Augmented Hypnosis

Part 1 Hypnosis in General

1. The General Concept

As with much in life, it is useful to begin with a clear definition of what we are
talking about.

I define Augmented Hypnosis as: “A form of hypnosis or trance state, induced and,
or reinforced by any external aid or device, other than the voice of the hypnotist.”

Is this new?

Not at all.

In fact, what I describe is certainly the most ancient and basic form of trance
induction and reinforcement.

So why bother to give it a fancy name and write a book about it?

As a practicing hypnotherapist working both with individuals and running groups,

I have, without realising it, been using augmented hypnosis for a long time.

Recently, I have been reflecting on the idea to create an internet based course, on
the broad subject of hypnosis. I then began to list all the types of hypnosis that I
am trained in, and that I use, and that I feel adequate and comfortable to teach and
to demonstrate.

It was then that it occurred to me that I was regularly using a form of augmented
hypnosis in my ‘Monday group’. From there, I looked to , if and how I have used
to in my individual sessions.

As if it was somehow ordained, that very same day, the 3rd of October 2017,
(yesterday), I was presented with, not one, but two cases, where a session of
hypnosis was clearly appropriate.

Not only that, but the use of an external aid became totally obvious; for the 1st case
before I began, but for the 2nd, it only became clear, some ways in.
 - For your interest, and to further explain some of the indications and uses of
external aids, I will describe, in some detail, these two sessions, in the
section on; ‘uses of augmented hypnosis in individual sessions.’

So what do you mean by external aids?

Although not totally limited to; I would say, generally, other sounds, (music,
drumming, singing, chanting), using objects and getting the patient to move.
However, the use of incense and fragrant oils can also be interesting.

And what are the uses and purposes of adding these elements?

The studies of how people learn have shown that different people have different
channels of preference for acquiring and integrating information.

The main ones are; visual, auditive, and kinaesthetic, (linked to movement).

Although each person has their own preponderant choice, it has also been proven,
that linking several of these, (multisensory learning), also greatly increases their
capacity to understand and retain knowledge.

Standard psychotherapeutic techniques, which is to say, talking, are directed,

primarily at the cognitive function.

By accessing the patient’s thinking process, we can often help them to reflect on,
understand and even, open a space, for a new appreciation of their past, present and
future experiences and behaviours.

Within this therapeutic space, the opening to certain personal truths, can, and often
does, trigger blocked emotions, and can facilitate a strong emotional, cathartic
experience.

However, we often find our approach blocked by strategic, intellectual defences, or

the appreciation that the problem or its resolution, lies below the conscious
functioning of the patient.

For those of use that have a training in a form of hypnotic technique, this is when
we stop communicating directly with the patient’s conscious mind, and direct our
attention towards the unconscious.
This can be effective in both unblocking certain memories, and, or releasing,
imprisoned emotions.

However, even these techniques have their limitations, and it would be useful to
find an extra added dimension, to support the therapeutic process, and reinforce
integration of changes into their daily lives.

This is where the concept of augmented hypnosis comes in.

Talking therapy activates and directs itself towards the mind. (Auditive,
Intellectual)

Hypnosis is an effective way to reach beyond the mind, and to reconnect to and
release emotions. (Visual, Emotional)

Physical actions activate the body functions, activating the 3rd sensory learning
channel. (Kinaesthetic, Physical).

By combining all three channels, we create a synergetic effect that multiplies the
benefits of each separate approach.

Hence, the interest of this multisensorial, multichannel technique.

 2. Hypnosis – What is it?

I would imagine that most of the people that have thought to read this book are
already versed in, trained in, and, likely, already practicing the art and science of
hypnosis.

However, for those that are not already schooled in this work, here is a micro
introduction to some of the basics …

Please note, those that have read, through to the end, my book on Ericksonian
hypnosis, ‘Remember’, will find most of this chapter in the theoretical section of
that work.

2.1.1 What exactly is hypnosis?

Dr. Gérard Salem (Salem, 2006)1 emphasizes that the term hypnosis refers to three
types of phenomena: the hypnotic state or the trance, the technique used by the
hypnotist, (one might note that leading someone into or inducing a trance state is
generally referred to as an 'induction'), and the type of interaction between the
hypnotist and his subject.

2.1.2 The trance

The trance is considered as a ‘modified state of consciousness’, which links the

characteristics of a waking state (as confirmed by an EEG) with a specific type of
experience of muscle-release/relaxation and dream-type productions. It is the
experience of being here and being there at the same time, (dissociation).

It is a totally natural state which we experience, in principal, about once every

ninety minutes; this is a moment of distraction, a pause in our mental processing,
when we lose track for a few seconds.

It’s as if the mind stops ‘to take a breath’. It is also a state that we enter while
doing a boring or repetitive task; ironing, washing up, driving, even listening to
someone droning on and on and on; many school teachers are excellent hypnotists.
1 Salem,Gérard. Soigner par l'hypnose. Éditions Masson 2789 Issy les
Moulineaux cedex 9, 2006.
What is so fascinating about this state is that we can be totally involved with an
experience, with all our senses and yet at the same time be fully aware of our
surroundings and be able to react instantaneously. Just think of the situation of
driving in a car and daydreaming when someone cuts in unexpectedly; the reaction
is pretty much immediate.

Another way to form an image of the trance is to liken it to the feelings just
between sleeping and wakefulness; early in the morning when, for instance, one
knows that the alarm has rung, that it is time to get up, but one allows oneself just
another five minutes to finish that nice, warm dream.

2.1.3 The suggestion

The suggestion is a key communicational tool in hypnosis, which allows the

hypnotherapist to gently lead the subject where he judges it necessary for the
subject to go.

2.1.4 The induction

The induction of the trance is accomplished through two methods:

The first is the use of a constant, monotonous sensorial stimulus (for instance a
mark on the wall, the contact of the subject’s hand on the material of his clothes or
the ‘classic’ follow-my-watch – although not currently used anymore, is very
similar to the follow-my-finger technique used in EMDR, very modern), on which
one asks the subject to focus his attention.

(Yes, strictly speaking, as most of the techniques of induction use an external

element, they could all be considered to be a form of augmented hypnosis).

Although, for myself, if I am not using the ‘follow-my-finger technique’, (even

though I very rarely use EMDR, I find this a very quick and effective induction
system), then I tend to suggest that the patient focuses on their breathing, and this
easily leads them in.

This concentration on a specific stimulus reduces, little by little, the awareness of

the existence of other stimuli, and the monotonous nature of this particular
stimulus provokes a phenomenon of sensorial adaptation which leads the subject to
become less and less conscious of it.

Hence, through this process, the attention of the subject turns from the external
world to focus more and more towards his inner experiences.

The second method is the use of the voice, and a particular type of communication.

The speed and the timbre of the voice, which, little by little, deepens and slows
down, is a very simple and basic part of taking the patient into the other, inner
space.

One of the principal tools for the induction and the deepening of the trance is that
of the ‘body-subject language’. This is based on a type of verbal formulation
within which one refers directly to a specific part of the subject as if it was an
independent entity in itself; one might say, for example, ‘maybe your eyes feel that
they wish to close’ or ‘notice how your breathing has become slower and deeper.’

I also often make reference to the subject’s body, emotions and mind as if they
were independent but linked bodies/entities, with each having their own memories,
needs, defences, logic and resources, which, although quite weird as an idea, in
practice, proves to have a reality!

The resulting effect is, as noted above, ‘dissociation,’ (being conscious of the
outside reality, all the while experiencing a personal, other reality), and it is an
essential characteristic of the hypnotic state.

It also allows the therapist, through a psychological form of ‘divide and conquer’,
to access a specific facet of the patient’s psyche, separated from the mass, which
might have a different experience of the past, and a different manner of
functioning.
 3. The History of Hypnosis

The main body of this chapter is taken from the excellent and very complete entry
in Wikipedia, under the title History of Hypnosis.2

Although it is not general practice to use this source to such an extent, I have
corroborated most of the information given through other sources, through which I
have added details and any corrections where necessary.

The history of hypnosis, more than likely goes back to the very beginning of time.

In many traditional cultures, there are practices that create trance states, (ASC’s).
Fasting, dancing, rhythmic clapping, drum beating and the use of hypnotic plants.

Shamanic rituals, incite these ASC’s, with certain very clear intentions, hence,
come under the general term of hypnosis. (GG 2016)

However, according to Will Durant, hypnotism as a tool for health seems to have
originated with the Hindus of ancient India, who often took their sick to the
temples to be cured by hypnotic suggestion or "temple sleep,"( Durant, 1997), a
practice of staying at night at a temple for meditational self-observance and
communication with the gods, called Nidra in India. (Tomio, 1994).(Wiki)
Sleep temples (also known as Dream temple or Egyptian sleep temple) are
regarded by some as an early instance of hypnosis over 4000 years ago.

They also existed in ancient Greece, and a similar Hebrew treatment was referred
to as Kavanah.”( Mlahanas).

The next actor in the history of hypnosis was, Avicenna (Ibn Sina) (980–1037), a
Persian psychologist and physician. [He] was the earliest to make a distinction
between sleep and hypnosis. (Haque,2004) (Wiki).
[

2 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_hypnosis&oldid=725837331. Retrieved 01.04.2016

Paracelsus (1493–1541), a Swiss, was the first physician to use magnets in his
work.
This was the beginning of a period when the use of magnets became more and
more a standard healing treatment. (GG)
Around 1771, a Viennese Jesuit named Maximilian Hell (1720–1792) was using
magnets, one of Hell's students was a young medical doctor from Vienna named
Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1815). (Wiki)
Mesmer, a physician from Austria, due to his own scientific background, took his
work and approach very seriously, studying, hypothesising and publishing. Hence,
being one of the first to attract the attention of western scientists, in and around the
1770’s (GG).
He started investigating an effect he called "animal magnetism" (a particular force/
power only resided in the bodies of humans and animals) or "mesmerism" (the
latter name still remaining popular today).

Abbe Faria, (1755 – 1819), was possibly the first practitioner to use many of the
techniques that we still use today. Furthermore, his rational was also very much in
keeping with modern thought, and totally in contradiction with the magnetists of
his era.
He replaced the elaborate rituals of the magnetic movement with simpler
suggestive methods, by requesting the subject to close his eyes and focus his
attention on sleep. After a short period, he would instruct the subject with one
word: "Sleep."

In the early 1800’s, several doctors, Récamier, Esdaile and Elliotson reported to
have operated on patients using ‘mesmeric sleep or coma, as they termed it

James Braid (1795-1860), a Scottish surgeon is often credited to have coined the
term "hypnotism".
He ascribed the "mesmeric trance" to a physiological process resulting from
prolonged attention to a bright moving object or similar object of fixation. He
postulated that "protracted ocular fixation" fatigued certain parts of the brain and
caused a trance—a "nervous sleep" or "neuro-hypnosis."
Braid is credited with writing the first ever book on hypnotism, Neurypnology
(1843).

After Braid's death in 1860, interest in hypnotism temporarily waned, and

gradually shifted from Britain to France, where research began to grow, reaching
its peak around the 1880s with the work of Hippolyte Bernheim andJean-Martin
Charcot
Braid [also] draws analogies between his own practice of hypnotism and various
forms of Hindu yoga meditation and other ancient spiritual practices. (Wiki)

American Civil War (1861–5) Hypnosis was used by field doctors in the American
Civil War and was one of the first extensive medical application of hypnosis.
(Reid, 2012) (Wiki)

The neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893) endorsed hypnotism for the

treatment of hysteria. La méthode numérique("The numerical method") led to a
number of systematic experimental examinations of hypnosis in France, Germany,
and Switzerland. The process of post-hypnotic suggestion was first described in
this period. Extraordinary improvements in sensory acuity and memory were
reported under hypnosis.
Charcot’s pupil, Pierre Janet, (1859 – 1947) described the theory of dissociation,
the splitting of mental aspects under hypnosis (or hysteria) so skills and memory
could be made inaccessible or recovered.
Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault (1864–1904), the founder of the Nancy School, first
wrote of the necessity for cooperation between the hypnotizer and the participant,
for rapport. Along with Bernheim, he emphasized the importance of suggestibility.

William James (1842–1910) the pioneering American psychologist discussed

hypnosis in some detail in his Principles of Psychology.

The First International Congress for Experimental and Therapeutic Hypnotism was
held in Paris, France, on 8–12 August 1889.
In 1892 British Medical Association, unanimously endorsed the therapeutic use of
hypnosis.

Johannes Heinrich Schultz (1884 – 1970), adapted the theories of Abbe Faria and
Emile Coué and identifying certain parallels to techniques in yoga and meditation.
He called his system of self-hypnosis Autogenic training.

Sigmund Freud, (6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939), a student of Charcot,

developed abreaction therapy using hypnosis with Josef Breuer.

Russian medicine has had extensive experience with obstetric hypnosis. Platanov,
in the 1920s, became well known for his hypno-obstetric successes.

The use of hypnosis in the treatment of neuroses flourished in World War I, World
War II and the Korean War. Hypnosis techniques were merged with psychiatry and
was especially useful in the treatment of what is known today as Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder.

William McDougall (1871–1944), an English psychologist, treated soldiers with

"shell shock"

The modern study of hypnotism is usually considered to have begun in the 1920s
with Clark Leonard Hull (1884–1952) at Yale University. An experimental
psychologist, his work Hypnosis and Suggestibility (1933) was a rigorous study of
the phenomenon, using statistical and experimental analysis.

In the 1940s, Andrew Salter (1914–1996) introduced to American therapy the

Pavlovian method of contradicting, opposing, and attacking beliefs. In the
conditioned reflex, he has found what he saw as the essence of hypnosis. He thus
gave a rebirth to hypnotism by combining it with classical conditioning.

Milton H. Erickson (1901-1980). (History of Hypnosis)

There are many books written on Milton Erickson and his unique approach to
therapy, here are the main elements:
Flexibility. Erickson was supremely flexible, adapting his approach to each
individual client.

The second element is working with symptoms to bring about a change. Erickson
saw problems as a process, an unhelpful way of going about things that the client
had developed, and symptoms were part of that. By changing the symptom it’s
possible to change the entire pattern of the problem.

To engage the unconscious mind by any means available, that the individual’s
unconscious contained all of the resources necessary to bring about a cure for that
individual in the present moment.

Erickson knew that the language of the unconscious is imagination and metaphor,
and therapeutic stories, anecdotes, jokes, puns and riddles are a crucial element of
his work.

Erickson developed “indirect” or “conversational” hypnosis.

He also believed in allowing the client maximum freedom to interpret what is

being said in their own way, going to great lengths to see the world from the
client’s point of view.

On 23 April 1955, the British Medical Association (BMA) approved the use of
hypnosis in the areas of psychoneuroses and hypnoanesthesia in pain management
in childbirth and surgery. At this time, the BMA also advised all physicians and
medical students to receive fundamental training in hypnosis.
In Wikipedia. History of hypnosis Retrieved 28 July 2016, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=History_of_hypnosis&oldid=725837331
1. Lionel; Patricia Fanthorpe (2008). Mysteries and Secrets of Voodoo,
Santeria, and Obeah. Dundurn. p. 107.In Wikipedia,
2. Will Durant 1997, The Story of Civilisation, Volume 1: Our Oriental
Heritage.
3. Shifu Nagaboshi Tomio (1994), The Bodhisattva Warriors: The Origin,
Inner Philosophy, History and Symbolism of the Buddhist Martial Art Within India
and China, p.398
4. Haque, Amber (2004), "Psychology from Islamic Perspective: Contributions
of Early Muslim Scholars and Challenges to Contemporary Muslim
Psychologists", Journal of Religion and Health 43 (4): 357–377 [365],
doi:10.1007/s10943-004-4302-z
5. H.F. Ellenberger, The Discovery of the Unconscious, Basic Books, 1980.
6. Braid, Electro-Biological Phenomena, etc., p.530.
7. Braid, J. "Magic, Mesmerism, Hypnotism, etc., Historically and
Physiologically considered", 1844–1845, vol. XI., pp. 203–204, 224–227, 270–
273, 296–299, 399–400, 439–441.
8. The Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal 1846 p.306. https://archive.org/
stream/edinburghmedica152unkngoog#page/n322/mode/1up
9. B. Reid, David (2012). Hypnosis for Behavioral Health: A Guide to
Expanding Your Professional Practice. Springer Publishing Company. p. 21.
10. H. Lewis, Walter. Medical Botany: Plants Affecting Human Health. Wiley.
p. 727.
11. See: A Clinical Lesson at the Salpêtrière.
12. Weitzenhoffer, A. (2000). The Practice of Hypnotism.
13. Neill, Bob (1994-04-27). Practical Hypnotherapy Book One. Maidstone:
Rone Books. ISBN 9780952306504.
14. Neill, Bob (1997-06-01). Practical Hypnotherapy Book Two. Maidstone:
Rone Books. ISBN 9780952306511.
2. Atha Yoga, 2015 – 2016 Sacred Sleep; An Anthropological Approach http://
www.athayoga.info/sacred-sleep-an-anthropological-approach/ retrieved 30 07
2016
3. Mlahanas; Healing temple
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/LX/HealingTemple.html, retrieved 30 07 2016

THE ABBE FARIA: A NEGLECTED FIGURE IN THE HISTORY OF

HYPNOSIS
Campbell Perry
Concordia University, Canada
Hypnosis at its Bicentennial: Selected Papers pp 37-45 November 1, 1978
by F. H. Frankel (Editor) Springer
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-1-4613-2859-9_3 retrieved 30
07 2016
History of Hypnosis http://www.historyofhypnosis.org/milton-erickson/ 07 08
2016
Part 2 Augmented Hypnosis

4. The oldest form of hypnosis

4.1 Discussion

This book is written to introduce you, the reader to the concept of augmented
hypnosis.

However, I do not wish to give the impression that this is something that I have
invented.

Quite the contrary, I am here to help you re-discover something that has existed
since the dawn of time, and has continued to exist ever since, and that continues
exist all around us.

The ultimate goal is to sensibilise therapists to this concept, so that they may,
ultimately, integrate these ideas into their own practices, and hence, further help
their patients and clients.

Just as I have deemed it useful and interesting to share an overview of the history
of hypnosis, I would also like to reflect with you on the many forms of practice,
that include the mechanisms of augmented hypnosis.

However, in many of these cases, there is one fundamental element missing, that of
intention.

The difference between hypnosis and meditation is that, with hypnosis, there is a
clearly defined intention behind the entering into a dissociated state, which does
not exist in the same way in meditation. However, when the intention is relaxation,
or clearing the mind, the line becomes particularly unclear.

In fact, many, if not most of these experiences, would be more correctly defined as
augmented meditations.

4.2 Trance dance, chanting & native drumming.

Many traditional cultures, where group rituals still take place, continue to create a
trance state through repetitive dances, chanting and following the rhythm of a
beating drum.

As these traditions have been handed down from generation to generation, it would
be reasonable to suggest that these practices have remained, largely unchanged
since time immemorial.

The most basic elements of a hypnotic induction are clearly present;

- a continual, strong, repetitive, outside stimulus
- that the stimulus continues for quite some time
- that the attention of the participant redirects from the outside towards an
inner experience – which is to say, they dissociate.

4.3 Religious prayer and singing, (ecstatic states)

Ecstatic religious states could well be considered to be the natural continuation of

the traditional ritual experience.

Depending on the specific religious practice, we can see how the two forms of
experience meet. This is especially strong where the Christian church has been
added over the traditional African culture and practices.

In certain church settings it is fairly easy to see the intention and support to enter
into a secondary state, even leading onto intense religious ecstatic experiences.

However, this is not at all only specific to Christianity, one finds, for instance, in
the Jewish tradition, something analogous with the rhythmic ‘bobbing’ of the
religious Jews while ‘davening’. Once the prayers are learned to point where the
repetition becomes automatic, they also enter into a form of trance state.

4.4 Tai Chi, Qi gong, active meditations, and meditative katas

Moving towards the East, we find many forms of ‘active meditation’ techniques.

Although the focus and intention are not always exactly the same, the basics
definitely are.
The student learns a number of very specific movements, these movements they
then repeat, and repeat and repeat.

The focus of all their attention is on these repetitive actions.

Their consciousness is directed totally into the exactitude of movement.

In Tai Chi and Qi gong, there is the added suggestion, linked to the name of the
movement, that invokes the image and the energy that they are reproducing.

Qi gong:
1. Turning the Prayer Wheel
2. Rotating the Knees
3. Crossed Arm Rotation
4. Picking Fruit
5. Swinging the Leg
6. Leg Bounce
7. Retreat and Advance
8. Grinding Corn
9. Polishing the Mirror

Tai Chi:
1 Part the wild horse's mane
2 The white crane spreads its wings
3 Grasp the bird's tail
4 Wave hands like clouds
5 High pat on the horse
6 Needle at sea bottom

Some of the main principles of Qi gong are:3

- Intentional movement: careful, flowing balanced style
- Rhythmic breathing: slow, deep, coordinated with fluid movement
- Awareness: calm, focused meditative state
- Visualization: of qi flow, philosophical tenets, aesthetics
- Chanting/Sound: use of sound as a focal point

For Tai Chi:4

3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qigong retrieved 08 10 2017
4 http://www.yiheyuan.co.uk/Pages/TaiChiPhilosophy.aspx retrieved 08 10 2017
“A Tai Chi form also begins with Stillness (Wu Chi), moves to the extremes of yin
and yang in a flowing tide of continuous motion and comes back to stillness. An
internal stillness is retained throughout the movements of the form. Meditation
resting in the state of Wu Chi can bring peace of mind, serenity and greater
wisdom.”

4.5 Yoga

Yoga is clearly a close cousin of the group of practices listed above, however,
more firmly rooted in stillness, it deserves a special section of its own.

Yoga, especially hatha yoga, with its strong emphasis on the breath, allows for
deep trance states within each of the poses.

Each pose offers the participant the opportunity to focus on a fixed point, long
enough to integrate that as a none evolving sensorial stimulus, hence allowing for
refocusing of the attention inwards, and the entering of the trance state.

4.6 Emotionally charged music

Listening to music and letting our attention wander, can also be considered a form
of trance state.

This differs from the ritual, rhythmic, repetitive music that we mentioned above, as
it is not due to the narrowing down of the stimulus to a boring and monotonous
input.

Quite the contrary, the stimulus is interesting and varies. However, in the case
where the listener is not offered, or not interested in the visual stimulation of
watching the musicians play, then the visual field is not stimulated.

Even though the auditive senses are interested and active, without interesting
visual input, the eyes tend to close, and from there, it is but a short step into
dissociation.

4.7 Playing music

This is a most particular form of trance state, as the musician needs to be highly
present, at some level, to play their instrument, and to remember the music that
they are playing.

Hence, this is likely to happen, mostly, to quite accomplished musicians.

However, skilled players, after they have totally learned a piece, have integrated all
the notes into some place of their psyche, and no longer have to think about it.

They would also needs have mastered the mechanics of playing it.

At this point, when the intellectual process of learning the notes is acquired, as is
the physical dimension of actually playing the piece, then they can pass over to
losing themselves in the emotional experience of playing it.

In this moment, they are both here, and elsewhere.

4.8 Singing and Dancing

In the same fashion that a musician can lose themselves in their playing, people
can also lose themselves singing and dancing.

Again, this needs be differentiated from the more tribal experience of chanting and
repetitive dance movements, as here we are talking about non-repetitive singing
and more complex dance moves.

That is not to say that there cannot be situations where the song is based on simple
repeated phrases and a basic melody, or that the dance steps are not very easy to
master and are repeated.

Only that it can also include quite complex song lyrics and structure, the same for
possible complexities of the dance.

Likewise, a level of mastery is necessary, so as to liberate the mind and the body
from having to focus on the mechanics, and hence allow for the body to relax,
(even when doing active and complex things), and releasing part of the mind to
experience other things, even while directing these actions.
 4.9 Dance
4.10 Hypnosis using a pendulum
4.11 Techniques of self-hypnosis
3
5. Individual Sessions

5.1 Introduction to this section.

5.2 The EMDR induction
5.3 The flower
5.4 Draining out the tension / poison
5.5 Pulling out thorns
5.6 Breaking the bonds
 6. Couple Sessions
6.1Linking together
 7. Group Sessions

6.2Introduction to Group Sessions

6.3Trust – Leading the blind
6.4Rhino – vs Manipulation & Outside control
6.5Protection – Pillow, I am the parent, I am the child
6.6Tree – & Bendy Tree
6.7Energy, Fire – Wing Chung Punch
6.8Through the tunnel of despair
6.9Personal Space
6.10 Procrastination -Working with resistance
6.11 Perambulating pyramid – walking a narrow bridge with help to balance.
6.12 Get up!! – bent down pillow pressing on back
6.13 Energy pumps.
6.14 Being a mountain
8. Self-Hypnosis

8.1 Introduction to Self-Hypnosis

8.2 The Pinch
8.3 The Thumb
8.4 Eye Roll-Back
8.5
9. Hypno-flushing
 10.Integrating with Equine Assisted Therapy.

The specific uses and benefits of integrating Equine Assisted Therapy

with techniques of altered states of consciousness.

9.1 General Benefits

As already mentioned above, techniques of altered states of consciousness are

useful because they bypass the conscious levels of defence of the patient.

We can hence, plant certain suggestions, that although the conscious mind might
be aware of, it is directly to the unconscious part of the patient that we are
addressing.

Certain aspects of Equine Assisted Therapy, that have been mentioned elsewhere
can certainly help in the availability of the patient towards the therapy on course:

For instance, that the patient can feel that being on a horse gives them a feeling of
power, confidence, autonomy,

And that being outside of a formal psychotherapeutic space can relax the patient,
and hence leave them much more open to psychotherapeutic interventions, etc.

However, it is possibility to use the symbolic force of the horse, within the
hypnotic induction that lends itself so powerfully to the technique.

First, I have found, that by placing the patient on horseback, and having the horse
move, while using normal hypnotic verbal techniques, most patients, quickly fall
into a trance state.

Not only that, the bilateral alternate stimulation, totally mimics the techniques used
to activate the deep change process that is at the root of EMDR, (Eye Movement,
Desensitisation & Reprocessing), therapeutic procedure.
Hence, even if one, chooses to pass on all other parts of this therapeutic technique,
we can still benefit from one of its fundamental concepts – that alternative,
bilateral stimulation helps relax the patient and supports the deep process of
change.

Yet, this is just the first of many benefits of this shared technique.
9.2 Merging with the Horse

As the experience of being on a horse walking, also mimics the person’s own
experience of walking, with the suggestion that the rider the horse can start to
merge, to become part of the same whole, it is relatively easy, for the rider to feel
the separation between him and the horse to become less and less clear, and to
finally, feel as if the two are, in fact joining.

As we have noted above, we project many positive traits onto the image of a horse.

It then becomes more or less obvious, depending on the particular problem of the
patient, to find a specific trait, that exists in their image of the horse, that they can,
due to the fact that they are now intimately linked to the horse, capable to integrate
into themselves.

One must realise the potency of this psychological manoeuvre. We all have
defence mechanisms that protect us from accepting things within ourselves that do
not fit with our own self-images.

We are suggesting to the patient that they have attributes which they clearly feel
that they neither have, nor could possibly, ever have. Hence, in normal situations,
even in a ‘normal or usual’ hypnotic setting, to suggest that, within themselves,
they have these possibilities, would, more than likely, awaken a strong defence
mechanism, to block this going too far into their psyche.

By using their connection to the horse, an animal that is known to have these
possibilities, we bypass this defence mechanism. They cannot deny that the horse
is like that, and because they are now, to some degree, fused, even integrated into
it, if the horse is like that, they too can be the same.

So, every positive aspect of the horse; strong, intelligent, brave, confident, social,
caring, supportive, attentive, adaptable, able to run or to fight, able to fight for its
place, yet able to accept its position and the control and judgement of a hierarchical
superior, etc., can be offered to the patient as his own.
 11. Hypnosis and Virtual Reality – The Future

One might well argue that hypnosis is, in itself a form of virtual reality. Patients
during a hypnotical trance can fully experience all forms of sensory perceptions;
sight, sound, smell, touch, taste and movement.

However, there are some members of the population, for a variety of reasons are
not capable to generate these experiences, even under the competent hand of an
experienced hypnotherapist.

Also, many others, do not, nor might not have access to a hypnotherapist. And,
although there exists many and varied hypnotic recordings, it can be particularly
difficult for the person to create the necessary environment, externally and
internally, which is necessary to achieve a satisfactory result.

To this end, my colleagues and I are in the process of creating applications and
virtual reality programs which will help a variety of people to benefit from our
combined knowledge and experience.