“When I close my eyes, I will go to sleep, and when I wake up, I will not know what has happened”.
I call this statement, going to “Never, Never Land“, just like Wendy and her brothers in Peter Pan.
V,A,K,O,G, vision, auditory, kinesthetic (feeling), olfactory (smell), and gustatory (taste), – so that the subject can focus on the voice of the hypnotist to the exclusion of all others.
They will hear more, they will feel more, and with their eyes open they will see more. Why yes, you can be in a hypnotic trance with eyes open. You have seen people and done it yourself, staring at one spot or item, or no particular thing.
“You cannot hypnotise me.”
“I have been told not everyone can be hypnotised”.
It is true. No one can hypnotise you unless you are willing to be. But, every person can be hypnotised to enter some state of relaxation or trance. Where people fail to enter into a trance is not that they cannot be hypnotised, but they were unwilling to be hypnotised, or that the hypnotist was not flexible or adaptable enough to help the subject enter a state of relaxation and trance.
Trance or hypnosis is a state. It is just like the state you enter into just prior going into sleep.
We, as humans, go through many states during our day. These are normally broken down into Beta, Alpha, Theta, and Delta states. Beta, is where we are totally awake being fully absorbed, active, running, jumping. Alpha is where we are more concentrating, absorbed, studying. Theta is where we are perhaps daydreaming, totally relaxed, entering into a sleep like mode. Delta, is deep sleep, a sleep where we dream, where you will notice eye movements below the eyelids called REM (Rapid Eye Movements). All these states can be measured by the changes in the brain waves.
We all drift in and out of these states all day, and others influence us to go into these states by their talking, their communications with us.
Can you remember being at school listening to the teacher in that boring subject? For me it was history. My eyes would get heavy, I would yawn, the second hand on the clock would begin to slow down, my mind would wonder off, thinking about other things. Why? The teacher’s method of imparting information sent me into an altered state.
I remember as a small boy, my mother calling me in a soft singing voice, “Phillip”. I knew that she was baking a cake, and that she was calling me to lick the bowl of the cake mix, I became relaxed, skipping into the kitchen, with a big smile on my face. Yet she would call me another time in a low loud voice, “Phillip John“. I knew I was in trouble, I entered a fear state, and it was time to hide, not to get a smack, to be told off, as I must have done something wrong.
Have you ever read a story to a small child at bedtime, or remember the time when you were a small child and had a story read to you? What happened? Sleep was induced; the child went into a deep relaxed state of sleep. Was the story read in a provocative manor, in an aggressive way? No it was read in a soothing, quiet, soft voice.
We all influence others states in what we do, what we say, as they do with us. So congratulations, you yourself are a hypnotist. You did not know?
Have you ever thought who else may be a hypnotist? What about, film producers? You have watched firms where you laughed so hard, your sides ached, you have watched films where you were frightened, and I know you have watched films where tears have come to your eyes. What about actors on stage? I am totally absorbed by Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on stage in the London Palladium theatre, or The Phantom of the Opera. My state changes as scene by scene is enacted.
If you wish to experience a deep trance, Download my CD or MP3, visit the blog The Castle, or click on the left hand side panel link.