Ericksonian Hypnotic Language Patterns

In keeping with the principle of “Utilization,” the pattern “Covering All Possibilities of Responses” deliberately sets out to create a scenario wherein you can utilize various client responses in a positive way. You do so by making sure you have all bases covered. Imagine we were going to toss a coin. You could say, “As you watch the coin, you may notice it lands heads up, or the coin may land tails side up, or it could land on its edge, and that will mean that today is your lucky day.” Kinda covers it all, don’t it?

Notice what you did. You said “Maybe “A” will happen, or maybe “B” will happen, or maybe “C” will happen, and that means “X” (something positive). Now, to the listener, since you no doubt included what was happening for them, they’ll equate whatever that was to the positive thing. This is great for group inductions because you could say a sentence like that to a roomful of people and they’d all get that positive result no matter what was happening for them.

Here’s another scenario where you can use it well: As a nice closing to a trance induction you could say, “And tonight as you sleep and dream, you may notice that your dreams are more vivid and exciting than they have been in a long time, or your dreams may seem normal, or you may not even remember your dreams at all, and that will be a sign that all these changes are being integrated at the deepest level of your conscious and your unconscious mind.”

When doing the hypnotic convincer Ernest Rossi has referred to as “fail-safe hypnosis” you could say, “I really don’t know if your hands will begin to move together, or if they will move apart, or even if they will stay exactly as they are.” Then, if their hands do move together you say, “That’s right. Many things are coming together for you now.” If they move apart you say, “Excellent. This indicates you are opening more and more to possibilities.” If they don’t move at all you say, “Excellent. Steady like a rock. It’s nice to see someone as steadfast and dependable as you.”

To read a transcript of an entire hypnosis trance induction based on Ernest Rossi’s “Fail Safe Hynosis” go here:  http://www.ericksonian.info/Fail-Safe Hypnosis.html

So, again, this pattern is the utilization principle in practice…utilizing whatever response your client offers you in a positive way.

The Cavern Club, Liverpool, England

It was a bit silly, I admit, but I had to go. I’m a musician and I might not have been if it hadn’t been for the Beatles, so I had to go and see where it all started. So on Wednesday, December 10, my friends Mario and Bev McDonnall, Sue Elton and I all piled into Sue’s car and made the journey from Leeds to Liverpool. The main destination was the Cavern Club, famous for being the place where they first played as a band.

It didn’t occur to me til later that the date was a bit auspicious. You may remember better than I did that John Lennon was murdered on Dec. 8, 1980. And on December 10, 1980 I was drawn to be with thousand of other people outside the Dakota apartment building where John lived and died. We stood out there for hours in the cold, burning candles, singing his songs, sobbing as disbelief collided with bitter reality.

And now, 28 years later, I descended the stairs and entered the famous basement club where it all started. An amazing experience, let me tell you. It felt like what a Catholic might feel entering the Sistine Chapel, or the way Derek Jeter described first entering Yankee Stadium. The place is very much as it was back in 1962 and I tried to imagine what it would have been like to have been there then.

Historically, America in 1964 needed something like the Beatles. After JFK was assassinated in 1963 the country was fearful and depressed. The Beatles’ arrival in the spring of 1964 set off an explosion of popular excitement that was virtually unprecedented.

In my life, I persuaded my parents to buy me a $14 guitar from The Montgomery Ward Catalog and tried to teach myself to play. I didn’t get very far so I took a few lessons but that didn’t stick cause I couldn’t see how learning to play Camptown races got me closer to playing rock and roll.

But I never gave up on the dream and later, when piano lessons did stick, I learned to play classical piano and taught myself rock, blues and jazz. I majored in piano at college, spent a year at the Guildhall School of Music in London, and ultimately performed at Carnegie Hall in April of 1980. Then, in late October of 1980, I loaded my electric piano into a van with my band mates from college and moved to New York City to play Rock n Roll for real. After a month of sleeping on people’s couches, I finally found an affordable apartment in December of 1980. Eight days later John Lennon was killed in front of his New York apartment.

So I had to go to Liverpool. Leeds is so close. After the Cavern Club we went over to the docks where there is an interactive Beatles museum filled with personal artifacts of their lives and careers. It’s very well done. I think the most moving item in the whole thing was right at the end. They had John Lennon’s orange-tinted wire rimmed glasses in a wall mounted glass case that allowed you to peer in at them right at eye level. Being that close really brought home the humanity of the man.

Ericksonian Hypnotic Language Patterns

“Utilization” is utilizing whatever response your client offers you in a positive way.

(The client says, “I don’t know if I was in trance.”)

“That’s right, you don’t know if you were in trance because you’re trying to evaluate it with your conscious mind and trance is not a conscious process.”

(The client warns, “I’m not like those other people you’ve worked with.”

“Yes, you’re right. And that’s exactly why Ericksonian Hypnosis is perfect for you, because every session is tailored to your unique needs.”

A couple of years ago I was in my office working with a client. We were right in the middle of a trance induction when a man, looking for the dentist’s office across the hall, burst into the room. He took a minute to register his mistake, and then said loudly, “This isn’t the Dentist’s office!” Where upon he turned and walked out, slamming the door behind him. Now, some might have scuttled their efforts at that point and tried to start over again. Instead I just smiled at the startled client, held his gaze and said, “That’s right, this is not the dentist’s office and you knew that. This is not a doctor’s office, and you knew that. (I stood and crossed over to the door and locked it, without missing a beat.) The nice thing about this office is you can lock out those people and experiences that aren’t important right now. (Sitting again) Here you can close your eyes and forget those outside influences in life and turn your attention inside. Inside this room, inside your mind. And you can close the door on past experiences that you no longer need to remember. Knowing that every time one door closes, another door opens, or a window… (and continued from there)

PLEASE NOTE: Utilization is much more than a simple language pattern. It may be the central principle of Erickson’s approach to therapy; that a client’s unique patterns of self-expression are recognized and utilized as the basis of therapeutic trance development.

There are scores of examples throughout the literature. A famous example is when Erickson approached a man in the state hospital who claimed to be Jesus Christ and told him he understood he had had some experience as a carpenter. The man said yes, that was true. Erickson asked if it was also true he liked to be of service to his fellow man, and the man again agreed. So Erickson asked him to help the hospital build some much-needed bookshelves. The patient did so and was able to start participating in constructive behavior rather than continuing his symptomatic behavior. (”Uncommon Therapy” by Jay Haley)

Another example is when he had a patient who was stubbornly refusing medical advice given her for her peptic ulcer. In trance Erickson utilized her talent for being stubborn by telling her she should take charge and dominate her therapy. He said she should do this by stubbornly following the medical advice and by having a happy attitude throughout, no matter what. Her ulcer cleared up soon thereafter. (”Collected Papers,” vol IV.)

Read more about this important orientation in Stephen Gilligan’s “Therapeutic Trances”, William O’Hanlon’s “Taproots” and more. You can find many examples by looking up utilization in O’Hanlon’s “An Uncommon Casebook,” which is a comprehensive index of the cases presented throughout the Ericksonian literature.

Have fun.

Training in England

I should like to report that I am having the most wonderful time in Leeds, England, with the most gracious of hosts, Nick Kemp and Sue Elton.

I’m also happy that they were happy with the seminar I taught on Sleight of Mouth for Transforming NLP’s Master Practitioner Class over the weekend. I, too, thought it went well and the students seemed to really grasp the material handily. 

It’s funny how certain serendipitous occurrences can influence the course of things. Like, I usually present film clips and do a couple of magic tricks during the seminar to play up the relationship of Sleight of Hand to Sleight of Mouth, but because of some technical difficulties we were unable to play the necessary DVD. Fortunately, we discovered this before the seminar began so I was able to plan around it, and as a result, completely redesigned the opening morning of the seminar. It not only worked exceedingly well but the new opening provided a frame and metaphorical representation of beliefs that was clearer and more accessible than ever before.

Kind of like that old saw about when life give you lemons, make lemonade. In this case the lemonade was remarkably tasty and refreshing.

Nick and I are also spending a few days in his recording studio creating an exciting project. It’s going to be called “Stories from the Outside Inn” and will feature a variety of five minute stories or five minute trances that people will be able to get to at a web site of the same name. 

The idea sprang from some conversations we had about a couple of different recent experiences. Nick had come across a book entitled “Not Quite What I Was Planning” that featured a collection of six-word memoirs…entire life stories in only six words.  (As an example, Ian Gould wrote, “Macular degeneration. Didn’t see that coming.” For more examples or to write your own, go to www.sixwordmemoir.com) 

I had the experience of going for a run with my iPod set on shuffle - so that it would randomly play various tracks off my playlists. It was wonderful, I’d get a Grateful Dead song followed by Glenn Gould playing Bach. Then I’d get a segment from a recorded Hypnosis seminar by Stephen Gilligan followed by Laurie Anderson’s O Superman, followed by a track of Richard Bandler or Dave Dobson. It was crazy. It made no sense. I loved it.

So we decided upon a collection of stories or trances with only one rule…they have to be exactly five minutes and 54 seconds. The spoken word portion will be close to 5 minutes and we’ll add original music to beginning and end of the selections.

It is a project about which we are extremely excited and one that is spawning a host of related ideas that may work themselves into a workshop back here in Leeds next year. Frankly, anything that would bring me back to Leeds would be OK by me, but this seems particularly inviting.

Beginner’s MInd

There is an old Japanese parable about a successful business man and a Japanese monk that goes something like this.

Picture a guy like Donald Trump or a CEO from one of the car companies going to a Japanese Zen Buddhist monk while on a trip to Japan. He walks into the temple to visit with this holy man and get himself a blessing or some wisdom or something. He’s not sure what, but something has drawn him here, and he wants what this guy’s got.

So he enters the temple and is shown into a room with very little furniture save some big pillows for sitting and a small table. He doesn’t sit but stands and paces a bit waiting for the monk. After an interval the monk quietly enters, bows to his visitor in greeting, and bids the businessman sit on one of the pillows while he sits on the other. The monk begins to close his eyes, about to go into a meditation, when the businessman starts talking. He pronounces why he’s there and what is so spiritually uplifting about work and all the good he’s done for people and, more and more lately, the environment too. Because he really cares about the environment and the earth and all that stuff the creator has made and on and on and on. 

The monk listens for some time and then raises a hand to silence the man. He says, “I think we should have some tea,” rises and walks out.  Several long minutes later he returns with a tray carrying a steaming pot of tea and two cups. He sets them down on the small table and sits again on his cushion. He says to the man, “This is Japanese tea ceremony. Very ancient.”

He slowly bows to the man, reaches over with both hands to ceremoniously pick up the tea pot, and slowly begins to pour the tea into the man’s cup. The cup slowly begins to fill…a quarter way up, half way up, three quarters… the priest keeps slowly pouring. The visitor anxiously notes that the cup is almost full and getting closer and closer to the brim. The pour continues. The brim is reached. The monk does not move a muscle to stop. He calmly, wordlessly, keeps pouring. As the tea beings to overflow the cup the businessman begins to freak out. “Watch out! You’re spilling the tea! You’re making a mess! It’s going everywhere!” The monk slowly, wordlessly, stops pouring. He gently puts the tea pot down in it’s spot and sits back on his cushion. He lifts his eyes to the man’s eyes and quietly looks at him. FInally he speaks.

 “You are that tea cup. You are so full of your own thoughts and beliefs there is no room for any more. Before you can learn anything from me, you have to empty yourself of your preconceived notions and beliefs.”

The great golfer, Jack Nickolaus was good at that. Even though he was certainly the best golfer of his generation and, until Tiger Woods breaks his record, still owns more major championships than anyone in history, every year he would return to his boyhood golf teacher and start over. He’s say to his teacher, “I’m a beginner. Please teach me how to play golf.