Hypnosis-Sleep

Hypnosis is an art where it is vital that you know how to spot when someone is entering a trance.  This can be done with accurate sign recognition systems as well as knowing how to asses trance signals.

Accurate sign recognition systems are vital because they are your first clue that a person is responding to you hypnotically.  The signals you can pick up on can be honestly obvious or very minute; anything from the glazed look of entering a trance, whether produced by you or an external source, to the smallest detail physical change.

Milton Erickson had a perfected eye for picking up on the smallest signals that people sent out.  This is a perfection you as a hypnotist should strive for.

There are other obvious signals that a person is going into trance.  We will get to discuss these here and you will learn how to tune into the different signals your subjects will be showing when they are entering a hypnotic trance.

During hypnosis when a person is very focused and beginning to enter a trance there are certain aspects of their physiology that will inevitably change.  These are unconscious changes that occur without the conscious control of the person being hypnotized.

As we look at the different signs of trance it is vital to note that not all signals will be the same for every person.  Sign recognition systems are not a specific set of rules to follow.

It is your jobs as the hypnotist to attune yourself to the different subjects you have and realize what is different for each one.  This is not approximately seeing one or two distinct signs from your subject, but distinguishing what is different for that person from the norm.

The most obvious sign that a person is entering into a highly focused state of trance is the change in their breathing.  Generally the rate of breathing will slow as they are fitting more relaxed under trance.  But there are subjects whose breathing will speed up as well.

The rate of breathing the person is experiencing is often dependant on the focus of your conversation.  Whether you are asking them to relax into a trance their breathing will more than likely slow.  Whether you are taking them through an exciting chain of events or they feel imposing danger their rate of breathing may quicken.

In order to tell whether a persons breathing has changed you will undoubtedly have to be studying their body.

There are ways of doing this without getting slapped or punched.  Of course you can monitor their chest to see the rate of breath, but this may seem offensive to some people.  Whether you are monitoring their chest it is a excellent thought to do this with your peripheral vision.  Staring straight on at someone’s chest, particularly a female subject is never a excellent thought.

Other means of monitoring rate of breath is to watch the rise and fall of a person’s shoulders or rib cage.  Both of these go with every breath you take and will be honestly obvious and simple to spot.

The moment most obvious sign that a person is entering a hypnotic state is the smoothing out of facial features.  Whether you have ever looked a person straight on in the face you will often notice that most people’s faces are not really symmetrical.

As a person goes into a trance they muscles in the face start to relax and their face will start to seem more symmetrical.  The left side of the face will more closely match the right side.

This is a honestly simple sign to spot, particularly whether you are prone to looking at a persons face while talking to them.  As they go into trance and you are looking at their face you will be able to see the muscles relaxing and the face visibly starts to even out.

As you are watching your subjects face for signs of evening out you may very well be able to pick up on the third most obvious sign at the same time.  This is when a person’s attention is absorbed.

When a subject is going into hypnosis and their attention is being fully absorbed there are slight changes in their eyes that you will be able to see.  The first is the eyes will become fixed on one spot in space.  It may look as though they are ‘zoning out’ or staring at nothing in specific.

Another affect on the eyes of trance is they can become slightly glazed over or sleepy looking.  Sometimes a person will show no eye movement at all.  All these signs are showing you that a person’s attention is really affixed and they are falling into a trance.

The fourth obvious sign of trance is in