Now, a lot of times this is the question that comes up with those who are only just starting out, and they wonder, as we all can imagine and perhaps remember wondering, what if they don’t go into trance, or what if they just go under and come out, or, perhaps, what happens if they don’t respond to my suggestion to do this and do that instead? It’s only natural to just start wondering how to respond in these situations as you just start to consider that right now. Many people will give you thoughts on this about changing your tactic or doing things a little differently, or tell you that this won’t happen if you are confident, or many other possibilities, and there is truth in many of these options, but there is also another way to see this which we can begin to think about right now.

Of course, when you think about hypnotizing a person, you can begin to think about it as a way of communicating with them, as a conversation between you and another person, and in a conversation it’s really okay for them to say so many different things, isn’t it, not just that one thing that you might expect or want them to say. If you went into every conversation knowing just what you wanted to say and expecting the other person to just respond in exactly this way that would be pretty silly, wouldn’t it, because they are them and will say what they have to say. So, when you do hypnosis, just consider that whatever response you receive tells you something and is useful to you in creating just that response you are looking for, if you frame it that way.
Whatever response you receive, it’s a simple thing to just frame that as a hypnotic response, when you just begin to imagine it that way. Suppose, for example, you invite a person into trance by performing an induction, and they just don’t seem to enter into trance. Now, you might just wonder how you can frame that as a hypnotic response, and that’s a question that is well worth asking, because the answer is something that is worth understanding, isn’t it? When a subject doesn’t go into trance, consider that it is a choice they are making, that not responding can come from many different things, but the reason is simply because the subconscious mind just didn’t open up to that suggestion to enter trance. So, when I have a subject that just won’t enter trance at first, I congratulate them and point out the choice.

“Yes,” I might say, “it’s so good to know that you can choose not to enter trance when you didn’t want to yet, and your subconscious mind can listen and choose to enter trance when it’s ready too, because right now, your conscious mind is ready to enter trance, and it can be okay for you to ask that part of you deeper down to make that choice too, isn’t it. So, right now, as you just consider that you can choose to enter trance just that easily, you might just wonder how you knew then that you didn’t just enter trance, and can wonder really what that feeling is that is this trance you are choosing to enter.”

In this case, it’s just a question of framing that response as a response to a suggestion, because this is a communication, and the choice to not enter trance is a response to that induction, so you can show them that they did respond on a deep level, and that will let them know they still have that choice. And the only way to really know it’s a choice, you can begin to notice, is to enter trance, because if you can’t choose to enter trance, than you didn’t choose not to enter trance either. You can even tell them that too, and you might just see already how this is a powerful way to think about these things. Because when you think of responding in a different way than you expect as still being a hypnotic response, it really does open up so many possibilities for you in what you do and how you think about those things.

Now, a far simpler example which might make even more sense right now is to think about a specific response, and let’s make it simple by using a really simple suggestion, something like an arm levitation. Now, suppose you tell them that they will feel this arm just raising up without even knowing that they are raising it, and it doesn’t move. In response, I might just say something like “yes, your arm can sit just like that, and you can let it sit and wonder if it will move or if it can, or if it is just going to stay stuck like that and you won’t even be able to try to move it, or you can find that it does move, maybe moving up, or to this side or that, or some other movement you can’t even just imagine until you have noticed that it already happened…”

Here you’ve made every choice a possible response, and so they have no choice but to follow the suggestion. This might just seem silly to some of you, but the thing is, and the rest of you might already see this too(because some part of you probably does), but when you define anything as a response, that suggests to the subconscious that it is being responsive whatever it does, and since not responding is often a response that comes because the subject doesn’t want to respond, well, you are making that non-responsiveness impossible. You are creating a double bind, one which will lead them to accept that your suggestions should be responded to, and they will respond so much more easily because they know that they don’t have a choice about that.

Certainly, there are many other elements in the language that I’ve used here in describing how to speak to your subject, and many other applications for this type of thinking which we will explore in future columns. For now, let these ideas sink in, and, let me also add that if you are wondering about anything specific in here, or have a question about hypnosis that you really are interested in seeing addressed in future columns, I’m looking forward to hearing from you, so email me at: will@teenagehypnosis.com.

This is a beginning, and so I suppose it is best to begin things by offering an introduction of sorts. You might imagine how, as I begin this, I’m wondering what questions you might want answered, and so let me start here, not with our first discussion of hypnotic thoughts (though these thoughts might well be truly hypnotic in another sense), which shall, as you might imagine, be the focus of this column, but by speaking more about how it is that this column came to be and with a bit of information of how I got involved with the hypnosis in general, and the IATH.

When I was younger than I am but about the same age as many of you, 14 perhaps, or 15, I became fascinated with the ideas of hypnosis. In truth, hypnosis had always been there, somewhere floating back inside my mind, of course not real hypnosis, but that kind that you might well once have imagined, that magical, magnetic power, more mesmerism than hypnosis, but in any case it was that entrancing idea which held my interest. Now, what is it that changed when I was in my teens that turned those wonderfully youthful dreams into a desire to truly learn about just how these things could work, you might be wondering.

It was a book, actually two books, by Jack Finney, From Time To Time and Time And Again, books that are rather silly, to be completely honest, in the idea at their core, but good books none the less. Now, the thing is, in those books the character uses self hypnosis and hypnotic inductions are well described, so I began to wonder, could one learn what’s written here and use it to create hypnotic experiences? I began to do some self hypnosis, and had a bit of success, experiencing trance states and exploring them just a bit for myself.

Then I tried to do it, to hypnotize another person. It was in school, during a study hall. A classmate of mine volunteered and we sat down in a quiet corner and I began to talk. He seemed relaxed, but I was never truly certain about what happened, and when others came out speaking about lunch, he opened his eyes and wandered off, but he claimed to me that he had been relaxed, even if he was aware, and now, thinking back on it, I see it as a success. Minor, yes, but it succeeded in a far bigger way, for that was when the bug had bitten me and I became truly enthralled by these notions and experiences.

In the years since, I’ve spent much time learning as much as I could about hypnosis. I discovered a copy of Patterns of The Hypnotic Technique of Milton Erickson in the school library during college, and read it over and over. From their I continued, reading every book I could find, text books, NLP, pop psychology, anything that might just teach me a little more about hypnosis. And over time, with so much practice and thought, I learnt more and more, and still that is my journey.

Now, that’s me, but you might wonder why I’m here. I’m not a teenager, so why this site? Well, in truth, it is because of my friendship with and deep respect for IATH cofounder Nathan Thomas. I remember several years ago, when Nathan and I first began to communicate over the internet, he asked me a question, a question that I could not truly answer. He asked me where he, at his young age, could become certified as a hypnotist. Now, this is the reason I respect Nathan, and why you can learn so much just from seeing this about him, because he was passionate.

Nathan loves hypnosis, is fascinated by hypnosis, and he is a sponge. He works hard at learning and seeks out anyone he can who might be able teach him. It was shortly after that conversation when Nathan told me he had begun corresponding with some big name people in the covert hypnosis community and was working on their products with them. But what’s really impressive isn’t just his passion, but his attitude, and you may already see this, but whether you have noticed it yourself or not, it is something very important. Nathan has no obstacles.

What do I mean by that, you might wonder, because everyone faces things that might stand in their way, won’t they? Yes, and no. You see, Nathan wanted to be certified as a teenage hypnotist, and he knew that wasn’t going to happen with what existed, within that system he had so little as an option. Most people would just wait, would study in private and say, okay, soon I’ll be older and then… They would sit in their rooms daydreaming of the day when, and letting that build as they imagined it more and more vividly, but Nathan did even more than that, and we all know how powerful imagining can be, but there is more to success than seeing what you want.

The IATH itself is a testament to the fact that if you want something enough and you keep your eyes so focused upon that goal, you will never face an obstacle, you will only see a different path, sometimes a better one. You see, what for that wonderful dreamer would have been a stalling point was a true opportunity for Nathan. Now, in truth, I know he was not alone in founding this, and I am sure that Leo deserves equal praise, but I have been friends with Nathan for several years now, and he is the one who brought me here, so it is because of that knowledge and relationship that I can say with certainty that Nathan, certainly, looked at what was possible and saw something new that could be and made it happen.

So that is how I came to be a part of this, and a bit about me and my journey. As we continue on in this journey together, there will be many lessons to discuss and ideas to think and think about, and you might already notice some things here that you can take and think about and use for yourself, but for now, I just wanted to say hello and let us begin. It won’t be long before we speak again, and in the meantime, I’ll see you on the forums.

Will.