the Best Me Technique. San Jose, CA: Authors Choice Press.

Gibbons, D. E. (2000). Applied hypnosis and hyperempiria.. Lincoln, NE: Authors Choice Press (originally published 1979 by Plenum Press).

Gibbons, D. E. (1999, August). Experience as an art form: Alternative paradigm for hypnosis? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco.

Gibbons, D. E., & Lynn, S. J.(2000) Hypnotic inductions: A primer. In Ruhe, J. W., Lynn, S. J., & Kirsch, I. (Eds.) Handbook of clinical hypnosis, 2nd ed. Washington, DC: American Psychological Assn. pp. 257-291.