What is trance?

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Permalink Reply by VelvetMallet on November 17, 2009 at 10:41am

Hi Hugh

I believe we're both basically agreeing but on slightly different aspects. An elephant is much like a rope. No, it's more like a tree trunk, etc. All true depending on which part you grab onto. ;-)

What I'm saying is that "suspended imagination" can be as brief as a moment and can be skillfully extended much longer. What I understand from reading your post is that you also acknowledge the link to the imaginary process. Your description is very hypnosis-centric; tied closely to the process of hypnotizing people. And that's what this forum is mostly about. But my comment was an attempt to step back from the frame of hypnosis and hypnotherapy, merely to acknowledge trance, momentary or otherwise, as commonly occurring phenomena, of which we, as hypnotists skillfully create and utilize.

Yes, it can be augmented and deliberately manipulated to act as a fader switch to transition from one clear state to another. But in the absence of an engineer to fade that switch, and as an imaginative process, it's something we all experience, often unassisted and on our own. It is also the moment that a hypnotist looks for as a cue of readiness before further suggestions or deepening takes place.

VM

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Permalink Reply by John Cleesattel on November 17, 2009 at 10:41am

I'm with Hugh. When in trance, the imagination starts providing/replacing input normally recieved from the outside world, so being "suspended" would not be an accurate term. Imagination engagement might be a better description.



Hugh Cole said:

Suspended Imagination...? I don't undrstand That. Trance happens when the mind enters an imaginative process such as going internal on a cross derivational search. A Good Hypnotist will deepen by intensifying imaginative involvment. The process of imagining what something would taste like, or, feel like when you bought it, is a totally imaginative (internalized)process. So rather than saying suspended imagination might you not feel more comfortable in thinking in terms of augmented imagination. One process model I have often thought about was the point where neural processing switched from being "sensory directed" to being "imaginatively directed." You can think of that switch as a simply on-off switch, but a better representation might be a "fadder" switch, where one song simply rolls smoothly into another before the listener is even completely aware of it.

Hugh Cole
The Pretty Goodest Hypnotist on the Planet

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Permalink Reply by GIL BOYNE on November 20, 2009 at 8:10am

GIL BOYNE said:

Hypnosis has 'real' brain effect


Hypnosis has a "very real" effect that can be picked up on brain scans, say Hull University researchers.

An imaging study of hypnotised participants showed decreased activity in the parts of the brain linked with daydreaming or letting the mind wander.

The same brain patterns were absent in people who had the tests but who were not susceptible to being hypnotised.

One psychologist said the study backed the theory that hypnosis "primes" the brain to be open to suggestion.

Hypnosis is increasingly being used to help people stop smoking or lose weight and advisers recently recommended its use on the NHS to treat irritable bowel syndrome.


This shows that the changes were due to hypnosis and not just simple relaxation

Dr William McGeown, study leader
It is not the first time researchers have tried to use imaging studies to monitor brain activity in people under hypnosis.

But the Hull team said these had been done while people had been asked to carry out tasks, so it was not clear whether the changes in the brain were due to the act of doing the task or an effect of hypnosis.

In the latest study, the team first tested how people responded to hypnosis and selected 10 individuals who were "highly suggestible" and seven people who did not really respond to the technique other than becoming more relaxed.

The participants were asked to do a task under hypnosis, such as listening to non-existent music, but unknown to them the brain activity was being monitored in the rest periods in between tasks, the team reported in the journal Consciousness and Cognition.


In the "highly suggestible" group there was decreased activity in the part of the brain involved in daydreaming or letting the mind wander - also known as the "default mode" network.

One suggestion of how hypnosis works, supported by the results, is that shutting off this activity leaves the brain free to concentrate on other tasks.

Study leader Dr William McGeown, a lecturer in the department of psychology, said the results were unequivocal because they only occurred in the highly suggestible subjects.

"This shows that the changes were due to hypnosis and not just simple relaxation. "Our study shows hypnosis is real."

Dr Michael Heap, a clinical forensic psychologist based in Sheffield, said the experiment was unique in showing brain patterns supporting the theory that hypnosis works by "priming" the subject to respond more effectively to suggestions.

"Importantly the data confirm that relaxation is not a critical factor.

"The limited data from this experiment suggest that this pattern of activity then dissipates (at least to some extent) once the subjects start to engage in the suggestions that follow."

But he said the small study, which needed repeating in other populations, did not prove that people being hypnotised were in an actual "trance".



Robert Shanks said:

Hi there.
I have to half-agree with Bob Burns near the beginning of this thread.

I believe that we enter TRANCE all the time, but to be honest, there are many types of this (drug-induced, meditative, watching TV), but there is only ONE trance that is hypnotic. And that is when you are externally hypnotized. In my view hypnosis HAS to be carried out by one person on another. That is the original definition, and I will not be swayed...

Hypnosis can exist seperately from trance. I've seen many cases of people being under hypnosis without being in trance. Any of you who has seen a stage show has seen that too. I have also seen people in a hypnotic trance, which is far more profound than anything besides the drug-induced ones.

In my experience, the critical factor isn't so much "bypassed" as "ignored". As Emile Coue said, in a conflict between intellect and imagination, the imagination will always win. When you have hypnosis, you are communicating with the imagination (subc), so it simply doesn't bother worrying about the critical factor's "opinion"

Here's an example: Lucy and Paul. As you can see, the guy is wide awake, but hypnotised. You can see the struggle when he he tries to use his intellect for his name.

Think of it this way, if we really had a critical factor that truly prevented us harming ourselves, would it be possible for smokers to exist? Or drinkers? Or fast drivers? Or suicide bombers?

Robert

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Permalink Reply by GIL BOYNE on November 20, 2009 at 8:14am

The Mesmerized Mind
Scientists are unveiling how the brain works when hypnotized

THE MESMERIZED MIND
. For years, psychologists have used hypnosis to help patients calm preflight jitters, get a good night’s sleep or chuck a cigarette habit. Hypnosis even has uses in mainstream medicine for reducing the side effects of cancer treatments and helping patients cope with pain. Some physicians routinely employ hypnosis as an adjunct to mainstream anesthesia to help block pain during surgery or childbirth.
Most recently, hypnosis has advanced from into the laboratory. It is now used as a research tool to temporarily create hallucinations, compulsions, delusions and certain types of seizures in the lab so that these phenomena can be investigated in detail.
Such studies may lead to more effective treatments for a number of psychiatric and neurological disorders, assert psychologists Peter W. Halligan and David Oakley in the June issue of Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
Other scientists, intrigued by the many practical uses of hypnosis, are striving to figure out how it works. Using the latest neuroimaging tools, these scientists are getting a look at what goes on in the hypnotized brain. The findings are mesmerizing.
When hypnotized people act on a hypnotic suggestion, they really do see, hear and feel differently, such research shows. When they’re told to see colors, for example, the color-processing parts of their brains light up—despite the absence of any real color in view. When they are told to envision color objects in black and white, these color-processing areas are less active. Other imaging studies show that hypnotically induced pain activates the same brain areas as “real” pain.
Still, questions remain, says Halligan, of Cardiff University in Wales, who has studied hypnosis for more than a decade. Scientists have yet to discover how hypnosis produces physiological changes. And some scientists question whether such changes are confined to hypnosis. Perhaps the patterns of brain activity seen during hypnosis can occur during everyday experiences when people are fully absorbed in an activity, some researchers say.
The real question, says Halligan, is whether hypnosis is a specific brain state that differs from any other.
“In other words, is there some sort of neural correlate, or biological marker, within the brain during a hypnotic trance?” he asks.
The answer so far, emerging from studies done during the past few years, is maybe. New research at the University of Geneva suggests that hypnosis alters neural activity by rerouting some of the usual connections between brain regions. Such neurological detours don’t happen when subjects merely imagine a scenario.
Changing your mind
In this mysterious state of mind, the brain is “quiet,” focused and superattentive. People sometimes report feeling disconnected from their surroundings and lost in thought. During hypnosis, subjects are more open than usual to suggestions and have the ability to focus intensely on a specific thought, feeling or sensation.
Most adults, about two-thirds, are hypnotizable to some degree, though some people experience the effects of hypnosis more intensely than others do, says David Spiegel, a psychiatrist at Stanford University School of Medicine who uses hypnosis in his medical practice. Ten to 15 percent of adults are “highly hypnotizable,” he says, meaning they can experience dramatic changes in perception with hypnosis.
A person’s ability to become hypnotized is unrelated to intelligence, compliancy or gullibility, but may be linked to an ability to become deeply absorbed in activities such as reading, listening to music or daydreaming. People who find themselves engrossed in a best seller even while the television is blaring, or swept away by a movie and losing track of time, are likely to be quite hypnotizable.
During hypnosis, the hypnotherapist tries to direct thoughts, feelings and behavior by instructing a person to concentrate on particular images or ideas. A typical session starts with some sort of induction procedure that helps the subject relax—say, counting down from 20 to one or mentally descending a set of stairs.
To produce a specific behavior or thought, the hypnotherapist will make suggestions targeted toward the goal. To reduce the pain of a medical procedure, for example, a hypnotherapist might invoke an image of pain being turned down like the volume on a radio.

| Studies show hypnosis reroutes brain signals. Hypnotized people who are told that their left hand is paralyzed show brain patterns (yellow) that differ from those who aren't hypnotized (red) and from those who aren't hypnotized but are told to pretend their left hand is paralyzed (green).Y. Cojan Et al./Neuron 2009
Over the years, rigorously controlled studies have shown that hypnosis can also control blood pressure and even make warts go away. But because very few studies have attempted to find out how it works, some scientists are still skeptical of its power.
Critics suggest hypnosis is nothing more than playacting, with subjects trying to please the hypnotist. That skepticism has driven some researchers to take a hard look at what happens in the brain during hypnosis. Over the past few years, scientists have begun gathering evidence that hypnosis can indeed measurably change how the brain works.
In 2005, scientists at Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York City used functional MRI to show how hypnotic suggestions can override “automatic” processes in the brain. When shown the names of colors printed in different colors of ink—for example, the word red printed in blue—subjects were instructed to name the ink color while ignoring the word.
Though this task may sound easy, it’s often difficult for people who can read because the tendency is to automatically read the word instead of naming the color. When told under hypnosis that the words would appear as gibberish, highly hypnotizable subjects were able to perform the task faster, and with fewer errors, than subjects who were less hypnotizable and therefore less likely to respond to suggestion.
The fMRI results were also striking. Highly hypnotizable participants showed less activity in a brain area called the anterior cingulate cortex, which is active when people are trying to sort out conflicting information from different sources, such as contradictory word names and colors. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Going deeper
Scientists agree that there is a pattern or “orchestra” of brain activity during hypnosis. Halligan and his colleagues are working to figure out what this particular pattern might be, and which—if any—brain region serves as conductor. As part of a collaboration with psychiatrist Quinton Deeley of King’s College London, the researchers are looking at how patterns of brain activity in the induction phase—the countdown—prepare the brain for suggestions.
Preliminary findings suggest that hypnosis boosts activity in the brain’s prefrontal cortex—a region responsible for various executive functions such as decision making and regulating attention—while suppressing activity in other brain regions.
Still, researchers are stumped to explain how these changes in brain patterns work to make hypnotized people feel and see things differently. Recent theories, discussed in the article in Trends by Halligan and Oakley, of University College London, propose that hypnotic suggestions may inhibit or disconnect certain mental processes from the brain’s executive control systems.
Until recently, such hypotheses had remained untested. But in the June 25 issue of Neuron, Yann Cojan of the University of Geneva and colleagues report a direct test.
The researchers put 18 subjects in a brain scanner, instructing them to push a button using one hand or the other. Each trial began with a cue indicating which hand to prepare for movement. After a brief interval, an image of a hand would turn green—signaling to press the button—or red, a command to inhibit any motion. Twelve subjects did half of the trials while hypnotized, with the suggestion that their left hand was “paralyzed,” and the other half in a normal, unhypnotized state. Six subjects did trials without hypnosis under instructions to pretend their left hand was paralyzed.
When volunteers used their right hands, the motor cortex linked up with brain regions that control body movement to carry out the task.
But fMRI scans showed changes in several brain areas when hypnotic paralysis prevented subjects from responding to the “go” signal with their left hands. Under hypnosis, neurons in the brain’s motor cortex fired up as usual to prepare for the task. But when instructed to use the left, or “paralyzed” hand, the motor cortex failed to send signals to motor execution regions. Instead, it directed its signals to another brain region, the precuneus.
The precuneus is a sort of center for self-consciousness. If you’ve ever pictured yourself falling flat on your face in the middle of an important event, that’s your precuneus working overtime. Its function is to help retrieve memories and images of yourself from the brain’s archives and help to visualize movements.
By rerouting motor signals to the precuneus, hypnosis appeared to decouple the typical relationship between brain areas that generate the signals for hand movement and the areas that carry out such movements. Subjects who were not hypnotized and were asked to fake paralysis showed no such disconnect between these regions.
Because the precuneus is involved in mental imagery and self-awareness, Cojan says, hypnosis appeared to enhance the brain’s self-monitoring processes to allow images generated by suggestion—“your hand is heavy and cannot move”—to guide behavior.
By linking to the precuneus, “the motor cortex is connected to the idea that it cannot move the left hand,” Cojan says. “So even if you try to move, it will neglect to send signals to the motor execution areas.”
Because the motor cortex fired up as usual to prepare for the task, the findings suggest that mental images created through hypnotic suggestions work by redirecting normal brain functions rather than actively suppressing them, he adds.
Generating piece of mind
Using insights gleaned from the brain scans of subjects paralyzed under hypnosis, Cojan conducted a follow-up study to see whether something like hypnosis happens in the brains of patients during hysterical paralysis. In such instances, patients become paralyzed even though the condition can’t be traced to any physical or neurological brain damage.
An fMRI study of patients with hysterical hand paralysis did not find the heightened precuneus activity that is seen in hypnosis, Cojan’s group reported in the September NeuroImage.
Previously, it had been suggested that hysterical paralysis was “a kind of self-hypnosis,” Cojan says. “Our findings show that’s not the case.”
Halligan points to the recent paralysis studies as examples of how hypnosis can be used to further studies on the nature of hypnosis and to provide insights on a variety of real-life syndromes and disorders.
In 2000, he and Oakley began looking at ways to use hypnosis to simulate psychosomatic conditions, such as hysterical paralysis or hysterical blindness, in the lab. By creating virtual patients through hypnosis, scientists might be able to better understand the basis for such disorders by comparing patients’ brains with hypnotized brains, the researchers reckoned.
Deeley, who treats psychiatric patients at his private practice in London, says using hypnosis also allows him to track brain processes involved in other kinds of disorders that would not ordinarily be possible to study with brain imaging.
In an ongoing series of experiments, he and his colleagues are using hypnosis to study conditions in which patients sense a “lack of control” over their movements or behavior. Such perceptual experiences may be reported by people who experience nonepileptic seizures or who suffer delusions caused by schizophrenia.
By making some targeted suggestions—“Your left hand is now shaking at your side” or “Your right leg is twitching”—the scientists can model a particular symptom in a consistent and controlled way, Deeley says.
“You can’t have somebody having a full-blown seizure within an MRI scanner,” he says. “It’s not safe because they’re moving fast, and you wouldn’t get any useful information. But if you actually restrict an involuntary movement to a particular limb or a hand, it is possible to create a partial model of these involuntary movements.”
Another advantage of hypnosis is that it allows researchers to untangle the many components that make up a complex disorder, such as schizophrenia. In such cases, patients may feel not only that they’re losing control, but also that their actions or behavior are guided by an outside force or agent, such as the CIA.
Scientists then have the problem of sorting out whether a change in brain activity is associated with the physical experience of a movement or whether it is tied to the delusional beliefs behind the movement.
“In such cases, you’ve got two processes going on associated with complex change in brain activity, and you just can’t unpack them in terms of working out what’s associated with what,” Deeley says.
Experimental manipulations using hypnosis could provide a window into a wide range of disorders, he says, and could help explain other types of altered states, such as meditation.
Halligan agrees, noting that hypnosis could be used to simulate various disorders commonly associated with brain injury, such as visual impairment. In a recent study, he used hypnotic suggestions to replicate conditions described by injured soldiers who are still capable of detecting motion in certain visual fields but are unable to make out any distinguishing features of the moving object.
“That’s not to say that the same psychological consequences of pathology seen in patients are somehow replicated in hypnosis,” Halligan says. “But using hypnosis to simulate a specific condition for imaging may tell us which brain systems are involved.” This information may then feed back into the development of new treatments and rehabilitation tools, he says.
Such advancements, however, hinge on learning more about the underlying processes involved in hypnosis itself. Current efforts may help scientists differentiate between the brain structures that play a role in hypnosis and those that are involved in the tasks subjects are asked to perform.
“These are still early days,” Halligan says, noting that it has yet to be seen how well hypnotically simulated disorders will actually match the conditions they’re intended to mimic. Still, he says, hypnosis provides a way to “test and probe.”
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Permalink Reply by Don on November 20, 2009 at 1:45pm

For the past six years, my wife and I have been taking classes in T'ai Chi, a Chinese system of integrated exercises based upon an ancient stylized method of self-defense. Ideally, T'ai Chi is performed at slow speed, and is primarily practiced today as a means of maintaining and improving one's physical health. Throughout China, people frequently gather in a local park (often in the morning before going to work) for a routine of T'ai Chi before going to work. In many places in the West, T'ai Chi has also come to be used as a method of maintaining physical health and counteracting the stress of life.

At first I was skeptical, and had difficulty getting into the routine. Sometime during my first year of instruction, as I observed the silent gracefulness of those around me, I decided to pretend that I was hypnotized in order to better catch the mood. Within a moment or two, one of the instructors noticed the change and walked over to me. "Now you've got it!" he exclaimed, as he watched me moving in time with the others.

Neither I nor my classmates were experiencing a trance in the traditional sense of the term. Our eyes were open, and our bodies were constantly moving. But for me, pretending that I was hypnotized did facilitate a transition to modes of awareness which are common to both T'ai Chi and hypnosis, including an emphasis on the here and now, and knowing the world through imagery and sensory experience rather than by means of analytical thought. The movements of the T'ai Chi form (e.g., "Repel the Tiger," "Over the Top with a Chop"), may thus be conceptualized as a set of powerful, multi-modal suggestions for the development of confidence and assertiveness, and for counteracting the stress response. Given these similarities, T'ai Chi itself can be thought of as "hypnosis in motion."

Perhaps the concept of trance is not as essential to a definition of hypnosis as an increase in responsiveness to suggestion, regardless of the procedure which is used to bring it about. Alternatively, perhaps hypnosis is but one means of facilitating responsiveness to suggestion, and a variety of other procedures -- T'ai Chi, Reiki, etc. -- may also be useful for this purpose.

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Permalink Reply by Walt Potter on November 20, 2009 at 2:31pm

Don,

Am I right to understand that Hyperempiria also fits this definition also?

"Perhaps the concept of trance is not as essential to a definition of hypnosis as an increase in responsiveness to suggestion, regardless of the procedure which is used to bring it about. Alternatively, perhaps hypnosis is but one means of facilitating responsiveness to suggestion, and a variety of other procedures -- T'ai Chi, Reiki, etc. -- may also be useful for this purpose."

Walt

Don Gibbons, Ph.D. said:

For the past six years, my wife and I have been taking classes in T'ai Chi, a Chinese system of integrated exercises based upon an ancient stylized method of self-defense. Ideally, T'ai Chi is performed at slow speed, and is primarily practiced today as a means of maintaining and improving one's physical health. Throughout China, people frequently gather in a local park (often in the morning before going to work) for a routine of T'ai Chi before going to work. In many places in the West, T'ai Chi has also come to be used as a method of maintaining physical health and counteracting the stress of life.

At first I was skeptical, and had difficulty getting into the routine. Sometime during my first year of instruction, as I observed the silent gracefulness of those around me, I decided to pretend that I was hypnotized in order to better catch the mood. Within a moment or two, one of the instructors noticed the change and walked over to me. "Now you've got it!" he exclaimed, as he watched me moving in time with the others.

Neither I nor my classmates were experiencing a trance in the traditional sense of the term. Our eyes were open, and our bodies were constantly moving. But for me, pretending that I was hypnotized did facilitate a transition to modes of awareness which are common to both T'ai Chi and hypnosis, including an emphasis on the here and now, and knowing the world through imagery and sensory experience rather than by means of analytical thought. The movements of the T'ai Chi form (e.g., "Repel the Tiger," "Over the Top with a Chop"), may thus be conceptualized as a set of powerful, multi-modal suggestions for the development of confidence and assertiveness, and for counteracting the stress response. Given these similarities, T'ai Chi itself can be thought of as "hypnosis in motion."

Perhaps the concept of trance is not as essential to a definition of hypnosis as an increase in responsiveness to suggestion, regardless of the procedure which is used to bring it about. Alternatively, perhaps hypnosis is but one means of facilitating responsiveness to suggestion, and a variety of other procedures -- T'ai Chi, Reiki, etc. -- may also be useful for this purpose.

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Permalink Reply by Don on November 20, 2009 at 2:54pm

Hi Walt,

I think hyperempiric inductions would work here too.

Looks like it's impossible to top Ben Franklin, when he concluded that Mesmerism could be explained by imitation and the workings of the subject's imagination. Same goes for hypnosis, hyperempiria, T'ai Chi, Reiki, visualization, and you name it.

Don

Walt Potter said:

Don,

Am I right to understand that Hyperempiria also fits this definition also?

"Perhaps the concept of trance is not as essential to a definition of hypnosis as an increase in responsiveness to suggestion, regardless of the procedure which is used to bring it about. Alternatively, perhaps hypnosis is but one means of facilitating responsiveness to suggestion, and a variety of other procedures -- T'ai Chi, Reiki, etc. -- may also be useful for this purpose."

Walt

Don Gibbons, Ph.D. said:

For the past six years, my wife and I have been taking classes in T'ai Chi, a Chinese system of integrated exercises based upon an ancient stylized method of self-defense. Ideally, T'ai Chi is performed at slow speed, and is primarily practiced today as a means of maintaining and improving one's physical health. Throughout China, people frequently gather in a local park (often in the morning before going to work) for a routine of T'ai Chi before going to work. In many places in the West, T'ai Chi has also come to be used as a method of maintaining physical health and counteracting the stress of life.

At first I was skeptical, and had difficulty getting into the routine. Sometime during my first year of instruction, as I observed the silent gracefulness of those around me, I decided to pretend that I was hypnotized in order to better catch the mood. Within a moment or two, one of the instructors noticed the change and walked over to me. "Now you've got it!" he exclaimed, as he watched me moving in time with the others.

Neither I nor my classmates were experiencing a trance in the traditional sense of the term. Our eyes were open, and our bodies were constantly moving. But for me, pretending that I was hypnotized did facilitate a transition to modes of awareness which are common to both T'ai Chi and hypnosis, including an emphasis on the here and now, and knowing the world through imagery and sensory experience rather than by means of analytical thought. The movements of the T'ai Chi form (e.g., "Repel the Tiger," "Over the Top with a Chop"), may thus be conceptualized as a set of powerful, multi-modal suggestions for the development of confidence and assertiveness, and for counteracting the stress response. Given these similarities, T'ai Chi itself can be thought of as "hypnosis in motion."

Perhaps the concept of trance is not as essential to a definition of hypnosis as an increase in responsiveness to suggestion, regardless of the procedure which is used to bring it about. Alternatively, perhaps hypnosis is but one means of facilitating responsiveness to suggestion, and a variety of other procedures -- T'ai Chi, Reiki, etc. -- may also be useful for this purpose.

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Permalink Reply by Hugh Cole on November 20, 2009 at 2:55pm

One of my favorite inductions begins with the Phase "Imagine what it would feel like to hypnotized now", I would think that by now Don you are a great imaginer. One of the interesting challanges of being a Stage Hypnotist is what you do with a subject that you know is "just pretending" to be in trance ... I will usually let them stay because to respond like you are in trance you have to do that "what would it be like" thing, and If your imagining what it would be like to be hypnotized.. You are already there.
What would it be like if the unconcious mind was always in trance and ready to learn what ever new skill it needed to serve you and keep you safe and you just decided to let the concious mind step aside so the unconcious could feel and observe the Tai Chi movements all around you? What would it be like if your concept of "depth of Trance" was built on a core belief that The Deeper you go the More responsive to suggested behaviors you become.

Hugh Cole
The Pretty Goodest Hypnotist on the Planet.

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Permalink Reply by Don on November 20, 2009 at 3:03pm

HI Hugh,

I think you're on to something. What would it be like if, with our knowledge of hypnosis and the insights that it gives us into the psychology of T'ai Chi, we were to modify the traditional T'ai Chi procedures to make them even more effective facilitators of health and well-being?

Don

Hugh Cole said:

One of my favorite inductions begins with the Phase "Imagine what it would feel like to hypnotized now", I would think that by now Don you are a great imaginer. One of the interesting challanges of being a Stage Hypnotist is what you do with a subject that you know is "just pretending" to be in trance ... I will usually let them stay because to respond like you are in trance you have to do that "what would it be like" thing, and If your imagining what it would be like to be hypnotized.. You are already there.
What would it be like if the unconcious mind was always in trance and ready to learn what ever new skill it needed to serve you and keep you safe and you just decided to let the concious mind step aside so the unconcious could feel and observe the Tai Chi movements all around you? What would it be like if your concept of "depth of Trance" was built on a core belief that The Deeper you go the More responsive to suggested behaviors you become.

Hugh Cole
The Pretty Goodest Hypnotist on the Planet.

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Permalink Reply by Walt Potter on November 20, 2009 at 3:54pm

Don and Hugh,

Can't put my hands on the sources right now but B.D. Phillips and R. Bandler have exercises using trance states to learn how to emulate others. Bandler suggests watching live or video of a task/performance while in a trance state 5-6 times and then practicing while you're in a trance state also.

I've found that Tai Chi makes me feel clumsy. Should try the trance.

So many trances, so little time,

Walt

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Permalink Reply by Don on November 21, 2009 at 4:27am

These procedures all resemble each other in much the same way that a landscape, a seascape, and a portrait resemble each other. They all "look" different to the observer, but they all make use of similar underling principles of color, design, and perspective which causes us to experience them as being different, and causes us to use them for different effects in different settings.

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Permalink Reply by Walt Potter on November 21, 2009 at 4:59am

And when we can recognize the underlying principles, and know how to utilize the differences then we truly understand.

Don Gibbons, Ph.D. said:

These procedures all resemble each other in much the same way that a landscape, a seascape, and a portrait resemble each other. They all "look" different to the observer, but they all make use of similar underling principles of color, design, and perspective which causes us to experience them as being different, and causes us to use them for different effects in different settings.

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