erickson maintained that trance is a common, everyday occurrence.
for example, when waiting for buses and trains, reading or listening, or even being involved in strenuous physical exercise, it's quite normal to become immersed in the activity and go into a trance state, removed from any other irrelevant stimuli. these states are so common and familiar that most people do not consciously recognise them as hypnotic phenomena. the same situation is in evidence in everyday life, however, whenever attention is fixated with a question or an experience of the amazing, the unusual, or anything that holds a person’s interest. at such moments people experience the common everyday trance; they tend to gaze off—to the right or left, depending upon which cerebral hemisphere is most dominant (baleen, 1969) —and get that “faraway” or “blank” look. their eyes may actually close, their bodies tend to become immobile (a form of catalepsy), certain reflexes (e.g., swallowing, respiration, etc.) may be suppressed, and they seem momentarily oblivious to their surroundings until they have completed their inner search on the unconscious level for the new idea, response, or frames of reference that will restabilize their general reality orientation. we hypothesize that in everyday life consciousness is in a continual state of flux between the general reality orientation and the momentary microdynamics of trance... erickson maintained that it was not possible to consciously instruct the unconscious mind, and that authoritarian suggestions were likely to be met with resistance. the unconscious mind responds to openings, opportunities, metaphors and contradictions. effective hypnotic suggestion, then, should be 'artfully vague', for example, where a classical hypnotist might say "you are going into a trance", an ericksonian hypnotist would be more likely to say "you can comfortably learn how to go into a trance". confusion technique a confused person has their conscious mind busy and occupied, and is very much inclined to draw upon unconscious learnings to make sense of things. a confused person is in a trance of their own making - and therefore goes readily into that trance without resistance. confusion might be created by ambiguous words, complex or endless sentences, pattern interruption or a myriad other techniques. the handshake induction by interrupting the pattern of a 'normal' handshake in some way, the hypnotist causes the subject to wonder what is going on. if the handshake continues to develop in a way which is out-ofkeeping with expectations, a simple, non-verbal trance is created, which may then be reinforced or utilized by the hypnotist. the most important thing is that the 'normal' handshake is subverted in such a way to cause puzzlement, which may then be built upon. ericksonian therapy encouraging resistance - the conscious mind recognizes negation in speech ("don't do x") however the unconscious mind pays more attention to the "x" than the injunction "don't do". erickson used this as the basis for suggestions that deliberately played on negation and tonally marked the important wording, to provide that whatever the client did, it was beneficial: "you don't have to go into a trance, so you can easily wonder about what you notice no faster than you feel ready to become aware that your hand is slowly rising....." providing a worse alternative (the 'double bind') - example: "do you want to go into a trance
now, or later?" the 'double bind' is a way of overloading the subject with two options, the acceptance of either of which represents acceptance of a therapeutic suggestion. _____ 1. rapport rapport, when observed in natural settings, consists of similar behaviors and seemingly shared ideas. rapport creates an unconscious impression that "this person is just like me", and we tend to like people who are like us. when people are in rapport, there tends to be a similarity of body posture and movements, ways of expression, voice tone and tempo, etc. watch two people sometime who are obviously having a great conversation and you'll see these things in action. when one shifts position slightly, the other will respond with a similar shift. if one leans forward, soon after, so will the other. there's a pace at which one will take a sip of a drink, then the other, etc. matching breathing is one of the most powerful rapport tools you have available. you can begin to generate an unconscious rapport with someone across a room by simply matching their breathing rate with yours, or with a crossover analogue, such as rocking slightly in sync with their breathing, or slightly nodding your head in sync with their breathing, etc. this is often a process you will want to begin as far in advance of your actually interacting with the person as is reasonably possible. words are another powerful thing to match. people who use visual words to relate their thoughts are thinking in pictures, so speak to them in their language, they will find you to be a bright person who shines at conversation, and will likely be more willing to shed light on any subject you you may have questions on. eye accessing cues our eyes look to different areas when we process different types of internal data. since our internal representations are all made up of images, words and sounds, feelings, sensations, tastes and smells, our eyes tend to move to different locations when we are thinking in one of these modalities. calibration is essential in the use of eye-accessing cues. there is a rule-ofthumb that states that about 80% of us will look up and right to construct an internal image, up and left to remember an image or scene, down and to the left when we talk to ourselves in our heads, down and to the right when we are engrossed in a feeling. we also tend to look laterally to our left when we remember a sound, like a song from our earlier years, and laterally to our right when we imagine what something might sound like. but!!! this is only a way of introducing eye-access patterns. everyone has their own particular set of accessing cues!!! 2. overloading conscious attention the second aspect of the milton model is that it uses ambiguity in language and non-verbal communication. this might also be combined with vagueness, which arises when the boundaries of meaning are indistinct. the use of ambiguity and vagueness distracts the conscious mind as it tries to work out
what is meant which gives the unconscious mind the opportunity to prosper. 3. indirect communication the third aspect of the milton model is that it is purposely vague and metaphoric for the purpose of accessing the unconscious mind. it is used to soften the meta model and make indirect suggestions. a direct suggestion merely states what is wanted, for example, "when you are in front of the audience you will not feel nervous". in contrast an indirect suggestion is less authoritative and leaves an opportunity for interpretation, for example, "when you are in front of the audience, you might find yourself feeling ever more confident". this example follows the indirect method leaving both the specific time and level of self-confidence unspecified. it might be made even more indirect by saying, "when you come to a decision to speak in public, you may find it appealing how your feelings have changed." the choice of speaking in front of the audience, the exact time and the likely responses to the whole process are framed but the imprecise language gives the client the opportunity to fill in the finer details.