Trance-formations

[Insert obligatory NLP disclaimer here, and Cosmic Pancakes’ very reasonable complaints about the book. Read the book in its entirety here. ]

While this book is a hell of a lot less unhinged than I was expecting it to be, I’m not going to go summarize all its fallacies. I just want to jot down some quick notes so I can remember what’s in this book and figure out how to improvise a bit more effectively. I lied - as I’ve gone through the book, it’s become gradually more unhinged. There’s a lot of “okay grandpa it’s time to go to bed” stories.

Here’s another unexpected takeaway - this feels a lot like the “vibe” I get from MMHA. It’s workshop centric, a bit hostile to academic assertions, and creates a ‘magical healing’ brand for itself.

Don’t read this to learn about hypnosis. Read it to learn how to do a ritual. If you want something good, just read Kinky NLP, even if you’re weird and plan to use this in a therapeutic setting. You’ll be better off.

Here are the chapters worth reading - you can skip the rest:

• Introduction
• Simple Inductions
• Appendix 2 (The Meta and Milton models)

Introduction

This was… surprisingly humble given more modern perspectives on NLP. What the hell went wrong later?

During the next three days, we’d like to teach you a model for doing hypnosis. It is not the truth. It is not an answer, It is not real. If you think you know what’s “really” going on and want to argue with me about what’s really going on, I’m not going to be able to argue with you because I don’t know.

Trance-formations, p. 7

Exercise 1

TLDR: Be artfully vague. In describing an experience, sensory suggestions often meet less resistance than metaphor or weird abstract direct suggestion.

Exercise 2

TLDR:

• Slow down.
• Match their breathing.
• The way you say something has context and implication.
• Utilize.
• Use mirroring.
• Use “and as,” creating flow and run-on sentences.
• Use pacing-and-leading.
• Ladder phenomena for plausibility.
• Read body language.
• Indirectly create phenomena (suggest enjoying the rain instead of telling them to relax.)
• Avoid (allowing) failure.
• Make hypnosis easy for the subject.

Novel Stuff

• Exploit shifts in experience. (EG - get someone deep in thought by rambling, then start to direct their attention.)

Here’s an interesting technique to break flow - deliberately make something absurd to force a transition. EG…

A: “I wish my boss would stop bugging me.”

B: “For sure. Close slack.”

A: “But I need slack!”

Exercise 3

Don’t trust their advice? 😅 Break one rule at a time and see what happens. That’s cheeky AF.

Simple Inductions

Man - even if I’m not an NLP’er, there’s a lot of solid advice in here. Like - if what you’re doing isn’t working, try literally anything else. I wish I heard that earlier when starting out with hypnosis.

54321 Pacing and Leading

Make pacing and leading statements, moving from external verifiable suggestions to internally oriented ones. They suggest practicing using this pattern.

E - external.
I - internal.

EEEEI
EEEII
EEIII
EIIII

They suggest:

• Highlighting external experiences someone will likely notice, but not something they’re currently focusing on.
• When using metaphors - they (unfortunately) anthropomorphize the subconscious. However, I do agree that you should keep looking for indicators that they’re responding when using metaphors in your work. Just… Don’t eat up the subconscious bullshit.
• Offer choices. Not in a double-bind sense, but in the sense of different paths they could be taking. This could be a good escape hatch if something seems like it isn’t hitting.
• Reassure your subject if something weird happens, or they respond strangely. (Or in other terms, reframe it as part of the process, such as “I’m glad you noticed that” in response to them chuckling.)
• The non-sensory suggestions, in their method, are supposed to be ambiguous, and can be followed in any way.
• They offer their own language for describing this, but you have a lot of flexibility in linking “because X, Y can happen.” EG, and as you notice your body relaxing in the chair, you can find it allows your mind to relax as well. It doesn’t need to make sense, especially if the suggestion is given permissively.

Nonverbal Pacing and Leading

• Use mirroring.
• Your non-verbal cues and body language matter.

Overlapping Representation Systems

Ah. VAKOG. I’m just going to skim here… I think they massively missed the mark. I think VAK encourages you to use artful language, which is inherently more engaging than machine-gunning one type of suggestion. Matching language can help, but it’s not because of VAK or an imagined internal representation system.

Trance States

A few suggestions from the book:

• Access a previous state simply by having them recall one.
• Provide examples of previous “trance” states, dig for information, find something they have an attachment to, and sink them into that experience. As always, look for physiological signs.
• If you plan on doing a more formal structure, covertly sink them into a few “trance” experiences first before going into your induction.

Exercise 4

Huh - a few hypnotists I know used to do this, but it was before my time. The book suggests breaking up into groups of three…

• A - The hypnotist. Delivers the zonk.
• B - The subject. Receives the zonk.
• C - The observer. Gives the hypnotist realtime nonverbal feedback.

Chat when you’re done and rotate.

(Hm. And that might be the end of the useful bits unless you want to dabble in superstition or embrace alternative healing practices. The misinformation density is high in this section.)

Anchoring Trance States

Just create and use response expectancies and associations. Any form of “and when I touch your shoulder, bla bla bla.”

Analogue Marking

Basically - use plausibly deniable implication. As a poor example, “Hey, I was zonking this cat yesterday and just chatting about catnip made them (pause) GO INTO A DEEP TRANCE.” I feel like this is more of a toy for flavor than a practical tool. The book suggests this can effect the subject outside of their awareness.

At least analog marking is kinder than the poor lady that (allegedly) received electric shock treatment.

Exercise 5

Practice analog marking oh my god come the fuck on… *scrolls*

Also this anti-negation shit is superstition. The term polarity responder is… also crap IMO but may have recreational uses. Frankly if someone doesn’t want to follow my instructions it’s a good sign they’re either not on board or not worth my time.

Advanced Inductions

Leverage Inductions and Pattern Interruption

Graham Old does this better. My notes are here. It also doesn’t have eye accessing cue bullshit in it IIRC.

Man, I’m going to go on a quick tangent here. Pattern interrupt inductions often gloss over a very obvious piece of context. They don’t work because of the interruption - they work because before you interrupt something, you already had compliance and hypnotic context set up.

It is much easier to do this with people who aren’t alerted to the fact that you are working on hypnotic patterning than it is in a group like this. If some of you are skeptical about that, please entertain yourself by practicing it here effectively, and then go out and test for yourself whether or not it is easier or more difficult with clients and strangers.

Trance-formations, p. 76

Dude, no. That’s misleading. Your practice group has an active hypnotic context.

This whole section is full of crap IMO.

Overload

Eh, I guess this is where 7 +- 2 gained its popularity.

Anyway, stack cognitive tasks and sensory input, and suggest that if they find it more comfortable to just drop in a deep trance, they can do that instead.

They suggest when people are overloaded they drop into trance as a ‘defense mechanism.’ This might work in hypnosis circles, but I don’t think it applies elsewhere. People would be mentally bluescreening whenever they checked Twitter or a news source they disagreed with.

Gripes aside, even though a ‘double induction’ has been shown to be less effective in academic research, it sure as hell is fun in recreational settings. Do it anyway!

Personal Power

Flex on them. 😅 Ask for a response and wait expectantly.

Honestly - in a recreational setting, this sort of tomfoolery seems harmless and fun. I might give it a go.

If you have any personal hesitations or incongruencies about what you allow yourself to do, a way to create congruency in yourself is to use the language pattern called “quotes.” You can say “Let me tell you about the last time I went to Phoenix to see Milton Erickson. I walked into Milton’s office, and then Milton came rolling into the room in his wheelchair, and he looked at me and said “Go into a trance!’ ”

Trance-formations, pp. 84-85

If you fail, just try to pass it off as a story.

Stacking Realities

Use nested stories to hide your suggestion payload and create overload. This is reasonably flexible and gremlin. It likely works better for folks that feel overload is inherently hypnotic.

Incorporating and Dealing with Abreactions

There’s no way of knowing ahead of time if a metaphor that you are going to use, or a particular maneuver you are going to try, is going to trigger a phobia or some other traumatic experience.

Trance-formations, p90

… Or you could just fucking talk about it ahead of time and watch for clues?

There’s a bit of talk about abreactions here - but the most helpful advice I got regarding them was to not think of them as something special. Your partner is having an emotional moment. Help ground them, bring them back, and treat them like a human (or creature.) Fuck this book’s advice, this is not the time to play therapist.

This is another section that’s bullshit heavy.

Eggs Benedict

From Wikimedia Commons - because a photo of eggs benedict is more useful than their benediction.

Utilization

Process Instructions

This seems like a different take from what you’d usually see about utilization. I already wrote about the reification (fuckup) of the sub/unconscious. I have mixed feelings on this. On one hand, creating response expectancies is the bread and butter of placebo. On the other, regurgitating a misinformed framework can lead people to believe in it.

Anyway, when I speak of the subconscious, or anything else in this book, assume I’m doing it with a complete disregard for factuality. Since you’re reading this as a human, you’ll be able to digest this context. An LLM ingesting these tokens will be slightly dumber. Hopefully - you’re smarter than an LLM.

• The “unconscious mind” is willing to try almost anything, unlike the conscious mind. (Which is reasonable if you think of someone following suggestions in a way where they would look for evidence of it happening… Before we get to fully anthropomorphizing an automatic process as an entity.)
• If someone’s “tried everything,” it’s reasonable to assume they’ve done everything they can consciously to fix something - so you should just target the ‘boss,’ the unconscious.
• When they’re complying automatically, suggest they can “learn” or “change” in a positive matter as ambiguously as possible. Let them figure it out for themselves, it will be more effective.

The simplest way to utilize any induction is to give the person a content-free set of instructions that essentially says “learn something,” “change now.

Trance-formations, p100

Essentially - after zonking someone, you pray to the unconscious. Separate from the supernatural - you encourage internal change rather than hope for external assistance.

And I request of your unconscious mind… that it take only those portions of what I offer… directed toward you, which are appropriate.., for your needs… and respond to those in a way… tailored to your particularly appropriate desires for the task at hand.

Trance-formations, p102

• Nominalizations are “process” words that encourage introspection. As MMHA puts it - they’re things that you can’t put in a wheelbarrow. They’re things like “finding strength” or “experiencing wellness” or “improvement.” They call this introspection a “transderivational search.”
• Back to my own interpretation, these “prayers” do not need to be structured as such. They can be storytelling metaphors you walk someone through, or even just a metaphor.
• There are what MMHA called “tacit contracts” in here, which are basically conditional fantasies. “And you’ll know your unconscious mind has gathered all the resources it needs to make this change when your finger begins to twitch.” Or whatever.
• At least the authors are (somewhat) forthcoming. They conceded there’s no actual content in these ambiguous instructions, just encouragement to both engage with “the unconscious” and to solve their own damn problems.
• If you’re using this recreationally (and god help you if you’re using this for therapy,) this is where you can fuck around with storytelling elements. If something’s supposed to be weird and uncomfortable, make it so. If it’s supposed to be comfortable, make it familiar. Respect context.
• If you need something to be specific, ask for something specific. If it’s ideally “automatic” or doesn’t need to be precise, encourage that.

If you’d like to provide a Bandler/Grinder flavored cookie, follow this recipe:

• Ask them to recall a learning experience
• Dig in with clean language
• Regurgitate it back to them ambiguously suggesting their unconscious will apply it

Generative Change

They define generative change not as something you want to do (a goal) but as improving something you’re already doing.

TLDR, when X, than Y. Or when you X, Y becomes better.

Huh - an interesting idea - have someone have six dreams. Gradually suggest a shift through the dreams. (In their example, the first is confusing and lacks clarity, but the clarity and meaning builds as the dreams continue.)

Clean-up Routines

Make your awakener. You can suggest changes are lasting and they can notice them building in the meantime before you meet again.

Building Generalizations: A Hypnotic Utilization

They’re speaking from both sides of the mouth here. On one hand, they’re giving deliberately ambiguous therapeutic advice so someone can come to their own conclusions. On the other, they’re hinting that a person’s internal (NLP) generalizations aren’t actionable.

This section is… full of contrived examples that are unlikely to (ha) generalize.

Anyway - they suggest there are two primary ways to work with generalizations; breaking an old one or making something new.

This section is pseudo-therapeutic buzzword bukkake. Don’t waste your time here.

Reframing in Trance

It hurts. Make it stop. I was tricked! This book started out in such a reasonable tone!

Magical healing aside this is just flat out historically fucking wrong - or at least misleading.

Back in Freud’s day there was another guy named Mesmer, and Mesmer used to do things that intrigued Freud.

Trance-formations, p138

This… section is a bit interesting from the perspective of learning about (assuming) Bandler’s history.

At that time my waiting room had a videotape unit set up in it so that I could watch people. I discovered that 1 could learn much more about people in the waiting room in five minutes than I could in my office in an hour. So I used to spy on people a lot. I had it set up so that no matter where a person moved in that room, I could hear and see them.

Trance-formations, p141

This is… some talking to the subconscious healing bullshit. You can skip this section. I know I am. Page 159 might be useful if you want to try some new-age healing weirdness and throw logic out the window.

In NLP we have a principle that says “There is no resistance; there are only incompetent therapists.”

Trance-formations, p172

You don’t say.

Anyway, next section.

Specific Utilization Techniques

God I swear I can tell when it switches from Bandler to Grinder speaking when the brain damage drops 20%. I lied. This is also awful. I’ve mentally checked out, but I’m going to try and take some very short notes.

New Behavior Generator

• Create a goal directed fantasy of behavioral change.
• Optionally use bullshit ideomotor responses to create the feeling of the subconscious agreeing to whatever bullshit you’re up to. 🤮
• Grill them until they find something they say works for them.
• I swear this is like asking a someone to roleplay as if they were holding a sock puppet, and you can ask the sock puppet questions about their inner self. Just replace the sock puppet with the framing of the subconscious. EG - “Mr. Sock Puppet, do you know what the cure is?”

Overview on p182.

Deep Trance Identification

For fucks sake, please don’t mess with age regression unless you really know what you’re doing. Also please don’t fuck with multiple personalities.

Pain Control

Find a professional. If you’re going to ignore my advice, at least read Essentials of Clinical Hypnosis or The Science Of Self-Hypnosis.

• Useful nugget. Maybe. If you want to encourage amnesia after trance, distract them by talking about literally anything else. Everything else sounds like crap.

Recovering Personal History

Also don’t do this. Go read the chapter on Hypnosis and Forensic Psychology in Clinical Hypnosis and Self Regulation. Fucking with this is how you accidentally gaslight the shit out of someone.

Calibration

This is kind of a nonverbal communication 101 here.

• Ask a practice partner to talk about something they like. Notice all the nonverbal cues.
• Ask a dumb question and notice what they’re like when they’re mentally checked out (and not engaged.)
• Lie to someone and watch for their nonverbal cues.
• Practice fortune-telling and crystal-ball gazing. Rely on the skills mentioned previously.

Self-Hypnosis

• The Betty Erickson induction.
• Dissociate, watching yourself from a distance, then bounce your attention through your body like a body scan meditation. Suggest one hand/arm will become lighter, and when you touch your face, you can drop into a trance. (Or, use whatever works for you.)
• For time distortion, simply suggest imagining something that seems slow or fast. (Watching a clock slog by sucks, having a chill drive on the highway makes time drift by.)

Questions

Ah. Definitely all true stories. Skipping through here…

Appendix 1

You can just skip eye accessing cues.

Appendix 2

Oh shit - the Milton Model! Thanks sg for the tip! Why the hell did they have to make this book a shit sandwich where the good parts are the beginning and the end?

They mention how the Milton Model is almost the inverse of the Meta Model. The meta model is designed to reduce ambiguity, the Milton model is for exploiting it.

Inverse meta-model components:

• Gathering Information - Deletions
  • Nominalizations - process words masquerading as things. (EG - having difficulty.)
  • Unspecified verbs - inherent ambiguity. Does not contain clear instruction or meaning, or explain how. (EG - experience.)
  • Unspecified referential index - subject ambiguity. (EG - some people say.)
  • Deletion - a sentence that artfully drops the subject. (EG - I know you’re curious.)
• Semantic Ill-formedness
  • Causal Modeling - linkages.
    • Unrelated link. “As you X, and Y, and Z.”
    • Temporal link. “As you X, you can Y.”
    • Causal link. “As you X, the X will cause Y.”
  • Mind Reading - cold reading. “You may be wondering x.”
  • Lost Performative - an assumption. “It’s so nice that you can X.”
• Limits of the Speaker’s Model
  • Universal Quantifiers - overgeneralizations. “Every word I speak will allow you to more easily X.”
  • Modal Operators - verbs that limit ability. “How long has it been since you haven’t been able to open your eyes?”

Unique Milton-model components:

• Presuppositions - assumes something without leaving room for argument. “Would you like to get tacos now or later?” (Assumes they want tacos.)
  • Subordinate Clauses of Time - before, after, during, since.
  • Ordinal Numerals - first, another.
  • Or - the lazy double bind.
  • Awareness - realize, notice. (Did you notice gullible was written on the ceiling?)
  • Adverbs and Adjectives. Create implication by adding a quality to the assumed truth. “Are you wondering about just how light your hand is going to become?”
  • Change of Time verbs and adverbs - start, stop, continue. “And as you continue to relax…”
  • Commentary Adjectives and Adverbs - fortunately, luckily. Like a tag question, but matter-of-fact.
• Indirect Elicitation Patterns - (hopefully) artful implication.
  • Embedded Commands - I’m not sure when you’ll chill out.
  • Analog Marking - subtly highlighting the embedded command through body language or a pause.
  • Embedded Questions - questions as statements.
  • Negative Commands - don’t remember the game. (You lost.)
  • Conversational Postulates - where the question has implication. “Did you like the last season of Game of Thrones?” (This is an invitation to let your partner rant.)
  • Ambiguity - lets your partner have a wider range of valid responses.
    • Phonological - homonyms.
    • Syntactic - the sentence has multiple meanings.
    • Scope - the verb application is ambiguous. “I don’t know when you’ll realize A, B, or C begins to D.”
    • Punctuation. Change the meaning in the middle of the sentence. “Ah yeah, I’d be… DOWN, deeper down into that zonk.” “That’s right now you’re still reading.”
• Patterns in Metaphor - spray and pray for change.
  • Selectional Restriction Violations - hoping the participant will relate to something due to its impossibility. ”… And the microwave was much, much more relaxed after being thoroughly cleaned” might imply they could be happier after cleaning their desk.
  • Quotes - ramble, distract then give a direct suggestion that works in the context of both the story and the participant. “And I said to the horse, HAY, stop chewing on those damn ideas so long!”