It's been awhile since the last time I posted in this journal.  Today, I feel the need to explain something.

Recently, I replied to the following posting in the forum for "Help with Files".  

Hello!

i´m new to hypnosis, i already downloaded a few files and listened to them.  but i didn´t get an reaction from me, so i´m not sure if it works on me or not.

I intentionally held back from replying to that posting with a list of additional recordings to try - and the way that I responded is going to seem weird to some WMM members...  especially members who primarily enjoy kink hypnosis/hypnotizing through MP3s.  There are three concepts that explain why I replied the way I did...  and at the end of this journal entry, there's a hypnosis story, just for fun.  Here are the three concepts:

- Deal with what emerges

- Fit the technique to the client rather than the other way 'round

- Induce Hypnotic-response using emotion and imagination

Deal With What Emerges:

BACKGROUND:  The posting reveals that the member has already listened to multiple recordings and didn't get a reaction from them.  In a second (unrelated) posting, the member reveals that English might be a secondary language.

The hypnotherapy concept Deal with What Emerges teaches that hypnotists need to both accept what this member says and then respond to those things specifically.  That's what my "weird" response does...  it acknowledges the member's skill in another language.  Then It decribes hypnosis to them that uses another (non-MP3) method.

Fit the Technique to the Client Rather than the Other Way Around:

Yes, learning to self-trance using a hypnosis mp3 is a skill that takes time to learn.  But there are other (additional) ways to enjoy self-trance.  So my "weird" response tells a short story that invites the member to imagine someone else's experience with recreational trance - where the subject (afterward) claims that they were unaffected.  

Induce Hypnotic-response Using Emotion and Imagination:

BACKGROUND:  There's a reason that there's no legal definition for what hypnosis is.  That's because it's impossible to test what is causing thoughts to bypass the reasoning area of the brain. 

- This reasoning function gets bypassed when someone is panicked.  But no one would describe a panicked person as hypnotized.

- This reasoning function gets suspended when someone is engrossed in a really good movie.   

When a hypnotist learns that emotion and imagination are gateways for bypassing conscious, logical thought, then they can begin use these gateways to induce response at a subconscious level - wonderfully manipulative!   That's exactly what my weird response does. :-)

I'll close this journal entry with a story about how hypnotist Milton Erickson once used this Emotion & Imagination method:

I shouldn't really tell this group what I did to a young lady sitting next to me on the plane.  I was sitting here, a young man was sitting here, and this young lady was sitting between the two of us.  As the plane started down the runway, the young lady said, "I am scared, I am scared.  I'm afraid I'm going to get sick to my stomach when this plane starts oging up."

Well, who wants to sit next to a girl when she is vomiting?  I don't.  There is nothing charming about it.  It doesn't even sound good, and so I turned to her and I said:  "Well, you know, I can put a stop to that, if you want me to, rather easily."

She said, "Okay."

I said, "it's very easy.  When the plane starts going up, I'll pinch you in exactly the right spot.  You won't like it."

The young man laughed and the young lady looked at me rather horrified.  I said to her, "Oh! I'll enjoy it."

The plan went up and she was still looking at me when all of a sudden she said, "Say, it is up!"

"That's right,"  I said.  "It's up and you're enjoying the ride."

Why should I waste time with a lot of hypnotic techniques?  I had her attention and her attention was not on her stomach.