05 - Utilization

Utilization is a broad concept, but we can get quite far by using whatever your subject is doing, thinking, or experiencing. Think of it as a springboard to build suggestions off of, or to shift someone’s understanding and experience.

Obvious Examples

These are the one’s you’ll be using regularly. Whatever they’re doing that reinforces hypnosis or the direction you’re going - use it and strengthen it. If something’s happening that you didn’t cause, you can grab it and use it, too.

• You give suggestions of heaviness, and they mention a sinking feeling. You hammer in that sinking feeling to build it.
• In VR, you pass your finger gently and repeatedly along their line of vision. You ask them how their eyes are feeling, they mention ‘a bit tired’ and you capitalize on it with a “That’s right… they are tired, aren’t they? And you might begin to notice that feeling continuing to build… just a bit… with each pass.”
• You suggest arm levitation, and you notice their arm sinking. Oops. That’s fine. “Or perhaps, that lightness is making your muscles weaker, as your arm begins to sink… down and down… your control feeling lighter and lighter.”
• Or - if you’re doing resistance play - from a non-bullshit instance: - S: after they noticed I was up to my shit of dropping their head down, they locked their head in place. “Hey, stop!” - H: “Stop? Stop you - from going into trance? Have you even noticed how, in your resistance, your head has just frozen and locked in to place? Or… even how it’s become easier to listen to my words? You may have not even been aware of just how much more your head has frozen while you’ve become silent, listening, becoming more and more locked in that position…”
• Use ETI’s as mentioned in my other guide

Not Obvious Examples

• You’ve had a long-ass pre-talk with your subject for anything-goes CNC, and you’d like them to feel more comfortable about going to see the Backstreet Boys. - S: “Ah yeah… I don’t think they’re that bad, but I’m just not into them.” - H: “That’s right… And you don’t think they’re that bad, and you’re just not into them right now, but we all know that some people change over time…”
  • Or, about being in trance…
    • S: “I don’t think I was in trance.”
    • H: “That’s right - you didn’t feel like you were in trance, did you? You were so focused on your hand and how it felt internally, even though it sank all the way down. Many people say they didn’t feel as if they were in trance because it’s difficult for them to admit they were influenced - and that’s a perfectly normal thing to do.”

There’s More to Utilization

This is out of the scope of a ‘quickies’ guide, but there’s far more to utilization than just using what’s going on. Unless you’re interested in an overview of a deep dive, this is your cue to skip to the next chapter. You have plenty to work with.

Still here? Cool - we can start by trying to define utilization. A clear Ericksonian definition is difficult to nail down. In the Erickson Foundation blog, they hint at it being “the subject’s own attitudes, thinking, feeling, and behavior, and aspects of the reality situation, variously employed, as the essential components of the trance induction procedure…” Or, quoting Rossi, the co-author with Erickson of Hypnotic Realities, talking about the utilization method of trance induction…

These hypnotic forms are communication devices that facilitate the evocation and utilization of the patient’s own associations, potentials, and natural mental mechanisms in ways that are usually experienced as involuntary… the patient is surprised to find that experience and behavior are altered in a seemingly autonomous manner; experience seems to be outside one’s usual sense of control and self-direction.

… The utilization approaches achieve their results precisely because they activate and further develop what is already within the patient rather than attempting to impose something from the outside that might be unsuitable for the patient’s individuality.

-Rossi, Hypnotic Realities, under “The Utilization Theory of Hypnotic Suggestion”

If we take this at face value, we could compress this down to “use something from their reality that feels automatic and out of their control.” In a therapeutic context, you’d use it to either create trance or shift a perspective.

I don’t like any of these definitions. At all. If you squint, you can get a “vibe” for what utilization was intended to be about, but after so much fanfare I’d expect there to be a clear (and useful) description.

But, there’s good news! sleepingirl threw together two guides covering utilization, nailing this ambiguous concept down. On their Patreon, they split utilization into two groups:

• Ericksonian - the OG utilization. It involves using common experiences (EG, describing what the experience is like as we remember something, then highlighting how as we talk about trance, we can return to it,) using unique experiences to the subject (EG, knowing specifically your subject likes pickles, and suggesting they could feel the same way about Marmite,) or reframing your subject’s hypnotic responses as entering trance.
• External - a modern add-on to the concept of utilization. Highlighting how as we stare at visual hypnotic trope of your choice, you can notice focus, or even bringing in your own experiences.

If you’d like to dig in more, I’d recommend their DLC on All Types of Utilization and their Introduction to Ericksonian Hypnosis.