If I had told Andrew to “ go into deeply relaxed trance ” as soon as he had sat down , he would have analyzed my words , thought about them perhaps , but probably not actually responded . By using purposefully confusional language first , I gave his mind a kind of desperation for clarity . Clarity become more valuable to him and he found he could respond unconsciously to it . Here ’ s another example of a confusional hypnosis script : “ And people can … you know … know they know , on one level , all kinds of knowledge they don ’ t necessarily know consciously ; they find that knowing that unconsciously means they don ’ t have to say no to hypnosis and … find that they can now [ clear command ] start to go into deep trance .” So using confusion techniques makes people more suggestible . Ambiguity can mean that when the clear order , so to speak , does come it is more readily accepted .
Rule three : Make sense most of the time
If you look at people when they are confused , you ’ ll see they are highly focused . And strong focus is akin to hypnotic trance . When you can ’ t quite figure something out , but it seems really important that you do figure it out , you have an activated expectation . Focus and expectation are at the heart of the confusional technique . But in order to retain the power of occasional confusional hypnosis we need to use it sparingly and make sense most of the time , especially when we are not ‘ being hypnotic ’ with the person . Think about it for a moment . If someone whose opinion you respect usually makes sense when they ’ re talking , then you ’ ll pay attention to them . When , on occasion , they seem to be saying something important to you , but the meaning isn ’ t immediately clear , you ’ ll assume you need to pay more attention in order to grasp what they are saying . Now let ’ s get back to Andrew .
How to help the giant sleep for a while Like all hypnotherapists , over the years I ’ ve had to adapt my inductions to fit the type of person who wants to be hypnotized . Andrew , like many other people , was so analytical and so logical that it was as though his muscle-bound and highly developed consciousmind continually crowded out his spontaneous and creative unconscious mind . I wanted to preoccupy his conscious mind for a while so I could help mobilize his unconscious resources and help him experience deep hypnosis .