Are You A Trance Guy Now, James?

Following last weeks post on Alpha States and Hypnosis, I had a few people suggesting that I might be beginning to ‘see the light’ in terms of recognising ‘trance’ as the basis of hypnosis.

In the video I talked about Dr. Les Fehmi’s work on attention and how we use attention impacts us neurologically and physiologically, as outlined in his book The Open-focus Brain: Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body

Now, I loved this book and it has had a great impact on me in terms of better understanding the potential impact in terms of health and personal transformation even the simplest forms of ‘hypnosis’ can have. On a personal level, it helped me to understand how many many years of Martial Arts orientated Nei Gong meditation practise may have a had a far greater impact on my well-being and personal evolution than I may have previously realised.

Of course, for those who are keen to look at hypnosis through the lens of ‘trance’ it can be very tempting to say “look… Hypnosis IS a special state… it IS trance… and trance is the state of synchronous alpha”. To be clear This is NOT the conclusion I would want people to jump to, and I do hope my previous post hasn’t encouraged that.

But I was talking about ‘state’ there, so let me get a little clearer on that!

Regarding ‘states’ and ‘hypnosis’ – of course, what happens in the brain/body will change in response to how attention is shifted and imagination is used, and this is in no way in contradiction with the Hypnosis Without Trance model/approach. Hypnosis Without Trance is (and always has been) simply about working directly with the desired shifts in attention/imagination/cognition etc. without the belief that there is some requirement to put people into a particular state first. Now, research may yet show up that alpha wave patterns correlate with some or many ‘hypnotic phenomena’, but this doesn’t mean that such patterns fulfil the role that has in the past been ascribed to ‘trance’, and  are as such necessarily required for ‘hypnosis’.

So how does Hypnosis Without Trance fit with this Alpha Wave stuff?

The Hypnsosis Without Trance definition of hypnosis is:

“The use of language and communication to direct attention and seed ideas for the purpose of leading someone into an altered perception of reality”

That ‘altered perception of reality’ will have a correlatory state shift, and this may or may not include alpha wave patterns as signatory.

In the Hypnosis Mastery Programme I talked about the concept of hypnotic focus (this is part of the ‘directing attention’ aspect of the HWT definition), and how that is useful but not necessary in leading someone in ‘hypnosis’. It is interesting how this notion fits/overlaps with Les Fehmi’s work on attention and alpha states.

So Hypnosis Without Trance is powerful for working with attention and shifting state, but there is no need to correlate this with trance!

Why would we? Why ‘trance’? Along with all the old baggage that we need to ‘put someone in it’ as a prerequisite for hypnosis, and that particular ‘hypnotic phenomena’ correlate with specific ‘depths of trance’. State shifts necessarily happen correlatorily with process – it’s all part of the flow. No need for ‘inductions’ (although they can serve as tools from both a process and semantic perspective), just get busy leading the hypnotee where you want to lead them. So why ‘trance’?

Now, to flip that on it’s head for a moment, I’ve absolutely no doubt that many old school trance inductions do indeed work very nicely to relax people and shift them into synchronous alpha. Which, as already mentioned, can be of clear benefit of people in terms of health, well being and personal transformation. It does NOT, however, mean that since these people have been lead into such a state, they will now necessarily be any more ‘open to suggestion’ than they may have been otherwise. Sure, they may find that they can connect with their imagination (point 2 on the HWT ‘hypnotic loop’) a little better than they would if their attention was flitting all over the place and their brain was running in survival mode. But this is not the same as saying they are in ‘trance’ to a particular depth that is required for a particular phenomena to spontaneously manifest as a result of ‘suggestion’.

My primary objection to people attempting to hold on to the past and keep moving back to old models is that it removes useful nuances offered by more up to date models. Those nuances create choice that is missing from less nuanced models. The whole point of Hypnosis Without Trance is to give the operator MORE CHOICE. Anything that adds to that (i.e. the material from Les Fehmi’s work) GREAT!  But if it is re-shaped to fit an old model that offers less choice… not so great.

And yes, this is all about models and how they serve us! Of course, the different models are all describing the same reality, but that isn’t to say that the terms of one model necessarily correlate with the terms of another, or that it is useful to seek such correlation. Let’s develop models and understandings that inform greater chhoice! Let’s move towards the future rather than attempting to regress back to the past!

Regarding Dr. Fehmi’s work… what is much more interesting to me is how ‘hypnosis’ can be used to shift people into synchronous alpha (rather than being synonymous with synchronous alpha), which in turn has fantastic applications in terms of making shifts in quality of health, creative thinking, personal fulfilment and life in general. And how just this simple thing (aside from any other suggestion and more detailed process work, which people – including myself – often emphasise in changework) can be so phenomenally impactful. THAT, IMO, is very cool! 🙂

This gives more choice… we can up our awareness for our clients chronic attention patterns and recognise the potential we have to start repatterning here. Hypnosis, especially by the HWT definition, offers a lot to the facilitation of this.

So this really isn’t about ‘trance’ at all… only about how we can use hypnosis to shift attention patterns and shift state in ways that serve powerfully in terms of health, transformation and fulfilment.

James Tripp

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