I’ve been doing a lot of hypnosis lately, I find some way to weave it into the conversation.
Here’s how the conversation went tonight (paraphrased):
Taylor: “So how about you, what do you do?”
Guy 1: “Oh I work in manufacturing”
Taylor: “Oh really? What type of stuff do you process?”
Guy 1: “Ah you know, Mil spec stuff”
Guy 2: “Lets shouldn’t talk about work now guys, we’re at a party! We could talk about sports, or women, or beer…”
Taylor: “Well, I like talking about hypnosis. I’m a hypnotist so it works well that way…”
Guy 1: “Oh, yeah, hypnosis, so what’s that about?”
Taylor: “Well, what I tell people to do is that when you stop… and focus in with your breathing, your mind goes blank because your unconscious mind… that if you were having the belief that you can go into a trance, what you do not know yet will learn unconsciously will consciously come up for you. This is how deep your trance works. You adjust your breathing and go into that state.”
Girl: “Wow… you are so intelligent, Taylor”
But basically I bring it up in every conversation.
My goal is to have them do some sort of suggestibility test. My favorites are:
– Book and the Balloon (Light Hand/Heavy Hand)
– Hand tightening game
With the book and the balloon, I usually have them close their eyes… with the hand tightening test, I want them staring fixedly at a spot on their hand.
Today I did … 3 of the book and the balloon.. and 3 hand tightening games of which one was having the hands glued together like the hands are in prayer. (I saw a video of Brian David Phillips’ approach with this and I liked it a lot: video)
Depending on what a person is presenting to me, I vary what I show them. If someone is only a “little” interested in hypnosis, I’ll show them the book and the balloon. If they’re a little bit more, I’ll show them the hand tightener… But I only go through the deeper levels of hypnosis with people who are committed to experiencing it.
My format now is:
1. Do an instant induction, deepen QUICKLY…
2. Immediately start fractionating them using a trigger
3. Start having them do simple hypnotic phenomenon right away – e.g. handlock
4. Deepen trance in some significant way, then proceed on to more advanced phenomenon
