Sensory Overlap Tutorial and Analysis

Often, when a newbie asks around to find out what they should be doing to get started with hypnosis, they’re given a few resources, and told to practice doing PMRs (progressive muscle relaxation.) This isn’t bad advice, but it leaves a lot to be desired. (Hell, I’m guilty of telling folks just do PMRs, too.)

Asking someone to read a book or guide before getting started is similar to telling someone to consume an entire banana before enjoying it. With a PMR, you really only learn one technique - pummeling the subject into relaxation through brute force. I think there’s a middle ground we can find between “read a lot” and “just tell the subject to relax repeatedly and figure it out.”

Here’s my proposal. Start with Graham Old’s Sensory Overlap Induction. Like a PMR, it’s low risk, reasonably easy to learn, and doesn’t require much of the subject. In contrast, it’s more fun for both the subject and hypnotist, and you’ll pick up a set of techniques you can use in almost any hypnotic situation.

There’s no weird dynamics here, just invitations to relax. If lewd is your thing, that’s great! But, if you want to practice and improve, we can open ourselves up to more opportunities by keeping it clean and straightforward. There’s no expectation of ‘trance,’ but we do have a bit of hypnotic phenomena tacked on at the end. The goal for our subject is to notice any changes in how they feel, not to get something done. With this frame, you can rapidly get feedback without implying anything went wrong or coloring the experience.

Even if you have some experience using inductions, the analysis here will give you fresh ideas on how things work under the hood, as well as show you how to start critically thinking about scripts.

Getting in to it

The sensory overlap induction is gentle, explains to the subject how to engage, and even includes a convincer at the end. The only real goal is to give them the opportunity to chill and notice what that’s like. If you find your subject moving during the catalepsy (immobility) convincer at the end, it’s a talking point, not a loss.

I won’t be doing any deep dives into theory, nor will I be talking about safety. Staying safe is you and your partner’s shared responsibility, working together.

Introduction Commentary

Graham Old, the author of howtodoinductions.com, introduces his induction with some context. Classically, we’re often problematically told to overload “analytic” subjects. In a therapeutic setting, people don’t want to be overloaded. This approach also assumes you can out-think your client, and beating them into submission is a shitty way to start collaborating on a problem. His goal is to get the subject to embrace their internal experience, rather than fight it.

As I said before, there’s no expectation of trance in this induction. For the subject, it’s an exercise in letting the experience happen to the best of their abilities. Relaxation and catalepsy are very likely to happen, but they’re perks. Whatever happens is normal and valid, and worth talking about in the exit interview.

Not Just for the Nerds

I’d like to add that this induction and structure isn’t only for analytic subjects. It’s just a well designed induction. There’s no expectation of trance, and they validate whatever happens as their real experience.

Expounding on that, the thought that we need to treat “analytical” individuals differently is silly. I stopped having trouble working with them when I was able to provide clear instructions.

Here are some common misunderstandings from those prone to analysis:

They may not know how to engage with the suggestions you provide.
They’re not used to letting experiences happen.
They may not realize they’re supposed to actively engage with suggestions.
They may be trying to figure out what you’re doing, and think that their analysis prevents hypnosis from working.
They may be skeptical, and immediately devaluing their own experience.

Most of this is taken care of with the pre-talk.

Pretalk

I said earlier that we weren’t going to be talking much about safety, as it’s you and your subject’s responsibility, and I intend to stick with that. There’s a swath of writing that drills in a library’s worth of acronyms to prescribe how to approach consent, and I’m sure you’ve already heard it from the community. Since we’re sticking to relaxation, I’m going to skip all that.

Regardless of safety, the pretalk is often the most impactful part of any hypnotic experience.

Here’s a common street hypnotist’s pretalk, albeit a bit awkward:

Great to meet you all! Hey, I’m a hypnotist. I’d love to show you some cool tricks you can do with your mind. Are you game?

Let’s break down what it does:

Establishes context. (You’re a hypnotist.)
Establishes what you’ll be doing. (Ambiguously, cool mind tricks.)
Not only asks for consent, but asks for active participation.

Pretalks aren’t just for consent - they pave the way for everything to work.

A pretalk is your conversational free space to make your intentions clear and explain what you’d like the other person to do.

Here’s how I might go about it.

Got a minute? I’d like to practice an induction. Nothing spicy, some invitations to be mentally and physically relaxed. Do you have some time to try something out?

Assuming they said yes, ask them if they can clear any distractions for the next 20 minutes, and you can get started.

Leading In

Once your partner seems reasonably ready, I recommend leading in with something like this. It’s a quick way to explain how to “let it happen.”

I don’t want you to force or fight anything. I just want you to feel what you feel, notice what you notice, and experience what you experience.

If your subject is new, they may be worried thinking prevents trance from happening. Your intention isn’t to give someone a deep trance.

Some people think all the way through the process. That’s all right. Just gently bring your attention back to my voice and experiencing what you experience.

With that, we’re ready to get started.

Finally - The Script

Even though I’m doing an analysis of the Sensory Overlap induction, I’d rather not copy it wholesale. I’ll be linking to various sections of the induction. Open it up in a second tab. I’ll be rewriting the induction in a way that I’d deliver it in a practice session.

Here’s the link.

Alternatively, the induction is included in three of Graham Old’s books. I recommend them. I particularly like Hypnosis with the Hard to Hypnotize.

Analysis

Link to original section.

All right, if you’re ready, I’d like you take as much time as you need to get comfortable. I’m going to be talking about plenty of things as we go along, and you might want to keep track of them, or you might not. It’s totally up to you.

Starting out, we invite the subject to relax, nothing fancy there. The interesting part is giving them the choice that, if they don’t want to focus, they don’t have to. This has a few intentions:

We’ve asked the subject to relax. If they’re not focusing on what we’re saying, they’re probably relaxing.
It’s not a failure if they don’t keep track of everything.
This is a stretch, but Erickson would regularly encourage people to be comfortable with both “Not Doing” and “Not Knowing.” He’d also actively try to engage their subjects in daydreaming. In a way, if you’re not actively keeping track, you might end up doing just that. Read Hypnotic Realities if you’re interested.

I’m also not sure if you’ll be able to concentrate more easily with your eyes open or closed. If you’d like to close them now, please do so. If at any time during the process, you’d like them to close, let them.

Nothing wild here either:

We invite them, instead of telling them, to close their eyes.
We’re also implying that they’re an active participant, and want them to do what’s best for them.

Starting with Absorption

Link to original section.

And as you relax into that chair, I’d like to welcome you to notice the sound of my voice… becoming aware of the sound of my words… You may even begin to visualize these words… maybe even imagining me writing them down… Each of those words having different letters with different shapes… Each shape making a different sound as I write them down with a pen or pencil on a clipboard.

Here, we’re just giving the subject something to think about internally, encouraging absorption in the experience. Again, we’ve giving permission, rather than demanding it. We’re also gently engaging in attention bouncing, which will increase absorption, set a low bar for automatic compliance, and get our subject to notice their cognition and internal processes.

And as we continue, you might notice the other sounds around you… the sound of your breath as you inhale, the whine of your computer fan in the background, or even some of the conversation far in the distance. You might notice the quiet creak of the floor from your neighbors, the rumble of your air conditioner, as well as the sounds from outside your room that come and go. Those sounds that you notice remind us that everything is fine and will continue on, as you continue to listen to the sound of my voice, and the sounds that their shapes make on the piece of paper with a pen or a pencil.

Here, we give our first subtle suggestion outside of imagination. As we highlight all sorts of things that could be distracting, we reframe these as sounds that are relaxing and part of normal day-to-day life. Being aware of these sounds around us is not a problem.

This bears similarity to NLP pacing and leading. NLP style pacing and leading suggestions often take this form:

You may notice thing A (that already exists)
Or even thing B (that already exists)
Becoming aware of C (that already exists)
And some people even begin to notice D (the thing you want to suggest)

In less NLP speak, using our surroundings could also be called utilization. Classic Ericksonian utilization (roughly) would only include a subject’s internal process or thoughts, however more modern takes use our surroundings. I’ve written more about that here, if you’re curious.

And as you continue to allow yourself to relax… you may become aware of just how your body is positioned. Perhaps you notice how your feet feel inside of your shoes, or exactly how your fingers are positioned, or even the subtle shift of your chest as you exhale, continuing to notice my words and how they sound… still occasionally imagining me writing them down, noticing the different lengths of the words and how the strokes of the individual letters sound as they’re written down on that piece of paper with that pen or pencil… And as you notice that, you can be aware of those sounds surrounding us, those sounds can come and go, as you continue to listen to the sound of my voice.

This is just straight up overload and attention bouncing. However, in doing so, we suggest that they’re still listening to the sound of our voice because indeed, they probably are. It’s an experiential way to demonstrate “Hey, your attention can go all over the place, and you don’t need to do anything to bring it back to my words.”

And I’m not sure how aware you are of how your body is resting… maybe noticing the chair against your back, or how heavy your legs are, or even just how relaxed your arms are in your lap. As your body continues to relax, you might become aware of how it feels as your arms and legs have become just a bit heavier… as you continue to listen to the sound of my voice…

We’re doing a few things here - most of which is obvious. We’ve been loading our subject up with permissive suggestions to relax, as well as inviting them to notice their interoceptive responses. More subtly - we’ve done two more things. Firstly, we’re setting up for a catalepsy (rigidity/immobility) convincer later in the induction where they’re so relaxed they won’t want to move their legs, as well as gently bringing their attention back to the sound of our voice. I don’t have a paper or reference for this, but intuitively I believe this works like “Simon Says.” If you talk enough finishing up with “oh yeah, and keep listening,” sometimes it becomes an automatic process.

And as you find yourself relaxing, you might notice how your feet feel on the floor… some people notice them becoming numb and heavy, others just find that the relaxation feels normal and natural… still being aware of the sounds surrounding us and the sound of my voice as you relax your arms and legs.

We repeat the process again. We bounce their attention, suggest relaxation, and suggest they can continue to listen to our voice.

Invitation to Dissociate and Relax

Link to original section.

This is where we shift our delivery, where we prepare to encourage our subjects to “let go.”

You may even begin to notice your breathing has changed… becoming aware of how each breath out allows you to relax comfortably and effortlessly… relaxing further and further… letting yourself go just a bit more deeply into that chair that you’re sitting on… your shoulders resting back as you settle in… your muscles letting go… that feeling coming naturally to your arms and legs as those relax in kind… and the sounds surrounding us continue… the sound of the computer fan… the sound as you breathe out… and the sound of my voice and even the different sounds the different letters would make… all while you relax deeper and deeper…

That was is our final build of tension. There’s no gimmicks here - your partner can notice whatever they want, but we solidify our reframe of sounds that would be distracting as something that can help them relax.

And maybe those gentle breaths out would bring to mind those times where you can just ignore everything… maybe zoning out before bed… or where you’re silently and comfortably enjoying time in the presence of friends… or just taking a quiet moment to for yourself… when you can just let everything drift…

(Slowing down even more here… pausing…)

Maybe it feels like daydreaming… sinking… or floating… like a dream-like cloud is passing by, taking you with it… as you enjoy that feeling of release and calm…

The original section here is so well worded it’s difficult to improve or rephrase. Here we invite them to let go, relax, and just enjoy the experience as deeply as they like. In addition, we introduce a new technique, imagery as indirect suggestion.

Most of the previous content has all been done directly but permissively - bouncing their attention to things that exist, encouraging them to notice their interoception as they relax their body, and asking them to listen to the sound of our voice and guidance. Now we’re shifting to indirect suggestion to guide them into something special.

When we give the imagery of clouds and dreaming, we don’t always know exactly how someone will respond. At this point, unless we’re mind readers, this is ideal. This suggestion could do any number of things:

Maybe they noticed their back is a bit tense. They let out a deep sigh and relax that final spot on their body that we didn’t know about.
Perhaps they were thinking of the bills they have to pay or how rent’s a bit tight. They let go of that as the cloud “takes over.”
They’ve been latching on and analyzing the process. Now they can finally just let go and watch it happen.
They might begin to daydream about floating in the sky, or something completely unrelated.

With this implication, we give them an opportunity to think about whatever they like for the moment that would help them relax more, as well as to start watching the process instead of making it happen. While dissociation often has a negative connotation, it can be done and experienced quite pleasantly, as demonstrated here.

There’s no rush… The dust of those thoughts will settle to the ground in it’s own time… the sounds surrounding us soothing you… relaxing you… and as you continue to notice the sound of my voice… your body continues to relax… Letting go further and further… Just sinking… just relaxing… just drifting in to that dream like cloud…

There’s a quote that’s so damn useful from the original that I’d like to explicitly highlight it.

Everything can settle down in its own time…

Link here.

If there’s anything to take away from this induction - it’s this. Give your subject the reassurance that their thoughts are perfectly normal, that things can slow down on their own, and there’s nothing they have to do to make it happen. Many people feel their thoughts need to stop entirely, or they’ll experience complete quiet or serenity. Whatever they’re experiencing right now is fine, and they don’t need to fight for it. That single sentence from Graham Old elegantly encapsulates this concept simply and succinctly. Use it.

Those times where there’s nothing left to do… just drifting, just relaxing, just enjoying… where it’s so easy to relax… and so easy to let go… when you want to relax… when you want to let go…

I’ve deviated gently from the source material and tossed in a few more suggestions. I’ve implied that it’s easy to relax and let go, and that they want to do so. If you want to add a bit of non-therapeutic paprika to the induction, try this - it’s called analog marking. Emphasize the bolded words to shift the meaning.

it’s so easy to relax… and so easy to let go… when (tiny pause) you want to relax… and when you want to (tiny pause) let go…

After inviting them to let go that last time, I’d pause for an additional five to ten seconds. Partially to give them time to make it happen, and also as practice for you. Pausing after giving a suggestion, while feeling awkward, exudes confidence and builds expectation. If you ask someone if their eyelids are becoming heavy, you need to give them time to notice just how they feel. MMHA said that Erickson believed going slow is going fast, and while I can’t find the source, it’s good advice.

Just letting that feeling of relaxation build… noticing how your body feels… how much calmer your breathing is than before… as you sink deeper and deeper…

We give them a little encouragement to top that feeling off.

Building Phenomena

Link to original section.

Up to this point, everything we’ve done could be easily classified as guided meditation. Now, we’re finally going to elicit some hypnotic phenomena. We’re going to do this by building heaviness in their feet, then binding the feeling of immobility to relaxing further.

You may notice that feeling of relaxation in your feet on the ground… heavy, comfortable… relaxed… and you can become aware of how your thighs, your calves, your feet and your legs feel heavier than before… and you might notice that heaviness growing… or moving,… or you’re just becoming more aware of it…

(Pause.)

And as you notice that feeling, you can just sink in to it and enjoy how good it feels…

Again, I’ve deviated a tad from the original, but it has the same direction. We direct their interoceptive focus to the heaviness in their legs and feet, suggest heaviness, then suggest it can build. By building this feeling, we’re creating plausibility that it’d be just so heavy that they won’t be able to move their legs.

Here’s another useful tool:

[Suggest any feeling.]

Is [that feeling] growing… or moving… or are you just becoming more aware of it?

It’s a bit sly - but we imply we expect something to become more intense, and add a fallback in case it doesn’t. (And, while I don’t subscribe to all of MMHA’s ideas, I have to give them credit for that one liner.)

And if you’d like… you could even imagine what it would be like for those feet to be so heavy that they just wouldn’t move… continuing to savor that feeling of relaxation… taking a moment to imagine that… knowing how you’d feel… if your legs were just so heavy and so relaxed that they’d barely budge…

(Pause for a moment)

And I’d like to invite you to build that feeling even further… When you know that your legs are just too relaxed to move… and when your feet are just too heavy to lift… You can test that… and find that each time you try, it just relaxes you even further… making those legs and feet heavier and heavier, relaxing you more and more each time…

On the surface - what we’re asking our subject to do is obvious. There’s a bit of nuance to how we’re doing this that could be easily missed.

Firstly, we just ask our subject to create this feeling themselves. Then, when they are ready, and they’ve convinced themselves that they’re just too heavy to lift, they can test it out. This encourages them to actively participate in creating that feeling, rather than just betting that they’re already done. It’s both permissive in the sense that they can do it if they want to, as well as effective in that it’s self-reinforcing, where they can try a few times to build that shift in experience..

Give them a few moments to try it out, see what happens.

And when you’re ready… you can just stop trying to lift those feet and let go… letting that feeling of comfort and calm spread to the rest of your body, seeping in to your mind…

That’s right…

Ah, a little treat for them at the end for putting up with your rambling. How nice! At this point, they’ve experienced some hypnotic phenomena, seen how they can create it themselves, and are probably relaxed and buttered up.

This is what I’d call the end of the induction. If we wanted to throw hypnotic terms out the window, we’ve guided them through an experience where they’re much more likely to try things out with us than if we had just started cold with something like “Hey uh, your legs heavy? Want to notice how heavy they are?”

Awakener

You can go almost any direction from here, but since this is just about inductions, I’ll give you an awakener.

I’d like to give you the opportunity to enjoy that feeling of relaxation for as long as you like. When you’re ready, I’d like to invite you to return back to the surface. When you return back, I don’t want you to come back any more quickly than you can savor the experience of returning, taking as much time as you like… letting your eyes open in their own time, at your own pace. Take as much time as you need to enjoy how you feel right now, as well as how good it feels to return.

When I tell someone that they should take as much time as they’d like to return, I mean it. That includes you. Let them enjoy themselves. If they’re thoroughly zonked and it’s been a bit, you can ask them to give you a gentle nod to check in, and repeat that about every five or ten minutes.

Exit interview

Assuming they didn’t pass out, the individual you’re working with likely has a few things to say. Take it in, take note of the feedback, and take your time with it. During your exit chat, hit the following points - there’s no rush.

Ask them:

Did anything take you out of the experience? This is a much softer way of asking “Is there anything I can improve on?”
What was your favorite part?
Did you notice anything else that was interesting?

Really - this isn’t a checklist. When they respond, ask them to elaborate. Make it a conversation.

Takeaways

Before we wrap up, there’s a few things I’d like to underscore:

It’s incredibly helpful to demonstrate that distractions do not end an experience.
An induction can be effective without relying on fancy language patterns or covert suggestions.
You can, and should, collaborate with your subject to build phenomena.
Validating your partner’s experience should be the norm.
Often, an induction’s intentions are obvious if you break it down. Analyzing them is not out of reach.
The process of an induction is usually more important than the individual suggestions in isolation.
There’s no rush.

Closing Thoughts

Hypnotizing someone takes practice - but it’s more about being in tune with your partner than trying to project a persona or aura of control. Simply practicing and repeating this process and taking notes in the exit interview will often give you all the pieces you need to create any experience you want.

For beginners - here’s some things you can easily tinker with:

Change the focus of the initial attention bouncing.
Change the metaphor with the dream-like clouds.

Later, after you have some experience, try these out:

Ask your partner to work with you, collaboratively and conversationally, to create leg catalepsy. There’s no failure, it’s just an experiment. See what feelings they get and iterate.
Check out some other scripts. Look for themes, directions, or how they set up phenomena. Look at how they work with the subject, or how they authoritatively prescribe the experience.
If you’re in the recreational space, experiment with more direct and authoritative styles, comparing the feel and effectiveness with a collaborative approach.
Consider how you could modify the suggestions for leg catalepsy, and build a trigger around that for a different phenomena.

Just like you don’t want to rip your partner out of their experience, building skill in this takes time, and that’s fine. Learning how to do this is fun and rewarding. Just stay in tune with the person you’re working with, and you’ll improve naturally.

If you’d like to read more, I’d recommend Graham Old’s How to Do Hypnosis. If you’d like another approach, I can also recommend going through Hypnosis Without Trance by James Tripp. Alternatively, you could try to analyze other inductions on Graham Old’s site.

For a deep dive I agree with, check out Binaural Histolog. Or, if you’re more in to hypnokink, you can read through Learn Hypnokink to round out your perspective.

In closing, I’d like to thank Summer Vixen for reading through this and pointing out my typos and brain farts. If it wasn’t for it, you’d be reading about how to do an indiction.

Now go have fun zonking some friends! This is a process and hobby, not a goal.