Several years ago, when I was discussing the topic of hypnosis and reincarnation in an Introductory Psychology class, I mentioned that it was just as easy to suggest to people who respond well to suggestion that they are a chicken as it is to suggest that they are regressing to a past lifetime. On the spur of the moment, I asked a student who had volunteered in a previous demonstration if she would be willing to help me illustrate the point. She readily agreed, and at the conclusion of an induction, I told her that I would count backwards from ten to one, and that at the count of one she would be turned into a chicken.
"You will always be able to hear and to respond to my voice," I continued, "and I will return you to your normal state in a few minutes, before I bring you out of hypnosis. But until I do, you will experience the world exactly as if you had been turned into a chicken. You will remember everything I have said, and it will be a thoroughly enjoyable experience that you will enjoy telling to others. Okay?"
She nodded her agreement, and I counted slowly backwards from ten to one, providing suggestions along the way that she could feel herself changing into a chicken, and at the count of one I announced that she had become a chicken. "Would you like to open your eyes and walk around a bit?" I asked. She did so, walking slowly as I grabbed hold of her extended elbow. "Why are you walking like that?" I asked.
"I'm a chicken," she croaked in a high voice, much to the amusement of the class.
I told her to stop walking and close her eyes once more, counted from one to ten to restore her to her usual perceptions, and then concluded the hypnotic demonstration. "If I had told her that she was re-entering a previous life, and if she believed in reincarnation," I concluded, "it would have been just as easy."
Demonstrations such as this, while real to the participant, provide insight into what Martin Orne has termed "trance logic," a logic similar to that which is often found in dreams. Orne demonstrated that genuinely hypnotized high-responsive subjects could be distinguished from simulators if, after being given an induction, they were told to open their eyes and describe the back of a chair in which a man was sitting. The simulators, after opening their eyes, stated that they could not describe the back of the chair because there was a man sitting in it. The hypnotized subjects, on the other hand, proceeded to describe their perception of it. Hence, it is possible for a hypnotized volunteer to "talk" (or at least intelligibly cluck!) at the same time that she is subjectively experiencing life as a chicken.
Young children (especially those with "cool" parents who encourage this kind of active imagination) often have this kind of involvement as part of their natural play life. Kelley Woods described it as, "Rather like when my son was small and, living in his delightful trance state, had no limits on his imagination...he thrilled at becoming a dog, a car, a monster! . . .I love reminding clients of similar "resource states" and once the door is opened, they can go there at will."
Adults, however, usually need what Michael Ellner called the "transformational magic" of an induction in order to attain this degree of imaginative involvement. With sufficient experiential training in hyperempiria, we should be able to experience any number of transformative experiences, and determine their dimensions.
Once this door is opened, adults should be able to imagine even more transformational things than children can. With our adult ability to conceptualize, and with sufficient experiential training using hyperempiria and the Best Me technique, we can build an almost unlimited number of resource states, with an almost unlimited number of dimensions. Infinity? No problem. Beyond eternity? Check. Or, in the words of the mystical poet William Blake, "Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour?" Hang on, here we go. . . ..
See also:
For more information, see the following print sources:
Gibbons, D. E., & Lynn, S. J. (2010). Hypnotic inductions: A primer. in S. J. Lynn, J. W. Rhue, & I. Kirsch (Eds.) Handbook of clinical hypnosis, 2nd ed. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, pp. 267-291.
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 S. J. Lynn, J. W. Rhue, & I. Kirsch (Eds.) Handbook of clinical hypnosis, 2nd ed. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association (pp. 267-291).
