12 - The Functional Component
It’s pretty obvious what went wrong in this session.
H: And you can find yourself coming back, eyes opening, back at your own pace.
(Silence.)
H: Back at your own pace, eyes opening, feeling warm rays of sunshine passing over your body as they begin to flutter, feeling better and better as each moment passes.
(Silence.)
H: … Uh. You ok?
S: Oh, yeah why?
H: How was that?
S: Was what?
H: The session.
S: Oh shit, I’m sorry, I was playing Balatro the whole time.
While it’s pretty obvious that distractions can get in the way of a session, it might be less clear that it’s the same problem when you hear a subject say something like this:
S: Oh, I was listening and waiting to see if anything would happen.
The native environment for a street hypnotist is a loud pub or entertaining in a park. In VR, I like working in busy worlds - doing it out in the open gives me the context that we’ll be trying something short, and I’ll be keeping it light and playful. (Less tactfully, someone could easily draw the wrong conclusion about my intentions if I pulled them off to a private room.) Besides, it’s more impressive to show someone that they don’t need absolute silence to feel a shift in their experience.
The problem is the same between both examples. Distractions are always going to happen. The sessions fell short because of a lack of engagement. So - part of our job is to coach our subject on how to make this happen.
Coaching Engagement
Section titled “Coaching Engagement”The brief CSTP, an older study on improving hypnotic response, puts this succinctly. However, it’s brutal and artless, an unfortunate requirement of academic hypnosis.
If you just sit and wait for suggested responses to happen on their own, nothing will happen.
- Gorassini and Spanos - Clinical Hypnosis and Self Regulation, CH6, P170
*(If you want to read more on this, you can check my notes here, Binaural Histolog’s notes here, or the book itself for this and other cognitive-behavioral perspectives.)
Gorassini and Spanos, both coming from the lens of social psychology, theorized hypnotic response came primarily from compliance and role enactment. Their instructions were, in summary:
- Immerse yourself as much as possible in the suggestions provided.
- Pay no attention to the fact that you’re making the responses happen.
Instruction 1 is fine. Instruction 2 will land your session dead in the water. Even if compliance is an important component in hypnosis, it’s not the only process making it happen. Frankly, the social psychology lens is a bit OP and misses the point. Everything has social context. Even if we had true, irrefutable evidence of mind control, unless we did it entirely without a second person involved, the social psychology lens could easily take credit. (Though, I’ll happily steal their homework. Apologies to the one hypnotist that’s a social psychologist that may be reading this.)
A better way to think of this is to do the following:
- Let your subject know it’s up to them to follow your instructions. (If you’re not sure if they’re doing their part, ask them what they’re doing or what their experience is like.)
- Let them know, either through experience or suggestion, that background noise won’t get in the way. Things that demand attention (their cell phone going off, a hungry pet, or a delayed bathroom break) will. Avoid those.
- Find out what their experience is and build on it, doing some of the heavy lifting of absorbing them into the experience.
- Explain to them that hypnosis is nonbinary. It’s not if it works or not, it’s how much it’s working.
Framing Failure
Section titled “Framing Failure”Aside from your bruised ego and a mildly disappointed subject, nobody is going to get hurt if a suggestion flops. Failed suggestions do happen, but they’re part of the process. Knowing it’ll happen, we can maximize the advantage we can get from those instances. Wordweaver puts it well in his Hypnosis Without Trance notes.
In summary:
- Failure is feedback we can learn from.
- This is an experiment.
- Failure is lovely. (Or - failure is the banana peel of hypnosis.)
- Hypnotic response and doing hypnosis are both skills that take time to build. *See the section A note on failure for more.
Remind your partner that you’ll expect some constructive feedback. I don’t always use this frame, but it’s great when you’re learning. There’s a chance it’ll marginally reduce response, but it takes some pressure off the subject. It’s much easier for you, as a hypnotist, to improve with feedback than for your subject to believe they’re “bad” or “can’t go into hypnosis.”
Practical Concerns
Section titled “Practical Concerns”Make sure you won’t be interrupted by notifications, your body needing a bio-break, or your phone for a little bit. This is also a good time to check in with yourself and ensure you’re not pressured into something you’re not ready for or don’t want. Don’t get bullied into being someone’s next drop.
🦈 Not sure what I mean?
Take a leak, mute notifications, go on red if join requests distract you, and consume your meds. Go make sure your roommate isn’t going to yell through your headset and ask if you want to get some Taco Baco. They’re probably piloting a meat-mech; check and ensure they’ve used the restroom. If they’re a Protogen, ask them if they need a quick oil change before you get started. If they can’t take the joke, don’t play with that toaster.
In one of my first sessions, I took a subject off to the side in a semi-private location. I wanted it to be open so folks could watch (or, frankly, provide feedback.) Folks were respectful! But even just watching someone adjust their avatar position in the background was enough to knock me out of my train of thought. So be aware of your own distractions, too.
Ask them about their immediate area. Ensure they won’t slump and fall off their chair or bed. Tell them that when they enter hypnosis, they may notice their body becoming deeply relaxed, and slipping off a seating implement is only entertaining so many times. Suggest they sit, not lie down - you’re wasting your effort if they pass the fuck out.
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. Don’t fake it, either! I just want you to feel what you feel, notice what you notice, and experience what you experience. If any point you’d like to end or pause the experience, you can. You don’t need my permission.
If your subject is new, they may be worried that 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. Confidence comes later. Don’t do your best - get it done and have fun.
Flight Check!
Section titled “Flight Check!”Speedrun this:
- Phone out of pocket
- Notifications muted
- Messengers closed
- In VR - distractions off. (If someone starts playing Nickelback in the middle of one of my sessions there’s gonna be a dead body somewhere in that instance.)
- Pee pee poo poo break
- Pets fed, out of the room
- Privacy
- Medications taken
- Smoke break
Further Reading
Section titled “Further Reading”- James Tripp - Hypnosis Without Trance. While I disagree with its grounding in NLP, this truly is the best book I’ve read on coaching engagement.