Post Hypnotic Suggestion in Hypnosis Without Trance

O.K. I have had a lot of questions about this, so I thought it was time to address it!

It’s Post Hypnotic Suggestion – how do you bring it in when there is no trance to deliver it in.  The answer is that it is remarkably easy… but I have thrown in a few extra’s here to really make your PHS’s ‘sing’.

For people who use Anthony Jacquin’s Manchurian Approach material, there is a little something on how to make it work with HWT.

Also if you notice that I am moving oddly in this video, it is because I am recovering from knee surgery!

OK, enjoy the vid, and please do let me have your comments!

P.S. The No-Fail Protocol is now available HERE!

About The Author

James Tripp

Hypnotist and Transformative Facilitator. Creator of Hypnosis Without Trance.

31 Comments

  • JP Morgan

    January 9, 2011

    Love this. Something new to play with in a coaching and persuasion context. I wonder though, as you nest *many* hypnotic loops…what happens to to the early opened loops (i.e. initial phenomenon)? In storytelling nested loops each loop brings the person through a shift in state by overloading them. From the bits I’ve played with hypnotic nested loops, I think there is a point when opening new ones will start to break down the initial ones…which would make sense in the HWT approach considering it all hinges on creating altered beliefs. How many altered beliefs can a person really be expected to remember at one time? I think sometimes subjects simply ‘unstuck’ themselves because they forgot they were stuck!

    • Raymond

      January 9, 2011

      @JP Morgan, you can open lots of loops and two things can occur.
      Firstly the listener will be fed up with all this partial information and correct you by saying: “Sorry I’ve lost you here.”

      Secondly when the listener is intrigued in all your different loops (stories) –this is done simply by letting them flow over, as if your building to something big– they will keep following and they will forget what happened initially but as you go to close those loops they will remember again because there are all these memory hooks that they will latch onto as you close the loop. It’s not that they truly do not remember anymore.
      You may find it harder for yourself to open up 12 different loops and tracking them than for the listener.

      Now concerning your last question how many altered believes a person can handle that really is up to the person. What James teaches is invoking several thought patterns (he calls them hypnotic loops — love that word). Patterns can conflict and some patterns are mutually exclusive. This differs per person.
      A handstick or rigid arm does usually not conflict with a name amnesia. However I’ve had happen that a person’s arm was stuck firmly, he didn’t even grab the 50 euros I held up. But as soon as I went into the name amnesia he evoked a mutual exclusive standard pattern for him and that was suddenly grabbing his forehead with that right arm that had been stuck moments before. So there’s really no telling how someone is wired up.

    • James Tripp

      January 9, 2011

      I agree John. I don’t open too many ‘phenomena loops’, most often not more than 2. However if you maintain them well, you can open more.

      I’m not sure they always really stay ‘open’, as much as get forgotten and re-established when the time is right!

      J

  • Jim Sloan

    January 9, 2011

    Hi James,
    I enjoyed the brilliant and clear explanation about PHS. I have already purchased and studied HWT and No fail Protocol. I will now be putting in PHS in the matter you described.

    • James Tripp

      January 9, 2011

      Let me know how you get on Jim.

      J

  • Ritchie

    January 9, 2011

    Hi James, lovely stuff my friend 🙂 it’s a long time since we met in Hastings at Anthony & Freddies training weekend, you’re doing a wonderful job mate.

    Ritchie.

    • James Tripp

      January 9, 2011

      Ha! Hi Ritchie, good to hear from you!

      Stay in touch!

      James

  • Hi, James.

    Excellent video. Once again you’ve got me thinking deeply about the possible applications of this approach.

    It’s funny. Intellectually I know that either a person is hypnotized or they aren’t, but practically I still limit myself to thinking that some stuff is limited to the realm of ‘eyes closed/trance’ hypnosis. Thanks for continuing to shatter my skewed thinking.

    Korey

  • Pierre Randruut

    January 9, 2011

    Hi James,

    Thanks for your video about PHS, it’s really well explained and interesting !
    Now, could you explain how you stop the amnesia phenomenon ?
    For example, you make your subject forget about the number 3, using a nested loop imbedded in name amnesia.
    Then you make a test with the subject and ask him to count up to 10.
    He will count 1,2,..,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, which is fine.
    How then will you make him remember again about number 3 ?

    Thanks for your answer,

    Pierre

    • Raymond

      January 9, 2011

      It’s simple really when you realize that the memory isn’t gone. You just disrupt the recall to a memory by evoking a pattern that allows to ignore recall.

      So you simply break the pattern and the person is fine again. Breaking the pattern is as simple as breaking the person’s concentration.

      Even if you don’t do anything the pattern you have evoked will stop automatically. Hence hypnotherapy (where solely is worked with PHS) has poor long term results. Since they don’t break the pattern leading up to the other pattern isn’t broken. So don’t worry about this Pierre. Simply clap your hands or say that all the suggestions are gone from their mind.

      There’s even debate whether PHS actually do exist but that’s a different discussion all together but you can now see why it’s debatable.

      • James Tripp

        January 9, 2011

        Hey Raymond, nice reply! Thoroughly endorsed!

        J

    • James Tripp

      January 9, 2011

      All of this is explained on the Hypnosis Mastery Programme, but it’s pretty easy really.

      “In a moment when I click my fingers the number 3 will pop fully back into your mind and knowledge…”

      And you trigger with the click.

      If you want to see me nesting name amnesia inside of ‘stuck to the chair, have a look at the demonstration video on THIS PAGE!

      I do not use put a PHS in, but it will give you a sense of nesting.

      All the very best

      James

  • Michelle Marsh

    January 10, 2011

    Hi James,
    Your HWT has blown my mind and completely changed my thoughts on how hypnosis works – its clicked together a lot of gaps that my traditional learning couldn’t explain with clients here and there.
    I’m curious to know how long you spend (per session and how many sessions) with clients for therapy – e.g. to quit smoking. Do you use HWT exclusively or do you mix it with other modalities?
    If these answers are in your Hypnosis Mastery Program let me know as I plan on purchasing it tonight.
    Thanks For the eye opener.

    Michelle

    • James Tripp

      January 10, 2011

      Hi Michelle

      That kind of information is NOT in the Hypnosis Mastery Programme, which focusses on hypnosis and getting hypnotic phenomena rather than the application of such.

      I will have some HWT Changework Applications DVD’s coming out soon (end of March), but until then, to answer your question…

      I work with clients for hour long sessions in the main, with a 2 hour session as the first session. Smokers I usually do 1 session with 1 follow up (smoking cessation, IMO, is a n artform that relies on many principles of persuasion and influence beyond the basic tools of hypnosis if you want to get really high success rates).

      Other issues take varying numbers of sessions, depending on the client and their motivations and character etc.

      And I do NOT use HWT exclusively… I use it with elements of NLP, Provocative Therapy, Strategic Therapy, Clean Language, Eye Movement work and various ‘persuasion and influence’ methodologies.

      Hypnosis is a powerful tool, but I think it works best to ‘grease the wheels’ of changework (which it does brilliantly) rather than as the primary modality. Straight suggestion based hypnotherapy can be a bit hit and miss on it’s own, and that isn’t good enough for my clients. Always best to have a full toolkit!

      Hope that helps

      James

      To answer your question

      • Michelle Marsh

        January 11, 2011

        Hi James,

        Yes thank you that reinforces what I believe. I unfortunately was taught that all I needed to know was how to hypnotise someone and then give the suggestions needed and wham bam, its done. While this works with a great deal of clients (especially for simple things like phabias etc) I have recently started adding other things like NLP etc and even more clients are now responding (especially when emotions are involved). Soon I will add HWT!

        Thanks again – you are a blessing to the hypnosis community :>

        Michelle

        • Raymond

          January 11, 2011

          Hi Michelle,

          I find it interesting that many hypnotherapist and stage hypnotists adhere to the model of when “in trance” *if there’s such a thing* all you need to do is give a direct suggestions and you’re done. If it were really that simple than there would be no such field as psychotherapy and no so many smokers and people who are extremely overweight or raging aggressive because you could just make a TV program and get the suggestion across.

          Sorry if I sound very pedantic but I too initially adhered to that hypnotic mumbo-jumbo of the subconscious instilling a suggestion.
          When I started to learn about psychology and study it I felt a bit daft having been such a believer myself as well. I am a person who despises organized religion and yet with my eyes wide open I fell into the same trap! I quickly concluded that this approach didn’t work because I test my work (being a electrical and IT engineer you test your work) and it failed not once but twice… How stupid was I?! I wasn’t taught to test my work during hypnotherapy courses! But I was taught this during stage hypnosis and my whole career as an engineer. I should’ve known when there was no chapter on testing your results during the course but I simply was blinded by love.

          This is when I decided to read everything I could from real scientific sources about hypnosis and then I realized that the hypnosis model is all crooked and rubbish. Not useless perse but it’s a bunch of pseudo-scientific nonsense *That feeling first arose when studying NLP after I did stage hypnosis. I now uses hypnosis as a believe system which is a wonderful vehicle to break down resistance when people believe it (they will at some degree otherwise they wouldn’t visit a hypnotherapist). I now incorporate CBT which is tried and tested therapy and a whole array of different things. I am glad to see that James is thinking in a similar way and also not hiding this.

          For example you have someone who wants to stop smoking you can use a whole array of simple things building a solid foundation, even a hypnotherapy session to help resist graving using suggestion can be a great tool but not in it’s own.
          One thing I now do is is have them write 6 letters to friends that they have stopped smoking and mail those letters. This uses the innate compliance pattern (that James uses in his HWT too) to have someone openly commit to something. The fact that they’d to mail them using the “old snail mail” already meant they’ve invested something into the idea as well — investment allows us to work harder we hate to waste energy on nothing. In this case the investment was standing inline at the post office getting stamps. Now when a person breaks their commitment we know we are looked upon as inconsistent and weak. So there’s an extra incentive to beat that graving utilizing that innate consistency pattern.
          Also research has shown that after around 21 days the neuro receptors graving nicotine have stabilised again. To suggest this that their graving is gone after 3 weeks. So future pacing this reality using NLP is a great tool, showing the article is a wonderful suggestion and incentive (to people who are not skeptical against science, some are so for them this convincer convinces them to do the opposite).
          But everybody can hold out smoking for three weeks! Nicotine patches are seen as a placebo because the amount of nicotine absorbed through the skin is minimal but it may work as an added tool.
          When you feel you are graving call a friend or get a glass or water or go out for a walk are wonderful alternatives (suggestions that are just as potent delivered in full awareness as in “trance” *I doubt that exists) and are helpful. When you stack enough things together you will get a strong enough construction. You do not necessarily know which of the load bearing beams was the best for this client but you know that they were able to hang from your construction.

  • Joshua Houghton

    January 16, 2011

    Hi James,

    I just wanted to chime in and say great video as usually. Keep up the awesome work!

    Josh

  • Darío Piera

    January 18, 2011

    James, this was a missing linking that opens great possibilities in the HWT work.
    Again, Thank you very much!

  • Hardy

    January 18, 2011

    Hi!
    Mr, James Tripp, could you hypnosis me, so I can speak english better?
    I do understand what are you saying, but it just ‘that’ that always prevent me to speak in english. I have already applied some of your lessons but when it turn for me to speak then it just vanish. I think it’s like autosuggestion like what you do on ‘card stick’ or ‘hand to pole’, I speak to myself like ‘I can’ but it always come to ‘ok, maybe next time’.
    I hope you can help me on this one.

    Thank you for you time and for your answer.
    Hardy

    • James Tripp

      January 25, 2011

      Hi Hardy

      Hypnosis could help you to speak English better if you already have good knowledge of the language but have something blocking your access to that knowledge. It could also help you to learn through as part of a process to optmise your learning strategy.

      Hope that helps!

      James

  • Shane

    January 25, 2011

    James,
    I have real trouble with name amnesia in certain people. I can get the inability to say their name, but this group of people report that they find it uncomfortable that they could forget their name. They therefore hold onto the name when the suggestion to forget it is given. I have tried the “look at me” suggestion to limit this, and it works with an inability to say their name. How then would you implant the PHS and conscious amnesia?
    I have tried to use an open loop of an hand stick to embed the conscious amnesia but this also was without success as the (very good) subject had full recall of the PHS.

    Thanks for your help

    Shane

    • James Tripp

      January 25, 2011

      Hi Shane

      It seems like you are coming up against a fundamental truth of hypnosis – hypnosis isn’t smooth and by-the-numbers – it’s messy!

      Each and every subject has different dispositions and hypnotic ‘talents’ – by this I mean that some people do amnesia well, others don’t. Some do catalepsy well, others don’t. some do hallucination well and others don’t. And so on.

      Also, there are other factors that make a difference, like how well you engineer buy in, how much belief and conviction you have yourself, timing… the list could go on.

      My best recomendation is to not get too hung up on specific outcomes or phenomena. If something isn’t going to work, steer the situation towards something that will – and there is always something that will, providing you have the subject in the process. This is, of course, where the No-Fail Protocol material comes into it’s own.

      Always remember that the subject is an individual, find their ‘talents’ and work with them. If you follow this approach you will get better and better, and if you know the No-Fail Protocol then you know your backside is covered.

      All the very best

      James

  • Meraux Dantes

    January 27, 2011

    James,

    I hope the recovery (from surgery) is going well.

    Stay Strong.

    Respect,

    MD

  • James ,

    That was a great piece on post hypnotic suggestion.

    I have recommended quite a few people to check out that video .

    Keep up the great work.

    Jørgen

  • Anthony Cox

    March 12, 2011

    Great video! Your explanation of post-hypnotic suggestions in nested loops is crystal clear and will be very useful to any hypnotherapists seeking to extend their range of techniques. I have found nested loops to be a great way to succeed with subjects who find it difficult to let go and ‘go with the flow’.

    • James Tripp

      March 28, 2011

      Thanks Anthony.. Glad you enjoyed it!

      J

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