I've talked about using negation and tag questions. You can have an even greater impact if you add the use of embedded commands. Take the statement "And I don't want you to become more relaxed as you listen to the sound of my voice." If I change the tempo, pitch, or timbre qualities of my voice when 1 say "Become more relaxed," that instruction is marked out analogically for special attention at the unconscious level.
You can use embedded commands with or without negation. "As you sit there you can begin to relax… . Don't close your eyes only as fast as your unconscious mind allows you to remember a pleasant time from your past when you didn't feel too comfortable. If you analogically mark out the instructions you want someone to follow, you will gracefully have a powerful impact.
Advanced inductions.
Leverage Inductions and Pattern Interruption
Now I want to add still more possibilities to your repertoire of induction techniques. Al, may I borrow your arm for a moment? (He raises Al's arm and holds it by the wrist, jiggling it slightly until it remains up when he lets go. As he is doing this, he is talking.)
Now what ( would like, if it is acceptable to you, is for you to simply allow that arm to drift down, no faster than you can find … a comfortable … place … and time …in your past … when you could go away … and refresh yourself for a moment or two … so that your arm should drift down …no faster than your eyes … close … with honest, unconscious movements … so that when your hand … slowly comes to rest …on your thigh … after its slow movement … down … you return … with a sense of relaxation … which wasn't present … before… . You are doing it very well… . Take your time… . (Al's hand touches his thigh and he opens his eyes and smiles.) Thank you.
{John Grinder approaches David and looks at his name tag.)
David? My name is—(He reaches out to shake hands with David. As David's hand comes up, John reaches out with his left hand, holds David's wrist lightly, lifts it up near his face, and points to David's right palm with his right forefinger.) Look at your hand. Would you consider carefully all the color changes and shadows that occur in your hand. Study the lines and creases with interest as you allow your arm to begin to drift down slowly. And I might offer you the same suggestion that I offered Al, and that is … as your arm begins to drift down … with honest unconscious movements … your eyes will begin to feel heavy … and will close… . You will see clearly …just prior to your hand … finishing its downward movement … something of interest to you … that you haven't seen … for years… . Take your time… . Enjoy it. … As soon as your hand comes to rest …on mine … at that particular moment … you will have … a sense of completion … and amusement … having remembered to forget … what that memory was… . And as you know … from having been here before … (David's hand touches John's right hand and John completes the handshake. John's voice tone, which has shifted during the induction, returns to "normal" and he continues.) John Grinder, and I have enjoyed meeting you very much. I don't know how you got the information to come to the seminar, but I am glad that you did.
These are called leverage inductions. There are many phenomena that are believed by the general population to be indicators of altered states of consciousness. Catalepsy is one such phenomenon. Hand and arm catalepsy is usually an indication that something unusual is going on. People don't typically sit around with their hand and arm suspended in the air. If you can create that experience, it gives you credibility as a hypnotist, and you can use that experience as leverage to achieve other altered states.
I asked Al "May I borrow your arm for a moment?" How do you make sense out of a question like that? He accepted that as a meaningful utterance, and allowed me to lift his arm. I gave it a little jiggle, and when I released it, his arm was cataleptic. Now the leverage part is done. By my communication I've put Al in an unusual situation: his hand and arm are hanging there, cataleptic in space. In order to utilize that in the context of a hypnotic induction, I then attach the kind of response I would like him to develop—moving in the direction of a hypnotic trance—as a way for him to escape from the leverage position. I ask him to allow his hand and arm to go down with honest unconscious movements, only as rapidly as his eyes close and he remembers an experience. I also suggest that when his hand comes to rest on his thigh, he will come back to a normal state of consciousness, amused by the entire process.
Cathy: How do you know if his arm is cataleptic?
I can feel it. As I hold it up and jiggle it slightly, it will become lighter and then stay up by itself. Kitty, close your eyes for a second. Cathy, reach over and lift her left arm. Pick it up and notice how it feels. Kitty, now I would like you to form an image of a place where you took a vacation once that was particularly pleasant. Nod your head when you have it. Now, 1 want you to examine in detail all of the objects in your visual environment. And I would like you to begin to describe out loud all the details of form and color that you can see there in your vacation spot.
Kitty: I'm in this sequoia forest. What specifically do you see there? Kitty: Many trees and deep shadows.
OK. Cathy, put your finger under her wrist. Ask her for more and more detail, and each time that she begins to talk, move your finger up and down a little to find out whether she is holding it or not. When she begins to hold it, you will know that you have got an unconscious response in her arm. Whenever she is fully involved in seeing and describing those images, she will be unaware of her arm. Doing that will teach you to feel the difference between somebody consciously holding his arm and someone unconsciously holding it. By the way, if the person is consciously holding his arm, go ahead and utilize it as if he weren't doing it consciously.
A variation on this is what we call the dreaming arm. It's a kind of leverage induction. It's a really nice technique that everyone should know, especially if you work with children. Kids love the dreaming arm.
The first thing I do with a kid is get his interest. I ask "Do you know about your dreaming arm?11 He might think I'm being a little strange, so I'll start laughing at him and say "You don't know about the dreaming arm? I know about it. I might tell you, but you'd probably tell everybody else." That really gets kids going. Soon the kid is saying "I won't tell anybody. I promise. Please tell me!" So I'll respond "Oh, you probably don't really want to know." This is what Milton Erickson called "building response potential."
From that point on it's really easy. You ask "What's your favorite TV program or movie?" Nowadays it's always the "Bionic Man" or "Star Wars." Then you say "Can you remember the very first scene when Steve Austin is running along and the music is playing?11 As he remembers the movie or TV show, you watch his eyes to see which way he accesses. (See Appendix I) If he looks up to his right, you lift up his right arm. If he looks up to his left, you lift his left arm. The arm will easily become cataleptic, because that arm is controlled by the same brain hemisphere that he is using to process information in response to your question.
If a person looks up to his left, he is accessing remembered images which are stored in the right hemisphere of the brain. When you lift the left hand, which is also operated by the right hemisphere, he won't notice what you are doing with his arm— if you do it gently so that you
don't interrupt his images. His left arm will be automatically cataleptic, because his consciousness is entirely occupied by the images. The person typically won't have a representation of your raising his arm because all his attention is on the images.