Reality is Plastic

A Prelude - I’m Gonna Bitch a Lot

This book was one of my first on hypnosis, as it was recommended alongside Mind Play. For probably 8 months or so, I was frustrated with this book’s content - with it’s forceful view that you need to be The Hypnotist, it almost turned me off entirely from trying at all. I’m re-reading this to both scrape up the good bits and add my own (probably inexperienced) opinions, providing some nuance to the material as well as making it more digestible to newcomers.

Ch1 and Ch2 - An Approach to Hypnosis

Presenting Yourself

Let me get my major beef with this book out of the way first. Firstly, there’s the statement “…you must first become The Hypnotist and think of yourself as The Hypnotist…” Later, this rolls into the following quote:

“You must express absolute confidence, congruence and expertise in your skills, knowledge and abilities. In the beginning this can take a certain amount of front. Pretend and master it. Believe you are one of the best. Believe you are a natural. Behave like you are.”

Don’t get me wrong - confidence is great. But it’s no so paramount in recreational or clinical hypnosis that it should prevent you from practicing. I also disagree that you should have “a certain amount of front.” In a recreational setting, this is absolutely unnecessary. Experienced subjects will lend you a hand, and other nearby hypnotists worth their salt will be happy to drag you deeper into this hole help you out and give you critique. In a learning setting, coming clean about what you are and are not comfortable with is also perfectly respectable. The strength and force of the author’s previous statements drowns out a helpful approach to this - which is…

“Ultimately be yourself - just more so.”

I prefer James Tripp’s take on this from Hypnosis without Trance that it’s a collaboration - calling you the ‘operator’ and your subject the ‘co-operator.’ Another nice way to look at it is Binaural Histolog’s take on their behavior page, that your behavior should be contextual. Don’t present yourself like a stage hypnotist in a relaxed, recreational setting - you’ll look like a clown that’s out of touch.

Describing vs Defining Hypnosis

The second chapter also covers a short history of hypnosis, mentioning Mesmerism and ‘animal magnetism,’ moving on to James Braid, then moving on to today’s 20th century heroes of hypnosis - Milton Erickson and Dave Elman. Dave Elman’s ‘wedge’ into hypnosis was ‘disabling critical faculty,’ and Milton Erickson attempted to speak directly to the ‘unconscious.’ The book suggests either of these approaches are acceptable.

Either of these models are ‘ok’ to work with, even Anthony says ”… you can hold any of the major views about hypnosis and still be a good hypnotist.” However, you’ll do a lot better understanding that critical faculty is not “a thing you can bypass,” just the same way that the unconscious is not something you plug into with USB-C. Troubleshooting your hypnotic suggestions with the point of view that you need to do either of these things will mislead and frustrate you.

Here’s where I do agree with Anthony:

“Understand—your job is to turn a doing into a happening.”

I’m going back to James Tripp and Binaural Histolog again - but I prefer James’s and Binaural’s approach of coaching in most situations. Your best source of information on why something isn’t ‘working’ is right in front of you - your subject. [[James Tripp - Hypnosis Without Trance]] goes into a solid amount of detail on this, and despite it being peppered with NLP I recommend you picking up your own copy.

Anthony’s Definition of Hypnosis

Hypnosis is a social construct that causes the cognitive processes of automatic imagination. Hypnotic responses are defined by their subjective sensation of automaticity or involuntariness because they lack the knowledge or feeling of intention.

Jacquin, Anthony. Reality is Plastic. The Art of Impromptu Hypnosis. (p. 36). Anthony Jacquin. Kindle Edition.

An Alternative (less fun) Definition

Hypnosis is where:

• Volitional responses feel or become automatic

• (Some) Imagination feels like reality (or is experienced)

  (I believe this is from a lecture from Zoltan Dienes )

This chapter mentions “…hypnosis is not sleep and does not require the subject to be relaxed”, but I think we can take this further - my opinion is that trance is a hypnotic phenomena. This makes ‘waking hypnosis’ much more approachable, as you’re making those volitional responses feel automatic. Interestingly, we use all the same tools to create waking hypnosis as we do to create trance. I don’t want to harangue you, so I’ll just leave this as food for thought.

Ch3 - Ch4 - Inductions

The Set Piece (Hypnotizability Tests)

Anthony calls what would traditionally be used as a hypnotizability test a set piece. I do like this - but I think it still misses something that could be even better - suggesting that this test/set piece could just be something to be experienced without expectation.

I should save this for a separate ‘coaching guide’ later, but Graham Old and Mark Wiseman have both touched on making their tests ‘fail proof.’ Focus on what things felt like, and while you can explain there’s ‘no way to fail this test,’ I think it’s better to frame it as an experience to suggest a gradient of hypnotic response.

The chapter highlights these as perks to doing a test Set Piece:

• To test suggestibility and get feedback
• A taster of the hypnotist’s skill and their own response
• The hypnotist gets a confidence boost
• Builds expectation for later
• A way to kickstart the induction

It’s okay to invite trying one of these with:

• Let’s try something
• Let me show you something interesting
• An ‘exercise in concentration’

The Word Try

Some hypnotists feel paranoid using the word ‘try.’ It can be used to imply intentional failure during a test, but really, I feel that most subjects are sufficiently intelligent enough to understand that try can have multiple contexts - such as trying something to ‘do something with low stakes.‘

Coaching

While the book doesn’t call any of these quotes I’ve gathered up from the book ‘coaching,’ they touch on the same concept. Helping someone, either before or during, how to experience hypnotic suggestion. There’s also some sneaky NLP-esque presuppositions in here, but I’ll let you find them yourself.

Some examples:

I don’t want you to (x), I just want you to do (y), and then you will (z). In practice: I don’t want you to force or fight anything, I just want you to imagine your hand becoming lighter, and then your body will begin to react all on it’s own.

“Now you could pretend that, but that’s not what I want.”

“…if you don’t feel something, you don’t feel something; it takes a little while, but just relax and wait for it; it will happen…”

“If you imagine exactly what I ask you to imagine, your body will respond.”

“I know it is difficult to tell exactly when they are going to touch, but I can assure you they are going to touch, just like…”

Test Set Piece Examples

I’m skimping over the details on here - a lot of these are pretty common, so I don’t feel like regurgitating this info needlessly.

Magnetic Fingers

• as your fingers wrap together in finger-guns, they’ll start to come together automatically
• When working - start with the outcome that they’ll touch first, before describing the magnets. Otherwise, you might have them touch before you suggest they’ll touch.

Magnetic Hands

“Think of the subject’s arms as your arms. They do what you tell them to do. Take ownership of them like they are two objects entirely detached from the subject. They are your props.”

• In a moment I’ll ask you to close your eyes, so that you can (imagine)
• If it’s slow and you need to change gears, present it positively - “give them something more interesting to do.” Or, my preference, ask them to put their hands down, open their eyes, and ask them how it felt (from Mark Wiseman.)

Stiff Arm

Okay, I’m nitpicking this next one - but instead of using try, you can use an ‘analog test’ as the cool NLP kids call it. Have them compare the stiffness of their arms, or ask them how it feels compared to earlier. Or - soften the test, tell them that when they try to move it, they can notice just how much harder it is to move than a moment ago…

“Now your arm is getting stiff… make it stiff, stiff… stiffer and stiffer, tighter and tighter… you cannot bend it, try as hard as you will. Try hard and find you cannot bend it; the harder you try, the stiffer it gets. You cannot bend your arm…”

And another tip on stiffening here from the writing:

Remind them that it feels stiff and will straighten out or set into place by saying, ‘that’s weird, it bends a bit and then springs right back straight again’. Tap them on the triceps as you do, encouraging the arm to straighten.

Pattern Interrupt

When I started out - I believed that there was something magical about pattern interrupts - and I bought into all that jazz about “the confusion allows suggestions to drop right into the subconscious.” I’m no longer on board with this - I believe it gives you a moment of undivided focus to start giving suggestions. Given that, I’m in agreement with what Anthony has to say about this.

When you interrupt this pattern, by seizing the wrist rather than actually shaking hands, conscious activity is temporarily suspended while the subject searches for meaning in the interruption. They are looking for the next cue about how to proceed—if you wait too long, more than a second or two being too long, they will find the cue themselves—but if you make use of this short window by going straight into the script above, you can keep them suspended there.

If you’re new to this, you can even explain the process beforehand and model the behavior. There’s nothing terribly special about the surprise.

In truth you can use it without shock, surprise or confusion.

Induction

…continuing to seek out new inductions in the hope that finding the ultimate induction will make you a better hypnotist is normally a fruitless effort. Ultimately it is The Hypnotist that does the hypnotising, not the procedure itself.

I disagree. Sorta.

You should absolutely experiment and continue to learn. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with trying out a goofy idea, and maybe getting feedback about it. As a friend said, “just be aware that if you’re doing something weird, you may find yourself swimming upstream.”

Maximizing Swagger and Success

There’s a bunch of handy teaching tools surrounding the larger context of a hypnotic suggestion. Wordweaver created CREAM, which was riffed on by Binaural Histolog with C(REI) => C(S). James Tripp provides the “Beliefs ⇒ Imagination ⇒ Physiology ⇒ Experience” pattern. This book has it’s own ideas on the subject, providing the following checklist to think through.

Context Checklist:

• Attitude. What is the subject’s attitude? Do they think their role is to challenge,  participate, or be entirely passive?
• Preferences. Have they expressed a preference for relaxation? Do they fear giving up control?
• Abilities. Do they have the ability to think, visualise, fantasise and absorb themselves?
• Expectations. What do they expect? Have they experienced hypnosis before?
• Condition. Does their condition prime them for or prevent them from doing certain things?

Induction Thoughts

The material here focused entirely on difficult (or uncomfortable) inductions for newbies to pull off. On a second read, these are all reasonable inductions to use - but not at all something I’d hand to someone just starting out. Later on, they add this note about instant inductions…

Just because there is not much to an instant induction does not mean there must be much more to it. There is not—just the confidence it will work and the intention to ensure it does.

Again - confidence is great, but it won’t teach your subject how to get into trance if they’re having trouble. I really like the ideas in [[James Tripp - Hypnosis Without Trance]] that involve utilizing and coaching your subjects experience, and for rapid inductions [[Graham Old - The Hypnotic Handshakes]] has some solid ideas as well, all of which can be applied to the material in this book.

I’ve taken some quick notes on a few novel inductions in the book - they’re neat, look reasonable, but will probably work better if you have a ton of stage presence, and you’ve already ensured you have a suggestible or experienced subject. If you really want me to outline these in more details, ping me!

The Rehearsal induction

• The rehearsal (just explain what you’re going to do, and what will happen)
• Suggest that as you move their wrist closer to their body, they’ll close their eyes and start to into hypnosis, explaining some trance indicators
• Continue with “I’m not going to do it yet” and keep going for a few rounds until you start to see reactions, ‘helping them get a feel for it.’
• When you see the arm start to lift on it’s own, you can start to use their automatic response to go deeper - either suggesting their hand go to their face like a handshake, or their eyes can stay closed and they can fall deep into hypnosis as their hand goes down, taking them in

Jacquin Power Lift

1. Model and demonstrate on yourself.
2. Arm up, allow your eyes to close.
3. Arm down, notice going deeper, allowing your eyes to open. Push gently on the arm as if it was resisting a bit.
4. Repeat, simplify, eyes close on lift, eyes opening and mind and body relaxing as you push down.
5. Suggest this time, when lifting the arm, the eyes will close automatically.
6. Suggest stiffness. Poke the bicep, forearm, and wrist, telling them to feel stiffening.
7. Start to deepen.
8. Either have their hand automatically go to their face and they can drop in, or have their arm relax, taking them down and deeper.

Jacquin Power Induction.

1. Start with a Compliance Set to relax.
2. Have them focus on a spit right underneath one of your eyes.
3. Hear the word relax four times in your mind. “Don’t go into a deep state of hypnosis until you hear that word for the fourth time.”
4. Suggest hand/arm/finger levitation.

Instant Induction

1. “Look at this. Take a deep breath. Now close your eyes and sleep.”
2. Deepen. Wave your hand over their eyes if you need to, if you’d like to encourage them to close their eyes.

Ch5 - Ch6 - Suggestions

Suggestion Types

While the material says these suggestion types are for deepening, I think these are perfectly fine (great, honestly) ways of crafting suggestion.

Links

A link connects one thing to another. An example of this is fractionation, bringing someone up out of trance as they open their eyes, and deeper down when their eyelids automatically follow your hand back down. This applies to counting, or really any other action.

In a moment I am going to click my fingers… your eyes will open and you will look up; you will no longer be able to see me or anything I am wearing; everything else will be normal, but you will no longer be able to see me or anything I am wearing. You will be able to hear me and feel my touch, but you will no longer be able to see me.’

Loops

There are two notable examples - something like a double bind, as well as something you can just easily keep doing. The idea is to use feedback to intensify.

‘The deeper you go the better you feel and the better you feel the deeper you go.’

‘As I rock your shoulder (with one hand on the subject’s shoulder rock their body gently back and forward) go deeper and deeper. That’s right, your legs will support you even as you continue relaxing.’

Chains

Associate something to an ongoing experience.

‘Every breath you take will send you deeper and deeper.’

Bombs

Make a direct suggestion, with your choice of intensity. I particularly liked ‘Sink, drift, melt, bliss; go there now.’

Combined with some physical encouragement such as a finger-tap on the head, or a gentle rock of a shoulder, or the body or one hand gently applying some pressure to a shoulder, many subjects just get the idea and dive into whatever those words mean to them.

If I’m doing this recreationally, I’ll build tension and then top it off with a finger snap, if your subject welcomes being bossed around.

“You may have already noticed a feeling building… A profound amount of relaxation… where every single fiber of your being can let go… where you an drift deeply… where your body can go far off into the distance… and where your mind can follow… going there… (Snap) Now.”

Suggestion Suggestions

Be descriptive, but not too detailed. Let their mind fill in the blanks.

I would say - be deliberate with the detail that you provide. Avoid providing detail that is incongruent with their experience.

Ideas:

• Ask your subject to imagine something - like their hand becoming stuck, or being on a beach.
• Suggest their imagination causes an effect. Like imagining being on a beach, and they can feel a cool breeze passing overhead.
• Link something to an action. “Every time I snap my fingers, you’ll feel twice as cold.”
• Instead of suggesting something that’d conflict internally, provide a new reason for them to do something.
• If something goes wrong, just fractionate them (command them to sleep.)
• Keep your suggestion stack simple - it’s less for both of you to keep track of, and is less likely to break their state.

Instruction Ideas (From the book)

“It is much easier to tell them that the watch belongs to me and it is time to return it.”

“If you want someone to bite into an onion believing it is a peach, do not ask just ask them to imagine it is a peach. Tell them you are going to hand them a peach.”

“You are changing their beliefs, therefore their reality—not just asking them to imagine.”

A Gripe on the Numbers

Any time someone tells me “twice as deep,” it puts me off - as I’m disappointed with the expectation to feel ‘at least twice as deep.’ I try to use more analog terms (such as - so much deeper,) as they’re less likely to piss me or my hypothetical subject off.

The Super Suggestion

Suggest stronger suggestibility, if you like.

‘From this moment, everything I say now is your reality—every single thing. You know what I say you know, you will do what I ask you to do, feel what I say you can feel and see what I say you can see. Everything I say is instantly your reality without doubt, question or hesitation, because you have a super-powerful mind. You will follow perfectly every suggestion I give you.’

Prove this immediately after doing this - either through some sort of convincer or test.

Encouragement

Offering words of encouragement during your session, so long as it’s sincere (or contextually appropriate to be condescending,) is always a plus. It lets them know they’re doing well, gently assuages them to think less critically, reinforces previous successes, keeps the mood light, and (contextually) hints that you’re on the same side.

Encouragement Examples

‘You have a natural ability to go into hypnosis. You have a super-powerful mind. You are doing brilliantly.’

‘That’s right. That’s it.‘

CH 7-9 Applications, Ethics, Leftovers

Earlier - the book stated some pretty wild things were possible with hypnosis. When it did - it glossed over the events likely being partially staged. Chapters 7 and 8 cover some of Anthony’s street antics - but I feel like these are more performance than hypnosis. Use common sense when reading this section - but there wasn’t much here worth summarizing or regurgitating.

7.8 Truth and Lies

You cannot ‘force’ truth out of someone with hypnosis. While it’s not absolute, irrefutable proof, Dr David and Herbert Spiegel wrote an article on this - Uses of hypnosis in evaluating malingering and deception.

7.9 Instant Self-Hypnosis

In passing, the author covers a technique to teach people how to re-enter hypnosis.

…when you are ready I would like you to hear the word ‘relax’ four times in your mind and the fourth time your hear it just allow your eyes to close; that’s right, do it now, and as your eyes close you will immediately drift back inside, into hypnosis, deeper and deeper… that’s it.

This reminded me of [[Graham Old - PHRIT]] - but a little hastier. If you’re teaching someone to re-enter hypnosis on their own, I recommend using Graham Old’s technique - I think it has the additional perk of teaching some degree of subject agency.

It’s also worth noting that it’s not a super great idea to suggest you can “use your unconscious” to make decisions for you in impromptu therapy.

(To the subject) “If there is a decision you need to make and are unsure what to do, ask your unconscious, intuitive mind to provide you with an answer that is best for you.”

You’ll end up having the subject go with a gut feeling without verifying it, while also indirectly suggesting their ‘unconscious’ is this powerful thing that always comes up with the right answer.

8.0 Back in the Room

There’s a handy awakener in this chapter! You can use almost anything you like, but sometimes I find myself being lazy with this, so I personally like grabbing these things.

‘In a moment I am going to count from one to five and on the count of “five” your eyes will open and you will be back at full, conscious, wakeful alertness, everything back to normal in every way. It will be like you have woken up from a wonderful night’s sleep. You will understand hypnosis is not sleep, and the next time you get in bed and sleep, you will sleep wonderfully, better than you have for years, and awake at an appropriate time, refreshed, revitalised, feeling brand new.

One. Feeling less relaxed now, every muscle, nerve and fibre coming alive.

Two. A surge of energy is pouring in through your fingers, toes, up arms, legs, spine to the top of your head.

Three. Take a deep breath, fill your chest with energy-giving oxygen, it spreads to every muscle nerve and fibre.

Four. Take another breath as your head is being washed through with cool clear spring water, your entire body washed through, refreshed and revitalised.

Five. Eyes open, wide awake, back in the room.’

Jacquin, Anthony. Reality is Plastic. The Art of Impromptu Hypnosis. (pp. 182-183). Anthony Jacquin. Kindle Edition.

Abreactions

A few tips from the book on abreactions and some thoughts:

• Resist the temptation to start doing therapy with them.
• Do use suggestion to suggest the reaction away. (I think this is worded poorly. I prefer suggesting they’re grounded, and that they are safe. Someone might get the idea to suggest they stop crying, and that’s going to go about as well as you’d expect.)
• Avoid touching them during the process, you don’t want them to associate that touch with the abreaction. (I’m not sure I’d use this as a hard and fast rule - touch can be a solid way to re-ground someone. Just be aware you may be ‘anchoring’ this.)
• “Do not suggest they have issues to deal with and should seek therapy.” Moreover - don’t tell them there’s something wrong with them. They can draw their own conclusions on how to handle their state without you indirectly suggesting their reaction is inappropriate.

A few closing tips from the book

This was a wholesome way to close the book, and decent food for thought.

• The words are not as important as the ideas. The techniques are not as important as your intention. Observe your subject—they will give you all the guidance you need.
• Aim to leave your subjects and your audience with a new view of the world.
• Give them a positive experience they will still recount twenty years from now.