The “Problem” is the Solution by sleepingirl

The “Problem” is the Solution by sleepingirl

We talk about utilization as an indispensable concept within hypnosis -- the Ericksonian idea that as hypnotists, we should somehow be “using” what is available to us to hypnotize our partners. This makes sense on an abstract level, but perhaps is sometimes difficult to understand its practical applications. In this essay, we’re going to explore a certain facet of utilization, specifically within the context of “troubleshooting” -- when we’re looking to achieve something, but we feel as though there are hurdles to pass. We will be looking at a couple common, concrete examples and breaking them down, and learning how to think about hypnosis almost as a martial art, where we take our subjects’ hurdles and use them to create avenues for efficacy.

The General Format and Techniques

Before we jump in, let’s take a look at how we might think about this. Our broad goal in all of this is to take the aspects of an interaction that might be causing issues for our subject and transform and utilize those to be tools for success. We can break this down into several parts:

• Identify the “problem”
• Identify the goal / question your “success” conditions
• Utilize and go with the flow
• Ask yourself, “What if this problem was actually beneficial?”

This process seems deceptively simple on the surface, but each of these concepts will involve some level of creative thinking as well as potential reframing. Thinking through some concrete examples will start to give us the muscle memory of how to approach different kinds of bumpiness we encounter.

Example 1: Being “Active” in Trance

For our first scenario, let’s look at a common issue that some subjects (especially new subjects) face. Sometimes while in trance, when a subject wants to speak or move (or they are prompted/instructed to do so), they feel like taking that action is difficult or even impossible. We see this sometimes when someone feels like they don’t want to adjust to make themselves more comfortable, or when someone goes very nonverbal despite being asked questions or told to speak a mantra, for example. Let’s see how we can break this apart and approach this.

• Identify the “problem”

In this case, the problem is that the subject feels that they can’t be too “active” during trance. But in order for us to get mileage here, we need to dig deeper and try to understand what is happening. We can talk to our subject and ask questions about it (which will get you the most accurate information in their words), or we can put ourselves in their shoes and draw upon our own understanding of what that situation feels like, especially if we’ve felt something similar. (Note that everyone has slightly different subjective experiences of trance, so while this can often be a good starting point and in many cases is enough, listening to your partner will give you the most to work with.)

There could be a number of reasons why this person is feeling this way. Perhaps they are feeling “too relaxed,” or they feel like they will “break out” of trance if they move or speak. There could be some nuance here as well; a simple feeling of being “too deep” to move may be more subjectively accurate than the feeling of relaxation.

We need to strive to comprehend what that experience is like and really conceptualize it. Imagine the feeling of being “too relaxed to move” -- it feels like even if you want to, you can’t quite send the impulses down to your muscles to make them flex and contract, or maybe that you feel like you’re sending the impulses and your muscles don’t respond. Speaking is similar -- try getting ready to say something and notice the parts of your body that have to move, like the throat, jaw, and abdomen. Think also about how once you start moving, it’s easy to continue, so it’s the initiation of movement that is often the roadblock here.

Worrying about affecting the trance with motion is also common, and maybe we can understand that at least partially as a product of the person having an association between “trance” and “stillness.” This is sometimes a matter of expectation, but often also comes from a subject’s constant process of creating a blueprint of how trance “feels” as they progress. Subjects will (consciously or unconsciously) always be trying to find signals and behaviors that definitively tell them, “You are in trance because you are feeling this.” Part of growing as a subject is identifying those signals and noticing them as convincers. Since trance often involves stillness, something that goes counter to that may feel like “awakeness.”

Both of these may also connect with the sense that we are used to motion and speech that is initiated consciously. In trance, subjects have an expectation or feeling that actions they take should not have the same kind of “sensation” of consciousness as actions performed while “awake.” So it is even in the sense of consciously creating that impulse to speak or move where it feels un-trancey. This could be felt in the process of making the decision (“I have to think to choose that I’m going to move”) and/or in the actual initiation itself. Again, these little subjective feelings are usually part of our understanding of “awakeness,” not in trance. It may feel like an interruption.

One final thing to consider with speech particularly is that the action of speaking generally means taking thoughts and translating them to speech -- there are moments before talking where the speaker thinks of what they’re going to say. For some people at some times, that happens somewhat concretely in an inner monologue sort of thing, and in other situations those thoughts might be more abstract before being “translated” to speech. We know that when someone is in trance, the way that they process is usually altered in some way, even if the subject doesn’t have awareness of it. So if someone is being asked to speak in a way that they need to create thoughts about it (juxtaposed with being told to repeat a phrase, for example), that might trigger that “I have to do something consciously?” feeling, or they may not yet have the muscle memory to translate their trance cognition to speech.

• Identify the goal / question your “success” conditions

Our goal here may feel simple as well: having your subject able to speak or move in trance. But notice that understanding the “problem” actually further defines the goal: being able to speak or move without it feeling like it’s breaking trance.

It’s important to mention here that this does not have to (and should not) be the goal all the time. It is often really pleasant for a subject to feel like they are too deep for speech or action -- that can be a really convincing feeling of trance or control. We are going to talk about ways to make that action feel smooth, but it’s good to ask yourself in the moment: do I really want to do this right now, or should I let them hang out like this and change my goal?

• Utilize and go with the flow

Now we approach the idea of how to use this information in order to turn it into something that fits the scenario. Our goal here is specifically to “fix the problem” in a way that turns it into a solution. The first thing we’re going to talk about here is the idea of physics, martial arts, and Milton Erickson. If you were sparring with someone and they came directly at you with a punch, and you put your hand up rigidly to stop it, the force of that punch would go through your hand and ripple through your arm, likely causing pain or injury. However, if you were able to catch their fist as it came at you, turn, and continue the motion through its trajectory, you would not only avoid injury, but you would gain control over the momentum and movement.

Erickson was famous for doing this, not with his body (an amusing image) but with hypnosis. Patients would come to him with idiosyncratic problems, and he wouldn’t metaphorically hold his hand up, he would go with the flow. For example, if someone were to say, “I’m a really bad listener,” many of us would be tempted to try and de-escalate with a, “Oh, no, it’s OK, don’t worry; that’s not a problem, we could work on that,” when someone comes to us with a self-deprecating complaint. But Erickson might say, “Yes, you’re a terrible listener, one of the least attentive people I’ve ever talked to!” (Erickson, of course, was known for having some... interesting therapeutic methods.) While this may sound crass, the followup here is key: “But lucky for us, you barely have to listen at all to go into a hypnotic trance.”

We are not using this kind of utilization with resistant subjects as Erickson was, so (barring emotional sadism) we won’t be dipping into someone’s insecurities. The takeaway here should be that we want to go with the flow of our partner’s experience. In the case of the subject who feels too relaxed to move, it might be tempting for some to think, “I should make them a little less relaxed and give them some energy to move.” Notice that this is directly working against their experience. While this may work fine in some cases, both you and your subject will be doing more work to make this happen.

The more Ericksonian approach here might be to say, “Yes, you are definitely too relaxed.” This allows your partner to continue in the same trajectory, and it tells them that you’re listening, and you’re going to work with them rather than against them. Then in this case, what’s the follow through?

• Ask yourself, “What if this problem was actually beneficial?”

The last tools we’ll be looking at to answer that question are those of reframing and causality. We want to recontextualize the “problem” into something that is ultimately useful. Reframing is essentially taking a situation and putting a different spin on it such that it fits your intended outlook. Causality is a hypnotic language trick that helps to make that happen -- it’s when we use words like “because” to imply that one thing results in or implies another.

In this case, let’s think about what it means to accept the “problem”: we know that our partner is experiencing something where they can’t quite connect with their muscular impulses, and/or that they don’t want to for fear of breaking the trance. So, what if that was a good thing? Perhaps one option to us is to emphasize that disconnection -- fully remove them from their body awareness where they don’t actually feel themselves consciously sending those impulses. That brings to mind the idea of motion that is automatic or unconscious, or even in a power exchange sense that it is outside of their control or that they would be controlled to move. If the person is having trouble consciously creating motion, then move it outside of their conscious impulses -- dissociate them from that feeling or their body.

In terms of patter, that might look like this: “You’re so out of it, so relaxed that you really can’t do anything; you can’t make your muscles move, but that just takes control away from you -- you could imagine watching from far away as your body moved on its own, like a puppet, being moved by some force or some part of you that you consciously don’t have access to. Your body automatically does this when you’re this deep right now with me, easily just letting you be stuck deep in trance as it controls its muscles, moves to make itself more comfortable so that you can go even deeper…”

This example focuses on the idea of dissociation and unconscious, spontaneous movement and contains everything we’ve talked about thus far: an understanding of the experience of the subject and their problem: an acknowledgement of going “with” the flow of their problem, a reframing of it as something that could be useful, and causal language that implies that they are going to behave in a certain way because of that. A good exercise might be trying to tweak this to fit suggested movement rather than spontaneous, or thinking about some of the different elements in something that is more specific to speech in trance.

Example 2: Thinking “Too Much” (“Analytical”)

For our second scenario, let’s go through the format while thinking about the issue of a subject feeling like they are being too “analytical” or simply thinking “too much.” It is incredibly common for any given subject (especially new subjects) to self-label as analytical for a variety of reasons, and generally within the context of this being something that they feel causes roadblocks for them to experience trance. Let’s take a look.

• Identify the “problem”

This is a case where knowing your partner’s subjective experience is very helpful. We’re grouping the problems of “thinking too much” and “being too analytical” because oftentimes these are used interchangeably, and they depend heavily on what the subject is actually feeling. There is no singular diagnosis of what “analytical” means. We can understand a lot of separate but overlapping experiences here: there could be the sense of a constant inner monologue, or abstract but racing thoughts. There could also be true analysis -- not just stray thoughts but constructive or deconstructive examination and interpretation about what is happening in the moment.

If we try to understand how this process goes, we can think about how the person is feeling. Again, we ask, “Why is this an issue?” The oft-cited answer is that they have certain expectations of what they are supposed to experience in trance -- namely some expectation of less thinking or blank-mindedness. But note again that just like with the previous example, this isn’t as simple as changing a psychological expectation; they have an association with the sensation and awareness of thinking with “awakeness”, and it doesn’t fit their model of trance. They feel themselves thinking, or they notice their thoughts, and that causes them to ask, “Wait, am I really in trance?”

It also could be relevant to consider the kinds of thoughts that they are having. Thoughts that are “off topic” could feel like they are distracting when the subject wants to be able to focus on the trance. They may find themselves pulled away from the experience, where the concrete signs of trance fade into the background because they are wandering to different things, and having to make a conscious effort to bring themselves back to the moment.

The flipside of this are thoughts that are more focused on what is happening to them, whether it is just a running monologue or they are dissecting moments and getting caught up in that analysis. They might feel like they are “overthinking” things and perhaps some sort of sense that that is making their responses and actions feel more conscious because they are “in their head.”

• Identify the goal / question your “success” conditions

The goal here is a little trickier to discern -- largely, you just want your partner to have a fulfilling experience in trance. The key is that it feels successful to them. We’re not trying to “cure” our partners of what are just their natural thinking habits, but perhaps teaching them different skills to be able to acknowledge and accept them as a part of their trance experience.

• Utilize and go with the flow

Most people with some experience with hypnosis are familiar with the concept that it is normal to be thinking and processing while in trance -- we often have to break ourselves or our partners out of the expectation that trance is necessarily blank-minded. We probably have a pretty decent understanding that just trying to force them to think less and less is going to be fairly hit or miss if we don’t utilize their current experience. But it’s also not just as simple as telling them that their experience is normal; that’s not very convincing, and even if they work to accept that, that’s only one piece of their association. We know that they need to be able to have an experience in trance that really feels like trance to them to teach them that it is possible, and teach them the kind of muscle memory of the skill of trance in their own brain.

We have a lot of options here, and many variations depending on how the person is actually experiencing their thoughts. We’ll start of course by acknowledging in some way to ourselves and them, “Yes, you are definitely thinking too much; you are definitely getting distracted,” or “you are definitely over analyzing.”

• Ask yourself, “What if this problem was actually beneficial?”

What if it was beneficial to overthink things in trance? Moreso, how can we prove that? We know that one of the biggest issues here is that the subject is not feeling fully connected with their internal experience of trance, or the external stimulus of your voice or your actions that are leading them there. So we want to think about this in some way that we can reframe “thinking too much” into something that gives them an avenue to feel the right kinds of things for them, where thinking itself becomes a tool to help that.

Here’s some example patter: “I know the way your brain works, and how you constantly are running thoughts around in your head… How you keep feeling yourself slipping into them, when all you want to do is give me all of your attention, to be able to feel the way trance sinks into your body. And isn’t it interesting how when I talk about your body, you feel your focus shift inwards, and for that moment the flow of your thoughts gets directed inwards, lining up with the way that your body feels. And the more I keep talking about your muscles being softened with hypnosis, the more those thoughts loop around, winding around your limbs, getting tangled up in that feeling, your inner monologue commenting in a tranced voice, ‘Oh, I can feel how hypnotized my body is, it feels so good, I can feel it growing, everywhere,’ and your thoughts get so obsessed with that feeling, so hard not to loop back when you notice it, again and again, trapped, hypnotized by the physical sensations of hypnosis…”

In this example, we’re giving the subject a very broad anchor -- we’re shifting their focus into themselves and specifically their body, giving them something to explore. Many people feel a sort of subjective split duality between body and mind -- they feel them as separate -- and we’re playing into that by giving them the experience of focusing “away” from their mind and “towards” their body. We’re also prompting some specific threads of thoughts, and suggesting that it’s difficult to avoid a type of focus that will hypnotize them further. (We can consider that it’s maybe a good linguistic trick to tell someone “it’s hard not to do x” rather than “it’s easy to do x.”) In this way, we’ve transformed the monologuing thoughts into something that always brings them back to their physical experience of hypnosis, which can prove to them that they really are hypnotized.

In Conclusion

This model of troubleshooting is an immensely useful one, and teaches us good utilization habits. Utilization is not just about incorporating something into our patter, but thoroughly understanding aspects of our partner’s experience and learning how to transform anything into a convincing, effective hypnotic tool. When we hear the phrase, “Anything can be hypnotic,” perhaps it’s best if we follow that with, “Especially when you can prove it.” As hypnotists, the flow of trance is an abstract one that we want to feel comfortable bending as we desire. Taking someone’s momentum and experience and accepting it in order to turn it on them is one very important piece of that.