As a hypnotherapist, I of course know how to guide you into a trance. It’s central to what I do. But what not everyone realises (not even all hypnotherapists) is that the thing I do that will help you the most is guiding you out of trances.
I’m not talking about the ones I help you get into, but the ones you were in already.
photo credit: Clearly Ambiguous
Here’s what I mean.
We go into trances all the time. By “trance” I mean a mental state in which some (or all) of what we are doing is happening outside consciousness. For example, I’m in a typing trance right now. I touch-type. My brain knows how to translate the words I want to type into movements of my fingers on the keyboard, so I don’t have to consciously remember where the keys are, or look at them. (If I did, it would slow me down.)
Some of these trances, like the typing trance (or the driving trance, or the cleaning-the-teeth trance) are useful. Consciousness is hard work, and we can do a lot of everyday things safely and effectively without engaging it. After all, we run our bodies largely at a level we’re not conscious of. (If I had to run the process of digestion, for example, by thinking about every step, I wouldn’t have much concentration left for anything else. It’s complicated.)
But some of our trances are unhelpful, and bringing more consciousness into them is exactly what we need to do.
How to do a trance
A couple of weeks ago I was at the NZ Hypnotherapy Federation conference, and one of the speakers, Gary Johnston, put up the startling suggestion that we spend the first five to seven years of our lives largely in a receptive trance. Until we learn enough about the world to develop a conscious, critical mind, we are prone to believe whatever we’re told, especially by authority figures like parents and teachers. (This is why your inner Clydesdale thinks you’re still small.)
Memories linked to emotion are more vivid than those that aren’t, and memories linked to the same emotion tend to be linked to one another. When we have a sensory experience, an image, sound, taste, smell or touch, which is similar to one that is linked to a powerful memory, or when we hear words that are connected to a powerful memory, that memory is triggered and brings its emotion with it – and all the other memories linked to the same emotion get dragged along behind.
photo credit: vitroid
What this does is reproduce the trance we were in when the memories were created. (This is how a post-hypnotic suggestion works – a word or a touch, usually, is linked to a particular trance state, and will take you back into that state in moments.)
So, let’s say when you were a young child someone scolded you and you felt small and stupid and worthless. And let’s say that they used a particular tone of voice and maybe one or two key words, and they were wearing a blue shirt. And then when you’re grown up, someone wearing a blue shirt uses that same tone of voice and one of those key words to you. What’s going to happen?
The approach to psychology called Transactional Analysis has a phrase for what happens: “Hooking the not-OK child”. The word “hooking” is well chosen. It’s like that trance state from your childhood is a fish and it’s being hauled up from the depths on the line that is the words and tone of voice and visual image. You instantly feel small and stupid and worthless, and you lose your adult capabilities and have only the child’s. Afterwards, you may come out of your trance and think, “Why didn’t I say X or Y or Z?” You literally couldn’t think of those things at the time. You were in a trance, and those resourceful parts of yourself that developed later in life weren’t available to you.
That moment wasn’t itself (like cake is never just cake). It was everything it reminded you of – every occasion that was linked to the emotion that was triggered by the sensory experience and the words. And the more often this happens, the more memories are linked into that trance (and the more triggers it gets). Gary Johnston works mainly with people who have post-traumatic stress, who have experienced such powerful emotions that they are getting triggered all the time.
How to undo a trance
So what does this trance think it’s doing? Trances are there to help us deal with things that consciousness finds too hard. When we’re little, consciousness finds a lot of things too hard, and so we go into a lot of trances. Now that we’re grown up, though, we don’t need so many – we can often deal with things better as conscious adults. And yet the trance keeps getting triggered.
You can get beyond this by asking yourself (or getting someone else who knows what they’re doing to ask you) three questions. (“Do you feel lucky?” is not one of the questions.)
1. How am I doing the trance?
This question is about the patterns and the triggers. When you’re safely away from the situation, sit and map out what sets you off. What’s the language? What’s the imagery? (The Emotional Hamster Wheel ebook in my free online stress management course takes you through an exercise to do exactly this.) Describe the picture or the sensation as clearly as you can.
Looking at this stuff initiates the trance and brings out the part of you that does it, but in a controlled environment, with your consciousness still present.
2. Why am I doing the trance?
As I mentioned a few weeks back in How to Form an Alliance With Yourself, the parts of yourself that seem to be performing sabotage are actually trying to help. It’s just that it’s a (for example) three-year-old’s idea of “trying to help”. Talk to the trancy part and thank it for trying so hard to help you, but gently point out that it’s not really working too well for you.
3. What could I do instead?
Your mind is very resourceful. It’s just that going into that trance over and over isn’t making best use of those resources. So suggest to the part that’s been doing that, “It would be more helpful if I had full access to all of my resources in those moments, if I was relaxed and capable and conscious. Please remember that and store it wherever you store that kind of learning.” Thank it again.
Now, how’s that picture or sensation or that pattern of words that used to put you in the trance?
(And if you want further help coming out of your trance, contact me to set up some one-on-one sessions in person or over Skype.)
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