Experience

A friend and student of Milton Erickson’s, a psychiatrist, used to teach hypnotherapy to professionals. One demonstration he used was that he would select a non-professional without any known hypnosis training to read a short, basic, and familiar hypnotic script to a new subject. Invariably the subjects showed various indications and degrees of trance.

The person without any training read a verbatim script and it induced "hypnosis." Erickson and others have repeatedly made the points that trance develops from individuals, circumstances, relationships, and other factors. Too much is made of hypnotists, their supposed qualities, and their techniques. Perhaps Milgram’s study on “obedience to authority” and Pavlov’s “classical conditioning” experiments explain more of hypnotists' abilities than all the “magic” and gimmicks.

An example of Milton Erickson's best work: He spent a few hours a day for several days listening to, talking with, teaching, parenting, and sharing enjoyable activities with a young impoverished and abused child. Was there any money involved? Yes, he provided the child with some work to do around Erickson’s home (in addition to unpaid chores) so the child could earn some money. Though the level of involvement is beyond today’s psychotherapy standards.

Most hypnotist and mental health professionals with adequate training and sufficient life’s experiences know that most people are trained by societies to enter trances. There are common triggers that elicit trances that are independent of the “hypnotists” and “techniques.”

Replies:

Re:Experience, by Lindsay Smith, 11/17/02 Re: What?, by Steve Lankton, 05/21/03 Re: What?, by , 10/14/03

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