The minimum response to anything that happens which you don't directly suggest as you are inducing an altered state of consciousness is to verbally incorporate it immediately: "Yes, and you continue to have those specific experiences and the body sensations connected with them." That validates the response and reassures the person that you are alert to the signals she is offering you, even though you may not understand what the signals represent.
"Organ language" is another really powerful pattern which I find useful in dealing with any phenomenon that is significant. By "significant" I mean there's no doubt that something unusual is going on–but I have no idea what it might represent.
"Now, the first time that a person … goes into an altered state of consciousness … it often shakes them up a little bit… . But they often find it handy … to come to grips with the part … of the problem … that may be attached to this particular syndrome in a way that … allows them to put their finger on changes … which they can really grasp the reality of." I included four or five allusions to the part of the body and to the activity that is being performed by that part of the body. If there are still any remnants of the person's conscious mind left around at that point in the trance, it typically won't understand those allusions. However, the unconscious mind typically will understand and take that as a validating message.
The two maneuvers I just offered you are ways of incorporating an obvious response that I didn't ask for, and validating it. It's my way of saying "OK, I recognize what you are doing, and it is perfectly all right with me for you to continue to do that." That kind of response is usually adequate.
Another slightly more powerful method you can use is to say "… and with each such movement you'll go deeper into trance," Then you typically get one of two things: either they go really deeply into trance, or they stop shaking.
You could also use the shaking as an access point to do some therapeutic work. "Those particular experiences . . , connected with those dramatic movements of your hand … at this point in time … will become available to you … only when you reach an adequately deep state of trance … for you to appreciate them … as experiences from your past … which may or may not have had negative repercussions then … but which you can now recognize with comfort … as something that you survived … and to draw from a review and a rehearing … of those particular experiences … ways in which you might protect yourself … in the present and in the future … learning from your own experience … which is the foundation of your present resources."
All that is "fluff" in the sense that it includes no content. Hut it is an appropriate and meaningful communication in the sense that you are telling her to do something with the experiences she is having in order to learn from them.
Woman: What do you do if the person doesn't come back out?
If you tell her to come back and she doesn't, that indicates that you've lost rapport, So you have to go back and get rapport. You might just pace her breathing for a while. Then ask her to gather up all the 'enjoyable, positive aspects of this experience, so that she can bring these back with her when she returns in a few moments. Count backwards slowly from ten to one, saying one number for every other breath that she takes. This will help insure rapport. Give instructions that when you reach "one" her eyes will flutter open as control is returned to her conscious mind, and she will be puzzled and delighted by the experience she has just had.
Woman: I've had clients who apparently go into physiological sleep. I have assumed that somehow the unconscious is still listening, but I'm not at all sure of that. There's no response to me at all.
OK. First of all, I don't believe the last statement: that they don't respond to you at all. I would suggest for your own learning purposes, that you use several simple nonverbal devices to find out if they are still responsive to you. The easiest way to do it would be to get in close enough that they can hear your breathing, and then breathe with them for several minutes. I assume that you have the internal flexibility not to simply fall asleep yourself. You can give yourself instructions that you are going to copy their breathing and even though that breathing is typically associated with physiological sleep, you are going to maintain a certain level of alertness. After a minute or two of breathing with them, change your breathing pattern very slightly, and they should follow at that point.
You can get rapport without running the risk of going to sleep by putting your hand on their shoulders and varying the pressure of your touch with the rhythm of their breathing. You can increase the pressure when they exhale, and decrease the pressure when they inhale. We call this "cross–over" pacing, because you pace with a different sensory channel–Do this for two or three minutes, and then change your pressure pattern slightly, noticing whether their breathing follows you.
Woman: What if they don't follow?
If they don't, then they are in a physiological sleep state, and you need to spend more time building rapport. You can still do it, but it takes more time.
We made up something called "sleep therapy" once when we were working at a mental hospital where people had access to their clients twenty–four hours a day. We had been there several times; this was our third visit. The staff members were delighted with the responses they were getting using our patterns, and dealing very effectively with all their patients except the anorexics. They were having trouble with the anorexics.
Anorexics are people who consider themselves grossly overweight. The perception of the rest of the world is that they are about to starve to death. They are extremely skinny, to the point that their health is threatened.
One of the things that we instructed the staff to do with the anorexics—which wiped out this last stronghold of unresponsive patients–was what we called "sleep therapy." If you live with someone for whom this is acceptable, you can try it out yourself.
Go into the place where she is sleeping and use one of the two techniques I just mentioned to you to get rapport. Breathe with her for three or four minutes to get rapport. Since she is in a severely altered state, it takes some time to get rapport. Or instead of breathing with her, you can touch her and use pressure differences. You could get rapport auditorily by singing or humming little soft notes with her breathing movements. You can use any repetitive pattern that you can control in your own output to match her breathing cycle. Then very carefully and very slowly change what you are doing, to find out if you can lead her. Don't change your breathing radically, because part of a person's ability to be asleep and to stay asleep without interruption depends on her maintaining that breathing pattern. Unless you want to wake her up, it would be inappropriate for you to change her breathing radically.
You then proceed to set up finger signals—something that we'll teach you tomorrow. "As you continue to sleep deeply and rest yourself completely, you can respond to certain questions that I ask you by lifting one finger for 'yes' and another for 'no.'" The person is in a severely altered state in which her normal conscious resources are not available, and therefore not in your way. You can now begin to access information directly by getting yes/ no signals, or propose changes and new behaviors. You can do all the work in that state without interrupting her sleep.