Hypnosis is Easy When You Know How

Adapted from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

According to statistics available at the site, the following article has been read by over one million eight hundred thousand people and edited by over a thousand others. I have watched and participated in its development over the past few years, and can vouch for its accuracy and effectiveness. For additional information, see my book, Applied Hpnosis and Hyperempiria. 

It is easy to hypnotize a person who wants to be hypnotized because all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. The hypnotist merely functions as a guide or a personal trainer to help you to focus the power of your imagination more effectively. The progressive relaxation method presented here is one of the easiest to learn and to use.^[1]

Part 1 of 6: Before Hypnosis

1. 1
   Make sure that your partner clearly understands what you are going to do and when he or she is going to get out of it.
   • Keep in mind what you say to the partner before. The introduction is just as important, and perhaps even more important, than what you say during the hypnosis itself. How well people respond to hypnosis depends not only on their ability to respond to suggestion, but also on their beliefs and expectations about hypnosis and their trust and confidence in the person providing the suggestions.
2. 2
   Ask your partner if he/she has been hypnotized before, and inquire what the experience was like. If they have, ask them what they had been told to do and how they responded. This will give you an idea of how responsive the partner is likely to be to your own suggestions, and perhaps what things in the procedure that you should avoid.
3. 3
   Tell the partner ahead of time that he/she will clearly remember everything that happens. This serves as a "waking suggestion" which defines the experience in such a way that the partner is likely to remember everything, even if they otherwise might not. It is very useful in building trust, and in obtaining feedback when the session is over.
4. 4
   Reassure the partner that they cannot be made to do anything under hypnosis that they do not want to do.
5. 5
   Ask your partner to sit or lie down in a comfortable position in a dimmed room where you are not likely to be disturbed for a while. Turn off cell phones and pagers. Make sure that your partner is not so tired that he or she will be inclined to fall asleep.

Part 2 of 6: Induction

1. 1
   Ask your partner to close his or her eyes, and imagine being in a "happy place" where one can feel comfortable and secure, such as relaxing in a meadow beside a gently running stream. Elaborate on calming details of the place and make sure to note how calm and comfortable they feel in their place. And make sure the person will not laugh or be distracted
2. 2
   Speak slowly, in a low, soothing, "hypnotic" voice timed to your partner's breathing, with considerable elaboration and repetition far beyond the point of boredom in an ordinary conversation.
3. 3
   Ask your partner to relax all over, using words like these: "Just let your feet relax, and your legs relax. Feel your hips relaxing, and your waist relaxing. Feel your chest relaxing, and your arms relaxing. Your shoulders relaxing, and your neck and head relaxing. Feel your entire body relaxing, all over."
4. 4
   Ask your partner to feel themselves flying through the air, with the wind whipping their hair behind their head as they laugh with glee. No stress, no worries, no cares. Say that they land on a cloud and ask them to feel the softness of that cloud. This particular cloud is made out of pure relaxation. Tell them to feel themselves sinking down into that cloud, and the more they sink down, the more relaxed they feel, and the more of their stress and worries flow out. Tell them to just visualize the stress, worries and cares flowing out of them like a river and tell them to feel those feelings being replaced by relaxation.
5. 5
   Gradually change your instructions into suggestions which increase the strength of the feeling of relaxation. "You can feel yourself relaxing now. You can feel a heavy, relaxed feeling coming over you. And as I continue to talk, that heavy relaxed feeling will get stronger and stronger, until it carries you into a deep, peaceful state of hypnosis."
6. 6
   Using your partner's breathing and body language as a guide, gradually make your suggestions more directive, using suggestions similar to the following. Repeat the suggestions a few times, much as you might repeat the verses and choruses of a song, until your partner appears to be totally relaxed.
   • "Every word that I utter is putting you faster and deeper, and faster and deeper, into a deep, peaceful state of hypnosis."
   • "Sinking down, and shutting down. Sinking down, and shutting down. Sinking down, and shutting down, shutting down completely."
   • "And the deeper you go, the deeper you are able to go. And the deeper you go, the deeper you want to go, and the more enjoyable the experience becomes."
7. 7
   You can conclude your induction with words like: "Now you are resting comfortably in a deep, peaceful state of sleep, going deeper and faster and deeper and faster all of the time, until I bring you back. You will only accept those suggestions which are for your benefit, and that you are willing to accept."

Part 3 of 6: During Hypnosis

Provide positive suggestions which are specifically geared to achieving the goal. This will allow the partner to try out new attitudes, feelings, and behaviors which often are not voluntarily attainable. If the suggested changes are more adaptive than the old patterns after everything is taken into account, they will be retained. More than one hypnosis session may be necessary until the suggested changes are firmly rooted in the partner's life. Don't try to "scare" somebody into achieving their goal by dwelling on the consequences of failure, or by using "shoulds," "oughts," or "musts" in your suggestions. Research has conclusively shown that fear is a poor way to motivate people, and the side effects usually outweigh any possible benefits. Here are some examples of simple positive suggestions that you can elaborate on:

1. 1
   • "You will look back on this experience as a game-changer in your life which will turn each day into a thing of wondrous beauty."
   • "As a result of these suggestions, you will feel as if you are headed for a certain and predetermined success.."
   • "You will be able to act, think, and feel as if it were impossible to fail."

Part 4 of 6: Concluding the Session

This is easier than inducing it, because all you have to do is essentially ask your partner to stop imagining.

1. 1
   Begin by saying, "I'm going to count from one to five, and at the count of five you will be feeling wide awake, fully alert, and completely refreshed."
2. 2
   It's also helpful to suggest, "And as a result of this hypnotic experience, you will find many exciting changes taking place in your life, some of which you may already be aware of and some of which you may not yet realize." This provides the partner with an extra measure of encouragement to process and complete any constructive changes they are already working on.
3. 3
   Repeat for emphasis, "And as you continue to explore these deeper dimensions of experience, you will discover even more exciting changes taking place in your life, some of which you may be aware of and some of which you may not yet realize."
   • Suggestions of this type tend to serve as self-fulfilling prophecies, because the mind acts upon them in such a manner as to bring about the outcomes which have been suggested.
4. 4
   Start counting, interspersed with suggestions to the effect that the partner is waking up more and more, "and by the time I get to the count of five, you will be fully awake and feeling wonderful"

After Hypnosis

1. 1
   Discuss highlights of the session with the partner, and ask if there are any questions or if there is anything they would like to change.
2. 2
   Now you should be able to re-induce hypnosis more easily. If your partner has responded well, repeat the session using a shorter induction and go over the positive suggestions you gave previously.
   • A series of two or three short inductions is usually more effective than a single longer one. This also allows more opportunity for the partner to provide feedback.
   • At the conclusion of each session, suggest that whenever your partner is willing to be hypnotized by you in the future, they will be able to enter hypnosis faster and go deeper each time because of the practice they have had.
   • Always be sure to emphasize how good the partner is going to feel when the session is over, to insure that the experience is an enjoyable one.

EditMethod 6 of 6: Frequently Asked Questions

Prepare by familiarizing yourself with questions which are frequently asked by people who are about to experience hypnosis for the first time and the answers to them.^[2] It's good to have a general idea about how to answer questions like these ahead of time, because confidence and trust are so important in determining how a person is going to respond to your induction.

1. 1
   • What are you going to do? I will ask you to visualize some pleasant scenes, while I talk about how to use your own mental abilities more effectively. You can always refuse to do anything that you don't want to do, and you can always come out of the experience yourself if an emergency should come up.
   • What does it feel like to be in hypnosis? Most of us experience changes in our conscious awareness several times a day without realizing it. Any time you let your imagination go and just flow along with a piece of music or a verse of poetry, or get so involved in watching a movie or a television drama that you feel like you're part of the action instead of a part of the audience, you are experiencing a form of trance. Hypnosis is just a way of helping you to focus and define these changes in consciousness, in order to use your mental abilities more effectively.
   • Is it safe? Hypnosis is not an altered state of consciousness (as sleep is, for example), but an altered experience of consciousness, which is brought about by using suggestion to re-configure the properties of the imagination. And anything that can be imagined can be un-imagined just as easily.
   • If it's all just your imagination, then, what good is it? Don’t be confused by the tendency in English and many other languages to use the word "imaginary" as opposite in meaning to the word "real" -- and neither should it be confused with the term "image." The imagination is a very real group of mental abilities, whose potential we are just now beginning to explore, and which extends far beyond our ability to form mental images!
   • Can you make me do anything I don't want to do? When you're using hypnosis, you still have your own personality, and you're still you -- so you won't say or do anything that you wouldn't do in the very same situation without hypnosis, and you can easily refuse any suggestion that you don't want to accept. (That's why we call them "suggestions.")
   • What can I do in order to respond better? Hypnosis is very similar to letting yourself become absorbed in watching a sunset or the embers of a campfire, letting yourself flow with a piece of music or poetry, or feeling like you are part of the action instead of part of the audience when you are watching a movie. People who do not feel that they have been able to respond very well, on the other hand, sometimes find it difficult to relax in new situations. It all depends on your ability and willingness to go along with the instructions and suggestions that are provided.
   • What if I enjoy it so much that I don't want to come back? Sometimes you might not want a movie to end, because the movie is so enjoyable -- but you still come back to the real world, because you know it’s only a motion picture. Hypnotic suggestions are basically an exercise for the mind and the imagination, just like a movie script is. But you still come back to everyday life when the session is over, just like you come back at the end of a movie. However the hypnotist might need to try a couple times to pull you out. It is enjoyable being completely relaxed but you can't do much when hypnotized.
   • What if it doesn't work? Did you ever become so absorbed in your play as a child that you didn’t hear your mother’s voice calling you in for dinner? Or are you one of the many people who are able to wake up at a certain time each morning, just by deciding the night before that you are going to do so? We all have the ability to use our minds in ways we are not usually aware of, and some of us have developed these abilities more than others. If you just allow your thoughts to respond freely and naturally to the words and images as your guide, you'll be able to go wherever your mind can take you

EditWarnings

• Though many people have tried, post-hypnotic amnesia is notoriously unreliable as a means of protecting hypnotists from the consequences of their own misconduct. If you try to use hypnosis to get people to do things they would not normally be willing to do, they will usually just come out of hypnosis. If you are going to venture down this road, get them to agree to what you are going to do before the induction. Otherwise, they may never trust you again, tell everyone what you did, take you to court, or worse.
• Don't allow yourself to be fooled by the sensationalism of hypnosis in the mass media, which commonly leads people to believe that hypnotism allows anyone to make other people act like fools with a click of the fingers.
• Don't try regressing people to when they were young. If you want, tell them to 'act as if they were ten.' Some people have repressed memories which you really do not want to bring up (abuse, bullying etc.). They shut out these memories as a natural defense. Oddly, these people are often good at being hypnotized.
• Ask your partner if he or she has any questions about what has happened, and be prepared to answer them.
• Don't suggest anything that is against a person's morals or value systems, or that might be embarrassing to the partner, or anything that you wouldn't want someone to suggest to you.
• Recognize that there are dangers associated with hypnotizing someone; a subject successfully hypnotized is literally a subject to any stray comments they hear while under. Practice caution, and use 'single~speaker' diligently.
• Don't just sidle up to someone at the mall, or someone who is asleep, and try to hypnotize them on the sly. Though not impossible, it is extremely difficult to hypnotize someone covertly or against their will. Although covert approaches can work occasionally with an unsuspecting person who is caught by surprise, much more often than not, people will catch on to what you are trying to do. They will either laugh at you, or become angry for insulting their intelligence, and/or suspect that you have an ulterior motive and report you as a suspicious person.
• Don't try to use hypnosis to treat any physical or mental condition (including pain) unless you are a licensed professional who is properly qualified to treat these problems. Hypnosis should never be used by itself as a substitute for counseling or psychotherapy, or to rescue a relationship which is in trouble.
• Don't get hung up on technique. When something works dramatically with some people, and not as well as you want it to with others, this creates a "partial reinforcement" effect which may cause people to go from one book to another, or one training program or conference to another, in search of a "magic bullet" that is going to work with everyone. But despite claims to the contrary, most induction procedures work about equally well, and the differences in responsiveness are due to other factors. Decades of laboratory research involving hundreds of investigators have conclusively demonstrated that for everyone who responds poorly, you are statistically certain to find someone who responds so well that your perseverance in the use of hypnosis will be amply rewarded over time.^[3][4][5]

Edit

 Sources and Citations

1. ↑ 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. 267-292.
2. ↑ Gibbons, D. E. (2001). Experience as an art form: Hypnosis, hyperempiria, and the Best Me Technique. New York, NY: Authors Choice Press.
3. ↑ Hull, C. L.. (1933). Hypnosis and suggestibility: An experimental approach. New York: Appleton-Century.
4. ↑ Shor, R. E., & Orne, E. C. (1962). Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
5. ↑ Spiegel, H. (1974). The grade 5 syndrome: The highly hypnotizable person.International Journal of clinical and experimental hypnosis, 22(4), pp. 303-319.

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In other languages:

Italiano: Come Ipnotizzare Qualcuno, Deutsch: Jemanden hypnotisieren, Français: Comment hypnotiser quelqu'un, Português: Como Hipnotizar Alguém, Русский: загипнотизировать человека, Nederlands: Zo kun je iemand hypnotiseren, 中文: 将别人催眠

Multversal Meditation for Overcoming Existential Depression

In many cases, depression can  be overridden by suggested
experiences of beauty, wonder, and delight

(An earlier viersion of this posting was printed in the Journal of Experiential Trance, 2009, vol. 1 no. 1, pp.1-10, under the title, "Mystical Therapy." Reproduced by permission.)

Abstract:: This paper describes the induction of a series of suggestion-induced mystical experiences to reverse an ongoing depression and anhedonia, or the loss of the capacity to experience pleasure, and to re-institute a drive for high achievement. For the present purposes, a mystical experience may be defined as one which possesses a quality and an intensity which are not voluntarily attainable in every life.

Hyperempiria, or “enhanced experience” (Gibbons, 2001, 2003) may be used not only for induction procedures based upon suggestions of increased responsiveness, but also for a wide variety of experientially-based procedures for the facilitation of personal growth and behavioral change. Hyperempiria can be attained either by the use of an explicitly hyperempiric induction, based on suggestions of increased alertness, mind expansion, and enhanced awareness and responsiveness, or by a more traditional induction if it results in a sufficiently high degree of involvement, as in the present illustration.

I like to express my suggestions using what I refer to as the Best Me Technique, to involve one's whole person in a suggested event. Every letter in "Best Me" corresponds with an element of suggestion, and these elements can be applied in a variety of ways: to place oneself or another person into hypnosis, to pre-experience the accomplishment of a goal, and to conclude the hypnosis or self-hypnosis session. It’s the versatility and the thoroughness of these elements that makes the Best Me Technique distinct from meditation and visualization exercises, and from other forms of hypnosis and self-hypnosis. Instead of merely picturing something in the mind’s eye, the Best Me Technique enables us to paint upon the canvas of experience almost any masterpiece we may desire (Gibbons, 1995, 2001, 2003; Gibbons & Lynn, 2010).

The Best Me Technique uses Belief systems (who and where you are and what is going on around you), Emotions, Sensations and physical perceptions, Thoughts and images, Motives, and Expectations. "Best Me" suggestions may be presented in any order and as often as necessary, with considerable repetition and elaboration as needed to accomplish the desired effect, much as one might repeat the verses and choruses of a song. The Best Me categories are not conceptually “pure,” and each Best Me suggestion may contain elements of the others.

Using the Best Me Technique, experiences of mystical intensity may easily be made available to clients who desire them and are sufficiently responsive to suggestion. Such experiences should be determined by the needs and expressed preferences of the client, with the goal of providing reassurance, strength, and encouragement. It should be of little consequence whether the religious and/or metaphysical beliefs of the client are shared by the therapist or are in conflict with those of the therapist, or whether the therapist has no theological or metaphysical beliefs at all (Gibbons & Schreiber, 2004).

The Case of Jennifer

“Jennifer” was a forty-five year old, married, Pentecostal of Italian-American descent with two grown children, who had converted from the Roman Catholic faith as a teenager. She was currently drawing workmens' compensation payments for a work-related injury She had lost interest in sexual relations with her second husband, to whom she was recently married, and she had ceased to look for work. She usually spent her days sitting at home watching soap operas.

She was raised in a Chicago tenement, and both of her parents, who taught in a local Catholic school, were alcoholics who fought regularly with each other, and who frequently would beat her with a chain cut from a children’s swing. In order not to alarm the neighbors, Jennifer had to force herself to remain silent during these beatings. If she did cry out, her parents would only beat her more intensely until she learned to endure her punishments in silence.

As she was growing up, her older sisters would occasionally set her up by placing a pack of her parents’ cigarettes in one of her clothing drawers, and then tell on her. Unless she “told the truth” and admitted that she had stolen the cigarettes, her parents would beat her even more severely for “lying.”

She married as soon as she could in order to get away from home, vowing that she would never be beaten again. Her first husband, with whom she had two children, was an extremely jealous and possessive man who watched her every move and insisted on being waited on hand and foot. 

Jennifer’s two “signature strengths” which had kept her going were her closeness to her children and the pride which she took in her work. When she presented at my office, with a lifelong history of depression which had recently worsened with the loss of one of these signature strengths (her job), she clearly needed to change the manner in which she thought and felt about herself, the world, and the future (Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979). But, like many real-life clients, she was probably too depressed to become sufficiently involved with the slow, painstaking “homework assignments” of cognitive therapy. Instead, she needed an experience of mystical intensity, which would fill her with enthusiasm for life, restore her desire to work, and re-awaken her passionate relationship with her new husband.

I chose to employ a traditional hypnotic induction rather than a hyperempiric one, because I suspected that Jennifer would have learned to be extremely good at learning to dissociate due to her early childhood conditioning. Since hyperempiria literally refers to a state of "enahnced experience," high responders are often able to perform quite well by first going "down" into hypnosis and then "up" into hyperempiria, much as one might first draw back a slingshot in order to increase its forward momentum, feeling alternately shut down and hypersensitive in turn.

Jennifer responded extremely well to the induction, and was totally amnesic for the experience. With her prior knowledge and consent, I used suggestions similar to the following, pulling out all the stops to induce the required levels of happiness and enjoyment to re-orient her approach to life and to re-awaken her emotional responsiveness.

Belief systems. Now we are reaching down farther than ever before into your vast, untapped potential for feeling happiness and joy, 

Emotions. Great waves of happiness and joy are flowing out from the innermost depths of your being, like water from a hundred secret springs.

Sensations and physical perceptions. These waves of happiness and joy are bathing you from head to toe in wave after wave of infinite, boundless peace and happiness.

Motives. And the more you feel, the more you are able to feel. And the more you feel, the more you want to feel, and the more enjoyable the experience becomes.

Thoughts and images. You are pre-experiencing now, in concentrated form, the happiness and satisfaction that will always be yours in response to a job well done.  

Expectations. And as a result of these hypnotic experiences, your entire outlook on life will be different, and each new day will become a thing of wondrous beauty.

At the conclusion of each session, the intensity of her emotional level was returned to normal, post-hypnotic suggestions for relaxation and clear-headedness were provided, and the session was concluded in the usual manner.

Results

At the end of the first session, which lasted approximately thirty minutes, Jennifer became momentarily tearful, explaining that it was such a relief to have someone to talk to about her problems with her neighbors and her extended family, since her husband was not interested in these details. For the remainder of the first session and the remaining sessions, we would devote half of each session to hypnosis, and half to a discussion of these topics.

Her manner immediately brightened; and as she arrived for the third session, she announced that she had resumed sexual relations with her husband.

At about the fifth session, Jennifer told me that she had begun looking for work. She also stated that her managed care insurance company had requested a review of her case, which is customarily for workers in her State who are drawing disability for on-the-job injuries.

The insurance company review took place at the conclusion of Jennifer’s eighth session. The reviewer noted in his report that she was wearing jewelry, and did not appear to be outwardly depressed. Jennifer was amnesic for the specific content of the suggestions she was given under hypnosis, and the reviewer – apparently not wishing to be criticized for being one of the reactionaries who still do not believe in hypnosis – made no reference to the treatment itself. Instead, he focused on our discussions of Jennifer’s daily problems during the second half of our sessions, pronounced them “specious,” concluded that she was not depressed, and allowed four more sessions for termination.

Soon afterwards, Jennifer told me that she had found a job teaching the very skill for which she was disabled. At the first interview, she was asked if she would mind taking over the program and administering it. The current supervisor, apparently, was in some political difficulty, and Jennifer was being groomed from the start to become his successor, which occurred within a matter of about a month.

Jennifer was seen for a total of twelve sessions, as provided by her workmen’s compensation insurance. I called her home one Sunday, six months after the conclusion of the twelfth session, in order to ask Jennifer how she was doing. Her husband answered, and said that she had gone in to work that day, to finish cleaning up the paperwork mess left by her predecessor. I then called her at the work number which he gave me, and she reported that she was indeed doing well.

I contacted her for a second follow-up one year after her treatment had been concluded. She reported that she was still experiencing pain from her work injury, and that political problems had developed on her job, and she was currently busy with wedding preparations for her second daughter. 

Discussion

If other therapists encounter similar results with clients who are highly responsive to suggestion, it will no longer be possible to regard mystical experiences as beyond the range of voluntary human control. Instead of having to wait years or decades for experiences of this type to occur spontaneously, if indeed they happen at all. The versatility and power of the Best Me Technique should enable clients who respond well to suggestion to undergo mystical experiences as often as needed, anchoring the intensity of the emotion thus produced to suit the client's needs -- in the present instance, to an appreciation of the beauty of each new day, and the satisfaction of a job well done.

Throughout the course of human history, a few individuals have been able to have experiences of mystical intensity, which are perceived as having the potential to permanently alter the lives of those who are fortunate enough to undergo them. The fact that these experiences are now voluntarily available to a wider number of people does not detract from their mystical, life-transforming potential.

I incorporated the words "as if" into my suggestions because I regard hyperempiria as a form of experiential theater. The subjective experiences which result from "as-if" suggestions are every bit as real as if they are really happening.

  

Print References

Gibbons, D. E. (2001). Experience as an art form. .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.

Multiversal Meditation for Psychologically Reversing Cause and Effect

Anxiety is rooted in the fear that something is going to happen, and depression is rooted in the letdown which we feel when we believe that something terrible has already taken place. 

In the Multiverse, where everything that can happen actually does happen, we are able to hypnotically project our awareness to a place where the complete and total fulfillment of our existence is already an accomplished fact, and bring the reality of this experience back with us to the present. thereby assuaging anxiety, depression, and the fear of death by hypnotically reversing cause and effect.

Kelley Woods (Gibbons & Woods, 2016, pp. 180-182) describes how she hypnotically guided a dying client to pre-experience the ultimate fulfillment of her existence in the Universe of all Universes, the Kingdom of Heaven, and bring back to her failing body "all of the beauty, all of the joy, and all of the love that it was possible to experience in a lifetime and more," to subdue the fear of her impending death,  Clients who do not have specific religious or metaphysical beliefs of their own may be able to use a metaphor of the Multiverse adapted from modern  physics, in which anything that can happen actually does happen. to pre-experience the fulfillment of their existence in whatever way they may choose to define it.

Of course, it is not necessary to wait until clients are on their deathbed to pave away the effects of anxiety and depression to employ the technique of multiversal meditation. Many other applications of this technique are also possible, as this blog illustrates.

Reference

Gibbons, D. E., & Woods, K. T. (2016). Virtual reality hypnosis: Explorations in the Multiverse. Amazon Books.  

Multiversal Meditation: for Work-Related Stress

"The world is too much with us; late and soon,  

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers."

--William Wordsworth, c. 1802 

Many of the clients in my general psychology practice may loosely be included under the description of "the worried well." They often respond to Multiversal hypnotic meditation with dramatic results which are similar to the personality changes observed in people who have undergone a Fundamentalist experience of  "salvation" (Gibbons & de Jarnette, 1972), because it gives them an entirety different perspective on life. 

Bill, a high school graduate in his late twenties, was formerly employed as a "picker" in a large, semi-automated warehouse where his performance was continually being timed according to how fast he could fill the orders he was given. Currently, he was employed as a delivery driver, but the pace was similarly hectic. He was happily married to a medical receptionist, and they had no children. 

I had been seeing Bill on Saturday afternoons on a weekly basis for about three months, to help him to de-stress after a long week, when he mentioned that his wife of six months noticed how "mellowed out" he was when he came home after a trip to the Multiverse. He added with a smile that they often spent the rest of the afternoon making love, which he had sometimes been unable to do before he started to see me because of his chronic job-related stresses. In view of the fact that the present results are a by-product of my client's repeated trips to the Multiverse, specific suggestions for sexual enhancement would probably be highly effective; but in view of of the couple's age and the relatively short time they had been married, suggestions of this type were obviously not needed.

Wordsworth was surely correct in  his observation in 1802 , but if only he could see us now!

Reference

Gibbons, D. E. & De Jarnette, J. (1972). Hypnotic susceptibility and religious experience. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 11(2), pp. 152-156. 

Multiversal Meditation for Lasting and Permanent Change

A few years ago, at a hypnosis conference at the Royal Society of Medicine in London, during a discussion of the phenomenon of hypnotic rapport, one of the members of the audience said that she used to occasionally lapse into her native Gaelic during a hypnosis session, and even though her clients may not have understood a word of Gaelic, the results were still quite effective.

Suppose, instead of using a language that was already fully developed, she had decided to experiment with the language patterns of highly successful hypnotists, and assembled a group of like-minded individuals to help her discover exactly which inductions, and which suggestion patterns, were the most effective. Sometimes the results would inevitably appear to be more powerful in comparison with the patterns which had been used before -- at least with the current sample. Over time, as these practitioners discovered that sometimes the results were more effective and sometimes they were less effective, we could expect a drift in the direction of ever more complex patterns as more and more elements were added to the mix.

  

Before we continue to expend more time, energy, and money in developing fancier and ever more persuasive hypnotic language and induction patterns, I would like to respectfully point out that while individual techniques may vary in duration and effectiveness, experimental research has shown that the true permanence of a particular suggestion lies in the meaning it has for the client in terms of his or her own individual life narrative (de Rivera & Sarbin, 1998), rather than the linguistic style with which it is composed or the induction within which it is framed.

I am fond of quoting a well-known story about a Russian lad who had become shy and withdrawn and did not even want to go to school  because his face was disfigured by a birthmark -- until his grandmother told him that this was a special sign from God that he was destined for greatness. Although he did not become famous, he grew up to marry, have a family, and experience a much more successful life than he otherwise would have had were it not for his grandmother's suggestion, which, even without the benefits of an induction or any fancy wording, fit in so neatly with his life narrative that it had become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

When I was in graduate school, I was astonished to learn that there were over five hundred different types of psychotherapy, some of which were mutualy exclusive and mutually contradictory in their assumptions. But they all  led their followers to the conclusion that they knew what was wrong in their lives and how to go about fixing it; and the support and  encouragement provided by the therapist provided the necessary catalyst for therapeutic change to take place. If this change successfully altered the ongoing narrative of the client's life story, as happened to the Russian lad with the birthmark, then the 

Improvement was likely to be a lasting one. Unfortunately, however, this was not always the case. And so, therapists are inclined to redouble their efforts in whatever directions they had originally taken, rather than seeking a biographically based solution which was rooted in the personality and unique characteristics of each individual client they encounter (Gibbons & Lynn, 2010, p. 289).

If you want to enploy elaborately worded and ever more persuasive language patterns in the suggestions you employ, that's all well and good -- but don't forget to make sure that your suggestions alter the ongoing narrative of the client's life story! Here is a case example:

"Jacob," a 58 year-old Israeli immigrant with three grown, children, was experiencing a great deal of trepidation in dealing with the stresses of life in general: but especially with regard to his State civil service job working with distressed families and in preparing for the Fderal civil service test. I saw him weekly for about a year, during which time we practiced weekly sessions of Multiversal hypnotic meditation which involved experiencing suggested feelings of happiness in repeated voyages to the Multiverse which were so intense that with repeated exposure they would have the power to overlay the effect of every bad thing that had ever happened to him in his entire life. 

He gradually developed an air of confidence in dealing with his superiors and coworkers, and placed highly on his 

civil service test. When he could no longer continue our weekly sessions due to a change in his insurance coverage, he was awaiting the results of several interviews for promotion. He was now confident that these suggested changes had been sufficiently effective that he was able to proceed on his own.

Was his success due in part to the fact that I served as an authority figure who conveyed to him my conviction that he had the power to succeed? This was surely helpful; but the suggested changes were retained due to their alterations in the ongoing narrative of his life story, which still persist long after his formal therapy has been discontinued.

References

de Rivera, Joseph & Sarbin, T. R. (Eds.) (1998). Believed-in imaginings: The narrative construction of reality. Washington, DC: American Psychological Assn.

Gibbons, D. E., & Lynn, S. J. Hypnotic inductions: A primer. in S. J. Lynn, J. W. Rhue, &  I. Kirsch (Eds.) (2010). Handbook of clinical hypnosis, 2nd ed. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

What GOOD is a Formal Hypnotic Induction Procedure?

If, with no prior induction, I asked a highly suggestible person to close his eyes, and suggested that when he opened them he would see me dressed in a Santa Claus suit, he would surely think that. I was crazy. And if such a suggestion should happen to work, he would think that HE was crazy! But if I plausibly suggested that he was going into hypnosis, and THEN I suggested that when he opened his eyes he would see me wearing a Santa Claus suit, such a suggestion could be actualized much more easily because it has now been made much more credible. 

An induction procedure provides both the opportunity and the occasion for those who have the ability to use their imagination in ways which are dramatically at variance with everyday experience to go ahead and do so. Are there other ways to do this? Yes, by patient leading 2 engage the imagination. But permanent change, as we all know, is brought about by the degree to which the suggested changes are more effective in serving as a catalyst for change, and not by a particular induction.

There is an old Russian folk take about a boy who was afraid to go to school because  he had a large, ugly birthmark on his cheek. One day, his grandmother told him that this was a sign from God that he was destined for greatness. His fear vanished, and with his new-found confidence, he grew up, married, and had a family. He never achieved greatness, but he did live

 a happy life. And no induction was necessary! 

However, for suggestions which do not fit so neatly into everyday reality, it is first necessary to accept the suggestion that one's conscious processes are operating differently in order to be able to make them believable enough to be accepted. For example, I once hypnotized a client who had been a talented gymnast in her teen years. She was in the middle of a divorce, preparing to take her U.S. citizenship test, getting fired from her job and getting kicked out of her apartment all at the same time. Under hypnosis, I suggested that she would experience winning an Olympic gold medal in a parallel universe, and bring those feelings of triumph back with her into this one. It provided just the kind of ego strengthening therapy that she needed in order to have the courage to overcome her multiple challenges.

How to Deal With Passive-Aggressive Behavior

How to Get a Good Night's sleep

Don't just toss and turn in bed when you are having trouble sleeping. Get up and do something Boring!  

When I was working in the New Jersey State Prison system, each of us in the Psych Department had to meet with one group of prisoners per week to teach a class in "sleep hygiene," because as you might imagine, it's easy to get your days and nights mixed up in there. We were able to trade notes freely among each other, and over time we accumulated quite a bit of useful information which I'd like to share with you.

The most important thing keeping people awake at night is probably worrisome thoughts. The following video by Eckhard Tolle shows how to turn them off.

Here are some other things that will help.

•  Make sure you get enough daylight so that your body will be able to establish a daily wake-sleep rhythm. Some people have found commercially-available light boxes to be helpful, especially if you live in a location where there is less sunlight during certain seasons of the year. This lack of sunlight can lead to a condition known as seasonal affective disorder  (more popularly known as "cabin fever"), characterized by periods of depression and interference with regular sleep patterns.
• Keep the bedroom dark and quiet. Darkness causes the body to produce melatonin, a natural sleep-inducing agent.
• Your body remembers what it feels like as you are falling asleep, but the memory is stored directly in your muscles. Get into a comfortable position and bring that memory back into conscious awareness. Hold  onto it, and let it fill your mind completely..
• Don't play on the smartphone, the computer, or watch television. They all give off light which suppresses the melatonin in your system and overstimulates the brain,   
• Most people need between seven to nine hours of sleep each night. Trying to get by on less than this biologically-determined amount builds up a sleep debt which  cuts into your well-being and efficiency, and becomes harder and harder to repay.
• Establish a consistent sleeping schedule. People tend to become sleepy 24 hours after they last went to sleep, and awaken 24 hours after they last woke up. Significant changes in either time -- especially shift work schedules which frequently change -- disrupt the sleep-wake cycle.
• If your sleep is troubled by nightmares, or if you have personal problems which prevent you from getting the sleep you need, you may want to consider seeking professional assistance.
• Have a set ritual before going to bed. 
• Limit the amount of food you eat for the last two hours before you go to bed.
• Limit your daily use of caffeine, or eliminate it entirely.  One or two cupsc of coffee or tea  is probably okay to get you going in the morning, but using coffee, tea, or other drinks which are high in caffeine throughout the day only makes it harder to repay your sleep debt.
• Exercise regularly, preferably in the morning. .
• If possible, adopt a life style which reduces your total amount of stress.
• While most of us prefer not to use prescribed sleep medications, millions of people do use them regularly without ill effects. Melatonin, the favorite of many, is available without prescription. Others prefer nutraceuticals such as St. John's Wort.
• We frequently do not notice the "aches and pains" in our bodies because we have grown so used to them, but they can still interfere with our sleep.  Many prople find that taking a couple of aspirin, ibuprophin, or Tylenol works well before going to bed, particularly when they do not wish to feel groggy from sleep medication the next day. 
• Perhaps most importantly, use the bed only for sleeping and for sex. Instead of tossing and turning, find  something boring to do until you get sleepy. This helps you to avoid a conditioned association between not sleeping and being in bed.
• If it takes you a while to get back to sleep after getting up to use the bathroom, consider allowing yourself an extra hour or so in bed so that you can still get all the sleep that you need. 
• You can tell your virtual assistant to play soothing music or background sounds such as ocean waves or falling rain to lull you to sleep -- or you can even ask it to tell you a bedtime story!

The One Suggestion that EVERYBODY Needs to Hear

If you can't tell people that they're awesome, at least be kinder than necessary. 

Everyone that you meet is fighting some sort of a battle!

It's Not About the Nail!

In order to help people with their problems, you first have to establish a sound therapeutic relationship with them.

How MANY ''Altered States' of Consciousness'' Are There?

In the early years of the Twentieth Century, many psychologists were inspired by the discovery in chemistry that all matter could be reduced to certain basic elements. Since the purpose of consciousness was to allow us to experience the real world, they reasoned that it should be possible analyze the contents of consciousness into its own basic elements. This "mental chemistry" was given the name structuralism; and various groups of structuralists began their research, using a method called introspection, or "looking inward," a trained analysis of one's own thoughts and feelings, to see just how many basic elements of awareness exist.. However, the various groups of researchers could not come to a general agreement regarding how many elements of consciousness there actually were. One group claimed that they could find fourteen, another forty-three, and so on. The problem lay in the fact that consciousness is like a mirror. It reflects back what is put into it. The entire process is reminiscent of the game that Tolstoy and his brothers used to play when they were children, which involved trying to see how long each one could go without thinking of a white bear. (Try it!) 

There are probably as many altered experiences of consciousness as it is possible to conceive or to imagine; for each of these imagined definitions may be written up in the form of an induction procedure and presented to a sufficiently imaginative hypnosis partner, and that is exactly how he or she is going to experience a change in the perception of his or her awareness.

My evidence for this assertion  is hyperempiria. I did not wait for another historical accident to come along, as was the case when mesmerism morphed into hypnotism in response to people imitating the behavior of the retarded Victor Emmanuel, who was too  stupid to know that he was supposed to go into hypnosis and went to sleep instead: I simply made it up! I gave the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility to of Hypnotic Susceptibility to two groups of introductory psychology students, one of which was first  given a standard hypnotic induction and the other was given a hyperempiric induction based upon suggestions of increased awareness. Both groups showed a significant increase in suggestibility, but the two groups did not significantly different from each other. (Gibbons, 197 ).I currently prefer to use both inductions in tandem, first taking clients "down" into hypnosis and then "up" into hyperempiria (Gibbons &Lynn, 2010) before providing meaningful experiences of life-changing intensity in the mulriverse (Gibbons & Woods, 2016).\\

If the number of suggestion-induced altered states of consciousness is indeed unlimited, as it appears to be, given the ease with which such suggested experiences may be constructed, the only question which we need to ask ourselves is how can we define these experiences in a manner which is the most useful for the task at hand, forr the enhancement of human potential, the ennoblement of the human spirit, and the fulfillment of human existence.

References

                                      

Gibbons, D. E. (1979). Applied hypnosis and hyperempiria. New York: 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. 267-29

Gibbons, D. E., & Woods, K. T. (2016). Virtual reality hypnosis: Explorations in the Multiverse. Amazon Books

Multiversal Meditation for Re-Energizing a Previous Mystical Exprience

People of many different religious traditions have attested to the life changing potential of metaphysical experiences involving the experience of contact with a consciousness beyond one's own However, in this culture, people who have had this type of experience often don't talk about it because others may simply dismiss them as being a crackpot. When such a history is present, however, it can serve as a focus for completely re-framing one's view of the self, the world, and the future, which is the professed aim of cognitive-behavioral psychology and much easier to accomplish.

A 58 year old retired English teacher and mother of five grown children who recently had been divorced after a marriage of forty years came to me for help with depression. She was spending the greater part of each day in bed, with the blankets drawn up over her head. She was taking antidepressants, but they did not seem to help. She responded well to hypnosis; and early in the course of therapy, she mentioned that when she was about sixteen, she had a spontaneous mystical experience: "I could step beyond the ordinary world of reality, and I felt totally loved." I asked her if she would like to revisit this mystical experience as a way of getting over her depression, and she immediately agreed.

I told her that for best results, it would help if she were to recapture her mystical experience with the same life-changing intensity that she had experienced it the first time. She readily agreed to this also. Pulling out all the stops in order to evoke an experience of life-changing intensity, I hypnotically  guided her to the Multiverse  (Gibbons & Woods, 2016) and suggested suggested that we were reaching down into her vast, untapped potential for feeling happiness and joy. This potential for happiness and joy was flowing out from the innermost depths of her being in many different ways and on many different levels, like water from a hundred secret springs. As these feelings continued to flow without limit, they were healing and cleansing every muscle and fiber and nerve of her body, driving out all of the worry, and all of the stress, and all of the care that she had ever felt, and leaving her glowing from head to toe with such an intensity of happiness that she could not bear it if she were not hypnotized.

She remained outwardly impassive as I continued in this vein, emphasizing that this happiness was greater and more intense than anything she had ever hoped for, dreamed of, longed for, or imagined, I suggested that when she returned from hypnosis, she would not be able to bring all of this intensity back with her, because it would be more than she could bear in the everyday state of consciousness in which we live and move and have our being. But nevertheless, it would transform her life, and turn each new day into a thing of wondrous beauty.

Her depression lifted within two more sessions. Because she was a Buddhist, it was easy to frame her mystical experience as evidence that true happiness comes from within. She no longer remains in bed all day, and frequently goes out to go shopping, play cards or to visit with friends. Her demeanor is pleasant, relaxed, and cheerful. She is continuing to come in for monthly sessions in order to keep her orientation focused on the positive aspects of life, and as a means of continuing her personal and spiritual development.

The client's youngest daughter, who has had a great many personal difficulties of her own, has recently moved in with her. Even though she frequently serves as a lightning rod for her daughter's wrath, the client has remained impassive, and has managed to maintain a generally congenial relationship with her (when the daughter is on speaking terms!)

Reference

Gibbons, D. E., & Woods, K.T (2016). Virtual reality hypnosis:Explorations in the Multiverse. Amazon Books

How to Conduct a Therapeutic ''Séance''

To borrow a line from Charles Dickens, “One thing must be clearly understood, or no good can come from this story I am about to tell.” Our brain constructs our own reality! We construct this reality out of what William James called the “buzzing, blooming confusion” of raw sensory input, which bombards us from every direction. Since no two people have exactly the same experiences,  no two people can share exactly the same reality. What we believe to be “out there" is actually an individually constructed parallel universe which can never completely intersect with those of others.

In accordance with the teachings of post-modern constructivism, my task as a therapist is to help clients to construct a reality that will help them to live better lives, regardless of the reality that I may construct for myself, since each person's reality is equally valid  

"Maryanne" was the last of six children in a rigidly conservative Catholic family. All of her brothers and sisters had gone to Catholic school, and those who wanted to had gone to college. By the time Maryanne was born, there was no money left for private education. so she went to public grade school and graduated from high school with no prospects of going further. 

Shortly after she was married, she incurred serious spinal injuries from a fall an icy sidewalk, which resulted in her having to see a pain specialist and take medication for the resulting chronic discomfort..

Her mother wanted to keep Maryanne by her side instead of leaving to get married as her other children had done, so she encouraged her to become emotionally dependent.

Her father, on the other hand, scolded her incessantly, in the mistaken belief that he could "shock" her into being highly motivated if he nagged her intensely enough. Instead, she developed s number of stress-related physical ailments including ulcers, migraine headaches, and chronic constipation.

When she finally did go to work, her boss was bullying and sadistic. Once when she.had mistakenly ordered a shipment of several cartons of supplies delivered directly to her desk instead of to the office, her boss forbade her to move them out of the way for several days, and made her climb over them in order to get to her desk.

After she was married, she still lived close enough to her parents to go home for lunch. Her mother would hold her and soothe her to give her courage enough to return to her job every afternoon, until she was finally fired because she could not put up with her demanding boss any longer and her work had begun to suffer.

She had married a man with Crohn's disease, a chronic inflammation of the digestive tract, in the expectation that they would be able to help each other with their health problems. He had developed a chronically sarcastic outlook which was well within her emotional comfort zone because it unconsciously reminded her of her father. To make matters even worse, shortly after she was married, she incurred several serious spinal injuries from a fall on icy pavement which required her to receive ongoing medication and treatment by a pain specialist.

On her first visit to my psychology practice, four years after her mother had died, Maryanne showed me a picture she had taken on her cell phone of household clothing piled inside her bathtub because she did not have the energy to put it away. Fortunately, her new husband liked to cook, and he did most of the grocery shopping. But the matter of household chores was clearly her responsibility.

Maryanne responded very well to hypnosis and was amnesic for most of the sessions. However, no matter how much I tried, I was unable to help her to summon the energy to clean up her messy house.

One day, she was discussing her desire to go back to work in order to help with the family finances, adding that she would have to clean up her house first before she could ever consider doing that. She also mentioned how depressed she was, and how much she missed her mother, who had died four years previously. Her father was also deceased.

It occurred to me that she might be unconsciously using the condition of her house as a wall to prevent her from having to look for a job. When I was about to hypnotize her, I told her confidently that this time we were going to give her all the energy she needed. "Are you going to take the place of my mother?" she asked, which tended to confirm my suspicions.

I could not actually take the place of Maryanne's mother, of course; but if she could re-experience her mother holding and soothing her just as she had done in real life, I would not need to.

In Victorian times, there was a great interest in contacting the spirits of departed loved ones by means of a "séance," in order to obtain reassurance and advice, which was usually communicated by a series of rapping sounds while the participants were holding hands. The practice died out, however, when the source of this rapping was revealed to be produced by trickery.. Nevertheless, the widespread popularity of séances had revealed a deep yearning on the part of many people for this.type of experience.

After hypnotically guiding Maryanne through a rainbow of pleasant emotions and coming to the pot of gold at the end of it, I suggested that this was the gateway to Paradise, where she could contact her mother and pour her heart out while being comforted and soothed, much as her as her mother had done while she was still alive. As our sessions continued, I soon discovered that these experiences were much more effective if I  suggested that she was able to join her mother in a parallel Universe, where she was able to experience the "actual" reality of her mother's presence.

Many modern physicists now believe that quantum mechanics implies that there are multiple copies of us living in an infinite number of parallel Universes. Since Maryanne's brain constructs her own reality, any hypnotically induced contact with her mother in a parallel universe would constitute a non-deceptive séance, since it would perfectly match at least one of the possible sets of circumstances in which her mother is currently still alive.. 

This type of reassurance appeared to be all that Maryanne needed in order to regain her former self confidence, clean up her house, and  begin looking for a job.

Was she really talking to her mother at the gateway to Paradise or in a parallel universe? As a post-modern constructivist, I have no right to say that the experiences which I have constructed for myself are any more "real" than the ones which she has constructed for herself. In most situations, I am perfectly content, therefore, to help my clients to construct  a set of beliefs which enables them to lead happier and more effective lives as they themselves interpret them. 

Considering the depth of pent-up longing experienced by many grieving relatives who yearn to contact their loved ones once more, as the Victorians have amply demonstrated, this opportunity to experience a non-deceptive hypnotic séance would appear to be a potentially useful application of hypnosis. However, one must be careful not to ask leading questions, in order to insure that the hypnotic realities constructed by one's clients are truly their own, and not a projection of the hypnotist.  Finally, it should be noted that the effectiveness of the hypnotic suggestions in acting as a catalyst for permanent change primarily depends upon the personality and unique characteristics of each individual client, rather than how the suggestions themselves are worded.

How to Learn Self-Hypnosis at Home

You can easily  learn the basics of self-hypnosis at home and free of charge by reading this instructional article on WikiHow. It describes the use of the BEST ME Technique to combine Beliefs, Emotions, Sensations and perceptions, Thoughts and images, Motives, and Expectations, in order to more fully involve oneself in the content of a suggested experience. I use it with the clients in my psychology practice, both as an introduction to the experience of self-hypnosis and for use between therapy sessions as a training and practice aid. According to the statistics available at the site, with the help of several co-authors, it has been viewed almost 1-1/2 miillion times since I first wrote and posted it     

"Covert Hypnosis" and "Ambush Hypnosis:" It's Mostly a Hoax, Folks!

In spite of the numerous advertisements encouraging you to learn how to do just that, don't just sidle up to someone at the mall, or someone who is asleep, and try to hypnotize them on the sly!

Though not impossible, it is extremely difficult to hypnotize someone without their prior knowledge and consent. Although covert hypnosis (sometimes referred to as "ambush hypnosis") can work occasionally with an unsuspecting person who is caught by surprise, much more often than not, people will catch on to what you are trying to do. They will either laugh at you, or become angry for insulting their intelligence, and/or suspect that you have an ulterior motive and report you as a suspicious person -- that is, if they don't decide to take the matter into their own hands.