The Induction of Hypnosis

Jeffrey Zeig

While I haven’t found an incredible amount of new content in this book (yet,) it does present a positive, romantic, and useful take on Ericksonian approaches, dispels myths about said approaches, and serves as a gentle manifesto against becoming too reductionist in your views on hypnosis, practically calling me out.

5 - States

Zeig posits:

• Emotions and moods are cognitive labels for their experiences. (Emotions being in the moment, moods describing something over a longer term.)
• State is different - it can not be easily categorized into an emotion or a mood.

Here’s a few examples they provide of states to get the point across…

+	-
Constructive	Critical
Open	Prejudiced
Kind	Unkind
Vulnerable (Open)	Hardened (Closed)
People find themselves stuck in ‘states,’ not ‘moods,’ and we often look for help to change our state.

In this sense of the word, Zeig suggests hypnosis is a ‘state.’

It is a central proposition of this book that hypnosis is a “state.” It is an epistemological error to think of hypnosis as an entity unto itself. Hypnosis is a syndrome, a combination of definable elements.

6 - An Experiential Introduction

They teach through (amusing) metaphors:

• Things will come clear to you through time and effort.
• You are adequate.

7 - The Traditional Model of Hypnosis

This is kind of your bread-and-butter standard ritualistic description of hypnosis.

![[Pasted image 20250210165648.png]]

Surprisingly, this is the first time I’ve heard of Kohnstamm’s phenomenon as a convincer.

Traditional hypnosis is an elaborate process of gift-wrapping suggestions to empower the offered ideas.

8 - The Phenomenological Orientation

A fair take that a phenomenological take on hypnosis leans towards reductionism.

They have a few takes on avolitional (without volition) experiences:

• Suggesting imagery, then something surprises them ambiguously. What just popped up (automatically?)
• Split awareness.
• “Mild destabilization.” Wooziness.

Put simply - use innuendo and inference to encourage things to happen seemingly automatically.

Some of these quotes just slap…

In some ways, the concept of self-hypnosis is a misnomer because it is not the same entity as the hypnosis that I have defined. Selfhypnosis is more similar to active imagination, meditation, relaxation, mindfulness, and biofeedback “states,” none of which relies on implicit interpersonal responsiveness—a characteristic that I am requiring as central to the definition of hypnosis.

9 - Hypnotic (Evocative) Communication

These vibe as jingle-jangle fallacies - which is probably the point.

Multilevel communication examples:

• Gregory Bateson (THE Bateson binds guy): overt and covert directives (commands) are contained in communication frames. “Come here” could have an inferred meaning of “good dog” or “this is serious.”
• Eric Berne said there were social and psychological levels. EG - if asked at a meetup in a suggestive manner, “hey, want to find some eyebrow-waggle privacy?” on the Adult-to-Adult level means finding a quieter place, the Child-to-Child intention is seduction and after typing this I hate this example so much
• Noam Chomsky said ‘deep structure’ of words guides actions.
• Paul Watzlawick described denotation as indicative and connotation as injunctive. Zeig says he prefers ‘informative’ and ‘evocative.’

Zeig says Erickson’s early learning set induction as to teach the subject that they’ll learn to easily go into trance. They also intended to teach learning from multilevel communication - the subject making their own inferences. “Ratification statements” like “your breathing has slowed down” were intended to provide reassurance.

Under the heading of Multiple Level Communication, they provide examples parodying shit therapy. In response to “It’s really a beautiful day,” the therapist could respond with…

• Rogerian: “It seems that you’re feeling really good today.” (Empathy.)
• CBT: “What data do you use to support that statement?”
• Psychoanalyst: “Ah… you’re speaking as if I’m family… Perhaps you’re confusing me with someone from your childhood…” (Focusing on distortive transference.)
• Gestalt: “Sit down, be the day, talk to yourself.” (Creating closure for an experience.)
• Transactional Analyst: (A ramble about the client confusing the interaction as Adult to Child over some ridiculous inference.)

The Ericksonian, promoting their idea, recognizes that the client is intelligent enough to communicate on multiple levels. They then intentionally provide a ham-fisted example using this in an induction, describing how automatic it is to just stop and enjoy things (aiming at their depression.) Ericksonian therapy, instead of analyzing the subject, encourages the subject to analyze what the therapist is saying.

Perhaps a metaphor will help. The patient presents the therapist with a “gift,” a problem gift-wrapped in a symptom. Rather than analyzing the understructure, the Ericksonian therapist can present a gift back to the patient, a solution gift-wrapped in a multilevel technique such as a metaphor. The patient activates to realize the inherent gift. Therapy becomes an exchange of presents.

Injunction in Hypnosis

(🦈 This goes head-to-head with feelings of volition being an affective component, but I think there’s value in this methodology.)

Telling a subject to lift their arm, then watching them lift their arm, is hardly hypnotic. Instead, to be Ericksonian, you should develop a patient’s response to minimal cues. For example…

• You can… lift your arm.
• I’m not sure when your arm could begin to lift, or feel light.
• Maybe, perhaps even surprisingly, you find that hypnosis can handily lighten your load as well as your mood… Your ability to respond will almost certainly raise over time.
• Storytelling about raising your hand to get something.

10 - An Ericksonian Model of Induction and Hypnosis

Preinduction

Often - Erickson would start his sessions out with conversational hypnosis, without doing any pre-talk, to get the ball rolling quickly.

In response to any injunctive form of communication (e.g., a metaphor, analogy, or anecdote), the therapist can access the client’s style of responsiveness, attentiveness, dissociative ability, and absorption. In effect, the astute and observant therapist gets a “free look.” Using a naturalistic technique early in the interaction minimizes the possibility of failure by either the therapist or the patient.

Trance Elicitation

To review, the five phenomenological experiences are:

1. developing responsiveness, especially to minimal cues;
2. altering attention and awareness;
3. modifying intensity;
4. encouraging avolitional (automatic) behavior to the maximum extent possible; and
5. defining the situation as trance.

Principles of Hypnotic Elicitation

I) Patterning responsiveness

1. Access and develop responsiveness, especially to minimal cues
2. Guide attention and awareness
3. Guide associations
4. Establish regression in role
5. Access motivation

II) Shape ongoing behavior and context in the direction of hypnosis 6) Ratify responses 7) Define the situation as hypnosis

III) Disrupt the conscious habitual set 8) Utilize confusion/destabilization

IV) Encourage automatic behavior 9) Foster perceptual alterations 10) Promote dissociation

Erickson often asked subjects to do something innocuous (called innocuous directives) before starting, just to get them used to complying. (Sort of like a ‘compliance set’ that we see in NLP.)

I1. Access and Develop Responsiveness, Especially to Minimal Cues

Provide minimal cues and check response. EG:

• Body mirroring
• Slowing down your voice, seeing if the client relaxes
• Social mimicry

The length of the induction takes as long as it needs to. As soon as the patient is responding to subtle cues, the induction is done. According to Zeig, this (developing responsiveness) is the most important part, as it promotes “response and readiness in the patient.”

I2. Guide Attention and Awareness

Stacking on top of I1, they suggest improving responsiveness by guiding attention and awareness. Commonly by shifting attention…

• From external to internal
• Focusing on the immediate moment
• An intense focus on anything

I3. Guide Associations

• If you want to know about someone’s brother, talk about your own brother.
• If you want to encourage openness, encourage them to sit in a way that is open.
• Use innuendo
• Influence mood, perception and states

I4. Establish Regression in Role

Regression is a poor choice of words. This more about getting the subject to suspend some critical judgement and reduce resistance.

Roland Shor (1959) indicated that in trance, the patient’s generalized reality orientation fades. He posited the levels of hypnotic depth as: role-playing, trance, and archaic involvement. Role-playing may be a step toward regression in role.

The Early Learning Set is more about regressing to looking to others for cues on how to respond.

I5. Access Motivation

Instead of “go deeper,” the Ericksonian model is permissive not to save face, but for an opportunity to let the client use their own motivation. “You may find yourself going much deeper, because it feels so nice to do so.”

II6. Ratify Responses

The usual “and you may not have noticed that your breathing has slowed down, your blinking has become more relaxed, etc.”

II7. Define the Situation as Hypnosis

Highlight and make clear that they were in trance. They suggest doing it through implication so the client can come to the conclusion themselves.

III Disrupt the Conscious Habitual Set

III8. Utilize Confusion/Destabilization

Erickson suggested we can create confusion/tension/destabilization, and the subject may respond automatically to resolve it. (I don’t see a strong argument for this other than ‘seeding’ the idea that we can confuse iatrogenic processes.)

Anyway, here’s the pattern they give:

1. Pacing (ala NLP)
2. Disrupting (confusion, unease)
3. Patterning (offer resolution in your ‘lead’)

IV Encourage Automatic Behavior

IV9. Foster Perceptual Alterations

Uh. Use perceptual convincers. Highlight perceptual changes. This all sounds like utilizations and “do more hypnosis.” I’m not sure what makes this step unique.

Perceptual alterations are an internal, covert ratification of change, and as such should be fostered by the clinician.

IV10. Promote Dissociation

Dissociation can…

• Create phenomena
• Be used as a convincer
• Be used as a therapeutic resource

They suggest that everything through DID, depression, and family issues all have some degree of dissociation, and this can make us feel as if we cannot make changes. The therapy goal is to replace problem states with better states, ideally those that can be experienced automatically.

Why Use the 10 Induction Principles?

To achieve a “state” of compliance.

Induction Principles In Action

There’s a super handy example of doing this induction here. I’ve saved it for my personal notes, but I don’t want to lift that much from the book and stick it on my site.

The Hypnotic Constellation

Basically - trance indicators. Same deal as above, I don’t want to just rip off the table. It’s similar to the indicators here. I might go and update that page later - I’d rather reference Zeig than MMHA.

Hypnotic Plasticity

Zeig suggests that we can re-group phenomena into ‘areas of plasticity.’ I have specific beef with the ‘hypermnesia,’ as it feels like the suggestions work by increasing perceptual (affective) vividness without any regards to accuracy… therefore - it’d be a ‘sensory’ suggestion. (I also don’t put much value in grouping suggestions like this anyway, since this doesn’t provide much help in improving suggestibility given an area.) Hell, time seems to be measured post-hoc, so even that might be affective. See Hypnosis and Conscious States.

Phenomena	Area
Hallucinations, anesthesia, analgesia	Sensory
Amnesia, hypermnesia, Age Regression	Memory
Time Distortion	Time
Automatic, Ideodynamic, and Posthypnotic Behavior	Avolitional Behavior
They posit you can create / modify / delete any of the below, or map the responses out.

	Create	Modify	Delete
Visual
Auditory
Gustatory
Olfactory
Cutaneous
Kinesthesis
Equilibratory
(There are also gradients on other suggestion spectrums. EG create, modify, delete => regression, hypermnesia, amnesia. Or volitional => avolitional.)

Ericksonian awakener:

Take one or two or three deep breaths and arouse yourself, fully alert and wide awake all over.

11 - The Language of Hypnosis

I’d recommend reading this chapter. It’s like NLP, but less irritating. (Edit: further in, they mention Bander and Grinder. However, I still like Zeig’s take.)

Instead of being direct, the Ericksonian method gives the option to ‘gift wrap’ our therapeutic suggestions. Consider the following:

• “Slow down when you eat.”
• “It might be interesting to find that slowing down… as you eat… is more pleasurable than one had anticipated, allowing someone to savor each passing moment in each passing bite.”

The forms of indirect suggestion that are discussed in this chapter are the building blocks of some of the larger gift-wrapping forms. Those macrodynamic forms include anecdotes, metaphor, and the interspersal technique. Because indirect forms serve as building blocks of the therapeutic process, they are the considered microdynamic gift-wrapping of possibilities.

Direct and Indirect Communication

Indirect suggestions may have a few benefits:

• The therapist can tailor their suggestions, and the subject can respond in their own way, using their existing skills.
• Learning ‘psychodynamics’ like “association, congruity, similarity, and contrast” can be used out of awareness. The suggestions are less likely to be critically analyzed.

Truisms

Truisms can extend the truth of specific experience to a more general area. (Hell, even that’s a truisim.)

They break their utility down into a few areas:

1. Pacing the experience. Encouraging the client to accept their current reality.
2. Guiding attention. “Can, may, and might” be aware of can be used.
3. Offering suggestions. In contrast to NLP’s distillation, they provide this example…

If a therapist wishes to suggest an arm levitation, he can empower the suggestion by saying, “Your arm is now on your lap” (pacing truism), “You can notice movement sensations” (guiding-attention truism), “You can realize small movements” (guiding attention truism), and “You can experience your arm lifting” (suggestive truism). This process could be called Sequenced Evocative Communication (SEC).

4. Ratifying trance. Pacing and highlighting their hypnotic response.
5. Provide symbolic suggestions idiomatically and indirectly. There’s a very handy table in the book at this point, but an example they provide is “Your jaw is set” can infer “You’re feeling determined.” These can also be nonverbal, such as asking a client to move their hand over their heart, indirectly asking for resolution.

Presuppositions

We can take a truism…

• “You can relax…” and supercharge it with a presupposition:
• “You can explore relaxation.”
• “You can find relaxation a pleasant experience.”

![[yo dawg grammar mistake.jpg]]

To supercharge - you most commonly use the following methods:

• Adding a clause before the truism
• Adding an auxiliary adverb
• Using an adverb
• Give the illusion of alternatives

(I provided links not to be condescending, I just can’t grammar good.)

Intentionally use these by…

1. Picking a goal to gift-wrap. (Heaviness.)
2. Gift-wrap the goal in the truism. (Your right arm can feel heavy.)
3. Put a clause on it. (Some people can let their right arm feel heavy.)
4. Pick which conjunction or relative adverb to use - when, where, how, how much. (Some people can let their right arm feel heavy, as they continue to listen to the sound of their hypnotist’s voice.)

You can also use adverbs to modify this.

• “I don’t know [when, where, how, why, or how quickly] your arm will become heavy.”

They talk about Complex Presuppositions, but I feel like this is getting into the weeds.

• “You don’t yet fully realize how quickly you can notice yourself slipping into trance.”

You can make the following patterns from truisms and presuppositions:

1. Embedded Commands. “You can… let yourself relax.” Erickson would soften his voice on the embedded command. Usually in the from of [Suppose, think about] [direct command].
2. Quotes. Make your suggestion not about the subject, or use an anecdote.
3. Tag Questions. Things like “You could feel yourself relaxing if let your eyes close comfortably, couldn’t you?”
4. Conversational Postulates. “Take a seat, won’t you?”
5. The Yes Set. Like NLP’s pacing and leading. For maximum responsiveness, keep the ‘step’ escalation minimal.

These sets can also be intentionally disruptive - EG - Erickson.

The Yes Set is not merely an associative technique; it works equally well when eliciting overt responses. Consider a demonstration induction Dr. Erickson conducted in 1964 where he used a set to which the demonstration subject openly responded, “No.” He first queried, “Have you ever been in a hypnotic trance before?” The woman answered; “No.” “Have you ever seen one?” Again she answered, “No.” “Do you know what it is like to go into a trance?” “No,” she replied. “Do you know that you’ll have to do all the work, and I’ll just sit back and enjoy your work?” Dr. Erickson’s final presupposition was destabilizing, meant to disrupt her conscious set. Dr. Erickson quickly followed with an arm levitation induction to establish the hypnotic trance.

They give some ‘set’ categories with examples - which are honestly pretty helpful. I’ve put these in my personal notes, but here’s a summary for the site:

• Yes sets, no sets, I-don’t-know (uncertainty) sets
• Thoughts, feelings, behaviors, auditory, visual, tactile
• matching temporal (3 pasts, 3 presents, 3 futures),
• Hypnotic constellations (ETIs)

6. Implied Causative. When [behavior], [state] can happen. “On your next deep breath out, you may begin to notice just how comfortable you are becoming.” Binding behaviors to anything.
7. Dissociation Statements. For their frame, dissociation is anything that happens automatically - much like I’m not even paying attention to how I’m typing each letter in to this document.

Dissociation Formula

Here’s my interpretation of their dissociation madlib.

[A: Your conscious mind/awareness] can [B: pacing statement], but [C: Your unconscious / automatic response, opposite of A] can [D: encouraged automatic response / sensation ] [E: because reasons and motivations.]

Or if I’m trying this out for myself…

You can become aware of exactly how you’re sitting and all the associations that come with that, but you don’t need to be aware of the part of your mind that relaxes automatically, because it feels wonderful to allow this relaxation to happen all on it’s own.

8. Double Dissociation Statements. “Your conscious mind can listen to the sound of my voice while your unconscious mind can enjoy just how comfortable you are sitting in the chair… or your unconscious mind can listen to the sound of my voice while your conscious mind enjoys becoming more comfortable.”

The Nature of Dissociation Statements

They recommend sandwiching suggestions, rather than just giving them. These components don’t need to be just one sentence.

1. Bread. Setup and pacing. “You’re doing blah / you know blah.”
2. Meat. The perscription/suggestion. “Take your damn pills.” “You can… stop doom-scrolling xitter.” “You can… find your unconscious mind relaxing.”
3. Bread. Motivators. “You’ll feel better immediately.” “That’s why you came here.”

Other ways to look at this are…

• SIFT - setup, intervene, follow through
• POM - Pace, offer, motivate

Communication Forms Used in the Process of Suggestion

Use your suggestions together for the best effect. This centers around therapy, but I’m sure this structure could be fun anywhere.

1. Presuggestions. Components to serve the main (payload) suggestion.
   1. Trusisms. Enhance responsiveness.
   2. Seeding. Foreshadowing. Priming. Hinting. EG, suggesting how pleasurable it is to slow down and enjoy hypnosis, and then using that to highlight how pleasurable it could be to slow down when you eat.
   3. Destabilization. You can use this to prime for a suggestion that’s easier to take. (Or, not mentioned directly in this context, you can use this to interrupt a patten you want to change.) You create dissonance to prime for resolution, much like music. You can be gentle with confusion, but here’s an example from the book.

“There are ways of remembering, and there are ways of forgetting, and the kind of forgetting that you can remember is different from the kind of remembering that you can remember to forget. And you can really forget things that you remember. But you can really remember how nice it is to…just take a deep breath; close your eyes; and begin to realize the comfort inside.”

2. Payload suggestions.
   1. Linkage. When you can easily x you can y.
   2. Nonverbal/Paravebal Methods. Smiling expectantly. Gestures. Changing delivery.
3. Post-suggestion.
   1. Truisms to ratify.
   2. Tag questions. They suggest mixing positives and negatives - EG - “isn’t that right” and “can you not?”.
   3. Motivation. Do thing because it feels good or it will help you win the lotto or something.

Zeig says Erickson likely thought that providing language ‘formatting’ would limit the practitioner, distracting them from what the actual intentions of the suggestions.

12 - The ARE model

The idea is to Absorb them in a direction towards the goal, Ratify to build responsiveness, and Elicit more responsiveness and dissociation. This does not necessarily need to be used for trance alone.

Handily, absorption techniques are listed in increasing difficulty for the operator.

1. Absorption. Can include foreshadowing and building towards therapeutic goals. (Describing details, possibility, and using present tense for pacing the experience.)
   1. Perception. Your usual noticing how you feel.
   2. Fantasy. Guided path.
   3. Hypnotic phenomena. Arm levitation.
   4. Memory. Much like a fantasy - you can pace with their memory response. This can be used for setting the stage (not just creating trance), increased activation/engagement, and seeding/priming. ) This also has the advantage of being conversational.
   5. Common Experience. (Much like memory - you can use many of the same techniques.)
   6. Utilization Strategies. (Not described in the book.)
   7. Sequence Induction. (Not described in the book.)
   8. Metaphoric Inductions. (Not described in the book.)
2. Ratify. Highlight the response to build responsiveness.
3. Elicit. Builds responsiveness and elicits dissociation.

The end of the book feels like a bit of a rug-pull missing options 6-8.