Generative
Trance
(First
hour of Trance Camp 2007 held in Europe)
HypnosisAustralia,
November 2007
By
Stephen Gilligan, PhD
I would like
to emphasize from the outset, this notion that trance is a very naturalistic
experience; that is, it doesn't come from the hypnotist or his/her suggestions,
it comes naturally from every human being's experience. In the traditional
view, the word "trance" is often used interchangeably with the
word "hypnosis"; in the naturalistic approach, they are quite
different.
In the traditional
view, trance is thought to be an artifact of hypnotic suggestion. That
is, trance develops because the hypnotist says something like, booga booga
booga. It's assumed the subject is more or less passive, being controlled
(hopefully in benevolent ways) by the hypnotist. You can imagine what
it would do for a client if they had this belief. At the very least, it
certainly would not activate their own generative intelligence; in addition,
it would probably make the subject wary of the hypnotist's control, or
interested in regressively succumbing to it. None of this would be good
for generative trance work. Hopefully hypnotherapy is a process of learning
a greater sense of control in yourself; control not in the rigid sense,
but in the generative sense of having the power to transform identity,
create wonderful futures, develop great relationships, and heal old wounds.
Being controlled by another person is part of the problem, not the solution.
So from the outset I want to emphasize trance as a process of learning
self-generativity. This requires that we consider both the role of the
subject and the hypnotist in ways radically different from the traditional
view.
Milton Erickson's
approach to generative trance was indeed a radical difference that made
a difference. It might be helpful to emphasize from the beginning that
it came from within his own personal experiences. It came from his own
struggles, and the opportunities that he saw within them to learn some
amazing things. I mention this at the outset because this is how we're
presenting generative trance to clients: as an opportunity to deeply accept
every part of your life in ways that allow amazing new learnings and developments
to unfold. Erickson was about as strange a person as I ever met, but also
one of the happiest and probably the most creative. He was tone deaf (he
couldn't hear music), color blind (he only could see the color purple),
and dyslectic. He didn't realize the dictionary was alphabetized until
he was 15; until that time, he would look up a word by starting on the
first page of the dictionary and kept going until he found the word….And
you think you're a slow learner!
When he was
17, he was paralyzed by a severe polio attack, which the doctors said
he would never recover from. He learned to move and walk again by engaging
in inner "experiments in learning"; he didn't know anything
about formal hypnosis yet, but he did know that he had a great imagination
and wonderful inner resources. So he would go inside and deeply hold the
intention of rehabilitating his body and then notice different things
happening. For example, he might find himself returning to a pleasurable
childhood experience, say, of playing ball with his brother on the family
farm in northern Wisconsin. He would become deeply absorbed in this pleasurable
memory for long periods, sometimes weeks, until the muscle patterns in
that memory would begin to reactivate in his present body. It was really
quite an amazing thing he accomplished. And in doing so, he began to learn
that generative trance is not a process of being programmed with scripts
or direct suggestions, but an opportunity to access the amazing skills
of the creative unconscious. When you have this confidence as a hypnotist
in your own and your client's capacities, it makes things a lot easier
and a lot more fun.
Guiding all
these learnings was the utilization principle of accepting whatever was
there and finding ways to creatively utilize what was there as opportunities
for growth and change. One of the ways we sometimes describe this utilization
principle is, "the problem is the solution." That is, a difficulty
can be transformed into a resource by relationally engaging with it in
different ways. Generative trance is a tradition for learning how to do
this with yourself and others.
When Erickson
became a psychiatrist, he initially worked with locked up schizophrenics
and psychotics. He very quickly learned that the patients couldn't enter
his reality, so that if communication was to occur, Erickson would need
to accept and work within the patient's reality. There was one guy on
the ward who believed he was Jesus Christ. This wasn't really a problem;
after all, there's always one Jesus Christ on every ward. The problem
occurs when there are two Jesus's! As the old psychiatric adage goes,
never put two Napoleans in the same cell. Anyway, Erickson took an interest
in this guy and approached him, asking him if he was Jesus. Jesus gave
him a blessing and said, "yes, of course." Erickson carefully
(that means hypnotically) explained that there was a building project
on the next wing of the hospital and they needed a few good carpenters;
and since everybody knew Jesus was a good carpenter, would he mind helping
out on the project? So over the next months, Jesus left the ward every
day, got involved in the work place, made some social connections, and
began to develop some experiential identities beyond Jesus.
This is a
classic example of the utilization principle. Inside of every reality,
even the seemingly most bleak and desolate, are many resources and potential
learnings. If you are trying to get rid of a pattern, you will get stuck
in a negative relationship with it. If you can open up to it while also
staying open beyond it, a lot of really interesting things can happen.
Generative trance is a skillful way to do this, so you're in for some
wonderful experiences.
To practice utilization, to find the solution within a problem, you need
to learn how to sit with something in a curious, non-judgmental way. This
is a major aspect of generative trance; you drop into a place where you
don't need to judge or control or run from anything. You get the opportunity
to open this great, safe energy field filled with resources, and then
invite anything in that you want to work with. For Erickson, it was healing
his body; for you it might be the intention of starting a new business,
or healing an emotional relationship, or developing a new skill. Whatever
it is, generative trance allows you stay deeply connected to yourself
while you do this, so that you're always in a space deeper and wider than
whatever you're working with. This gives you the freedom and confidence
to explore many new ways of creating and expressing any pattern or energy.
Why can't
we generally do this all the time? Because we tend to get caught in the
limiting boxes of ordinary reality. In hypnosis, we call this identification
with the conscious mind. The conscious mind is not a bad thing, as long
as it's a servant rather than your master. It allows you to create maps
and frames to make meanings and effectively navigate through your world
of experience. It works well, except when it doesn't. That is, the conscious
mind can get you through ordinary challenges and experiences very competently,
but can't generate new identities or patterns beyond its own box. It can
be a great manager, but a lousy innovator or visionary or healer. So as
long as you have a normal task, you don't need trance. But say something
comes along which is outside of your past patterning. Maybe you get married,
or divorced, or have a baby, or get a new job, or develop an illness.
Maybe you find yourself at a new threshold on your journey, needing to
create something you've never created before. At those points where you
need a change at the level of identity, using your conscious mind as a
lead system will get you into a lot of trouble. Einstein said that we
cannot solve a problem from the same level at which it was created; we
must generate a new level that "transcends yet includes" the
previous level (to borrow Ken Wilber's phrase.) That's where trance is
needed, when you need to create new realities.
Interestingly,
this is precisely where a person is most likely to develop symptoms. If
you give a person something called a "life changes check list"
that lists these sorts of major life events-marriage, birth, death, divorce,
illness, job change, residence change, etc.-and ask them to check any
that they have experienced within their family in the past six months
or a year, you find out that the number of checks is an excellent predictor
of who's most likely to develop a medical or psychological symptom. Does
that make sense? The more major identity changes, the more at risk you
are for developing a symptom. Interestingly, it doesn't matter if the
changes are positive or negative; it is the fact that it is an identity
change that makes the difference.
In the utilization
approach, we see these symptoms as natural trances that have been triggered
by a pattern break in the conscious mind. That is, anytime you break the
box of conscious identity, a trance naturally occurs. The conscious mind
can't handle the new challenge so it falls apart; the unconscious activates
in response, ready to create a new identity. But whether this new identity
is created or not depends on a person's capacity to positively utilize
the naturally occurring trance state. That is, if you disconnect or curse
or otherwise negatively relate to the natural trance, it will show up
as a negative trance. That's how we see stuff like anxieties, depressions,
addictions, etc.; as attempts by the unconscious to transform identity
that are not being positively accepted and utilized by the person's conscious
self. Trance can be negative or positive, depending on the relationship
to it. And you are the relationship!! Let me repeat that: YOU are the
relationship. It's what YOU do in relation to your unconscious that determines
whether it's a resource or a problem. This is great news, isn't it? That
means that if you find a problem state, it means that it's an unconscious
process that's trying to wake up into the world….but for whatever
reason, the previous relationships with it have been negative. No problem.
By setting up a generative trance, you can find a new, positive relationship
with it, and in doing so change a problem into a solution.
I hope you're
getting a sense of the difference between traditional hypnosis and Ericksonian
hypnosis. Traditional hypnosis sees trance as an artificial state where
you do programming; Ericksonian hypnosis sees trance as a vital part of
life that occurs whenever you disrupt the conscious mind. It further sees
trance as potentially negative or positive, depending on the context,
and you are the context. In this naturalistic view, hypnosis is one of
the social/psychological traditions whereby you can create a ritual space
that can welcome and utilize the naturally occurring trances of the unconscious
mind. You can access and heal negatives trances that have been around
for a while (i.e., symptoms), or create new ones that allow new possibilities.
Whatever the case, hypnosis is this special experiential context that
can provide a gentle but resilient container in which new resources can
be added, new patterns can be formed, and new realities can be created.
Who could ask for anything more?
One of the
major foci of generative trance is how to move to a higher state of consciousness.
We say, you're only as good as your present state. To be generative, to
go beyond where you've never been before, you have to develop a high level
state. We will explore how in hypnotic induction this means holding an
intention that is succinct (five words or less), positive, and resonant.
We will see how hypnotic induction includes the skills of developing complete
relaxation, but also deep absorption, as well as flexible and playful
attention, and a radiant peripheral field of awareness. We will see how
we tune the conscious mind to relational principles of accepting what's
there, balancing it with complementary resources, and expanding the field
to include many resources beyond the problem or goal. We will see how
to move from a pattern's surface structure to its deep structure so that
many new surface structures can be created. And we will see how to tap
into generative healing and transformation. It's a great thing to realize
that you have this capacity within you, and you can help others to realize
the same things for themselves. Again, who could ask for anything more?
So I welcome
you to trance camp, and look forward to many further adventures of the
deep kind. Let's take a brief break and we'll be back for more in just
a bit.
Stephen
Gilligan's Trance Camp 2008 will be held in April 2008.
Week One 1 to 6 April 2008 (Tuesday to Sunday)
Week Two 9 to 13 April 2008 (Wednesday to Sunday)
Venue: Rydges North Sydney 54 McLaren St, North Sydney, NSW Australia
Costs: From $2200 to $4180.
For more info visit: http://www.hkst.com.au/docs/2007_ericksonian.pdf
For more on Stephen Gilligan visit www.StephenGilligan.com
©HypnosisAustralia,
November 2007
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