Concerning the technique of the induction of hypnotic trances, this is a relatively simple matter requiring primarily time, patience, and careful attention to and consideration for the subjects, their personalities, and their emotional attitudes and reactions. Basically, there is no set form or pattern to follow. One needs the respect, confidence, and trust of a subject, and then one suggests fatigue, a desire for sleep and rest, an increasing feeling of sleep, and finally a deep sound restful sleep.
The wonder and fascination of hypnotic mind control is that it enables us to control these responses that are usually mediated by unconscious mechanisms outside the normal range of consciousness. The art and science of the hypnotherapist is in knowing enough about behavior and learning in general, and the individual experiences of each patient in particular, so the therapist can present suggestions to evoke all the responses necessary to accomplish a given therapeutic goal.
The theory is simple, but the practice is difficult until the therapist has really learned how to evoke responses that are usually outside the patient's normal range of ego control. There are vast individual differences to be taken into account. Some patients can easily accept direct suggestions simply because they believe so much in the therapist's "prestige" or "power." Such belief wipes away the limitations and doubts characteristic of their usual attitudes; they don't believe they can accomplish such and such by themselves, but their belief system allows them to accomplish it in the special circumstances of therapy.
Other patients, more critical and doubting, caught in a narrow, rationalistic view of themselves require indirect suggestions that will bypass the destructive limitations of their belief system. Still other patients, more in tune with the facts, recognize their personal limitations but need not believe in the prestige or power of the therapist; rather, they hope the therapist really has the skill to help them accomplish their goal by indirect suggestions whose rationale they need not understand at the time.
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