hypnosisrising.com€¦ · web viewthroughout my working life, i moved among people that the...

The Foundations and Practice ofLay Hypnotherapy

Brian BalkeCertified HypnotherapistCopyright 2020

Table of ContentsIntroduction.................................................................................................................................................. i

Note to the Reader................................................................................................................................. iii

Inspiration............................................................................................................................................... iii

Therapeutic Responsibility..........................................................................................................................3

Ethics.......................................................................................................................................................5

Fears and Phobias....................................................................................................................................7

Habit Management..................................................................................................................................7

Motivation...............................................................................................................................................8

Relationship Recovery.............................................................................................................................9

Triune Disorders......................................................................................................................................9

Medical Hypnosis...................................................................................................................................10

Spiritual Depth.......................................................................................................................................10

Journey of the Mind..................................................................................................................................11

“Self” Evolution.....................................................................................................................................11

“Self” Development...............................................................................................................................13

Study of the Mind......................................................................................................................................17

The Nature of Existence.........................................................................................................................17

Ancient Views on the Mind...................................................................................................................19

Religion..................................................................................................................................................20

Psychology.............................................................................................................................................22

Biochemistry of Learning...................................................................................................................22

Neurophysiology................................................................................................................................23

Mental Illness....................................................................................................................................32

Positive Psychology............................................................................................................................33

Lay Hypnotherapy.....................................................................................................................................35

The Power of Hypnotherapy..................................................................................................................35

Theory of Mind......................................................................................................................................36

Stages of Development..........................................................................................................................37

Authority...........................................................................................................................................38

Elderhood..........................................................................................................................................39

Starting Conditions................................................................................................................................40

Copyright Brian Balke, 2020

Strategy.................................................................................................................................................41

Ethical Concerns................................................................................................................................41

Self-Improvement..............................................................................................................................42

Adjunct Therapy................................................................................................................................43

Therapeutic Relationship...................................................................................................................44

Technique..............................................................................................................................................45

Personal Development..............................................................................................................................48

Hope......................................................................................................................................................48

Preliminaries..........................................................................................................................................49

Spirituality.........................................................................................................................................49

Sociability..........................................................................................................................................50

Nurturance........................................................................................................................................50

Hristic Path............................................................................................................................................51

Survival/Dependent...........................................................................................................................52

Sex/Hedonist.....................................................................................................................................53

Exchange/Consumer..........................................................................................................................55

Healing and Trust/Healer...................................................................................................................56

Truth/Partner....................................................................................................................................58

Creativity/Innovator..........................................................................................................................60

Imagination/Liberator........................................................................................................................61

Counseling.................................................................................................................................................68

Goals......................................................................................................................................................68

Assets....................................................................................................................................................69

Models...............................................................................................................................................69

Dialog with the Subconscious............................................................................................................70

Exploring Identity..................................................................................................................................71

Perspective Shifts...............................................................................................................................72

Identity Literacy.................................................................................................................................73

Inventory of Virtue............................................................................................................................73

Counseling Marketplace........................................................................................................................74

Psychotherapy...................................................................................................................................74

Life Coaching.....................................................................................................................................75

Professional Services.........................................................................................................................75

Placebo..............................................................................................................................................76

Session Structure...................................................................................................................................76

Induction...................................................................................................................................................78

Natural Hypnosis...................................................................................................................................78

Hetero Induction...................................................................................................................................79

Dominance Induction........................................................................................................................79

Guided Induction...............................................................................................................................80

Post-Hypnotic Induction....................................................................................................................81

Auto-Induction...................................................................................................................................81

Trance Depth.........................................................................................................................................82

Methods................................................................................................................................................83

Receptive Sociability Tests.................................................................................................................83

Inductions..........................................................................................................................................84

Deepeners.........................................................................................................................................86

Secondary Inductions........................................................................................................................87

Exiting Trance....................................................................................................................................88

Imagery......................................................................................................................................................90

Forms.....................................................................................................................................................90

Tactics....................................................................................................................................................91

Resource States.................................................................................................................................91

Rehearsal...........................................................................................................................................91

Transformation..................................................................................................................................92

Training..............................................................................................................................................93

Therapeutic Imagery..............................................................................................................................93

Dreams......................................................................................................................................................96

Interpretation........................................................................................................................................96

Processing..............................................................................................................................................98

Incubation..............................................................................................................................................98

Dream Therapy......................................................................................................................................98

Learning.............................................................................................................................................99

Traumatic Dreams.............................................................................................................................99

Sleep Disturbances..............................................................................................................................100

Insomnia..........................................................................................................................................101


Night Terrors...................................................................................................................................102

Motivation...............................................................................................................................................106

Natural Motivation..............................................................................................................................106

Self-Image............................................................................................................................................107

Assertiveness...................................................................................................................................107

Inner Child Work..............................................................................................................................107

Esteem and Confidence...................................................................................................................108

Social Expectation............................................................................................................................110

The Mental Bank..............................................................................................................................110

Law of Attraction.................................................................................................................................111

Loss......................................................................................................................................................112

Kubler-Ross......................................................................................................................................113

Trujillo..............................................................................................................................................114

Beyond Healing................................................................................................................................114

Therapy............................................................................................................................................115

Prophylaxis......................................................................................................................................115

Suggestibility...........................................................................................................................................118

Hypersuggestibility..............................................................................................................................118

Bilateral Balancing...........................................................................................................................120

Routine Development..........................................................................................................................121

Systematic Desensitization..................................................................................................................121

Habit Control.......................................................................................................................................122

Panic....................................................................................................................................................124

Circular Desensitization...................................................................................................................125

Conical Desensitization....................................................................................................................126

Spirituality...............................................................................................................................................128

Broaching the Topic.............................................................................................................................128

Physics and Spirituality........................................................................................................................128

The Structure of Time......................................................................................................................130

Dichotomies.........................................................................................................................................131

Morality...........................................................................................................................................131

Ethics...............................................................................................................................................132

Organization....................................................................................................................................133

Managing Energy.................................................................................................................................134

Heart Box.........................................................................................................................................134

Physiological Circulation..................................................................................................................135

Breathing Meditation......................................................................................................................136

Dark Fiber Transmutation................................................................................................................136

Personal History..................................................................................................................................137

Memory Recovery...........................................................................................................................138

Conduit of Virtue.............................................................................................................................138

Alternative Lives..............................................................................................................................139

Incorporation.......................................................................................................................................141

Boundary Management...................................................................................................................141

Hristic Activation..............................................................................................................................142

Co-Embodiment...............................................................................................................................143

Relationship.............................................................................................................................................146

Preferences..........................................................................................................................................146

Sociability........................................................................................................................................146

Nurturance......................................................................................................................................149

Maturity...........................................................................................................................................149

Romance..............................................................................................................................................150

Strategy...........................................................................................................................................150

Gender and Intimacy...........................................................................................................................151

Physical Wellness.....................................................................................................................................153

Body Syndromes..................................................................................................................................153

Placebo Effect......................................................................................................................................154

Discomfort...........................................................................................................................................155

Emergency Hypnosis............................................................................................................................156

References...............................................................................................................................................158


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IntroductionThroughout my working life, I moved among people that the public characterizes as “geniuses.” Their skills were analysis, reason, and logic. They were the scientists who tried to explain events that we cannot see because they are too small (inside atoms) or too far away (in distant galaxies). They were the computer programmers who designed operating systems and database engines. They were the engineers and software developers who built the automated systems that have displaced so many of our blue-collar workers – and now threaten to replace white-collar decision-makers.

Near the end of that career, one of my young colleagues exercised his privilege to spend time at home after the birth of his second child. To my surprise, he came back to work at the half-way point of his leave. When asked, this gentleman – among the most sympathetic of my peers – explained that bonding to his new child was mentally exhausting. He felt that if he did not come back to work, he would forget how to do his job.

The anecdote is offered to illustrate a general principle: the highest and most demanding functions of the mind are not logic, reason, and analysis. Our ability to relate to people is far more complex. So complex, in fact, that we try to avoid relating through privileges that allow us to impose our will upon others. The mechanisms of privilege may be physical (“Power grows from the barrel of a gun.”), cultural (“Children should be seen and not heard.”), or political (“Majority rules.”). The goal is confidently to assert “I am in charge of my life.”

That seems like a simple claim, but its psychological foundation is elusive. What is this “I” that we talk about? For that “I” is constantly changing. The most obvious change is physical – as the ancient riddle goes “What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?” But the “I” is also the doting spouse that becomes destructive in divorce court. The “I” is the radical student who becomes the conservative hedge-fund manager. The “I” is the atheist who becomes a Christian apologist.

Those shifts may appear contradictory on the surface, but often are explained by underlying traits of character. The first depends upon others to manage their emotions. The second insists on having their own way. The last hopes that people will learn to care for each other. Perhaps it is through those traits that the “I” persists from day to day and situation to situation.

Looking at the structure of the brain, identity – the elaboration of “I” – is a recent innovation. Definition of our personality appears to reside in the frontal lobes, seat of higher reason and social awareness, and a part of the brain that is unique to humans.

As a child grows, the brain activates its circuitry in sequence. The survival functions come online first, following by sensation and motor control. As these skills are mastered, our parents encourage us toward independence. For most of human history, that was as far as “I” went – the immediate demands of survival absorbed our attention. The opportunity to think deeply about our identity – the nature of our personality – was limited to the most privileged.

The difficulty and importance of that quest is demonstrated in the longevity of the teachings of our great religious thinkers. Confucius, Buddha, and Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth thousands of years


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ago, and yet are more inspirational to us than the great masters of global affairs. Paradoxically, they inspire the “I” not to power, but to social harmony.

That harmony was a manifestation of the organization of their minds. The prefrontal cortex – last of the brain centers to activate fully – extends connections into the more primitive parts of their mind. Those connections can either stimulate or suppress primitive behaviors. The religious avatar has achieved that control to a degree that approaches “ineffability” – a state of emotion beyond emotion, from which every emotion serves a conscious intention.

This goal – the goal of refining the personality – is the inspiration for this book. While many can claim to help us choose a goal for our lives to focus our personal development, only one maintains a clarion focus on facilitation of personal development. That is the discipline of lay hypnotherapy.

Hypnotherapy more broadly facilitates the negotiation of the boundaries between “I” and our survival systems. The “I” is the central element of the part of the mind that we term “conscious.” The subconscious comprises the automatic behaviors that serve our survival. As the “I” enters in to manage those behaviors, our survival is placed at risk. Thus, the subconscious resists the intrusion.

As recognized by Dr. John Kappas, intellectual forebear for this work, hypnosis is our ideal learning state. This is obvious in considering the most immediate route to hypnosis: a physical assault. In those conditions, the mind accepts all sensory input as “what is true,” because to question the input would delay action necessary to our survival. To induce that state comfortably, the hypnotist applies patterns of speech and physical manipulations. In a therapeutic setting, once in that state the primitive parts of the mind can be conditioned to change their reaction to stimulus.

For much of the history of hypnotherapy, that control was used by clinical specialists to “cure” patients whose behavior was a threat to their own well-being. As documented by Anne Harrington (Har[2008]), therapeutic techniques were difficult to transmit – the reputation of the clinician seemed essential to success. In the lack of that authority, we might perhaps not be surprised that – as discovered by the young Sigmund Freud – patients eventually began to rebel against hypnotic “cures.” The “I” asserted its independence.

So – excepting those such as Milton Erickson and their protégées – clinical practice branched along different dimensions, focusing on surgery, pharmacology, and laborious conditioning. These measures were justifiable only in extreme cases. Denied the right to practice in those areas, hypnotherapists marketed to clients seeking self-improvement (in fact, Dr. Kappas drafted California’s legal scope of practice as “vocational and avocational self-improvement”). This is the scope of practice that I recognize as “lay hypnotherapy.”

Perhaps the greatest result of the research pursued under Dr. Kappas’ direction was the conclusion that therapy was most effective when the “I” was honored. In the Kappasinian method, each session begins with a “cognitive” discussion of the goals for behavior change. The hypnotherapist’s skill is to weave the statement of those goals around hypnotic procedures to reach the parts of the subconscious involved in implementing the behavior. After the session, in dreams the client fully elaborates suggestions as behaviors. In the final years of his life, Kappas inspired Cheryl O’Neil to develop methods that allowed the subconscious to talk back during hypnosis. After Dr. Kappas’ death, O’Neil extended the practice of Therapeutic Imagery to all areas of application.


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Rather than a simple re-iteration methods, this book places collaboration between the conscious and subconscious minds at the center of lay hypnotherapy. The core practices of Kappasinian therapy – Theory of Mind, E&P suggestibility and sexuality, and hypnotic induction are recast to facilitate that collaboration. Rather than putting the conscious mind into abeyance, the desired practice is for it actively to encourage the reluctant subconscious to explore new possibilities.

This work will also empower the practitioner to illuminate the psychological journey of the “I” in ways that have been proven to inspire clients to jettison painful history and reach out for a future filled with pride and joy. The mechanisms of the “I” are wondrous, with elaboration in mental, physical, and spiritual dimensions. The great privilege of the lay hypnotherapist is to empower clients to take control of those mechanisms and realize their potential.

Note to the ReaderThe reader should be forearmed that this is not an introductory text on hypnotherapy. The material assembles insights from twenty years of study of psychology, sociology, and spirituality.

As with most that take pride in our avocation, the study was not guided by academic precepts but by concern for the well-being of others: children, peers, country, and humanity. The breadth of those concerns is reflected in the writing. What appear upon first encounter to be casual asides will be appreciated only on the second or third reading. The book merits ongoing study.

To facilitate integration of the ideas, the Word version of the document has internal links. A “resource” bundle is referenced throughout, available upon request to [email protected].

InspirationSome have asked who this was written for. The short answer is “I am a lover of ideas.” That is obscure, so I will elaborate.

I came into my spirituality in the immediate aftermath of the attacks known now as “9/11.” In the intervening years, I attempted to organize demonstrations that love works. The typical reaction is characterized in Paul Simon’s paean, “Love.” People channeled the energy into self-destructive behaviors.

But I persisted in my proselytizing, until yet again in January of this year I found myself confronting an authority (a Catholic priest, in this case) who told me – in paraphrase – “I cannot help you because I will be disowned by the hierarchy that I depend upon.”

Impulsively, I observed that “Destruction is the great leveler of hierarchy.” Later that month, I had a strong premonition that disaster would be coming upon us. That was focused by a vision from the etheric realms that they were anticipating an influx of traumatized souls and needed healing insights.

I dropped my social activities and began writing this book. The first half was a joyous exploration. As the pandemic raged and the truth deniers became entrenched in our Executive Branch, the work became harder. Each half a page left me drained.

That exhaustion reflected the effort of organizing the ideas presented here. To the cognoscenti, it will be understood that this has been the effort of millennia, shared with all lovers of Humanity, including the


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two greatest hypnotherapists of the twentieth century. I am honored by the support of that entourage, known in Christian circles as The Holy Spirit.


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Part I – FoundationsThe lay hypnotherapist is a behaviorialist. Recognizing that accomplishment is the foundation of confidence and esteem, in therapy we seek concrete goals, working upstream toward capabilities, emotions, and sensation. We are also generalists: rather than focusing on dysfunction in a specific part of the personality, we mitigate the most important blocks to achievement and use the client’s lived experience to guide the therapeutic process.

In acting as a behavioralist, the lay hypnotherapist adopts a different perspective on the problems treated by government-licensed clinicians. In some localities, failure to observe the prerogatives of clinical practice can lead to criminal prosecution. We begin our discussion, then, with a defense of the practice of lay hypnotherapy and analysis of how we can work with clinicians.

As we guide our clients toward growth, they often benefit from an orientation to the physical, intellectual, and spiritual aspects of growth. These intellectual foundations are essential to our practice. While as possible collaborators with other mental health practitioners, we at minimum should be conversant with psychology and neurology, our clients need simpler concepts to orient them.

As we consider the whole person, our metaphors are inspirational, if not entirely defensible in the frameworks known to modern science. We are not intimidated by spiritual experience.

At the conclusion of this first part, we will have cast lay hypnotherapy as a discipline that facilitates the realization of personal excellence, in terms that clients can carry forward with them for the rest of their lives. This compact between client and therapist is the moral foundation of our practice.


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Therapeutic ResponsibilityIn supporting mental wellness, roles fall along a spectrum between friend and brain surgeon. The association is not ridiculous: a visit with a friend changes the structure of our brain. And while the surgeon’s knife may make immediate and unalterable change, we spend most of our life among friends, family, and colleagues. Our identity is defined by those relationships; the surgeon serves only in defense of that identity.

Stepping down from the surgeon we have the psychiatrist, prescriber of medications that alter brain function. The medication is chosen against a clinical diagnosis from criteria established in the Diagnostics and Statistical Manual, currently in its fifth version (DSM[2013]). The discernment involved should not be trivialized: the DSM now contains more than 200 conditions, and controlled studies show that any pair of clinicians arrive at different diagnoses in 70% of all cases (Ash[1949], Beck[1962]). In some cases, such as Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), it is arguable that the distinguishing factor is the prescribed medication (specifically Ritalin).

The justification for the psychiatrist’s authority is knowledge of brain function, and in the modern era particularly the effect of the chemicals (neurotransmitters) that carry signals between the cells of the nervous system. Upon chemical adjustment of the sensitivity at those transfer points (synapses), the patient is expected to develop improved mood and behaviors. In severe cases, the impact can be far greater: an unhealthy brain disrupts the activity of the body’s systems, creating psychosomatic pain and disease. With medication, those problems may moderate or disappear. Benefits must be weighed against unavoidable side effects that accrue from modified interaction of the nervous system with the rest of the body. The cure is often just a less serious form of the disease (Har[2019]). Recognizing these difficulties, modern psychiatrists are studying technologies that use sensory or electromagnetic stimulation to restore healthy brain activity.

Working closely with a psychiatrist we often find the psychotherapist. As is the psychiatrist, the psychotherapist is trained in diagnosis of clinical disorders. They understand the developmental dependencies between personality traits and can recommend experiences to foster growth of suppressed capacities. They are trained to recognize behavior patterns that are likely to amplify into harm to self or others and draw upon evidence-based methods to mitigate against such harm. The therapeutic strategy often must anticipate the response of the patient’s relationship system, particularly family members.

In session the psychotherapist serves as a mentor (Yal[2002]), allowing the patient to express negative emotions and judgments while mirroring back mature responses. This is a form of conditioning that defuses hostile or avoidant reactions and builds receptivity to positive social interaction. While that conditioning is realized through altered connections between the parts of the brain, in talk therapy those changes occur organically in the complex context of normal dialog, in which at most one-third of the signals are verbal, and subconscious gestures and expressions may frustrate the intentions of the therapist.

At some uncertain point, the individual is no longer a danger to self or others, but still dissatisfied with their behavior. They are no longer a patient suffering from a clinical disorder, but a client seeking efficacy. Their behavior is limiting, not debilitating. This cohort represents most of the body public, and


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they seek guidance from ministers, life coaches, mentors, and friends. Progress is often muddled by the vested interests of the guide whose claims of efficacy are personal and anecdotal, rather than scientifically proven over many cases.

The lay hypnotherapist practices in this unregulated milieu. While we may provide coaching, our role is not to determine goals, but to ensure that the client enters each experience with a mind open to its potential. Our methods are orientation to personal development and hypnotic techniques that speed fulfillment of the client’s ambitions.

This work provides background to support both objectives. The two succeeding chapters describe the neurological basis of human personality. The remainder of the book describes hypnotic methods for facilitating change, not exempting strategies for dealing with client confusion, misdirection, and self-sabotage.

The ethical compromise that entices the lay hypnotherapist is rooted in the power of hypnotic methods. Among the examples known to the writer:

A client seeking to lose weight attends a group hypnosis program that replaces their craving for sweets with a craving for cigarettes. Decades later they seek hypnotherapy for smoking cessation.

A smoking cessation client exposed to crude aversion therapy vomits on the blouse of a friend lighting a cigarette.

A client cannot articulate a strategy for fulfilling his protective obligations toward mother and fiancée. When programmed for assertiveness he feels compelled to cater to their dietary whims and becomes obsessed with the thought of taking vengeance on the man who abused his mother during his childhood. Lacking a conscious foundation for these changes, the client fears for his sanity.

A specialist in past life regression proposes the therapy for conditions with a foundation in lived experience.

Common to these incidents is a therapeutic strategy that treats the subconscious as psychologically primitive. This is convenient from the perspective of creating change, but abusive in the long run. The subconscious is an elaborate system that is fully integrated in our lived experience. It is subconscious only because we do not pay attention to it, and often rebels when mistreated.

The cultural conditions for therapeutic abuse are complex. Lay hypnotherapy is not a regulated practice. Aspiring practitioners can take a weekend course on hypnotic methods, receive a binder of scripts covering common issues, and hang up a shingle. In response, reputable instructors band together in voluntary associations to establish minimum training requirements for certification, including continuing education (HU[2019]). On the strength of those requirements, they lobby to protect the discipline from formal licensing. Fly-by-night operators take advantage of that liberty, sending students out into the world to tear the psychological band-aids off trauma and undermine the reputations of their more accomplished peers.

While taking these cautions into consideration, the moral rationale for lay hypnotherapy is compelling.

Hypnosis is a natural state and widely induced by studied method, inspired intuition, and happenstance. When fully conscious, it is difficult to modify the behaviors internalized (for


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example) in movie theaters, on the dance floor, after auto accidents, in used-car lots, and during booty calls – all experiences that commonly induce hypnosis.

The greatest reservoir of hypnotic conditioning is from our early childhood, prior to development of an independent sense of self.

Upon recognition of unwanted behavior, it is absurd to engage a licensed clinician to assert control over our personality. Excepting those representing a danger to themselves or others, we can manage our own minds – a fact implicit in legal allowance to talk about our problems with family, friends, and mentors.

When problems persist, chronic anxiety may induce hypersuggestibility. If not relieved through hypnotic conditioning, clinical conditions can arise, and cost the client control of their mind.

When hypnotherapy is conducted with respect for client autonomy, the risks are fully under the control of the client. A competent and ethical hypnotherapist will assess those risks and when appropriate refer for clinical care.

In assessing risk, the challenge remains that the lay hypnotherapist cannot diagnose a clinical disorder. We can only investigate the client’s history to elicit their understanding of the cause of their condition. If the origins are unclear or present as a defense against deeper issues, then the client should be referred to a clinician for evaluation.

The last point requires elaboration: a defense is a behavior that distracts us from a concern that seems insurmountable. Attempts to remove the defense will meet with resistance, often manifesting as abreactions during hypnosis. The lay hypnotherapist should never push against such resistance but note it and raise it for discussion in the waking state. When the discussion opens new emotional territory, particularly territory previously hidden from the client, clinical referral is prudent.

When referral is necessary, the lay hypnotherapist can continue to work with the patient under consent from the clinician.

With a psychiatrist, therapeutic conflict is rare.

With a psychotherapist, therapeutic authority must be ceded to the clinician. Hypnosis will be used only to facilitate subconscious acceptance of the psychotherapeutic strategy. The ethical strictures of the next section, in relying upon the client as the source of cause and direction, guard this authority. If the clinician requires greater control over the process, direct communication between therapists is possible with written consent from the patient. Statute and best practices may require periodic reauthorization of direct communication.

EthicsWe now understand – in a general way – the scope of lay hypnotherapy and the principles that legitimize our practice. In daily therapy we confront specific conditions that when left unattended may develop clinical aspects. In the following sections we consider each in turn, providing rationale and guidelines for the application of lay hypnotherapy.

We have two basic protections against ethical transgression:

avoid diagnosis of cause, and honor client autonomy in the therapeutic process.


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Violation of either stricture puts us in the realm of psychotherapy. The clinician has background and training that justifies seizing initiative from their patients. The lay hypnotherapist does not. This does not prohibit the lay hypnotherapist from guiding and counseling their clients during conversation outside of hypnosis. It does mean that hypnotic suggestions should never be introduced until prior consent has been obtained from the client.

These principles make lay hypnotherapy a different experience from hypnosis as practiced by clinicians. Milton Erickson, founder of the ASCH (American Society for Clinical Hypnosis) limited its membership to clinical practitioners. In the states, psychotherapeutic licensing laws include hypnosis among the covered methods. Erickson spoke strongly against the use of hypnosis outside of clinical practice, something that psychotherapists occasionally attempt to enforce through their licensing boards – although often their underling motivation is market restriction.

An appropriate response is to observe that water is deadly when misused, and perhaps no one in the history of hypnotic research was more of a risk-taker than Dr. Erickson. His research papers (Hal[1967]) are a portfolio of procedures that would be considered unethical in the modern era. They include induction of hearing loss in college students (Eri[1938a], Eri[1938b], volunteers casually subjected to age regression (Eri[1959]), and induction of schizophrenic visual displacement in colleagues with one subsequently suffering migraines (Eri[1964a]).

Among Erickson’s self-documented case histories are similar outrages.

While such experiments are likely to be squelched in the modern era, among Erickson’s proteges we may encounter similar hubris (Ros[1982]). Their published methods (Zeig[2014]) are heavy on the use of amnesia, disassociation, and hallucination to restructure the subconscious landscape. The primary justification is to remove trauma from the patient’s life history, but such editing carries with it side effects that may be hard to anticipate – such as the migraines suffered by Erickson’s peer.

In his defense, Erickson’s paper on deep trance includes a strong statement of the therapist’s obligation to protect patient autonomy (Eri[1952]). Late in his career, he publicly cautioned that those seeking to accomplish his outcomes would be unsuccessful should they emulate only his methods. And in one set of case studies, Erickson’s contribution to therapy was only to suggest that patients be compelled to follow the plans they themselves had settled on (Eri[1964b]).

The lay hypnotherapist always allows the client to lead in the discovery of cause. John Melton at HMI offers this formulation: L – listen, O – observe, V – verify, and E – empathize. The second principle (“observe”) allows that the client’s evolving understanding may progress through defenses against responsibility for their future. Facial expression and body posture may either confirm or contradict speaking. In restating the client’s explanation (“verify”), the therapist not only shortens it for use in hypnotic suggestions but can also probe for alternative explanations with hypothetical scenarios and leading questions. And in every case (“empathize”) the client is held in respectful regard as a capable explorer seeking a path through their subconscious landscape. Such affirmation builds confidence to undertake deeper examination, and the “LOVE”-ing cycle begins again.

Similar caution is followed when the lay hypnotherapist modifies the subconscious landscape. The client must always give consent to the introduction of new ideas, associations, or defenses. This principle is most firmly advanced in the practice of Therapeutic Imagery, which allows the subconscious to respond


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critically when change is proposed, rehearsed, and reinforced. Regardless of method, though, the lay hypnotherapist’s client is fully conscious of the antecedents for any change in behavior, and so is empowered either:

to celebrate their initiative upon success, or course correct in the event of undesirable outcomes.

We turn now to the application of these principles to common issues presented by our clients. The reader should be alert to the practical reality that most clients have concerns in multiple categories, and the concerns may have couplings. When a habit “causes” back pain, we need medical consent to treat the habit – which may in truth be a distraction from a pinched nerve.

Fears and PhobiasFears and phobias limit a client’s life with irrational expectations that normal behaviors will result in catastrophic outcomes. Fear arises from an actual experience – such as a serious auto accident or other trauma – that demonstrates incomplete personal control over outcomes. Phobias generally arise from misattribution of cause after a frightening experience, often metabolic collapse due to mismanaged nutrition – though seeing a parent melt down may also leave a phobia in a child.

In both cases, the subconscious, anticipating disaster, generates a strong fight/flight reaction that may elevate to panic. Avoidant behavior trains the subconscious to believe that it has found a successful method for avoiding the catastrophic outcome, strengthening the reaction. Losing confidence, the sufferer begins to ruminate on the cost of avoidance and their personality defects, feeding a descent into hypersuggestibility. In that state, through association and generalization, the reaction can spread to other experiences until the client ends up lying in bed in the corner opposite the only door in a windowless room. They have a clinical disorder.

The second path to a clinical condition is usually considered sustained exposure to a fear-generating experience, such as on the battlefield. (This is not really an alternative path, as when hypersuggestible the mind believes that what it imagines is happening. The phobic is retraumatized every time they encounter their trigger.) On the soft end of the condition (Post Traumatic Stress), due to anxiety the sufferer is unable to relate effectively with their environment. On the clinical end (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) the sufferer disassociates from their environment and acts as though still immersed in the trauma.

The lay hypnotherapist may differentiate clinical from non-clinical cases by asking “Why couldn’t you get into the elevator?” If the response is narrowly “because my heart was pounding,” they can evaluate lived experience and are suitable for lay hypnotherapy. If they response progresses to “because I am worthless” or “because the bomb was exploding” they require clinical evaluation.

Habit ManagementThe brain is designed to reinforce behaviors that bring us rewards. Those rewards can be immediate, such as eating a cookie, or deferred, such as earning a diploma. As infants, we operate in the realm of immediate reward. Part of attaining maturity is to convert our seeking for immediate reward into habits that allow us to achieve deferred rewards. That occurs through the interaction between two parts of the brain: one that indicates “what happens next is important” (the dopamine or significance system) and the other that indicates “that result was good” (the serotonin or reward system).


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As will be discussed later, hypnosis allows us to focus those systems to support accomplishment of the client’s beneficial goals, which typically concern deferred rewards.

Pathological outcomes result when “that result was good” correlates not with a positive benefit but with cessation of a negative condition. To overcome the draining effects of anxiety, we may catastrophize thinking to activate the fight/flight response. To turn off the chattering worry-monkey, we may bite our thumb or tug on our hair. That is fine until the habit becomes a negative condition of its own, bringing discomfort or social ridicule. Clients then seek our help.

In evaluating these cases, the lay hypnotherapist need only be concerned with the extent to which the habit has become harmful to self or others. An eating disorder, for example, is a clinical condition. Via way of hypersuggestibility, the endpoint of anxiety is paranoid delusion.

According to recent research, chemical addiction is a generated by substances that simultaneously activate the significance and reward systems in the brain. In the most dangerous cases (such as alcohol), the substance also alters our metabolism. The structure of hypnotherapy makes it an adjunct to treatment for such disorders. While powerful, weekly sessions are no substitute for the short-term monitoring necessary to overcome chemical and metabolic dependency.

Certain industries – among them pornography, gambling, and video games – have become adept at cultivating behavioral addictions. As with habits, these are susceptible to lay hypnotherapy unless actively tied to harm to self or others.

Note that social media addiction appears rather to be a phobia (fear of missing out).

MotivationIn the absence of psychological reward, the brain is designed to seek behavioral stability. What is known is associated, after all, with survival.

In the modern era, survival is supported by systems that would seem magical to our ancestors. Walk through a door and food manifests – and similarly for every other good necessary for life. Turn a dial and the (interior) climate adjusts to our liking. Free from those concerns, our attention is liberated for social and intellectual competition in which innovation is often an asset.

Yet the brain prefers behavioral stability – to the degree that “a man will change his beliefs before he’ll change his actions.” This resistance is overcome by motivation. Through hypnotic imagery, lay hypnotherapy makes palpable to the subconscious the intended benefits of change, softening resistance.

While success is built upon effective habits, motivation is undermined by insufficient confidence and self-esteem. Often these are determined by parenting prior to conscious management of the identity. Their lack can reflect either repetitive conditioning or trauma. Repetitive conditioning (“being talked down to”) is well within the scope of lay hypnotherapy. Trauma – particularly if occasioned by sexual or physical abuse – is a clinical condition.

That said, it is not unusual for a patient having cleared the emotional wreckage of abuse to exit clinical talk therapy and seek hypnotherapy to build the identity of their choosing. This latter is safely in the realm of lay hypnotherapy.


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Relationship RecoveryAs the identity exists to help us learn what works for us in relationships, mature identity manifests in harmonious relationships. That path, however, is not direct or easy, for the behaviors carried forward from childhood are determined by what works for our parents. As the internet age disrupts continuity of social conventions, we go out into the world often unprepared for the conditions we face.

Unable to apply wisdom received from the past, we make mistakes, hurting ourselves and others. Because this is rarely our intention, we tend to project fault onto others, and proceed into future relationships seeking to avoid the past.

Relationship recovery starts with education of the client to the two great axes of relationship dynamics: sociability on the axis from protector to adventurer, and nurturance on the axis from masculine to feminine. Examining experience through those lenses, the client is encouraged to harvest lessons and identify virtues that should be honored or gained in support of their relationship goals.

For the individual client, this is all safely in the realm of lay hypnotherapy, given that trauma should be considered a separate concern (see above). Couples counseling is a licensed practice (Marriage and Family Therapy). Hypnosis may be used to facilitate change under the guidance of the clinician.

Triune DisordersAttaining mastery of our identity involves challenge that forces us to make choices. In the tumult of life, pressures do not always permit resolution of the challenge. A friend needing counsel may be cut adrift when our career is failing. Or a child may be neglected while we tend to a spouse fighting cancer.

We project into the body every psychological tension – the body being, after all, the most immediate mechanism for changing the conditions of our life. For others also affected, our body is the metaphor for the spiritual condition of the relationship. In both the mental and spiritual aspects of life, then, the body becomes the focus of unresolved tension. The disorder may manifest in any part of the mind/body/spirit system, leading to the term triune disorder.

Stress is the mildest form of triune disorder. Relaxation therapy is effective in restoring homeostasis, and well within the scope of lay hypnotherapy. It is advisable that the lay hypnotherapist understand general nutritional concepts, which can be offered to ensure that the body is not lapsing into metabolic collapse. The advice should come with the caveat that it is not a substitute for medical assessment. Note that possible side-effects of nutritional deficiency include phobias, negative habits, and hypersuggestibility.

Through hypnotic imagery the client can uncover the events that generated their bodily tension. The nature of the crisis determines the scope for therapy. That said, considering the mental wellness arts, hypnosis is uniquely powerful in unraveling the mental and spiritual knots at the interface to the body. (Reiki, acupuncture, and chiropractic are alternative modalities that may be efficacious for some.)

The physical manifestations of a triune disorder range from irritation (back pain) to life-threatening (cancer). Here we come into another domain of governmental licensing: medicine. Consent from a medical professional is essential whenever a physical side-effect is identified as a therapeutic goal.


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Medical HypnosisWhen the body cannot overcome injury or illness, the medical professional steps in to facilitate healing. Sadly, many treatments involve physical or metabolic assault on the body, which can generate resistance or panic in the subconscious. Medical hypnosis can clarify the intention of treatment, and counsel the subconscious to harbor resources necessary to overcome side-effects. This reduces post-treatment anxiety, minimizes swelling, promotes healing, and maximizes benefits.

Hypnotherapy is the most direct method for organizing a placebo response to treatment. Many autoimmune or immune deficiency disorders (including cancer in the latter) develop under conditions of chronic stress. During treatment, that stress may be exacerbated by the surrender of autonomy to medical technologists. In reminding the client how to restore homeostasis, the lay hypnotherapist can have a profound impact on the course of therapy. For reference, clinical drug trials for antidepressants (Kir[2002]) find that up to 70% of efficacy originates from the patient’s belief that they are being offered a resource for healing – that being the definition of the placebo response. This is also observed with pain killers (Mar[2015]).

Any medical hypnosis must be performed under the consent of the supervising doctor. Allowance is made for emergency hypnosis, as hypnosis is induced spontaneously and the immediate threat to life over-rides other concerns. The methods of medical hypnosis include relaxation therapy, imagery, and rehearsal.

Spiritual DepthAt the deepest levels, our identity (or free will) is sustained by the witness of a field of beneficial intention we associate with love. At the material level, we are confronted with signals (physical and emotional discomfort) that cause us to doubt our safety. The dual tragedies of the human condition are:

1. love’s affirmation of the identity organized around doubt, and 2. corruption of love by anguish.

To protect against these outcomes, the subconscious has barriers to spiritual experience.

Loss is an experience that focuses our sensitivity to virtue. When directed into the spiritual dimension, the mourner may be inspired to affirm the lost virtues in others, restoring its benefits to their lives. Meditation on the virtues of the one lost can also dispel the illusion of death, bringing the spirit of the loved one closer. Therapy is safely in the realm of lay hypnotherapy unless the loss is experienced as a trauma.

As the identity is solidified in chosen virtues, the barriers to spiritual experience soften. Imagery can be used to orient the client within the metaphors of their spiritual tradition (elements, deities, saints, etc.). This is advisable only within the scope of the therapist’s personal experience, though some practitioners have built a flexible framework that allows the client to provide their own spiritual metaphors.

As spiritual depth is attained, the conventions of material experience yield, and the client can navigate through space and time and into alternate realms of spiritual experience. While this is not regulated practice, the lay therapist is advised to honor the limitations of their own maturity. Protective methods will be discussed later in the book.


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Journey of the MindNo one who comes into our offices seeking help is impervious to the fear that their problem is unique. Normalization is a step that assures the client that their condition is natural. In making that step, some are satisfied with comparison histories. We may tell them, “90% adults have a history of trauma.” (Kil[2013]) For others, an answer to “why?” can be more powerful – particularly when it offers hope. The design of our mind allows certain vulnerabilities, but also includes robust mechanisms for healing.

What follows is gathered from various domains and rewoven to highlight the benefits of lay hypnotherapy. The terminology is imprecise, perhaps leading specialists to objections. C’est la vie! Our clients need a framework of empowerment, not preparation for a Ph.D. defense.

“Self” EvolutionWe have a personal history of self that is tacked on to a long evolutionary history. That evolution is still visible in brain architecture. More primitive parts of the brain have a powerful influence on our behavior that must be moderated for us to become the self of our choosing.

On the physical level, life unfolds through chemical exchange. “Exchange” implies physical boundaries that we call cell membranes. Those membranes occur naturally on the boundary between sea water and sub-surface pools of petrochemicals. Initially chemical variety was determined by the underlying rock formations. Each pool spawned specific types of cells, including some that absorbed other cells (visible in modern cells as organelles).

The handcuffs came off evolution with the innovation of photosynthesis, roughly three billion years ago (Kno[2003]). The free source of solar energy allowed cells to change their chemical contents in a hospitable environment (previously that was possible only in hot thermal vents). The shallow seas became a soup of chemical messages, with individual cells wandering randomly until detecting a difference in concentrations that suggested the where-abouts of food or toxins.

As cells learned to differentiate based upon nearness to other cells, evolution began to play with shapes. In the higher forms of life, the basic geometry is turned inside-out: our blood (mostly a salty solution – like the ocean – called plasma) is used to distribute resources to our cells. To organize whole-body or long-lasting responses to the environment, certain glands release hormones into the blood stream. Among their functions are managing blood-sugar levels, preparing our body to survive conflict, and deciding when we have had enough to eat.

Neurons, the building blocks of our brain and nerves, are a selective means of coordinating the activity of our body parts. The cells are long and thin, and signal flow is also fast and efficient. It is only when moving between cells that the signals are converted to complex chemicals.

The brain became the evolutionary capstone, however, when neurons began to link up in networks. Neurons can stimulate other neurons and in forming such networks they became an information processing system. To summarize the architecture: the brain collects signals from sensory neurons for processing by internal networks that stimulate muscles, organs, and glands. In integrating these capabilities, the brain became the master controller of our behavior.

With that great capacity came a terrible vulnerability: animals with large brains require extra nourishment before and after birth. Then those networks need training. Those needs were first fulfilled


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in birds, and then in mammals with the innovation of the limbic system. Parents bonded with their young and “taught” them through example.

Because the environment changed only slowly, that capacity to learn was not driven hard. Tools changed that. The higher primates were able to pick up rock, branches, and hides, shape and combine them, and take on the capabilities of rodents (digging), felines (tearing), and birds (probing). Those skills were combined to change the world around us. Vocal signaling also advanced, blossoming into sophisticated languages. Passing those innovations to our children, we accumulated knowledge and power over generations. Evolution broke free of the mating game (Darwinian evolution) and entered the laboratory of learning (Lamarckian evolution). Change came millions of times faster than ever before, and humanity – the lucky beneficiary of those gifts – took over the world.

And competes for dominance.

In that final competition, success comes only through effective social strategies. We focus on influencing those around us. This requires language, of course, but also rapport – an intuitive sensitivity to the emotions that motivate others. As the final piece, we begin to think about ourselves as a social agent. What methods do “I” have for motivating others? When a strategy stops working, “I” suppress it and seek another. “I” turn the capacity to learn toward definition of “myself.”

And as this concern was built upon everything before it in the evolutionary process, it is also the last thing to develop in the growing child.

Upon birth, a child is completely dependent upon caretakers. It is inextricably and unconsciously caught up in a “we.” Still, the mind receives signals originating from the senses, describing physical alignment (proprioception), physiological state (enteroception), the environment (exteroception), and its effects (nociception). These perceptions are not categorized for us but sorted according to usefulness and priority as we translate them into behavior. At some point, continuity of proprioception and enteroception leads to a recognition of that the child has an independent body, and thus an independent identity.

As will be discussed in the next section, asserting that identity entails psychological conflict. Fortunately, we are driven by need and emotion to seek intimacy. Among the skills thereby added to definition of “myself” is the capacity to negotiate psychological boundaries. Finally exiting childhood, we spend our adult life exploring relationships with the goal of reforming the “we” under consensual terms (Rif[2009]).

Recognizing this process as the highest form of human expression, Daniel Siegel coined the following definition for the mind (Sie[2010]):

The mind is a relational and embodied process that regulates the flow of energy and information.

Key to that definition are the terms “relational” and “information.” Without them, the description is true of anything.

Now Siegel is a researcher, and researchers tend to create abstractions that do not translate well to our lived experience. Referring to the wisdom of our religious avatars, however, we can perhaps come up with something more inspiring. Consider the capacities of the mind:


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1. We have a sense of identity.2. Through relating, we create rapport that enables us to feel within ourselves what others feel.3. We manipulate information, and so can imagine how their feelings would change if we changed

their experience.4. We are embodied in a form that enables us to direct energy to implement those changes.

Of course, change can be harmful or beneficial. Through rapport, however, we have a bias towards positive change. Reduced to the simplest terms, then: Through the capacities listed, the human mind disposes us to love.

Living in a world of domesticated animals, we lose sight of that fact. We fail to recognize that we have changed the world morally as well as materially. The clearest evidence comes from those that domesticate foxes (Jon[2016]). They report that a wild fox will accept human dominance but will challenge it every day. Raise three generations of pups, however, and the fox becomes the pet, solicitous of our emotional well-being. That pet is a fox that has learned to love.

To summarize, then: three billion years ago, life was set loose on the planet by the innovation of photosynthesis. Sometime during the last Ice Age, a miracle happened: a creature appeared that can give and receive love.

If I could impress any one thing upon my peers, it would be is this: To be alive in this short window, to express the capacity to love, is a unique and valuable gift. Through properly disciplined application of our skills, we allow our clients to manage their identity, empowering them to share love to the fullest degree.

To be a lay hypnotherapist is nigh unto being an angel. Be thus mindful.

When a client in trauma walks into our office, then, we extend them that commitment. We explain to them that we have had only a short while, in evolutionary terms, to learn how to love. Thus, in the normal course of affairs, love is the exception, but also the purpose our minds were meant to fulfill. Together, we commit to healing, to the conversion of our lived experience to discernment, and thus to focused and secure expression of our highest purpose through the refinement of our identities.

“Self” DevelopmentHistorically hypnosis was thought of as a quick method for reprogramming the subconscious. Through witness of stage hypnotism, this expectation is commonly held by prospective clients. Hypnotherapy for the purpose of identity management, however, orchestrates the capacities that allow us to learn and adapt. I find those capacities marvelous and amazing, and they are always in mind when I am formulating a therapeutic plan.

Of equal importance, our clients can discover hope through appreciation of those capacities. While client autonomy may be unappealing to those seeking a quick fix, the therapy always has deeper impact than the resolution of the presenting concern. When achieved, an improved relationship between the conscious and subconscious minds has long-lasting positive benefits. In explaining how the mind works to solve problems, the material below can inspire the client’s ambitions. Later in the book we will outline a process for client orientation that covers this point.


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The foundation of all learning is (classical) conditioning. The brain seeks to repeat behaviors that are rewarded and suppress behaviors that are punished. The simplest type of conditioning associates a signal (such as a bell) with a trigger (food) that stimulates an automatic behavior (salivation). Eventually the bell alone will cause salivation (Pav[1902]). A more flexible form of operant conditioning presents an accessible benefit (or imminent harm), leaving it to the subject to devise successful behaviors. Upon repetition, the behavior becomes more and more efficient, finally carried out unconsciously – without aborting other problem-solving.

At birth, the parent-child relationship is an intense conditioning process of varying comity. Using their mature sensory, motor, and mental capabilities, the parent has the advantage. Parental disposition naturally has a profound impact on the character of the child, extending to how the child learns.

The impact of parental disposition is demonstrated in the stranger scenario. The parent and child enter a room with toys and a stranger. When the child is playing comfortably, the parent leaves, returning after ten minutes.

The psychologists recognize four types of attachment responses in children (Ijz[1999]):

Secure – 60% of children actively welcome the parent and then return to play. Avoidant – 15% of children ignore the parent and continue to play. Ambiguous – 9% of children show emotional disturbance but return to play after comforting. Disorganized – 15% of children become agitated and panicky, indicating a need for comfort but

unwilling to approach the parent.

The responses correspond also to the child’s relationship to self and thus how they learn. Sometimes that response may be neurotic – the client may be resistant to change even when their behavior is recognized as disadvantageous. In converse order:

A disorganized child perceives the parent as an uncontrollable threat. In later life their ability to organize and process internal state is underdeveloped. The lay hypnotherapist will normally refer this client for clinical evaluation.

An ambiguously attached child cannot rely upon parental involvement but knows that outbursts will be rewarded with attention. In later years they are hypersensitive to internal state and unable to manage strong emotions. They seek adventure neurotically as it is associated with parental attention.

An avoidant child does not rely upon their parent as a source of support. They suppress awareness of body state as that information cannot be integrated into behaviors that bring relief. In later life they are generally anxious and hypersensitive to their environment, adopting a neurotically self-protective attitude.

A secure child has good balance between internal and external sensitivity, and healthy moods. Still, the tendency of their parents affects their learning strategy. An adventurous parent draws their child into challenging situations, instilling a mildly protective attitude that reflects their need to anticipate outcomes, and thereby to a certain degree inhibiting awareness of their internal state. A protective parent anticipates possible harm, leaving their child less aware of the threats presented by their environment but empowering the child to adventurously explore the possibilities of their own experience.


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We have introduced the endpoints on the scale of sociability: adventurer and protector. The adventurer readily builds trust, speaks at length, and processes information literally. The protector is hesitant to grant trust, speaks tersely, and tries to infer intention. As in the parent-child relationship, adults of opposite styles form a natural partnership.

And a frustrating interdependency. The adventurer brews anxiety in the protector; the protector foments rejection in the adventurer. In the pathological case, these reinforce each other.

As the child grows into independence, they become aware of opportunities that may conflict with parental preferences. In the prefrontal cortex (just behind the forehead), a model that reflects their personal preferences begins to evolve. This is the identity and presents the maturing child with the challenge of over-riding parental conditioning so that they can control their experience. Connections emerge from the prefrontal cortex and enter the primitive centers of the brain. In fostering behavior that corresponds to our chosen identity, these connections convert immature reactions into mature responses. Those responses may stimulate primitive behaviors or suppress them through secretion of gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA).

The formation of memories is profoundly altered by the emergence of the “I.” When actively engaged – when we are “attentive” – the conscious “self” factors into the coding of explicit memories. These memories are accessible to the waking self. Conversely, implicit memories are not so accessible, being information that is received passively or when the self is overwhelmed. However, these memories are known to the subconscious, and so affect our behavior. One of the advantages of hypnosis is that it brings the subconscious mind forward while the conscious mind is attentive, allowing us to make explicit what was implicit, and thus to reclaim “self”-control.

Of course, the subconscious retains control over how we do what we do and interprets our internal sensations to infer our state of being. Those two responsibilities – doing and being – consume 90% of our mental energy. As a complex biological system, we are susceptible to disruption in both areas. Too much doing leads to illness or injury. Too intense a state of being dilutes social sensitivity, often leading to hostile reactions that build further intensity until we become psychologically overwhelmed. The immature self, unfortunately, tends to test both limits.

To protect against collapse, the subconscious blocks the processing of conscious experience until we fall asleep. During sleep, we have two primary states: dreaming during REM, and restoration during NREM. These states alternate five times during a normal night. In successive cycles, the balance shifts from predominantly NREM to predominantly REM.

During NREM sleep, daily memories (in the hippocampus) are filtered and transferred to long-term memory (in the cerebral cortex). The filters select experiences based upon emotional intensity and perceived relevance. (The middle-school student thinking “this is useless” during class is conditioning himself to discard what is taught.) While this occurs, half the cells in the brain (glial cells) shrink in volume, allowing the cerebral-spinal fluid to carry waste-products toward the blood vessels for disposal.

During REM sleep, the subconscious does the mind-boggling work of reconciling the day’s experience with our behavior (our doing and being). While the psychologists have not determined which aspects occur in which stage of sleep, conceptually the following steps are necessary:

1. Assimilation - Replay the day’s events for transfer to long-term memory.


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2. Association – Identify behaviors that interact with the new experiences.3. Invention - Suppress logical expectation and fear and imagine new behaviors (Wal[2017]).4. Reconciliation – Evaluate the likely impact of the new behaviors on our being and doing.5. Venting - Get confirmation from the conscious mind prior to discarding old motivations.

These last dreams are those that we are most likely to remember, being the ones sent up as we are awakening. If the conscious mind panics, the subconscious may rehash a behavioral crisis every night until a resolution is found.

Over the course of the years, as our conscious and subconscious become more comfortably integrated, the conscious mind may be invited into steps 3 and 4 in a process known as lucid dreaming. The dreamer becomes aware of the dream and is presented the opportunity to influence its outcomes. Dream researchers learned how to train subjects to lucid dreaming (Lab[1980]), and the techniques were popularized for public practice. While sometimes beneficial in trauma therapy, my strong counsel is to allow the subconscious to open that door in its own timing.

This completes our survey of the mechanisms that define the self and allow us to adapt our behavior to our preferences. Before concluding, however, we must consider one more aspect of the process. As noted, maturity is only meaningful in the context of a relationship. Our doing and being is conditioned by the reactions of other people – either hostile or supportive. So how do we go about reconciling our preferences with theirs?

Here we return to the highest purpose of the mind – to express and receive love. In learning to create loving relationships, we must accomplish two contradictory things: change our behavior while sustaining that which is beneficial. Through rapport, we also guide others as they seek to learn to love us. This defines the second dimension in the lay hypnotherapist’s model of relationships, the dimension of nurturance. As a definition: masculine personalities foster change; feminine personalities tend to sustain.

In healthy nurturance, the masculine perspective observes the life context and counsels their charge to develop qualities that facilitate success. The feminine perspective, conversely, observes the qualities of their charge and seeks to create a context in which they are strengthened. Our preference is revealed in the relative diminishment of Father’s Day.

Nurturance has its pathologies. The easiest way to change something is to break it. Threatening to break something cherished by a victim (particularly their bodies) engenders fear. An immature masculine personality often finds it an effective method for coercing behavior. Impressed by the rewards of terrorism, the feminine personality may commit herself to amplifying those aspects of her mate’s character. Sexual gratification, for example, is a great way of building male testosterone levels, amplifying aggression. As women lock themselves inside their psychological castles, our social fabric frays and eventually tears.

While the genders male and female are predisposed respectively to masculine and feminine personalities, nurturance is not determined by biology. As with sociability, nurturance is fluid, and fully adult personalities express the character appropriate to the situation. When our attempts to change our relationship are met with resistance, demonstrating our commitment to conserve its benefits is often the best path forward. We will return to this topic in our discussion of personal development.


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Study of the MindThe lay hypnotherapist is a facilitator of personal growth. In that role, we are not allowed to choose the terms used by the client to describe their mind. This chapter provides an orientation to the history of study of the mind that accommodates most viewpoints. (A significant exception being the digital mind concept issuing recently from the artificial intelligence community.) Often the client’s understanding will not correspond perfectly with what is presented here. The therapist must decide which direction understanding should flow.

This role is most difficult when trying to bridge into psychiatry and psychotherapy. Trance is a shared mental state, and clinicians typical avoid spiritual engagement. This is often a matter of self-preservation. Clinical illnesses are powerful psychic traps that are held at bay in talk therapy and through psychotropic medication (Lew[2001]).

Still, the architecture of the brain corresponds to the landscape of spiritual experience. While in the previous chapter we maintained a focus on biological evolution, in fact Darwin was only half right. Life is the co-evolution of matter and spirit. In exploring the possibilities of its earthly incubator, spirit had to learn how to interact with the physical realm. While my emphasis on modern psychology may seem a bias towards materialism, in fact there is also correspondence with our nature in spirit.

The concepts presented here are grounded in a philosophy of physics that accommodates known science while allowing also for spiritual experience. Those interested in further study may wish to explore the “New Physics” and “Love Works” pages at everdeepening.com.

The Nature of ExistenceIn considering our nature, philosophers recognize three aspects: body, mind, and spirit. Those terms are ambiguous. If we have a spirit that persists after death, where are its memories stored? And if memories are stored in spirit, isn’t the mind partly in the spirit? In fact, to my awareness the mature mind resides primarily in the spirit.

Similarly, for the body: our automated behaviors are not implemented solely in the brain. Some are expressed even in peripheral nodes outside of the central nervous system. Does the body then, process information? And is it then not part of the mind?

The fuzziness of these boundaries forces us to allow that we have a mind-body-spirit triune existence. Since the three interpenetrate, perhaps the most meaningful distinctions concern their locus of effect. We might reserve to the body effects on the physical world around us; the spirit accumulates eternal qualities in the etheric realm; and the mind manages our emotions and thoughts.

Though even the last is subtle: ideas, properly understood, are etheric structures. Thoughts are contingent relationships between ideas, becoming ideas themselves when shared and accepted by others.

This squishiness characterizes the study of mind dating back to the ancients. From Athens, Socrates’ parable of the cave is illustrative (Pla[1941]). Paraphrasing: “We are all living in a cave looking at the shadows of outside events cast against the wall by the light through the entrance.” OK, Socrates, so what can we say is “true,” if our perceptions are only a shadow cast by reality? This complaint leads


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down the road of material reductionism: divide the world into discrete parts and study their interactions. The outcome is modern psychology with its rejection of spirit.

Or at least suppression of spiritual perceptions.

Concerning practice as a lay hypnotherapist, total acceptance of spiritual experience may be the greatest stretch for the materialist. Jungian psychotherapists go part way, but the entire goal of psychotherapy is to stabilize social experience. The psychiatric patient enters therapy lacking the capacity to conform their actions to social expectations. Often that is due to the intensity of their spiritual perception. The clinician’s goal is thus to moderate those signals.

The lay hypnotherapist does not have that remit, and to contradict a client’s honest spiritual witness often shatters rapport. As a physicist with explicit understanding of spiritual mechanism, I do not confront this dilemma. I consider the whole of spiritual experience to be rooted in physics, extending to telepathy, telekinesis, clairvoyance and clairaudience, out-of-body and near-death experiences, past and future lives, faith healing, deities, and demonic possession. Clients find this refreshing (to say the least).

In that milieu, fortunately, I have a simple and compelling argument that unconditional love is the evolutionary capstone:

Every personality desires love, for to be loved is to be offered power. Love as a principle seeks to illuminate marvelous possibilities among its partners, liberating their

energy for creative activity. As unconditional love desires nothing for itself, it cannot be corrupted. In fact, any attempt to

corrupt unconditional love drives it away, educating the selfish that they are working against their own interests.

Witnessing the value of diversity, all those personalities joined by unconditional love invite others into its presence, extending its influence.

Q.E.D.

The limiting factor of that expansion is accommodation of this constraint: “Oh my children, allow space for the virtue of your siblings!” Thus, by violation, do the mighty fall.

In the aspect of nurturance, we will observe spiritual differences. To create change, masculine clients must focus themselves in space and time. They tend to work miracles, rather than foresee contingencies. To sustain qualities found admirable, feminine personalities extend themselves in space and time. Contingencies abound, and they can become lost in them. A committed partnership – the feminine guiding and the masculine implementing – is potent and, where the feminine virtues are recognized, celebrated in both myth and story. The Christian Book of Revelation is a significant illustration, though currently misunderstood.

As an intensely masculine personality, I will illustrate these points with two brief anecdotes. Upon approaching me, a Ph.D. candidate in particle physics, a feminine seductress blurted “You are incredibly DENSE!” And later, a calculating debutante admitted “Oh. I guess that you do not need a woman to do your thinking for you.”


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Ancient Views on the MindDepending on where their pain lies, clients will focus on different aspects of experience, and describe the state of their minds in corresponding terms. A philosophical history is as good a method as any for surveying the possibilities.

The challenge of ancient culture was not just figuring out how to describe and manage human experience. While the expression of love is fostered in the human mind, spirit did not originate with us. It preceded physical reality and explores physical experience with the goal of managing spiritual associations. As they evolve, then, every species supports a spiritual gestalt (Jung called the human gestalt the “collective unconscious” (Jun[1959])).

Certain of those gestalts, recognizing human capacities and vulnerabilities, chose to offer collaborations beneficial to both sides. In tribal cultures, these were known as spirit guides. As sexual urges pushed children to rebel against parental control, they were subjected to a rite of passage. In such rites, the youth is forced alone into the wilderness and told to attend the arrival of their guide. The guides were attracted according to the qualities of the youth and benefited by ensuring sympathetic representation in tribal councils.

Ancient peoples did not kill all the game, as did the European invaders with the buffalo herds on America’s Great Plains.

Association with spirit guides continues into the modern era. It is the basis for the lycanthropy tales, absurdly distorted in modern filmmaking. It is not that the body transforms from human to wolf, but that the two spirits (human and lupine) trade bodies for a night.

The spirit guide practice was coopted in the development of religions. Heroes and saints are spirit guides modeled upon human exemplars. Gods represent reality’s organizing principles. In ancient Greece, for example, Zeus is master of thought, while Aphrodite concentrates attraction. These Olympian gods were preceded by Titans – perhaps remnants of Neanderthal spirituality – and portended the era of Dionysius in which humans will interact directly with the principles of reality. In the modern era that goal has been allocated to realization of the christos around the personality of Jesus of Nazareth, exemplar of unconditional love.

Obviously, we are not quite there yet.

What became clear to students of these traditions was that in the relationship with spirit guides, survival of our free will is conditioned upon cultivation of certain qualities of personality. This cultivation has been organized around principles described as energy centers (Hou[2006]).

Within Native American dream culture, teachers select students in which they discern potential and condition them through study of verb tenses reserved to description of dream experience (Ted[1999]). The dream world exists in another realm. Of interest is that in that realm, animal souls appear as people.

On the Indian subcontinent, the Vedic teachings mapped a growth to maturity called the chakras. Behaviors are organized as energy centers on the spine corresponding in part to the functions of the tissues and organs managed by the spreading nerves. Mastery of lower, more primitive centers is advisable to ensure effective assimilation of the next. That is not a requirement, however, and in fact in modern society I believe that we are hollow in the fourth chakra, centered in the heart, as the free


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market system tends to organize our behavior around primitive desires (first three chakras) and self-serving ambitions (corruptions of the fifth and sixth).

I will offer a version of the chakras in my writing on personal development, recast to organize our work as lay hypnotherapists.

The chakra system is not unique. The Jewish qabalah, a syncretic appropriation of Egyptian Hermeneutic teachings, has ten such energy centers, with correspondence in the higher centers to the structure of reality described at everdeepening.com (a source of some caution to me during its publication). The Native American tribal cultures taught a system of ten levels that yields mastery of the self, segueing into repetition by the community under the guidance of their shaman. The shaman anchors the formation of a gestalt.

In a sense, energy center systems are spirit guides without the personification. Perhaps reflecting jealous outrage over this demotion, among the Buddhist gurus, mastery of the energy centers attracted demonic attack (Sim[2001]). A measure of the guru’s greatness was in his (or her) ability to resist temptation and redeem the perverted spirits. The spirit guides of Shamballa Buddhism are female carnal demons that use their flaying instruments to refine the seeker’s intentions on the journey toward enlightenment. In some sense Buddhism seems to be about demon redemption!?!?!

The progressive abstraction of spirit guides gave us energy center teachings that facilitate the exploration of human potential. That came with a cost, though: other forms of life have a more detailed experience of reality than we. Bacteria are an example, but so are creepy-crawlies of all types. Our bacterial symbiotes are essential to our survival, and those in our gut produce many of the complex chemicals that support proper functioning of the brain.

I am thus sympathetic to the modern reinvention of earth-centered spirituality. If we are to restore the ecology we are destroying, we need the active participation of things we have ignored, things that are often willing to participate when asked considerately.

ReligionDefining spirituality as “negotiation of the boundaries between ‘I’ and ‘we,’” religions systematize our orientation to that process. To that end, they regulate behavior, guide situational ethics, and reassure us that life has meaning. An example of the first is “Thou shalt not murder.” As to the second, the Mahabharata records the Hindu deity Krishna admonishing the temporizing prince before battle, “Act!” And, ultimately, we are told – almost universally – that the virtuous will gain a realm that allows them an eternity to realize their most cherished ambitions.

Where religion goes terribly awry is in theological escalation. As a philosophical proposition, we should worship only the most powerful deity possible – for otherwise why not barter among them? (This being the downfall of polytheism, as independently recognized by Abram and Socrates.) The logical conclusion is that the deity of preference must be all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-consuming.

*blurp*

Philosophically this reaches absolutist endpoints. Aristotle asserted that God was the “unmoved mover” who observes reality’s operation without participation (Ari[-]). In opposition we have the belief that God destroys and recreates the universe in each instant.


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Subscription does have virtues. Maintenance of the higher functions of the brain requires energy – a great deal of it. When our choices are dominated by dangers beyond our control, that investment is counterproductive. Fight/flight is advantageous, and hormones released from the adrenal glands dissolve the networks that encode our dysfunctional identity, frustrated priorities, and ineffectual planning (Bel[2001]). In fact, to sustain fight/flight indefinitely, the inferencing capabilities of the prefrontal cortex turn to catastrophizing – predicting the worst in every situation.

Surrendering control to a higher power is a method for interrupting that downward psychological slide. Perhaps for this reason, as observed by John Hall (Hal[1986]), every great culture is organized around a monotheistic, redemptive religion (identified by Hall as the traditions of Abraham, Vedism and its progeny, and the Chinese Dao). God/Brahma/Dao is in charge, and virtue will be rewarded. Thus “fear not,” see the world clearly, plan, and act for mutual benefit.

A prescription for both learning to love and propagation of a culture.

The defect is the presumption of perfection, which entails that the truth of the deity’s character is revealed in every attributed act. Given that unconditional love is the apex of spiritual evolution, however, the divine aspiration is not fixed truth, but infinite possibility. For this reason, unconditional love is permissive – it allows its children to hurt each other as a method for instilling the virtue of restraint.

The endpoint of that education is the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” with the implicit – and often over-glossed – continuation “were you in their shoes.” Comparative study recognizes this as the common precept of our great religions.

Still, propagation of the light requires institutions for education and ministry, and those institutions compete for resources. Following the Mongol sack of the Central Asian steppes, among the outrageous displays was a convocation of theologians in Ulan Bator, gathered for certification by the Khan. Drawn by the lure of Mongol riches, the competitors left frustrated. The Mongols remained loyal to the Great Spirit of the Mountain (Wea[2004]).

Once established, however, religious leaders need resources to sustain their institutions. For a long while intellectual sophistication sufficed. Nobles were happy to pay the lettered priests to manage their affairs (Rid[2008]). Inevitably, donors became wily, and demanded authoritative reassurance that their investment would be rewarded in the afterlife. Thus, we enter again into monotheistic escalation – with a vicious twist. Not only must the deity be perfect, but also the representing institutions and leaders. The corrupt endpoint is the theology of wealth: the donor is assured that virtue is rewarded not in the next world, but by riches in this life. “Pay to play.” The slippery slope leads to religiosity that rationalizes rapacious greed, political tyranny, and narcissism in private life.

Everyone fears. The wealthy fear poverty. And, despite their bluster, the religious hypocrite fears God.

The lay hypnotherapist will encounter many clients that suffer spiritual trauma – the wreckage left by religious hypocrites seeking to appropriate divine authority. The wise deflect focus from religious hierarchy toward original scripture and simple works of faith. The therapist is advised to have parables at hand, though only if they derive from honest belief. If you confront a religious defense that contradicts your views, refer out to a competent peer.


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Paradoxically, it was from the debate over predestination and evidence of virtue in this life that Protestantism spawned self-introspection, now enshrined in the modern obsession with psychology (Wat[2005]).

PsychologyAs the dominant view in our era, we will not surf the history of psychology – which is traumatizing, I am sad to say (Har[2019]). The intentions of practitioners are laudable, but the problem is of industrial scale (Kol[2014]). Commercialization is driven by profit, not efficacy.

I am not suggesting that every lay hypnotherapist should master this material, but some core group must follow these threads and keep the psychologists honest. Their megaphones also reach many ears, and clients will come to us with prescriptions for therapy based upon partial understanding. It helps to be able to talk them back to the view that within themselves they have the resources necessary to heal.

We start with a survey of the biochemistry of learning and mastery. Currently the pharmaceutical industry is pushing neurotransmitter agonists and antagonists as the cure for all mental illness. But neurotransmitters are not the whole story of learning, and serve mostly to instill docility, rather than heal the personality (Kol[2014]). The practices offered later in this book are a compelling alternative.

Biochemistry of LearningInformation processing in the brain is performed by neurons. A neuron receives signals through a thicket of dendrites and extends an axon that passes signals forward. Links between axons and dendrites control the flow of information in the brain. Signals from the axon can either stimulate or suppress firing by the next neuron.

Along axons and dendrites, information moves as an electrical signal. At the synapse or gap between axon and dendrite, the signal is transmitted as a burst of chemicals called neurotransmitters. (Neurotransmitters are also used to transmit signals between neurons and their target tissues.) If the transmitting neuron has insufficient stock of the neurotransmitter, the signal will be dropped at the synapse. On the dendrite we find receptors for the neurotransmitter, and the signal may be blocked if these are occupied by another chemical. Together these factors control the amplification at the synapse: the likelihood that a signal arriving at the axon will be accepted by the dendrite.

To prevent mess and depletion, neurons reabsorb their neurotransmitters. Still, some of the molecules end up floating around in the brain fluid. To prevent interference between neural networks, the brain has many different types of neurotransmitter – more than 100, at last count. Pharmacologists focus on a small number related to extreme emotional disturbance and pain: norepinephrine (anxiety), dopamine (significance), endorphin (pain), epinephrine (conflict), and serotonin (reward). Unfortunately, twiddling these knobs messes with our overall motivation, and affects other networks and sensitized tissues.

Signals take time to propagate along neurons, and the timing must be refined to maintain coordination. This is accomplished by winding of myelin around axons. A fully coated axon may pass signals up to 100 times faster than a bare axon. This feature is used to distinguish signals by priority (such as forms of pain) but is principally used to speed thinking. Through determined practice, we incrementally coat the entire network that implements a skill (such as rhyming words or playing chess) and think up to 100 times faster than before mastery.


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As with muscles, active regions of the brain attract blood flow to deliver resources and remove waste. The primary flow through arteries and veins affects entire lobes and adjusts on time scales of up to ten seconds. Over the long term, the density of vessels and capillaries also adapts. Control of blood flow is one means for emphasizing or suppressing operation of the supplied networks.

As what we think about this season may be irrelevant in the next, the brain tends to reclaim what is not actively in use. John Galway, preeminent flautist of the modern era, notes that when he skips one day of practice before a performance, he notices. Two days, and a music critic will carp. Three days, and the audience may be disappointed. For everyone – and particularly later in life – heed the dictum “Use it or lose it.”

The adaptability of the brain is characterized as plasticity. Where once it was believed that this applied only to the configuration of neurons, the brain continues to produce neurons even after birth. However, the capacity to heal from injury is limited. Plaque buildup, strokes, lesions from concussions, and scarring from disease all disrupt brain function that can be recovered readily only in the cortex, and then only by retraining.

NeurophysiologyWhile it is impossible to analyze the pattern of connections in the brain without damaging them, modern science has techniques for assessing overall activity. Positron emission tomography (PET) is used to monitor metabolic activity (amount of energy consumed in each region). Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) reveals brain structure, and a more specific analysis (functional MRI, or fMRI) maps the presence of tracer chemicals. Both methods are used to identify the regions involved in particular behaviors.

My sense is that the resolution of PET and fMRI is still insufficient to resolve specific functional assignments. Journal articles assign several functions to discernable regions, and the relationships are not always obvious.

Prior to the development of imaging technologies, the functional assignment was possible only through assessment of a patient with brain damage. These studies are the primary justification for the conclusion that the brain is the mind: damage the brain, and functions are lost. Without dwelling on possible mechanisms, I note that damage to a radio receiver or network card cuts off information flow, disrupting dependent functions. If the brain is in part a multi-channel spiritual receiver, then spirit has a means to affect and enhance its operation.

If true (as I am certain), we can imagine implementations for functions that otherwise seem incompatible with the architecture of the cortex, including long-term memory. The brain may time-travel, which could explain much regarding the symptoms of those suffering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Putting spirit aside for the moment, let us survey what is understood about the functional organization of the brain.

The Triune BrainLooking at the animals, we see similarities that prove the human brain evolved continuously from an ancient source. Just above the spinal cord sits the brain stem, controller of involuntary functions such as breathing and heart rate. The cerebellum coordinates complex movements. Voluntary functions such as


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feeding and mating are implemented in the cerebrum. All vertebrates have these parts of the brain, with the reptiles showing the most complex development.

In mammals, the cerebrum divides further into the limbic system and the cerebral cortex. The limbic system manages emotions, controls organs, and is involved in learning and memory. The cerebral cortex is coated with grey matter consisting of cell bodies, surrounding white matter comprised of the axons that carry signals between regions. The cerebral cortex is divided by creases and folds into lobes.

We should understand the structure of the cortex (Haw[2005]). In area, the surface is about that of an unfolded napkin. Signals arrive at the bottom and percolate through six cell layers to the surface. The sixth layer projects to another region of the brain, which often returns a signal. We can think of the first five layers as a category generator, and the sixth layer as a comparison stage.

To illustrate the problem: imagine that you see a picture of a squashed circle. Knowing about rectangles and circles, you might conclude reasonably that this is a rounded rectangle. How does that work? Well, the actual image matches equally well against the circle and the rectangle filters in stages 1-5. From the geometry region of the brain we have a return signal that generates the ideal of each. The brain compares those ideals to the actual image and chooses one. To avoid confusion, of course, the geometry region does not project “triangle” as an option, as the actual image did not generate that as a reasonable match.

The Ancient Greeks ratified this categorization in Aristotelean logic, illustrated with the famous syllogism: “All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore, Socrates is mortal.” The only dispute is whether the ideals are visible in the world or originate (as taught by Plato) in the realm of pure spirit. Seeing ideas as etheric structures, I tend to Plato’s view.

In humans, the cerebral lobes are amazing in their complexity. The occipital lobe interprets our vision. The temporal lobe, important in language and visual memory, categorizes phenomena and recognizes associations among them. The insula cortex synthesizes complex emotions, controls physiological state, and manages social motivation. The parietal lobe is devoted to monitoring of our physiological state, including body positioning.

The final major lobe is the frontal lobe. This is the seat of will and consciousness, planning our movements and speech, directing our attention, anticipating outcomes, and organizing our identity and relationships. In executing these functions, it processes signals from the rest of the brain that abstract our experience, and projects axons that regulate natural (conditioned) reactions. To illustrate: when the occipital and temporal lobes report “mosquito” the frontal lobe organizes the “swat” response.

Functional PurposeThe brain is a highly adaptive organ. It seeks to optimize outcomes based upon our experience, progressing from the most basic needs as infants to grand social projects in maturity. Initially the adaptation is driven by external conditioning that trigger reactions to stimulus. As we absorb expectations from family and society, we use inference and logic to generate responses to events.

In lay hypnotherapy, it is essential to remember that the networks that trigger reactions are the foundation for the networks that generate responses. Particularly in the cerebral cortex, the formation of those associations is opportunistic, and if a developmental stage is delayed, the supporting region


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may be allocated to other functions. To illustrate, a child with congenital deafness cannot learn language after receiving a hearing implant – unless they were taught some sign language as an infant (Lev[2020]).

SurvivalAt the bottom of the hierarchy is management of our metabolism. We have two core states – the fight/flight reaction coordinated by the sympathetic nervous system, and homeostasis coordinated by the parasympathetic nervous system. Fight/flight allocates resources to muscles and prepares the body to control harm by releasing inflammation-causing histamines into the blood. Upon returning to homeostasis, energy is channeled into feeding, procreation, and recovery/healing.

In the animal kingdom, fight/flight is active only for 30 seconds or so, after which the individual shakes off muscular tension. Back in homeostasis, the brain identifies beneficial foods, with individual preferences controlled to a great degree by the bacterial biome in our gut. Diversity and distribution of the bacteria are sensitive, as the body relies upon them to synthesize many essential molecules.

In humans the fight/flight reaction can persist almost indefinitely under the command of our frontal lobe. This changes the balance of energy allocation, distorting our dietary preferences. Chronic inflammation generates stress in our tissues, including weakened vasculature and depleted immune response.

The principal determinant of wellness span (the number of years of vital living) is control of stress; the degenerative diseases of old age (diabetes, heart disease, dementia, pulmonary disease, cancer, etc.) are genetic predispositions, but childhood conditioning to chronic stress is the strongest predictor of incidence (Lev[2020]).

MotionPrior to the development of language, the infant relies upon gesture to indicate preference. Pushing away and pulling toward are so strongly linked to preference that they betray hidden motivations. Body posture is also related to emotion and social intention. This early childhood conditioning persists into adulthood as an aid to communication.

When social constraints prevent the expression of emotion through physical gestures (particularly those related to familial conditioning), the prefrontal cortex may lock the joint to suppress the reaction. The cue is not “relax” but “do not move!” Under sustained tension, muscles harden and ossify, bringing intense pain. According to John Sarno, discoverer of tension myositis syndrome (TMS), this is the cause of almost all back pain and is linked to other migratory pain conditions (Oza[2018]). Muscular tension generalizes to many other types of body syndrome. When the prefrontal cortex suppresses a behavior linked to hormones or organ, the subconscious may go so far as to reduce blood flow to the tissue. Tissue degeneration and organ failure may follow.

The spatial reasoning networks that allow us to navigate natural settings are the foundation for our semantic memory (categories of things). As we age, both balance and semantic memory are sustained by walking in a natural setting (Lev[2020]).

Sensory ProcessingOur behaviors are driven by sensation. In facilitating behavioral change, the sensory environment can be a factor. This pertains to all contexts: a staple of team-building exercises is a guided meditation that encourages participants to imagine their private paradise.


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We pay attention to signals that are important to our wellness, a principle known as conditioning bias. Infants without rich visual stimulus may focus on sound. Those frequently stroked and massaged may focus on touch. This feeds into our learning patterns. Some prefer to read, some to hear, and others to do. The preferred method is the best way of channeling experience into behavior. As speech is used to negotiate behaviors, this is also evident in spoken metaphors. (“I see/hear/feel you,” and not to exclude smell and gustatory: “That left a bad odor/taste.”)

As noted in our discussion of attachment, parental disinterest may suppress the infant’s sensitivity to body state.

While later in life we may say that our behavior is motivated by “fairness” or “patriotism,” those are abstractions rooted in lived experience. After losing his legs in combat, a veteran may find that those principles mean something different than they did as an able-bodied cadet. Conversely, our expectation for experience filters our sensation. The snow bunny sees a slope of white, while the expert skier picks out powder and crust and ice. The therapist will discover that refining sensory sensibility is important in facilitation of behavior change.

As we age and sensory acuity declines, our cognition assumes the burden of inference from incomplete context Lev[2020]. This shift empowers the elderly rapidly to grasp the gist of a situation while the youth are running around “causing a sensation” for each other.

The therapist should be conscious of synesthesia which mixes sensory channels. Sound can excite colors, textures can excite sounds, and so on.

ArousalThe limbic system generates moods that focus our attention and drive social motivations. The most prevalent are fear and euphoria. Focused in the amygdala, fear promotes isolation and defense; from the striatum, euphoria promotes intimacy and generosity. Neither is sustainable in the long run. While neutrality may seem the preferred baseline, childhood attachment pushes us one way or the other.

Mood imbalance can progress to clinical conditions, most notably depression and mania. The prefrontal cortex can restore balance. That capacity is suppressed by chronic anxiety, insomnia, or dietary deficiency.

Arousal is a state of focused attention, so flat mood may interfere with learning as well as suppressing motivation. An interesting alternative is play. In combining risk and reassurance, play stimulates both fear and euphoria. No wonder it facilitates learning and creativity!

MemoryMemory is another system that grows in layers with our cognitive sophistication. Stores of facts, sequences (procedural), and meaning (semantic) form separately, and degrade independently in old age.

We also have two stores of memory: daily memory in the hippocampus and permanent memory in the cerebral cortex. Transfer from daily to permanent occurs during NREM sleep. Damage to the hippocampus can prevent the assimilation of new memories.

With the development in the prefrontal cortex of identity and conscious awareness, we have a further division of memory: implicit and explicit. Explicit memories contain the details of experience that we


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paid attention to; implicit memories comprise the residue that cannot be called to mind while awake. The difference would appear to be the association of the “self” with the information.

Many quirks of behavior are derived from implicit memories. They still reside down in the subconscious and continue to influence our actions. Resurrecting these memories can facilitate change but should be pursued with caution. The mind may block access to memories that cannot be faced without causing panic. As trauma is a primary cause of clinical conditions (Kol[2014]), clients indicating the possibility of trauma should always be referred for clinical evaluation.

As the innovation of identity appears to suppress the memories of early childhood (“’I’ was not involved in that!”), as we age decay of our identity may also cause explicit memories to fade.

Having studied the structure of the cortex, I cannot conceive how memories are captured there. A simpler and more productive explanation is that the brain is a time-travel device. Memory reaches into the past and anticipation toward the future. As access to memories is distributed throughout the cerebral cortex, reconstruction may become distorted if our most powerful associations to a behavior or emotion are scattered across time. In other words: different parts of the brain can connect with different moments in time.

This is the only possible explanation for what occurs when we investigate alternate lives (whether past or future).

CommunicationAmong primitive creatures (and barbaric humans), the unfolding of reality is negotiated through physical action. The lion eats the impala; the flower entices the bee.

Through language, humans can negotiate before acting. Naturally, then, talk is cheap.

Perhaps reflecting that fact, we have two speech centers, one for expression and one for reception. In our information-rich age, those centers are so frequently active that we are often not conscious of their interaction with the lower layers of mental processing. Words correspond to states and actions. What we envision is abstracted, and what we receive percolates down seeking a corresponding experience. Congruence is not guaranteed – a fact counted on by illusionists.

Words are only a quarter of our expression, which also includes tone, touch, gesture, and expression. These all operate without the structure of grammar, and so bypass the frontal lobe. Subtle emotional cues – many cross-cultural – build a rhythm of connection that supplements the abstract language. Eventually we achieve a rapport that allows us to accurately infer each other’s physiological state. In the absence of dissonance, that progresses to spiritual intimacy that entangles our thoughts and dreams.

Rapport arises sympathetically in musical celebration. We have only a single musical center in the brain, so the music we make mingles with the music we hear, dissolving our sense of separation. Dance adds another dimension to the process. Removing the music, we have mandala walks that entrain us in a shared activity while confronting us with the individuality of the other in passing.

Therapists have methods for establishing rapport that allow us to witness change without injecting our own agenda. The formal procedures of hypnosis allow us to disentangle gracefully at the end of therapy. Reiki practitioners have a parallel practice of physical gestures and meditative focus.


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People of strong will can impose subjugation on their subordinates, with violence and sexual intercourse facilitating access. These experiences batter through the higher layers of personality. Boundaries can be restored through meditation and therapy; recovery from psychic wounds is often best accomplished in dreams.

IntentionUpon the foundation of the lower layers of the mind, we each choose our path into the forest of life. Parts of the forest are unspoiled, and parts have been cultivated. Some of us see life as a wondrous playground; to some it offers resources to be consumed; some see it as full of danger.

Prior to formation of our identity, we explore with the simplest possible goals: grow and survive. Pleasure and pain are secondary to those two. Perhaps not coincidentally, the identity forms when we have strength to explore life independently. In that exploration, our goals become more subtle. Pain and pleasure are differentiated in varieties. According to our sensibilities, we may indulge curiosity or paranoia or intimidation or tenderness. In their conscious exploration, we enter the realm of intention.

Intention is contingent. We examine the past and seek influence over the future. Our ability to make that connection assumes stability. That stability may be upset by natural forces (a bumper crop or an epidemic) or by social change (loss of a job or falling in love). To avoid feeling lost in the tumult of life, we need to have a way of negotiating with “self” that ensures that “I” am still important. Three are common: design, story, and introspection.

In the modern era, the methods of science are seductive. Science categorizes natural phenomena and builds theories that predict the outcome of their interactions. It uses analysis, logic, and mathematics. By those methods, we can design structures and products that allow us to avoid harm, and so to avoid disruption of our intentions.

As living creatures are composed of natural elements and disturb the natural world, scientific rules can apply to our behavior. We need a certain number of calories each day; if we consume more, we gain weight. If an upstream city discards waste into a river, those downstream suffer with noxious odors and disease. Most of these rules pertain to growth and survival, however, rather than expression of our identity.

Though we must admit that scientific methods have been corrupted by sociopaths whose only intention is to maximize the number of digits in their bank account balance.

Rather than mathematics, empathy, harmony, and joy are essential guides for those of us seeking satisfying relationships. Anthropologists tell us that their realization is culture specific. We are conditioned in childhood to associate well-being with certain rituals: clothing, food, celebrations, and expressions of authority. That conditioning also extends to perpetuation of those rituals, creating social consistency that helps others anticipate our intentions and respond intelligently and collaboratively (hopefully).

Expression of rituals is contingent upon social standing: the poor appear alone in court with a marriage license while thousands attend royalty at Westminster Abbey. Reconciling those differences is usually done through story telling.


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A story begins with the framing of a crisis and explores the response by recognizable characters. Listeners project themselves into a role, stimulated perhaps by an elder’s judgment that used a turn of phrase drawn from the tale. Friends and family members may be seen in other characters. The story’s resolution is then a model for real life. Even when the correspondence is inexact, the story provides a framework for discussion, analysis, and negotiation with our intimates.

The power of story is essential to social stability and transformation. The frog prince tale guides young women confronted with immaturity in their suitors. In inspiring the displaced French king, Joan of Arc closely modeled the role played by a fairy in a popular tale.

In establishing social conventions and values, stories interact with law and religious dogma.

Law generalizes situations and outcomes and uses the threat of violence to constrain our conduct. Those standards arose from stories collected as history, a fact evident in the relationship between tragedy and the development of law. Enron cooked their books to avoid scrutiny of their business practices, and in response Congress made executives criminally responsible for corporate financial reports. Now executives complain that it is “too hard” to do business. Repetition softens public outrage, and Congress may act to loosen regulation.

But where law is found, we tend toward logic and deduction rather than intuition and empathy.

While they may promulgate rules, religions also generalize in the opposite direction – in the realm of personal motivation. Virtues and vices are catalogued and illustrated by stories. Our elders use religious terms to describe our conduct, building identification. In using those terms to describe ourselves, we allow our peers to anticipate our response to their actions, and thus to manage conflict. Later we may cultivate the qualities of a personal or social hero, and so modify our behavior through self-criticism.

Failing to cultivate an abstract concept of self has tragic consequences upon retirement. When the employment story ends, the individual with an unexamined life loses identity along with routine and peers. Even the identity at home, anchored as bread winner, is undermined. Happily, the introspective individual with a sense of personal character steps forward purposefully to seek new opportunities for expression of virtue.

Consideration of the dynamic interplay between “self” and “other” occurs in the prefrontal cortex. Through projection of axons into the primitive brain centers, that extends to modification of our character.

Design, story, and introspection allow us to foresee future outcomes. They allow us to weigh costs and benefits, the better to pursue a rewarding course. They prepare us to accept that success involves compromise and sacrifice. In guiding us thorough consideration of natural, social, and personal impacts, the three together allow us to confidently state of our efforts, “I intended for that to happen.”

“I” writes my own story.

Once intention is firmly established, it feeds back into our sensory system. The reticulating activating system (RAS) presents to us evidence that fulfills our expectations. That information fills our explicit memory; what does not fit is passed to the implicit store in the subconscious.


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IntegrationOur survey of mental functions was organized around the theme of identity. In this section, we will emphasize themes essential to development of a balanced personality.

Horizontal IntegrationIf an animal is wounded on the left side of the body, it will lead with the right side when engaging the world. That exposes the brain on the right side as well. To prevent an injury on the exposed right side of the head from disabling the strong right side of the body, in our ancient evolutionary past, control of the sides of the body switched in the brain. The left side of the brain senses and controls the right side of our body. This is the driving factor in brain bilaterality: the separation of function in the left and right hemispheres.

More recently in our evolution, the responsibility for language migrated to the left hemisphere of the brain, while musicality (our appreciation for emotional nuance in tone and harmony) was focused on the right. We can see how sequencing of actions is related to language – we speak one word at a time. The left hemisphere may have specialized to reconstruct sequence at a much earlier stage of brain evolution. The right hemisphere was then left to assess context, identifying resources and dangers without concern for which exactly arrived first.

This difference – recognition versus sequence – is the core functional difference in brain bilaterality. The right hemisphere is more mature at birth, aiding in maternal bonding. After all, the infant cannot control when mother arrives – it just needs to attract her attention and know when she is there. During infancy, the development of the brain oscillates back and forth between the hemispheres, corresponding to the need for specific mental and social skills (Coz[2006]).

At maturity, the right hemisphere is responsible for the left side of the body. It assesses context, recognizes objects and manages emotions in preconscious processing. This makes for some humbling romantic circumstances: a desirable person walks into the room. After the “I want that” signal is sent up by the right hemisphere, the left hemisphere sets about making up stories to justify our attraction. (“I can tell that they love children.”) Three months later we wake up in bed with them and realize that they are not at all who we thought they were.

Sufferers of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder revert to reliance on the right hemisphere (Kol[2014]). Trauma occurs when an experience overwhelms the identity’s ability to construct an organized response. The maternal conditioning to restore homeostasis is discarded. Recovery proceeds through a laborious process of self-conditioning that reconstructs that discipline.

The left hemisphere is responsible for the right side of the body. It processes speech and makes deductions in conscious processing. If overly dominant, we find ourselves stating the obvious to a smaller and smaller circle of friends.

Attachment drives hemispherical preference. Adventurers tend to be “right-brain” while protectors are “left-brain.” This colors their response to an event. After adventurers register an event, they display a physical response and then feel emotion. Protectors channel the response inwardly, and so feel emotion before displaying a physical response.

Through its early role in maternal bonding, the right brain also tends to be sensitive to female relationship dynamics, leaving male relationship dynamics to the left. We therefore project emotional


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difficulties in our relationships into the opposing sides of the body. Anxiety over male figures lands in the right side of the body; female in the left.

Hemispherical balance is often associated with artistic creativity. Fluidly switching between a coherent view of the whole (right) and formulating process and critiquing aesthetic (left) is an advantage to creative people. On the flip side, hemispherical balance is also associated with hypersuggestibility. The buck keeps on passing from side to side, each hemisphere triggering the activity of the other, until reality has trouble breaking in.

Vertical IntegrationBecause development of our conscious identity creates holes in our memory, our reactions to events are not always consistent with our self-image. Recognizing and reconciling those disconnects is the challenge of vertical integration. We will turn to this in the second part of the book.

Vertical layering (from metabolism to identity) is also evidenced in our brain wave states. Corresponding to our arousal, the electrical activity in the brain accelerates. Those shifts can also come with profound changes in the interaction between the centers of the brain.

The delta state corresponds to dreamless or NREM sleep (Wal[2017]). As the lowest state of arousal, it displays the lowest frequency, between 0.5 and 4 Hz. The pattern of neural firing is unique: pulses called sleep spindles are emitted by the prefrontal cortex and sweep over the cortex from front to back. This coordinating firing correlates with shrining of glial cells and increased flow of cerebral-spinal fluid, facilitating a purge of metabolic waste. NREM sleep is also important for memory consolidation.

The theta state corresponds to dreaming or REM sleep (Wal[2017]). Activity runs between 4 and 7 Hz. The pattern of brain activity mimics waking activity, with two major exceptions. The networks that manage anxiety and identity are suppressed, and communication with the body is suspended.

Particularly for those suffering from hypersuggestibility, the deactivation of sleep paralysis can be imperfectly coordinated with the theta state. Adventurers may pass signals through the barrier while dreaming and sleepwalk. Their inability to remember their nocturnal activities indicates that the events are stored in implicit memory – as expected in a state of suspended awareness of identity. Protectors tend to activate their identity early and panic when they discover they cannot move their bodies.

The alpha state corresponds to restful waking. Activity runs from 8 to 15 Hz. Control of the body is channeled through the parasympathetic nervous system. This is homeostasis, with a focus on healing, growth, learning, and socialization. Given a well-formed identity, this is the most effective state for assimilating experience, with balance between awareness and cognition. It is also a state that tends to be inaccessible to those locked in social competition.

The beta state corresponds to an aroused waking state. Activity runs from 16 to 31 Hz. Control of the body is channeled through the sympathetic nervous system. This is arousal, or fight/flight. Behavior is focused on survival. Chronic arousal leads to metabolic exhaustion and decay of cognition and identity.

The gamma state corresponds to a heightened contemplative state, usually seen only in those who have harmonized identity and behavior. Activity runs from 32 to 100 Hz. Response to events is fully integrated in real time, and decision-making is informed by spiritual intuition as well as cognition and conditioning.


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Other waking brain wave states have been identified, generally associated with pathological conditions such as epilepsy. If these are revealed by the client, the lay hypnotherapist should refer out for therapy.

Temporal IntegrationRecognizing that the identity forms in childhood, we might not be surprised that a new mother can suffer from a depressing conclusion that she is lost her self to her child. In children, witnessing mortality can shake confidence in the survival of their identity, inducing chronic anxiety.

Rapid change of any sort can overwhelm our “self”-confidence. (Winning the lottery is paradoxical case.) Reconstruction is a problem of temporal integration. The mechanisms are diverse.

Narrative development starts with sharing our history with trusted intimates or therapists. This creates an intentional framework for contemplation of the future, supporting reassertion of our identity. Once we turn our attention to a fulfilled future, we can begin to envision a path toward it.

In the normal course of development, the assertion of identity at the end of childhood is only the first of a series of crises that challenge social harmony. Eric and Joan Erickson outlined the normal course in their Stages of Development. As the stages frame narrative development, we will elaborate further in the second part of the book.

Crisis often involves invasion of our identity by others. Introspective meditation builds self-awareness that empowers spiritual house-cleaning. We can set up boundaries that ensure our response to events is authentically ours, without corruption by a conflicted spiritual gestalt.

When crisis tips over into trauma, sufferers may report that in daily interaction the conscious self seems to look on from the outside. In the subconscious, a part of the personality may live on as it was before the trauma occurred. When the subconscious concludes it is safe to confront old wounds, re-integration can happen naturally through dreams. These dreams are a form of spiritual bypass, a gentle practice for recovering optimism and joy trapped behind the trauma.

Mental IllnessWellness is a subtle physical, mental, and spiritual balance. What we call “mental illness” is usually an obsession with mental or spiritual concerns that manifests in physical harm to self or others. The obsession is often with painful memories (trauma), but also may arise from over-indulgence of a creative imagination.

Many of our most brilliant minds fall out of mental or spiritual balance and must be supported to avoid self-harm. Their symptoms are not infrequently classified as schizophrenic or bipolar. Understanding thought as the development of associations with ideas held in Jung’s collective unconscious, I find it to be expected that until trained in boundary management techniques, those that pursue ideas are susceptible to spiritual assault.

Physical imbalance can also cause mental dysfunction that degenerates toward harm. When deprived of fuel and resources, the brain shifts focus to basic survival functions. As the subconscious is revealed, it loses the narratives and logic that allow us to manage social competition. To simplify decision-making, the mind tends toward paranoia and prejudice.

For therapists, association with a wounded or compromised mind poses real dangers. Early practitioners committed to ongoing analysis by a mentor or peer. As the profession grew, so grew dependency upon


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physical restraints, surgery, and pharmacology. I intend this as a simple statement of fact, not an indictment. We started learning to love roughly 30,000 years ago. Most of the history of life of Earth has involved mental states that correspond to human trauma. The psychic overhang is heavy and unstable. Propagation from generation to generation occurs through substance abuse, sexual assault, and violence. Not many can walk in its shadow without risk.

Of the three courses of treatment, pharmacology appears most humane, but the targeted neurotransmitters are involved in motivation (Kol[2014]). Self-control and learning are both affected, and those prescribed psychoactive drugs in childhood are at risk of adult dependency.

While hypnotherapy is a powerful tool, lay practitioners should be judicious when screening clients. Psychiatry is producing techniques such as eye movement desensitization and reintegration (EMDR) and polyvagal therapies. Both have the flavor of self-hypnosis and seem to help patients break obsessive thought patterns without the psychic entanglements of trance.

Positive PsychologyI am deeply sympathetic to the growing emphasis on positive psychology – the organized propagation of science-based narratives that guide people out of stress reactions and therefore toward psychological wellness (see, for example, Ach[2010]). While not explicitly declared, this chapter is full of such narratives.

My suspicious mind wonders whether “Leave It to Beaver” and “Maybury, R.F.C.” were not both early experiments in positive psychology. In modeling coping strategies for encounters with underdeveloped minds, they may have helped vulnerable people recognize supportive characters in their personal stories, and thus avoid mental illness.

What is even more heartening, though, is to see communities of the alternatively enabled take control of constructing their own narratives. This is most evident in the autistic community, often described as “on the spectrum,” and blessed with intense powers of focus.

Most of us do not design our lives – we live stories. The more adept we are at evolving them to match social realities, the healthier we will be. Successful integration of autistic patterns of behavior could be a model for resolution of long-standing social tensions around race, ethnicity, and wealth.

A second prong of positive psychology is cultivation of personal virtue. Widespread abuse of the terminology of mental illness breeds social defensiveness. Conversely, in enumerating the attitudes and traits of mental wellness, positive psychology supports self-improvement – not least by providing a language that assumes mutual benefit.

Of course, lay hypnotherapists, having this as their defined role for at least forty years, have powerful concepts and tools to offer those on this journey. Let us turn now to their illustration.


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Lay HypnotherapyStated most succinctly, the lay hypnotherapist is a self-management facilitator. To this point we have considered this as an evolutionary and developmental challenge. We have considered the negotiation of identity as a spiritual and psychological process. While this is necessary foundation for our work, however, it is not what clients come to discover with us. They come to discover (or rediscover) themselves. Our role is to guide them on that journey.

In this chapter we will provide common-sense frameworks that orient clients to their work. That orientation is critical to sustaining their commitment through the inevitable ups and downs in the therapeutic process. We will look at the dynamic of the therapeutic relationship. Finally, as hypnotherapy is often the last thing a client tries, we compare lay hypnotherapy to other practices.

To facilitate delivery, parts of the material are written out as scripts. The topics are organized in a logical progression. Parenthetical asides elaborate on their use. Later we will discuss their introduction in therapy.

The Power of HypnotherapyWhen you left home, were you anxious? Striking out into the world was a risky proposition. It turns out that your mind hedged its bets, keeping your survival behaviors protected behind a wall while you figured out who you are in the world. Hypnotherapy encourages those two parts of your mind – the subconscious and conscious – as they work out their differences.

(The above is a reasonable elevator speech.)

Hypnosis is a natural state. You are in hypnosis at least twice a day, when falling asleep and waking up. If you have felt deep emotion watching a movie, remember that you were watching lights on a screen. You were in hypnosis. Less happily, if you have ever left a clothing store carrying twice as many purchases as you planned, the salesperson may have overloaded you with information that put you into hypnosis.

In therapy, we start by convincing your subconscious to speak. Sometimes it is hiding secrets, sometimes it has been beaten down by the conscious mind, and sometimes it is trying to get over the last disaster that you talked it into. To encourage it to come out of hiding, I will help you understand and appreciate its contributions. As you ask it to change, you will express gratitude for its support and honor its limits.

And let us recognize its power: sometimes your subconscious mind is running things behind the scenes, and your conscious mind only thinks that it is in charge. In that case we will strengthen your conscious mind, allowing it to assume its proper role.

(In the preceding two paragraphs, prior discussion may point you to a single option.)

You are going to revive your oldest, dearest friendship – your friendship with yourself. As it warms up, you will discover new capabilities. And if you make the commitment, you will find a deep well of inner strength and joy that will sustain you for the rest of your life.

(This is a good place to pause to allow the client to relate to their goals.)

We have two methods for arranging your inner conversation. One is to put your conscious mind into idle. This is hypnosis, and very close to dreaming. You will be very relaxed and simply observe while I


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share your goals with the subconscious. As your inner relationship grows more confident, we will pursue the second approach: lifting your subconscious up into the waking world. This is the state of hristosis, normally attained only by saints and master meditators. You will feel clarity and ease as you negotiate change. Rather than talking at your subconscious, you will find me encouraging an active dialog.

Theory of MindTo get the best benefit from your hypnosis, you should understand the relationship between the conscious and subconscious minds. You will be better able to plan and prioritize your work.

When you were born, your mind was set up to learn and explore. When you found something unpleasant, an ancient part of your mind started the Fight/Flight response. Your mother would step in and take care of your needs, cuddling and soothing you so that you returned to homeostasis, the body state best for exploring and learning.

As you got older, the fight/flight response became more active. Fight is natural when we think that we are stronger than the threat. As an infant the irritation would be pushed away. Flight is chosen when the

threat is stronger. What we do not is argue with the threat.

To help us organize our likes and dislikes, our mind gives us two strong emotions: fear and euphoria. Fear drives us away from danger, euphoria builds friendships. We need them both. Our parents teach us to keep them in balance.

Art first we do not have many choices. Things are the way they are. We know what we like – that is the green plus signs – and do not like – the red minus signs. We try to learn how to behave so that we survive and get more of what we like.

Then comes school. We must learn to get by without our parents. Going out into the world is a risky thing, so we hedge our bets. We keep our knowns and behaviors behind a barrier called the Critical Mind. Under the Critical Mind is our subconscious – 90% of our mind power. The conscious mind contains our developing identity – the “I” that attempts to figure out who we want to be in the world. That is only 10% of our mind.

Once the critical mind is in place, memories go into a temporary store

during the day. As we fall asleep, they are passed down to the subconscious. During dreams we try to adjust our behaviors to match our new knowns. Sometimes that is just too hard, and we put off change.


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In hypnotherapy the two parts of your mind will visualize new behaviors together. This allows change to happen faster. If we decide that we want to be nicer to our friends, we can imagine just what that will be like and implement it in a few days, rather than waiting for the subconscious to figure it out over weeks and months.

In the early stages of your journey you will enjoy deep relaxation, so during hypnosis I will be the voice of your conscious mind and the subconscious will communicate with physical motions. As you become used to the experience, the dialog will shift to an interior conversation.

Stages of DevelopmentWhen we are born, we are completely dependent upon our parents. They are our guides into life – a journey into increasingly complicated thoughts and situations.

Eric and Joan Erickson outlined that journey as stages of development (Eri[1997]). The early stages focus on our body and family. The later stages build voluntary relationships. The final stage that begins with retirement has been explored in more depth by the successors to the Ericksons. We will postpone that discussion, which is of concern mostly to seniors and their caregivers.

Each stage builds around a crisis of confidence. The crisis can be expressed as a question. The stages, age ranges and questions are shown in the first three columns of the table.

Stage Age (yr) Question Partner(s) Opportunity ThreatInfant < 18 mo Will the world provide

for me?Mother Trust Mistrust

Toddler 18 mo – 3 Can I control my body?

Parents Autonomy Shame

Preschool 3 - 5 May I control my environment?

Family Initiative Guilt

Childhood 6 - 12 Can I succeed? School Industry InferiorityAdolescent 12 - 18 Will society accept

me?Peers Identity Role Confusion

Young Adult 18 - 35 Can I be emotionally responsible?

Lover/Spouse Intimacy Isolation

Middle-Age 35 - 55 Can I be socially responsible?

Colleagues and Employer

Generativity Stagnation

Late Adult 55 - 65 Does life have meaning?

Community Integrity Despair

Old Age 65+ See “Elderhood” below.

Each stage involves a social partner. We are encouraged to begin the stage by the opportunity to develop a new strength. Should we fail, the threat is a weakness that will impede later development. These aspects of each stage are shown in the second three columns. An important shift occurs between Adolescence and young adult. Our concerns expand to include others as equals.


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A stage of development may be derailed. Most commonly an unresponsive or hostile partner is the cause, but loss of a partner is also harmful. While we may still grasp the opportunity, development may be incomplete. In severe cases, we may conclude that our social environment is threatening.

The Infant stage sets the stage for our sociability – whether we are an adventurer or protector. Preschool is another critical stage, as we fully assert independence from mother (our primary caretaker). If the secondary caretaker (typically father) resists or interferes with independence, we may be left with self-limiting beliefs that hamper us for the rest of our lives. We will discuss this in depth below.

In the normal course, aging forces us to confront new stages. If an opportunity is lost at an earlier stage, later development will be hampered until the lost stage is revisited and completed. The earlier stage is often hidden in our mind as a retrogressed self – a self that still sees the world with younger eyes.

Loss later in life may also cause retrogression to an earlier stage. For example, witnessing a shooting may break the trust gained in infancy. A middle-aged worker replaced by a recent college graduate may be challenged with feelings of inferiority originally overcome in childhood.

The Stages of Development is a psychosocial theory – it is helpful in analyzing problems in social interaction. We can use the identified opportunities and threats to help solidify our concept of self.

AuthorityFor the psychiatrist treating youth, each stage of development identifies behaviors that will be explored. These insights may be helpful to the lay therapist working with children.

Broadly, the road to maturity involves the child’s separation from maternal dependency. A critical step occurs during preschool, when the child exploring initiative confronts a critical authority, their father. The dynamic between father and child establishes strategies for relating to authority figures that are carried forward into adulthood. Not least because the client sees any therapist as an authority, these patterns should be recognized.

In a healthy relationship, the child is encouraged to express their desires and the parent provides counsel and regulation. This encourages an assertive character that seeks to secure wellness while honoring the privileges allowed an authority. As an adult the client can articulate the tensions that arise between self and society and assumes responsibility for participating in the processes that support peaceful resolutions. Their partners enjoy interacting with them.

The three remaining strategies are neurotic – the client will defend their conduct even when they understand it is counter-productive. Two of them arise when the parent is distracted or overwhelmed.

Passive behavior results when the child receives no direct response to their desires, but all needs are supplied. The adult client expects that authorities will supply clear direction and assumes that cooperation will be rewarded. They may have difficulty defining personal goals and will avoid conflict resolution. Their partners feel the need to make decisions for them.

Aggressive behavior results with the child is ignored until deprivation forces them into misbehavior that is rewarded with attention. As an adult they will lean on fear, hostility, and threats to achieve their goals. They have difficulty seeing the other side of any conflict. Their partners tend to feel anger and frustration.


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The final strategy arises when the parent sees the child as a competitor. Early on, the child is encouraged to assert themselves but then humiliated for their natural incompetence. As a self-protective measure, the child learns first to demand a demonstration from the authority. An honest attempt at imitation may follow, but once criticism arises revenge comes in the form of self-sabotage that forces the authority to clean up their mess. This is passive aggressive behavior. The adult client will define goals and then seek to make others responsible for outcomes. When criticized, they will sabotage the relationship – and this can extend to invitations to negotiate. Their partners are initially uncertain, and then aggrieved.

Even among the assertive, the neurotic behavior patterns may develop in specific relationships.

ElderhoodIn the developed world, many of us can expect to live a third of our lives after retirement. Sociologists use several terms to describe this third stage of life. Noting that life starts in childhood and blooms in adulthood, I prefer the term elderhood. (Aro[2019]) During elderhood, the quality and priorities of our living are determined largely by changes in our vitality. We outline those stages and the evolving psychological needs as we progress from reinvention (seniors), to isolation (old), fear (elderly), and finally mortality (aged).

Most of society relates to growing old as the loss of youth. Those visible changes – wrinkled skin, gray hair, and decreased vitality – appear long before we lose our creative potential. Seniors, therefore, are those still seeking opportunities after leaving their adult career. Their unique gifts are discernment, patience, and a surrender of financial ambition that allows them to prioritize options that benefit their community.

Medically the principle concern for the senior is decreased recuperative capacity. Senior illness and injury can trigger a debilitating cascade that speeds decline. This is therefore the stage to begin defining preferences for managing the inevitable decline. The two poles of the spectrum are “breathing at all costs” and non-intervention. “Comfortable longevity” is the best compromise.

As aging continues activity begins to match the expectations generated by appearance. We become old. In planning gatherings and outings, compromises are made for reduced stamina. This transfers to medication – “adult” prescriptions should be screened for new or enhanced side-effects. With conditions that require surgery, discomfort may best be managed with lifestyle changes.

Old is also the stage where social changes begin to cascade. This follows naturally as life-long friends relocate and die. While still active, this may be the best time to move to a dedicated retirement community, simplifying lifestyle while developing new friendships. We should not overlook the benefits of multi-generational households – once a necessity but now an overlooked option that enriches the lives of both youngest and eldest family members.

Elderly follows when management of medical complaints begins to dominate our days. America’s utilitarian ethic poses special challenges. Cab drivers speed away from elderly fares, and private and public spaces become inhospitable – both physically and socially. Our failure to accommodate the elderly condemns us to suffering in our elderly years and denies us the opportunity to reap the insights gained from their lived experience.


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The medical needs of our elderly are not addressed well by the modern “disease management” system. Essential practical needs are not recognized as medical expenses, creating “penny-wise and pound-foolish” practices that allow minor inconveniences (such as nutritional deficits and hearing loss) to evolve into serious conditions before services are provided. Worse, when those conditions arise, the influence of medical specialists means that the course of treatment often depends on which doctor is available first.

Ultimately, of course, we must manage the decline of the aged to death. Even here, adaptation can lead to marvelous outcomes. A bed-ridden grandfather may become tutor to a neighborhood’s school children. Advanced planning and hospice are preferable to the isolating and desperate institution of the nursing home.

For deeper professional insight, see Aro[2019] and Lev[2020].

Starting ConditionsThe old saying goes “When a man is hungry, you can give him a fish, or teach him to fish.” The first is usually faster but leaves the hungry man dependent upon the fisher.

Most of our wellness practices do the first. For some combination of technical, practical, or financial reasons, service providers generate dependency in their customers. The relationship breaks down because wellness is a holistic problem – lack in any part of our life requires attention, and failure to address problems in one aspect eventually affects all others.

Given customers that expect definitive expertise, as a generalist the lay hypnotherapist is often seen as a last resort. Clients will have tried everything else and found no relief. They need to be reminded that no one is more expert on their wellness than themselves. Expressed perhaps in bruised tissues or out-of-balance hormones, the manifestations may not have a voice, but no imaging technology can even begin to approach their detail. As the mind/body/spirit depends upon the judgment of the “I,” an “expert” prognosis may disempower our own knowing. When that occurs, the first step to wellness may be softening the certainties in what the client has learned from specialists.

The figure illustrates the holistic healing perspective. At the center of our existence is the dominant part of our mind, the subconscious that manages our doing and being. Our identity projects into society, our body into the environment, and our soul into spiritual unity. Holistic practitioners approach wellness through different avenues. Reiki and crystal healers largely through the soul; medical doctors and chiropractors through the body; hypnotherapists and psychotherapists through the identity. Some disciplines bridge avenues: acupuncture splits the

difference between body and soul; psychiatry between identity and body; religion between identity and soul.

Few clients will be aware when their crisis originates in the realm of spirit. They ascribe their challenges to a physical, emotional, or mental source. Physical concerns include tics, pain, obsessive movement, injury, and illness. Emotional concerns include negative moods, outbursts of anger, broken heart, and


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fear. Mental concerns include obsessive thinking, low self-esteem or confidence, limiting beliefs, and addiction.

A crisis requires the allocation of resources (usually time and energy) to manage undesirable conditions. As the crisis continues through an extended response, the client may manifest hypersuggestibility, a chronic hypnotic state. Insomnia, irritability, irrationality, and poor impulse control are indicators. Insomnia is of concern, as it occurs in association with almost all clinical disorders.

Trauma follows when our personal resources are exhausted, and we collapse physically and/or psychologically (Tru[2015]). Regression may follow as the client seeks to re-establish sustainable behaviors, even back to Stage 1 of development. All sufferers from trauma deserve clinical assessment.

StrategyClassically hypnosis is seen as a method to modify subconscious programming. We have long known that the subconscious becomes defensive under that practice, and study demonstrates that it is sophisticated (Eri[1938c]). The therapeutic process must respect its powers and priorities. In this section we discuss the considerations that control the therapeutic plan.

The therapeutic process starts with client intake. Through intake, the client must be educated regarding the goals and limitations of hypnotherapy. That begins in a screening call that assesses the scope of therapy in enough depth to support definition of a preliminary therapeutic plan. It continues in the first session with filling of intake forms.

During therapy, each session first establishes the client’s conscious goals. The goals must guard the authority of clinical or medical specialists. After prioritizing goals, the therapist proposes steps to take toward change. Between sessions, the client must actively reinforce their gains. As therapy progresses, the plan evolves to reflect new circumstances and insights. The therapeutic relationship may show strain, which must be managed to sustain client commitment.

Ethical ConcernsWhile the client generally calls with a specific presenting issue, often that is presented as a trust-building exercise, with deeper issues revealed as therapy progresses. The lay therapist is responsible for ensuring that scope does not slip into matters that are reserved for clinical treatment.

We dwelt on scope in some detail in our opening chapter, but mostly through the lens of our therapeutic capabilities. Regarding our clients, we have deeper obligations.

The guiding principle in ethical decision-making follows from the purpose exposed in the evolution of self. The human mind is designed to love. An absolute moral criterion follows. Everything that we do must be justified as expanding the scope in which the client experiences love.

Every client shares information that could damage personal and business relationships. This leads directly to confidentiality. Nothing should be shared outside of the client session that might lead to association of therapy with a specific individual. Consultation with peers is allowed so long as the


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problem is phrased hypothetically and isolated to the degree necessary to guide therapeutic strategy. In offering such advice, the mentor or peer must avoid fishing for detail, phrasing strategic dependencies again as hypotheticals (for example: “If the client smokes as a defense, these additional steps are necessary.”), rather than probing for additional detail. If more detailed consultation is required, written consent must be obtained from the client.

As a practice that exposes hidden parts of the mind, lay hypnotherapy cannot promise results, and may generate unwanted consequences. When the moral edict is followed, the therapist is not responsible for disturbing an unstable mental landscape defined by decades of family and personal conditioning. However, this may not be recognized by the client. Every therapist must carry professional liability insurance, principally as self-protection. Fortunately, few clients that receive authentic rapport will seek to harm us for circumstances beyond our control.

State business licensing laws must define the activities covered by statute – else practitioners would avoid regulation simply by changing titles. The therapist is responsible for understanding applicable law and ensuring that they pursue allowed goals. For example, in California we must define our goals in behavioral terms (CBPL[-]). What specifically does the client do that they wish to suppress, or fail to do that they wish to achieve? This is generally beneficial to therapy in any case, but we want to avoid describing goals in emotional terms, which is difficult to distinguish from psychotherapy, sometimes pursued in conjunction with hypnotherapy. When such boundaries cannot be sustained, therapy must be restricted as adjunct work (see below).

See the Intake folder for documents that establish client consent to these realities. Again, these are specific to California practice.

Educating clients to these conditions is essential to their understanding of the therapeutic process and its limitations.

Self-ImprovementIn most cases, we work independently. As few clients have a systematic approach to self-expression, we start with coaching. Undesirable outcomes often reflect attitudes and processes that were useful when they emerged. They become troublesome when reused inappropriately. The first step in coaching encourages the client to buy the symptoms: to recognize what their behavior says about what they need. As those needs are clarified, specific goals can be defined. Some may be direct. “I should stop smoking.” Others may be more complex. “I need to be less sensitive to what others say about me.”

A successful therapy always leads to outside change. This may seem obvious, but the effects of deep relaxation are also profound. Hypnosis brings relief from chronic anxiety, and clients will both enjoy and benefit from that relief. To maintain focus on their stated goals, they should be provided home practice that demonstrates progress toward their goal(s), even if that progress is incremental.

While the lay hypnotherapist has a large toolbox, from the behavioral conditioning perspective, the tools work toward three simple effects. We help clients to extinguish behaviors that do not work for them and evolve behaviors that do work. As explained earlier, our behaviors are reinforced by sensory filters and behavioral assumptions. The third effect is then to increase receptivity to sensations and social realities, helping the client to see situations in truth rather than as expected.


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A therapeutic plan is a structured approach to achieve these effects in the context of realizing the client’s goals. An important concern is pacing. Too slow, and frustration may grow. Too fast, and resistance may mount. Every client is different, and in pacing the therapist must rely upon professional discernment. Recognize that support (or lack thereof) in personal or professional relationships will affect the pace of therapy.

The single factor most likely to derail a plan is when the presenting issues is a defense. As implied, a defense allows a client to maintain a façade of normalcy that secures social acceptance. The client may not even be conscious of the underlying condition. The common defenses are:

Denial – “I do not have a problem.” Healthy during daily routines until entrenched as a permanent illusion.

Acting out – creating a diversion. Projection – blaming someone else for our outcomes, often by accusing them of our behaviors. Rationalization – argue for the behavior. Displacement – kick the dog. Reaction formation – compensate for others. Projective identification – stimulate reactions that we can criticize.

When any of these is identified, we should seek to establish a replacement before revealing the defense. Often this is a physical, emotional, and/or mental anchor that through repetition slowly erodes the conditioned reaction. With reduced arousal, the client will show increased social receptivity that will translate into coherent plans for change. Having established a safety net, we can then bring the defense to conscious awareness and seek to remove it.

Adjunct TherapyIn adjunct therapy, we work in support of a licensed clinician or medical provider. As hypnosis is widely regarded as an entertainment art, few licensed practitioners will refer to us. More frequently, the client comes in with a narrowly stated goal that we recognize as interacting with a medical or psychiatric need.

Many medical providers will consent to hypnotherapy as a method for building positive expectation in their patients. This can also extend to psychiatrists.

Sample consent letters are provided in the resources. The therapeutic plan is often drawn from the screening call but may be more definitive if the need for outside involvement is discovered during the first session.

Most psychotherapists will avoid adjunct therapy, as without detailed coordination, therapeutic plans may come into conflict. The ethic in this case is to cede initiative to the clinician. Coordination will require private communication, which must be authorized by the client. Forms are provided in the Consent folder.

Recognizing that we are an alternative to psychotherapy, the lay hypnotherapist should not be put off when a prospective client is already working with a psychotherapist, marriage and family therapist, or licensed clinical social worker. If the client is capable of objectively formulating and evaluating steps for personal improvement, we may support those goals. Often those accomplishments will have a beneficial impact on clinical work. If defined concretely, we can avoid the problem of coordination.


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The emphasis on objectivity means that we must describe our goals as concrete behaviors. This is helpful in setting meaningful home practice.

Therapeutic RelationshipMost therapeutic goals have their origin in relationship history. In overcoming that conditioning, hypnotherapy is unique in addressing both sides of that history. In discussion, the client casts the therapist into a role that allows them to explore new ways of relating. Sometimes we become proxies for the client’s tormentor; sometimes we become idealized saviors. This is called transference.

Transference is natural and necessary. It can be disruptive when it comes with expectations that the relationship will continue in a new form after therapy. Most commonly the expectation is romantic, occasioned by social conditioning that often confuses love and sex, amplified by the breakdown of personal boundaries that goes with trance.

When transference seems likely, I attempt to preempt it with:

Our work together will help you to experience emotions and sensations that may be repressed. That is expected, and I promise you that this room is a sacred container. Nothing that is experienced here will ever be transferred to the outside world. Instead you will leave here to explore your new capabilities, returning with insights that will guide our next step together.

The most dangerous forms of entanglement are romantic and professional. Failure to honor these boundaries can lead to litigation. When such entanglements precede therapy, the client should be referred to a trusted peer.

Hostile transference is likely when the client has built a defense against self-awareness. Threatening the defense will generate resistance to progress. This client will express this in abreactions to suggestions agreed upon in development of the therapeutic plan. The abreaction may be as mild as a twitch of the lip, or as powerful as a whole-body spasm. These physical expressions may be a form of psychic release, so it is advised that the suggestion be repeated to verify the existence of resistance.

Biologically, change is always expressed as connections between neurons. In lay hypnotherapy, it is the social identity that reaches out into our primitive behaviors to suppress old reactions and stimulate new responses. That is possible only when the client changes their self-concept. Self-introspection is essential to therapy. Virtues should be identified, and aspirations encouraged. Emotions and states should be recognized, named, and evaluated. Projecting these preferences into the subconscious is the foundation for extinguishing old behaviors and stimulating the new.

This work is organized around access to resource states. The client considers a goal that has been frustrated and identifies qualities of character necessary to the achievement. If that lies outside the reach of their self-concept, they can break the achievement into smaller pieces. When the qualities are named, the client is asked to remember experiences that allowed them to express those qualities – whether singly or simultaneously. The therapist then organizes a rehearsal that allows the subconscious to synchronize their expression. This is the resource state, and an anchor should be provided to allow it to be called forward during waking life.

Paradoxically, the search through primitive networks is guided by our ability to stimulate reactions. Once the circuits are identified, neurotransmitters are adjusted to achieve stimulus or suppression. From the


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client’s perspective, however, the mind seems to be aggressively re-asserting old, negative patterns. A little reframe can help: It is when resistance seems greatest that change is closest.

TechniqueThe history of hypnosis is populated with fascinating characters and extravagant claims that still color public perception of the practice. When such claims lost credibility, hypnosis as a healing art was kept alive in traveling shows. This was the foundation for the techniques developed by John Kappas. A failure as a showman, Kappas became a full-time therapist, committed to developing methods that could be taught to others.

In my reading, the most lucid account of the emergence of hypnotherapy is found in Anne Harrington’s “The Cure Within” (Har[2008]). Coming to prominence just as the scientists began to focus on electricity, Mesmer believed that he understood the nature of spiritual experience and healing miracles. Working methodically as a scientist to regularize his procedures, Mesmer was seduced by his notoriety among the nobility. He became a cult figure whose claims were debunked by a panel that included Ben Franklin.

Mesmer’s reputation and techniques lived on quietly before being noticed by the early investigators of mental illness. As the theory of the human mind evolved, hypnosis popped up again and again as a kind of therapeutic Swiss Army knife. It was recognized as producing a unique state of mind that allowed patients to recover a measure of normalcy. Unfortunately, as with Mesmer, outcomes were difficult to replicate, although methods continued to be assimilated by travelling performers.

Eventually hypnosis did develop a rigorous academic standing, raised to its potential by Milton Erickson and others. In parallel, however, the entertainment industry spawned schools for stage performers. Kappas learned a few tricks from books and used them to motivate family and friends (Kap[a]). Then, forced to relocate to Los Angeles to escape a racketeer, he enrolled to train as a stage performer. Lacking the looks and flair of an entertainer, Kappas was still a masterful hypnotist. Pursued by his Greek compatriots for help with their personal problems, Kappas decided to set up shop as a full-time therapist. An intellectual by bent, his systematic approach led to new techniques and extended applications.

Of course, anything so simple as hypnosis is impossible to contain. Against his warnings, Erickson’s methods have been packaged as Neuro-Linguistic Programming and taught to the public by Tony Robbins and others. And the sensory tricks used by stage hypnotists have been rediscovered by psychiatrists. As these will be referenced by clients, I will survey them here.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) provides a framework for analysis of behavior to craft hypnotic suggestions. Its power lies partly in strategies for building rapport, and partly in the use of language patterns that hack directly into implicit memory. Otherwise the therapeutic techniques are like those transmitted by Kappas, although naming is different.

Polyvagal theory is a practice for relief of anxiety. Chronic anxiety eventually blocks the processing of soothing stimuli, leaving the sufferer trapped in fight/flight. The therapy increases receptivity through isolation, relaxation, and exposure. As in early childhood, the patient learns to restore homeostasis.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reintegration (EMDR) is similar but focuses on bilateral balance rather than metabolic state. Trauma involves the failure of planning to avoid threats, so the mind pushes the right hemisphere forward to maintain vigilance. When memories re-entrain that state frequently,


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the brain becomes habituated to right-hemisphere dominance and balance is difficult to restore. EMDR uses visual stimulus to force the left hemisphere into activity. Eventually the patient learns to maintain balance independently.

Emotional Freedom Therapy (EFT) is a form of self-hypnosis organized around the Chinese theory of meridians. While reflecting on their limiting behavior and its cause, the client taps with their fingers on points on the face and upper torso. Introductory phrases are matched to a Subjective Units of Discomfort rating (from 1-10), and each sentence is concluded with “I still love and accept myself deeply and completely.” From a Western perspective, the method might be considered a type of polyvagal therapy. The originators consider it a means of clearing blocks and reversals in the flow of Qi, our spiritual life force.

Kappas started his career as a therapist with much the same mindset as a stage performer. The therapist is responsible for modifying the subconscious thinking that drives our behavior (Kap[1999a]). This is encapsulated in his Laws of Suggestibility:

Dominance – the hypnotist must present as an authority figure and speak commandingly in the face of resistance.

Repetition – neural networks take time and energy to build. Repeating suggestions strengthens their influence.

Reverse Action – one way to undermine an undesirable behavior is to deprecate it as compared to its preferred alternative. “You can try to imagine eating cake, but whenever you do you have a craving for fruit salad.”

Association – After behaviors are established in hypnosis, further strength is created by linking them together. As behaviors are grounded in movement and emotion, building associations to movement and emotion mitigates against regression to past patterns.

Delayed Action – When suggestions relate to a specific scenario in outside life (such as a meeting with a supervisor), the modified behavior will become evident when the situation arises.

One surprising aspect of the last law is that clients will report hearing the actual words spoken in hypnosis. A man going snorkeling will hear words about “being close to nature” and “creating memories to share with family.”

Kappas supplied suggestibility as a concept to clients. Clients manifest problems that they are suggestible to. Therapy does not only modify behavior. It adjusts suggestibility, an outcome achievable without confronting cause.

The concept of suggestibility applies outside of the therapeutic setting. While elusive, it can be understood as rooted in behavioral inertia. Once accepted by the subconscious, a behavior is automatic. It leaves the conscious mind free to attend to other details. It is only when a crisis ensues that we understand that the automatic behavior causes undesirable results. At that point the automatic behavior is a staple of our conduct, and so the barrier to change is high. Rather than confronting the problem, we often choose to compensate for it. The automatic behavior becomes a flywheel for maladaptive behaviors; it makes us suggestible to problems.


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Failure to address suggestibility in therapy leads to behavioral “whack-a-mole.” We may break their smoking habit, but they will return with a craving for sweets.

Through experience and collaboration with peers, Kappas wove suggestions into methods designed to address specific types of suggestibility. These can be classified as suggestibility tests, inductions, deepeners, imagery, rehearsal, and desensitization. We will examine each in the chapters that follow.

As these practices matured, the character of therapy also began to shift. The motivation arose from Kappas’ own nature. In his era, therapists believed that half of the population could not be hypnotized. That included Kappas himself. Through correlation with successful therapies, Kappas realized that inference was the critical factor: the therapist should not state an outcome directly but by implication. This divided the population into halves that Kappas termed Physical and Emotional (in this work Adventurer and Protector).

With an Adventurer we direct “relax your muscles”; with a Protector we invite “allowing a sensation of comfort and ease to enter.” Enter where? Well, wherever “sensation” applies in the triune existence.

This requires a shift in our understanding of the subconscious. Kappas saw the subconscious not as a guardian that supports the exploration of personality, but as a subordination to the evolving intellect. Inferential suggestion proves, however, that it is not a passive executor of programs – the subconscious performs deduction and has preferences. To make best use of its energies and honor its constraints, a new therapeutic approach was commissioned through Cheryl O’Neil – the practice of Therapeutic Imagery (One[2014]). Moving away from suggestion, the therapist facilitates the client’s exploration of an issue, state, or resource, capturing the imagery arising freely from the subconscious. The rational process in the conscious mind works in the service of that expression, helping the subconscious clarify needs, goals, and expectations. While specific behaviors can be instilled, in most cases the desired outcome is better dialog between conscious and subconscious. The presenting issue is in part a motivation to build problem-solving collaboration that will be carried into the future. O’Neil describes this as cultivation of the “Valiant Attitude” (One[TBD]).

Kappas also realized that the two types of suggestibility showed significant and consistent differences in behavior. The E&P concept was therefore extended from suggestibility (the interior process of behavioral adaptation) to sexuality (the way we act). Sexual opposites attract by virtue of their complementarity and repel through aggravation. In therapy, they are inspired by different goals and mount different defenses. Those defenses include acting out to simulate the opposing sexuality. Often arising from cultural conditioning and disastrous intimacy, this incongruence is a clear signpost that guides therapeutic strategy.

We will not delve deeply into the subtleties of sexuality in this work (Kap[1999b]). Kappas saw the Emotional as “more evolved,” and so was resistant to the virtues of assimilation and integration. Recognizing the limitation, O’Neil has softened “sexuality” to “Way of Being” (One[2014]). I go further. We will turn next to a vision of personal development that liberates therapy from mundane dysfunction, inspiring clients to stretch toward the highest human aspirations.


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Personal DevelopmentThe wise caution the impetuous, “If you do not know where you are going, any road will do.”

The history of hypnosis is dominated by indulgence of the influence practitioners have over the behavior of a wounded mind. That may sound harsh. Practitioners were only trying to help people clean up the wreckage left by experience. But that misses the point. The wound does not arise from experience. The wound is the division of the mind between conscious and subconscious. It is a self-inflicted wound arising from a crisis of confidence that afflicts children confronted by the dangers of independent decision-making.

Professionally, seeking to heal that wound is contrary to our interests. Lay Hypnotherapists are paid to cultivate the landscape of the divided mind. Practically, that should not concern us much. Those that have achieved full maturity are recognized as religious exemplars. That is a fraction of the population. We have no end of work to do.

Professional myopia may explain why the material presented below has remained undiscovered. The leap from the chakras to Lay Hypnotherapy is not great. In fact, O’Neil provides a chakra journey in her Therapeutic Imagery source book. The connecting tissue may have been personal experience, the steps obvious only in hindsight.

In this chapter, then, we will elaborate a journey into maturity that ends with reintegration of the conscious mind. We will recognize aspects of the Stages of Development in that story – although my earlier summary of Erickson’s work reflects some back-loading from the material here.

Personal development is a generic concept. In coming up with a name for this practice, I will follow my predecessors and turn to Greek religion. Psyche, paragon of mortal femininity accepted as an Olympian goddess, was chosen for psychology. Hypnos, god of sleep, was tapped for hypnotherapy. But the Greeks foresaw an era in which humans did not need gods, ushered by the anonymous Hristos (anointed one). Since the journey I describe is a secular one, I will adopt the adjective hristic, and later we will talk of hristosis as a state of consciousness.

The hristic path unfolds in seven steps, with a shift at the midpoint from personal to communal concerns. It begins and ends with a unified mind. The lower half is concerned with self-control, the upper half with effective relation. Across the midpoint, the two processes conflict, requiring those interested in completing the work to express loving concern for those struggling with self-control.

HopeAt the root of our personality, hope is a connection to a future in which love is at work for us.

For the client in crisis, the first session combines understanding of the mind with stress reduction to build faith in the therapeutic process. Hope is cemented by an exchange of funds that secures access to therapy. When therapy is complete, the client believes in the possibility of healing, and so projects hope into new experiences and relationships.

This is hope that frees us from fear in specific situations.

The hristic path offers a higher quality of hope. It is a hope built upon positive goals for personal growth.


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The hristic path explains our experience as a journey toward wholeness. When something harmful happens on that journey, we place it in context and harvest lessons relevant to that context. We detach from the experience so that it does not inhibit growth. Knowing the path ahead, we avoid damaging ourselves and others when our expectations are disappointed. Instead, we seek company that better complements our personality. Honing our talents in that company, we work toward trust and meaningful collaboration.

The hope of the hristic path rises beyond the hope of therapy, which is only for a cessation of pain. The hristic path offers the hope of creative and joyful self-expression within a mutually supportive community.

The hristic path also guides the work of therapists that support its realization. In the early steps, the focus is on traditional hypnotherapy. In later stages, Therapeutic Imagery becomes the principal practice.

PreliminariesUnderstanding of the hristic path builds from a balanced understanding of how we harmonize relationships. The principal stumbling block in the modern era is aggressive spirituality. The principal opportunity is our deepening understanding of sociability and nurturance.

SpiritualityThe hristic path places the soul as our highest concern. Returning to our model of the therapeutic landscape, we have identity, body, and soul tied together through the subconscious. In that system, the body has density that the soul uses as leverage for transformation. The identity is a façade that we use to qualify partners in that work. Down at the level of soul, we are ultimately all connected through the love that welcomes truth. Here is a second purpose of the body: to anchor us against being swept away in that tide.

“Spirituality” is defined in the dictionary as “concern for the spirit or soul above material things.” But what is the goal of that focus? Simple awareness? From the analysis above, we might suggest “to manage the relationship between self and other.” This is the essence of the definition offered earlier: spirituality is the negotiation of the boundaries between “I” and “we.”

It is in union – in choosing to be a “we” – that we establish trust. In knowing me, you also are revealed. When I am joyous, you share in my joy. When you suffer, I suffer as well. These are the linchpins of restraint. We cannot avoid knowledge of our interdependence, and so we proceed gently with our intimates. When conflict arises in our intentions, we negotiate. If that negotiation leads to separation, that is accomplished not by elimination but by suggesting new partnerships.

If this sounds improbable, that is evidence of our focus on material concerns. Spiritual transformation requires a body, so we compete to stay alive, withdrawing into our body and thereby frustrating spiritual change. Spiritual change requires us to discern through experience what is dissonant and harmonious in our personality, releasing the former and attracting the latter. But being trapped in our consciousness, we see only a limited portion of our personality. The best guide to our growth is the other that bears witness lovingly.

The hristic path thus leads us into loving community.


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SociabilityIn creating a loving community, we must discover and secure assets. Our predisposition to those goals reflects our sociability. An adventurer discovers, a protector secures.

The two impulses – discover and secure – are complementary, to a degree that they are recognizable in our physiology. A woman is both physically vulnerable during pregnancy and committed to nursing for her own well-being. While restricted in her ability to explore, that role is ceded to her mate. In other areas, the roles may be reversed. The mother may be emotionally or spiritually adventurous, her mate protective. In managing our partnerships, then, we need to be conscious of our sociability in all aspects of experience.

The table below compares the positive traits of the adventurer and protector.

Behavior Adventurer ProtectorSpeaking Descriptive, invites reaction Terse, controls optionsInterpretation Literal, anticipates action Inference, seeks motivesReaction External before internal Internal before externalSocially Initiator, builds networks Observer, analyzes problemsIdeal Setting Family, creates connection Work, provides resourcesIntimacy Willing, seeks pleasure Reticent, compelled by needPlanning Spontaneous, seeks sensation Structured, limits distractionsBonding Committed, exclusive Ambiguous, shares attentionsNurturing Encourages ambitions Cultivates skillCreative Focus Social IntellectualInspiration Variety Value

Sociability is about relationship dynamics and affects both sides of give-and-take. Receptive sociability (Kappas’ suggestibility – Kap[1999a]) is how we interpret our experience. Through the process of attachment, it normally complements the sociability of our primary caretaker. Expressive sociability (O’Neil’s “Way of Being” – One[2014]) is how we express ourselves and is often modelled after the adult that takes us into the world. When the parents are complementary partners, expression and reception conform to the same pattern. Moderate incongruence can result when parents are homogenous, or when the secondary caretaker is absent. Strong incongruence results from neurotic conditioning – a parent demanding the opposite, or emulation of a past partner following a painful breakup.

In partnerships we prefer our opposite, as homogeneous pairings are volatile. Adventurers compete for attention. Protectors go their own way. Other factors enrich a relationship and may stabilize such pairings. Even so, the more extreme partner often drives the other to compensate.

The norm for sociability is part of our cultural heritage. Asian societies reward protectors. America rewards adventurers. Most of us express a mixed sociability – adventurous in some areas and protective in others.

NurturanceIf sociability characterizes the behaviors that project our intentions into the world, nurturance relates to the methods we use to prepare others for their moment in the sun. Feminine personalities tend to see what is good in others and create a synergistic situation. The supporter’s charge senses an attitude that


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exclaims, “Look at you!” Masculine personalities grasp the defects of a situation and motivate others to produce what is missing. The director’s performer senses an attitude that asserts, “Pay attention!” At the middle of the spectrum we find the mentor that introduces a protege to ideas and experiences.

The stages of development chart the child’s utilization of nurturance. Dependency seeks feminine support but travels through exploratory autonomy (Toddler) to a confrontation with masculine authority (Preschool). As children leave the nest and the social identity evolves, the boundaries of safe conduct are best explored in a feminine environment (Childhood), until sexuality drives a step into independence (Adolescence). Critical, masculine judgment then guides us into acceptance of responsibility as we secure homes (Young Adult), careers (Middle Age), and society (Late Adult).

Exceptional talent is linked to this migration from feminine to masculine environments. The feminine teacher creates a positive emotional association with study, ingraining a commitment to development of skill. As the routine is established, myelin begins to build on neural networks, speeding reactions. The masculine director offers short-stroke feedback, tuning the myelin placement to achieve optimal timing.

Self-improvement, of course, is a step toward excellence. In facilitating the work of our clients, we should be sensitive to their receptivity to feminine and masculine nurturance, recognizing that it will change as they approach excellence.

Hristic PathThe seven steps of the hristic path are characterized by a concern along with a tendency of character. Clients accumulate different issues at each step. An understanding of the path eases acceptance of hypnotic suggestions for healing, change, and growth. The lay hypnotherapist helps by seeding the conscious and subconscious minds with ideas that cultivate collaboration.

Survival/Dependent - We are social creatures. Survival demands partnership. The first partnership is with our parents. When family experience is painful, hypnotherapy can help limit the impact on our adult lives.

Sex/Hedonist - The sexual urge drives us out of the home and into peer relationships. Again, many of us have work to do as adults to heal the damage caused in those chaotic years.

Exchange/Consumer - Euphoria and fear control our preferences, but also bias our behavior when we expect one more than the other. Our sociability arises in infancy, making it hard for us to adjust our patterns when they cause problems.

Healing and Trust/Healer - When we come to accept that our sociability is not normative, sympathy for ourselves extends to include others, and we begin the work of building relationships around trust. This is the sweet spot for hypnotherapy.

Truth/Partner - Life involves many relationships, and only in honoring the truth are we able to sustain true partnerships. Hypnotherapy allows us to smooth over any rough edges carried forward from the past.

Creativity/Inventor - In the security of partnerships, we get to choose both who we want to be and what we wish to accomplish. Sustaining harmony is the challenge, as change disrupts everyone's plans. Hypnotherapy helps both with harmony and healing.

Imagination/Liberator - The barrier between conscious and subconscious dissolves, and we enter a realm of spiritual development that is qualified by our ability to sustain harmony in the realm of ideas.


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The hristic path is replete with tension. Decision making shifts so dramatically from step-to-step that dialog across steps requires an investment of patience. This is reflected in neuroanatomy. As the social principles are mastered at each stage, the brain evolves new regions to integrate understanding with behavior.

The first three steps are defined by self-concern. Achievement is a zero-sum game – we believe that we gain only by taking from another. The final three steps shift to win/win scenarios – we invest in our intimates because we are confident that they will offer us their strength.

This general pattern is focused in conflicts between individual steps. The inventor changes the way we live, threatening the behaviors that secure our survival. To the hedonist, imagination is an intolerable tease. Telling the truth in a zero-sum exchange is almost insane. Evidently, then, as we climb the steps, we must bring others along lest they drag us back down.

Survival/DependentWe are social creatures. Survival demands partnership. The first partnership is with our parents. When family experience is painful, hypnotherapy can help limit the impact on our adult lives.

During childhood, our survival depends upon our parents. Naturally, we have almost no control over what goes on

around us. To grow out of that vulnerability, the child’s brain is designed to take in everything, and then to learn to avoid conflict with our caregivers.

That is easier if our parents are kind. The first gate in life is “can I trust the world?” The foundation of trust is suckling at our mother’s breast and builds when she is attentive to our needs to be clean, warm, and touched. In the normal case, attachment theory explains our tendency to one of the two poles of sociability. In the extreme, the child may find no value in other people, and even look at them as objects.

Even a loving mother has other interests and responsibilities – most naturally taking care of other family members and herself. When we realize that mother manages herself, we can also aspire to independence. Why not learn how to pee and poop without making a mess of ourselves? Why not learn to use silverware and drink from a cup? When those goals are encouraged and rewarded, we enjoy our autonomy (independence). When suppressed, we learn shame.

Here we are re-iterating Erickson’s Stages of Development. Each stage describes a change in the relationship between a person and their society. At first the society is “mother,” growing rapidly to “parents,” “family,” and “school.” Acceptance or rejection by the “society” leaves expectations that stay with us for the rest of our lives – even after the practical skills have been mastered – until we revisit the relationship.

As our relationship context expands, we confront choices. Physical and mentally, we are fragile compared to the world around us. Our choices bring pain and loss. Thus, our mind creates an external identity to project into the world. That identity is our conscious self. That conscious self creates an alternate experience of life, with memories of those events that commanded our attention. The rest of our mind, now what we think of as “subconscious,” attends to our survival.


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Even when explained in a way that makes adjustment seem reasonable and necessary, change is challenging because the brain changes. A child’s brain is designed with the assumption that a parent will be available to protect us from our mistakes. It seeks as much experience as possible. That changes dramatically in adolescence when the brain changes its priorities, focusing instead on figuring out how to influence our peers. That focus comes with neural “pruning” – the loss of connections in the brain. Painful rejection in our childhoods becomes “locked in” because later in life the brain takes longer to rewire those behaviors. It is just not as flexible as it was in childhood.

From the hypnotherapist’s perspective, the complex changes in the brain are summed up in a few words. An infant is born with a united mind and is always in hypnosis. By adolescence, the barrier between the conscious and subconscious is firmly established. Hypnotherapy reunites the conscious and subconscious, allowing us to adjust the childhood attitudes and behaviors that no longer serve us.

In preparing clients to change, the lay hypnotherapist offers simple concepts that explain relationship dynamics. Identity and behavior, the poles of sociability, and Stages of Development open understanding in the client’s mind. That understanding makes the promise of change credible. The client finds hope supported by reason, uniting the two parts of the mind. That unity speeds change.

For those struggling with behaviors linked to painful childhood memories, the added layers of adult behavior often favor indirect methods in hypnotherapy. Therapeutic imagery discovers resources in the subconscious landscape that empower us to make adult choices. Kappas’ Mental Bank model is a nightly personal practice that uses fantasy dollars to motivate change in the subconscious during sleep. The hypnotherapist may also recommend journaling, which has similar goals.

Some clients request age regression therapy to confront painful memories. The American Hypnosis Association counsels against such work, recommending instead that the subconscious be allowed to reveal those memories in its own timing. When revealed in dreams, hypnotic suggestions can support our ability to redefine the conflict in moral terms that allow us to claim justice from the dream antagonists. (This is often called dream therapy.)

More directly, inner child work or self-parenting brings forth the child-like personality as it currently is in the subconscious landscape. The conscious, adult self offers wisdom, comfort, and protection. There is no confrontation with memories – just encouragement to share the joyful attitudes of childhood with the adult self.

Sex/HedonistThe sexual urge drives us out of the home and into peer relationships. Again, many of us have work to do as adults to heal the damage caused in those chaotic years.

Of all the paradoxes of human behavior, none is greater than that the act most enhanced by love is driven by the emotions most likely

to disrupt our relationships and corrupt our behavior.

Considering animals, nature would appear wise in ensuring that physically mature individuals are driven to leave the family group. As well as preventing the weakness of inbreeding, dispersal ensures that good genes spread.


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Unfortunately, in people physical maturity comes a decade before psychological maturity. The brain adapts as we age, adding new parts as we learn to relate with family, friends, and community. The highest skill is altruism – the ability to imagine “walking in someone’s shoes” and to act for their benefit. The part of the brain that supports altruism does not form until our mid-twenties (if then).

The sex drive, of course, comes with puberty, shortly after turning ten. In boys, testosterone drives aggression and the growth of muscles to back it up. In girls, estrogen engenders bonding and the sensitivity to manipulate emotions. In both, the ecstatic thrills that swept through the whole body in childhood are focused in the sex organs. Unless released, those urges build, disrupting sleep. Exhaustion leads to irritability, sowing tension among family, friends, and community. The immature brain rarely recognizes these defects, tending rather to project fault upon others.

Fortunately, in modern society elementary school prepares children with conditioning to pursue self-improvement through education. If the teen achieves some academic success, school acts as a brake on serious misbehavior. Other supervised group activities – such as sports, scouting, and religion – also provide adolescents positive outlets for their energy and the opportunity to practice adult roles.

Sleep habits also change among adolescents. The sleep cycle delays by as much as three hours, giving youth time at the end of the day to develop relationships free from adult supervision. During the deepest stages of sleep, the brain sheds connections. The thought patterns that are preserved are those that support success among peers.

Given the biological drives of puberty, we should not be surprised that success with peers is often driven by sexual attraction. Unless confronted, this is a deep subconscious lesson that comes to the fore whenever our relationships are dissatisfying. Since sexual urges facilitated separation from parents, they are often indulged by adults separating from spouse, children, or employers.

Returning to the Stages of Development, the well-adjusted adolescent explores social roles, entering adulthood with a well-formed identity that reflects their natural strengths and skills. Less fortunate peers are hobbled with role confusion, a problem that may lead to career and relationship hopping. Role confusion may be heightened by parental over-involvement, either during adolescence or as a hold-over from childhood.

For those suffering from role confusion, therapy guides them through experiences to reach a rational choice of role. Pre-hypnosis dialog reveals negative self-talk and builds positive expectations. In hypnosis, a positive self-image is implanted to encourage the subconscious to allow the chosen role to emerge. Subsequent sessions reinforce those motivations until the client reaches a conclusion about the role. If unsatisfactory, accomplishments are celebrated and reinforced, and another role is pursued.

Almost universally, young adults carry wounds from the chaotic romantic collisions of adolescence. Sexual attraction forms in the right side of brain, which reaches its subconscious conclusions as much as a second before the conscious mind realizes that a potential mate has been encountered. Given the power of sexual desire, the conscious mind usually proceeds to rationalize the attraction, projecting imaginary virtues on the new crush. When reality collides with fantasy and the relationship tanks, we awake with bruised self-confidence and – particularly when sex was part of the romance – wounded self-esteem.


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Along with educating clients about sociability and complementarity, the primary goal of therapy is to reawaken romantic confidence. A wounded romantic partner is a defensive romantic partner. When both partners are wounded, after the “honeymoon” a relationship tilts rapidly into mutual disdain. Therapy in this case is like role confusion therapy, rebuilding confidence in our ability to heal from heartbreak while restoring the motivation to be our authentic selves. The only wrinkle is that the absent partner may attempt (consciously or subconsciously) to undermine progress. While many hypnotherapists can provide general guidance regarding relationship patterns and effective communication, to deal with interpersonal dynamics, a licensed marriage and family therapist (MFT) must be brought into the therapy.

Most seriously, overly demanding parental expectations can cause teens to rebel against the changes of puberty. Subconsciously, the perfect princess may seize upon an eating disorder to prevent menstruation. Insecure adolescents may use insomnia to delay changes in the brain. Such syndromes require specialized therapy in collaboration with licensed practitioners of medicine and psychology.

Exchange/ConsumerEuphoria and fear control our preferences, but also bias our behavior when we expect one more than the other. Our sociability arises in infancy, making it hard for us to adjust our patterns when they cause problems.

When living in tribes, young adults left home with all the skills they needed to survive off the land. Living now in cities, most of us enter adult life with only the skills to keep track of our obligations: we can write and read directions and make change, but little else.

What city dwellers lack in survival skills we make up for in choices. Which friends? What food? What religion? Which career? Relationships control how many of our choices we get to realize. Under the free market, the desires of others determine the reward we receive for our time, skill, and personality.

Hypnotherapists cannot tell a client how to succeed in the marketplace. We can only help fortify the determination to succeed. In some cases, that determination is undermined by too many choices – distraction that leads to overload and hypersuggestibility.

But determination can also be undermined by harsh lessons from childhood. If perfection was the price of parental acceptance, fear of failure can cause us either to freeze and do nothing or to ignore anything except our current goal. When unexpected talent was punished by parental rejection, fear of success can prevent us from taking the final steps that bring the greatest rewards. In both cases, hypnotherapy can help the subconscious release those childhood lessons, allowing us to lead a more fulfilling life.

If we are free of internal conflicts, the next challenge is to build stable relationships. For example, we would be upset if our favorite restaurant went out of business. If the owners are not the best at marketing, to keep patronage up we might recommend it to our friends. Or if we are in advertising, we might give the owners our business card. We would become their partners.

Building effective partnerships is complicated. It is not just a matter of bringing together the right skills. It is also about harmonizing motivations. Some people seek money, others want social recognition. Some enjoy steady work, while others find routine tedious.


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Again, hypnotherapists cannot tell the client what elements to bring together to create a successful organization, but sociability is a universal foundation. Children that are protected from danger become adventurers and trust direct instruction. Children that cannot predict their parents’ behavior become protectors and prefer to figure out how to solve problems themselves.

In the extreme, adventurers are constantly after that next thrill while protectors go off and hide in a closet. Wonderfully, though, they tend to balance each other out. Most marriages and business partnerships contain one of both – or each partner takes turns being the adventurer in their areas of strength while the other plays protector. It is a partnership based in complementarity: the adventurer goes into the world while the protector watches and plans the next step.

Things go wrong when the partners fail to develop shared interests and goals. The adventurer creates anxiety in their protector. The protector seeks refuge and the adventurer feels insecure. To relieve the insecurity, the adventurer tries to force the protector to come on a thrill-ride, which makes the protector withdraw even further. Eventually the partnership ceases to be a relationship.

Hypnotherapists understand these two styles because adventurers and protectors are hypnotized using different methods. Hypnotherapy can also move extreme behaviors toward the middle. By linking muscle activity with mental imagery, we can enhance blood flow in the parts of the brain that are underutilized, strengthening their influence.

Unfortunately, not understanding the natural tendency of partnership to join opposites, most of us assume that our behavior is “normal.” When our partner disagrees, we think they are “wrong” and proceed to drive them crazy.

The key to recovery is to recognize that protectors give people their minds, while adventurers offer their hearts. Breakups are painful because those gifts are spiritual entanglements that last long after physical and social bonds have been broken. The hypnotic methods of therapeutic imagery are a powerful means for restoring psychic integrity.

Healing and Trust/HealerWhen we come to accept that our sociability is not normative, sympathy for ourselves extends to include others, and we begin the work of building relationships around trust. This is the sweet spot for hypnotherapy.

The doorway to adulthood opens in that moment when we realize that we do not know how to be an adult. The years from infancy to independence only teach us how

to express ourselves. They do not teach us how to be a responsible member of society.

By the end of a successful adolescence, we have found a competitive niche. We have found strengths that command support from our peers. But behind those strengths lie unresolved deficits. The masterful video gamer cannot sustain a romantic relationship. The social butterfly overspends her credit card. The project planner at work does not allow time for play at his 5-year-old’s birthday party.

I have found this definition to be helpful:

An adult understands power and love and has the wisdom and experience to know when to express them.


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Clearly this is an aspiration.

But the first three steps on our pathway to maturity focus on power. In survival the guiding concern is “How am I?” With sex we focus on “What is my identity?” During exchange we shift to “What is my value?” At every step, however, the self is first. We assume that everyone else will be taken care of. They have parents, after all.

When separation from the home is complete, however, we confront a fact that we always took for granted: whatever benefits (even if scanty and begrudged) we received from our parents, we received due to their love. With that support removed, how are we to survive?

The strong choose the path of force – they impose their will on the world. This is the method of the Second Amendment absolutist in America. Not trusting in love, the armed zealot wants to carry a weapon everywhere. The problem with this strategy is that intimidation works though fear, and people do not like being afraid. It is both psychologically and physically draining. They resist, which builds fear in both parties.

The second option is to reassess our strategies for living and rebuild our personality with love as a conscious choice.

In the competitive modern world, that second choice is not easy. The Christian psychotherapist F. Scott Peck recognized this in the title of his landmark book “The Road Less Traveled.” Learning to love involves owning up to your flaws, taking responsibility for past wrongs, and making a commitment to healing not only for ourselves but for others.

The primary venue for this work is the sanctuaries of the major world religions. For those seeking to undertake serious internal work, the challenge is identifying and scheduling time with a mature spiritual guide.

The magic begins in healing. We realize that what did not kill us made us stronger. When we begin, it feels as though our heart is going to break. But the heart is a muscle, and the more it is exercised, the stronger and more sensitive it becomes. We learn to trust in its strength, and that allows us to be more trusting of others.

The principal role of the therapist is to provide encouragement and support. In bearing witness to our internal work, our therapist helps us to recognize when we need to take a few steps back from the edge or pick up the pace so that we can jump the next hurdle. Sessions are also an opportunity to feel how we are doing in a process that almost always brings up resistance from friends, family, and employers.

In traversing through Healing and Trust, a fundamental change occurs. Upon entry, inductions drop the client down into hypnosis, the boundary between the theta and alpha brain wave states. When the step is complete, inductions should lift the client into hristosis, the gamma brain wave state. In the next chapter, we will consider scripts that support both outcomes. The client will land in the state that is suitable for them.

Hypnotherapy offers powerful practices to facilitate healing and trust. Journaling allows us to clarify our goals and priorities. The Kappasinian Mental Bank allows us to enlist the subconscious as we broaden our concerns. Guided imagery journeys can identify hidden resources that we can integrate into our lives and allow us to visualize the results of behavior change. Spiritual guide work bypasses the doubting


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conscious mind to connect us through ancestors and ethereal beings to the universal source of love that sustains us in our growth to maturity.

But none of this is meaningful without the change that occurs between sessions. We learn how to integrate concern for others into our lives, and to balance concern for self and others. We build deeper and more satisfying relationships. We surrender control of the process of exchange, confident in the knowledge that when we have need others will rally to our aid.

Truth/PartnerLife involves many relationships, and only in honoring the truth are we able to sustain true partnerships. Hypnotherapy allows us to smooth over any rough edges carried forward from the past.

I grew up in a thoughtful environment, surrounded by people that engaged the world with confidence. As I filled the gas tank after high school one day, I could not believe my eyes as a woman in a Cadillac slowly backed her car up toward the tanker hoses, glancing expectantly

over her shoulder for assistance. The bumper was over the valve when I put my hand up and commanded, “Stop!”

I have had my own moments: taking a bike down a steep incline to a dirt path. My stepson kept telling me that I was not going to make it. After flipping over the handlebars at the bottom, I dusted the dirt from my t-shirt and shrugged. “See! No harm done.”

At least the lady in the Cadillac knew she needed advice.

For most of us, our self-talk was impressed upon us in childhood, when we were too naïve to defend ourselves. The judgments were delivered by parents who had little experience and often limited understanding of child development. But at least parents must take care of us after they make a mistake – something to give them caution.

Siblings and peers do not have to clean up the mess they make in us. That allows them to be cruel.

Perhaps thus we have the wisdom from grandma, “If you do not have anything nice to say, do not say anything at all.” To those that cannot hold their tongue, it follows that you always say something nice. “You look great” to the size-ten woman wearing a size-six miniskirt.

That does not make sense either. We are going around in circles.

Here is how I smooth over arguments that go around in circles, each party quoting their own facts:

What is true is not nearly as important as what is possible.

We all make mistakes. The wise do not pass judgment over mistakes, they learn from them and do better next time. If what you have been told about yourself is not working, see a hypnotherapist and come up with an alternative that does work.

Learning from a mistake is a two-part process. First, we need to know what happened. Then we look for elements that we could add to the experience to get a better outcome. In problem solving, we usually


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focus on the second step. But the first step is harder. If we do not have witnesses, we have little chance of reconstructing our experience – simply because we cannot see ourselves in the situation.

If we do have witnesses, are they going to tell us what they saw, or what they think about what happened? The second is “You are a dork.” The first is “well, when the front tire hit the path, your weight was forward of the axle, so you flipped over.” The second means “There’s something wrong with you,” the first means “You did something wrong.”

After we learn to heal and trust, we tend to say the first thing. We have empathy for the struggle to do right. We want to see others succeed, for in their success we gain strength as well. We establish a friend that wants us to succeed, and so will offer us trustworthy counsel.

We do confront a new challenge, however: with all this help being given and received, we develop new behaviors more rapidly. That is a good thing, in general, but it has a consequence. Our dreams, goals and needs change. The people that brought us to those opportunities may not be able to carry us forward.

This is the plight of the housewife with the jet-setting husband, the commercial real-estate executive that cannot master social media, and the coach that loses the Super Bowl two years running. They live in anxiety that they will be left behind.

It is in negotiating these anxieties that truth turns – literally – inside out. The jet-setter becomes psychologically ungrounded; social media only opens the door, it does not close a deal. To appreciate the actual value of an existing relationship, the full lived experience needs to be revealed to each partner. Each party needs to submit to their partner’s witness. That means hiding nothing and never lying. It means living with integrity and in truth.

Why is this hard? Because we enter partnerships for what we hope for, not for what we are now. We wanted to raise two happy children; we wanted to be number one in our rental placements. To live in truth and integrity, we must put our hopes on the shelf and allow the incomplete self to be revealed. (Our children are not yet grown up; we are still number three.)

That is a vulnerable thing to do. We reveal our limitations and weakness. It can only be done together.

But it must be done if we are going to continue to grow. Lying and hiding takes work, distracts attention, and degrades the commitment of our partner to our shared goals.

Hypnotherapy supports this process by evening out emotional turbulence. Anxiety often originates in experiences of violated trust early on the path to maturity. Euphoria felt among others can cause us to renege on our commitments – something seen as weakness by partners old and new.

More potently, however, in hypnosis guided imagery journeys of discovery can help us to understand how much power is liberated when we chose to live in truth. Living in truth allows our whole mind to unify behind the accomplishment of our goals.

It allows us to grasp possibilities that our conscious mind could never imagine.


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Creativity/InnovatorIn the security of partnerships, we get to choose both who we want to be and what we wish to accomplish. Sustaining harmony is the challenge, as change disrupts everyone’s plans. Hypnotherapy helps both with harmony and healing.

For a loving couple, the womb is a sacred vessel in which spirit is joined to flesh. In the instant of germination, the sperm and ova merge the intentions of parents. The spirit of the growing fetus guides the seeking of cells as tissues and organs emerge. Mother, with patience and forbearance, attends, filters, and provides all that is necessary for growth. Father protects the sacred process, affirming

the emerging virtue and clearing away psychic weeds.

We do not usually talk about pregnancy with the focus on spiritual process. We talk about eating, exercising, working, stroking, and growing. But each of those physical acts has a corresponding spiritual consequence. It is in the service of creativity that those correspondences become clear to us.

No participant wholly determines the way a child enters the world. Anyone can corrupt the outcome, creating wounds that may take a lifetime to heal. But pregnancy unfolds according to its own timing, each serving in their own way, and only with birth is the outcome known.

Truth empowers us to create change. In creating a child, parents manifest that fact at the cellular level. After birth, the susceptibility of a child continues to expose our strengths and weakness. We cannot impose adult expectations upon our children; character emerges in stages. We must respond to children as they are, rather than as we imagine they should be, while still seeking to support them as they become what we hope they can be.

A parent’s surrender of control seems obvious – we cannot see what is going on in the womb, nor would we hope to control our child’s every act. Why should we? We have lives of our own.

This long introduction is offered to prepare us for the change in perspective involved when we enter the realm of creative collaboration. Living in truth, as loyal partners we learn that commitment remains as we emerge from the psychological chrysalis. To change is allowed us; our partners adapt with us.

Given that privilege, we naturally ask “Who do I want to be?”

This seems to return us to the second step on the path to maturity (Sex). The difference is that we are not driven by untamed urges. We have years of experience managing personal and professional relationships. In working with our partners, we identify skills, attitudes, and behaviors that we would like to add to our personality.

The introverted accountant might wish to project the personal warmth of the sales representative. The pragmatic housewife could learn to paint. The jet-setting athlete may yearn increasingly to remain with family.

What controls those choices is the weight of our involvement in the realization of goals pursued by our community. That community might be a household with school-age children, a high-tech corporation, or


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a society confronting a drug epidemic. Under the right circumstances, a single person might be committed to serving each of those communities.

But under no condition is anybody able to focus exclusively on a single community. We all serve in multiple roles. The housewife will be asked to authorize pediatric vaccinations and sex education. Consent implies informed trust in the medical system and school board. Objection might require home schooling of her children, and compliance with complex educational standards.

Again, this seems to reiterate the considerations of an earlier stage of development – exchange. We must weigh costs and benefits to each action and seek to maximize the return to our community. The difference is that during exchange the community’s commitment to our survival is contingent upon the value we generate. When we are creative, we instead find our security in spiritual immersion.

As we inspire and adapt, the barriers between self and other begin to melt. Our intellectual, physical, and emotional strength is dependent upon theirs. We discover gratitude for the gifts that we receive from them. Life is not about measuring and counting – it is about being in harmony.

The greatest challenge in expressing creativity is the dislocation experienced by those still in earlier development stages. Those persons are not fully immersed in the creative process. Change is continually forced upon them, undermining the behaviors they use to survive. If they fall back into fear and anger, the creative gestalt can be wounded.

A sophisticated hypnotherapist helps to manage those boundaries and heal those wounds.

Within the community, an old self-centered behavior pattern may not be triggered except in specific circumstances. When those arise, a session or two with a therapist can release the pattern so that the creative effort can be resumed.

Other situations are less malleable: relocations, marriages, divorces, births, and deaths focus the need to change. Group imagery sessions can help communities visualize change and prepare for a smooth reorganization. When dislocation comes as a sudden shock, individual or group grief process can be facilitated by hypnotherapeutic imagery.

Individuals also benefit when hypnotherapy is used to focus attention and energy for key events: corporate board meetings, final exams and a sports competition are all examples. Hypnotherapeutic imagery is again a powerful tool in ensuring effective outcome in contexts certain to include distractions and disruptions.

Imagination/LiberatorThe barrier between conscious and subconscious dissolves, and we enter a realm of spiritual development that is qualified by our ability to sustain harmony in the realm of ideas.

Our journey on the hristic path has reached its endpoint. Thus far, the journey has been incremental, each step building upon prior progress. In a broad sense, we can see that in the first three stages (survival, sex, and

exchange) the goal is to explore opportunities for personal expression. The second three stages (healing/trust, truth, and creativity) shift to collaboration and social responsibility.


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Hewing to the priorities of the hypnotherapist, our focus has been on changes in behavior. That growth may bring conflict with the self or others. Each segment has surveyed the tools hypnotherapists may offer to support those struggling with a transition.

Psychiatry offers some detailed insights. The brain also changes as we mature. When learning to survive, the brain is designed to capture as much experience as possible. Neurons form dense webs of interconnection. During adolescence and early adulthood (sex and exchange), the brain sheds many of those connections, focusing its energy toward identifying and amplifying social advantages.

Along with those gross changes, the brain develops new structures. Reason and relationships are our highest cognitive functions, and as we learn neurons are recruited to their service. Each new node requires the services of its predecessors. The highest relationship function – altruism – often develops only in our mid-twenties (in the region called the posterior superior temporal sulcus).

From these insights, however, we have no reason to expect that the basic model of behavior development might begin to break down. Remember how this goes: due to the complexity of social existence, around eight years of age the brain divides into the conscious and subconscious, with exchange mediated by the critical mind. Could it be possible that as we age, the more powerful subconscious might come to trust our abilities to survive in society, and come back into the light?

Such a change is not incremental. It completely upends our concept of self.

This is the nature of the final stage of personal development, the stage of imagination.

The dissolution of the critical mind begins in dreaming. Dreams are the forum in which the subconscious invents new behaviors, free from the prejudices of the conscious mind. But the process is inefficient at best and often obscure. Many remembered dreams are vague if not incoherent. But if through dream analysis we cultivate a dialog, the subconscious learns to be more precise. And when that dialog is pursued gently and respectfully, it eventually begins to call upon the conscious mind during sleep, allowing it to help resolve choices. This is called lucid dreaming.

Dream researchers and enthusiasts have developed methods to cultivate lucid dreaming. The first wanted accurate descriptions of the content of dreams and later discovered that it could be used to overcome trauma. The second enjoyed the thrill of the dream. It is important to remember, however, that unstructured dreaming is a critical part of behavior development. My recommendation is to allow the subconscious to open the door naturally, according to its own understanding of the benefits of greater conscious participation.

Beyond lucid dreaming, however, comes lucid waking. Trust works both ways, and when the conscious mind respects the creative powers of the subconscious, it can facilitate their activation without falling asleep. This is the natural state of many artists: they switch rapidly between abstract analysis and physical sensation as they work. Hypnotherapists call this mental pattern “somnambulism,” and discovered that many neuroses are related to “hypersuggestibility”: the tendency for the subconscious to reinforce negative thought patterns. But when the conscious mind is disciplined to cultivate positive thoughts, when a new opportunity presents itself it can drop into a meditative state to ask the subconscious “Where does this lead?” A rich set of possibilities are presented immediately.


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As the critical mind continues to dissolve, eventually a new brain state emerges: the gamma state. Observed in dedicated meditators and religious devotees, the gamma state appears to be the most highly energized of the known brain states, operating almost 50% higher than the beta state that we entered when alarmed.

These experiences all lead to increased imaginative capacity. But there is far more open to us in the space of imagination.

To understand the richness of that experience, I must challenge the psychiatric model of thought. Observing that damage to the brain causes loss of cognitive function, psychiatrists believe that all thinking occurs in the brain. Another possibility, however, is that the brain is an interface to the soul. Damage to an interface also causes loss of function.

My experience of the space of imagination led me to that second model: the brain is a kind of multi-channel receiver that tunes into a realm of ideas. In that space, injection of noise is the worst disaster. It disrupts the coherence of ideas. To gain full access, therefore, we must learn to sublimate our concern for the physical self, guarding against the impulses of greed, anger, fear, envy, lust, etc. In fact, failure to do so activates powerful intellectual antibodies that hurt our brains.

Psychologists might recognize my “space of ideas” as Jung’s “collective unconscious.”

Now ideas obviously strive for expression, and with our complex brains, human beings are a wonderous partner in the evolution of ideas. Unfortunately, we are still in transition from the long era of biological evolution (running back almost three billion years) that was driven by competition, conflict, and pain – sources of noise that degrade the coherence of ideas. Intellectual evolution took root in us only when we learned to moderate our primitive impulses. That evolution, unfortunately, is a known threat to our evolutionary predecessors – including people that were not raised into intellectual opportunity. To avoid extinction, they are suspicious of intellectual change.

Our religious avatars explore the path through this thicket of mistrust. Buddha offered the concept of “compassion for all sentient beings.” Christ went further, promising “unconditional love.” In both cases, the avatar achieved intellectual authority only by resolving to witness sorrow as an intermediary for ideas that accumulate power from the gratitude of those that receive healing. Buddha tortured himself to achieve that status; Christ surrendered himself to death at the hands of those he loved.

The ongoing work done by our avatars is a transformation of the spiritual ecology in the space of ideas. Unconditional love seeks virtue in all things, transforming eventually even our vices. Anger becomes passion; destruction becomes creative transformation. Of course, the primitive impulses resist that transformation. Their program of repression, however, is frustrated by the sacred martyr, who endures physical wounds as a method of infecting the motivating ideas with love’s virtue.

Trapped in the world of material exchange, such acts seem insane. What history teaches us, however, is that material exchange is a dead end. It creates nothing that endures. Despite all the promotion and wailing of the 20th century, the most enduring personalities in our cultures are our religious avatars. When I was a child in the 1960’s, we still hated Hitler. Now only a few remember him, and increasingly they are ridiculed as anachronisms.


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The future lies in acceptance and celebration of our differences – differences that permutate in the space of ideas to build ever richer possibilities for the expression of love.

Which brings us back to sex. Sex has a biological expression in male and female forms. That expression has a parallel in the space of ideas, in principles that I call “masculine” and “feminine.” The masculine principle facilitates change and must achieve temporal and spatial isolation to accomplish that end. The feminine principle sustains continuity through temporal and spatial diffusion. Even in our age, few appreciate the transformative power of their integration: transformation under the guidance of prescient intuition. The possibilities are literally magical.

But I have drifted into speculation, and the reader, following experience, must be wondering what hypnotherapy has to offer in this process. The answer, unfortunately, is “nothing.” Hypnotherapy is necessary only to divided minds. Those operating in the space of imagination no longer suffer from that limitation.

Of course, a hypnotherapist operating in the realm of imagination is a powerful aid to personal development. John Kappas and Milton Erickson are recent examples. I am suspicious, reading the reports of his faith healings, that Jesus also deserved the title.


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Part II – MethodsThe purpose of lay hypnotherapy is facilitation of a dialog between the conscious (“waking”) and subconscious (“hidden”) parts of the mind. That starts with counseling, a strengthening of the conscious mind’s understanding of identity. Once the groundwork is laid, induction establishes access to the subconscious mind. Historically, that access was taken as a remit for the therapist to reorganize the subconscious landscape, and many clients come to us seeking to surrender responsibility for self-improvement. Unfortunately, most presenting issues are a plea for understanding of deeper concerns that the subconscious cannot articulate, and so a surrender of therapeutic initiative leads ultimately to resistance to suggestion or rechanneling of the need into another behavioral problem. Recognizing this pattern, imagery allows the therapist to bear witness to subconscious resistance in real time, and therapeutic imagery facilitates immediate feedback from the subconscious. Finally, as the ramifications of personal growth cannot be fully elaborated except in confrontation with lived experience, dream therapy encourages continued exploration as, day-by-day, the client presents their excellent self to the world.


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CounselingWhen a client decides to retain assistance to develop and strengthen their personality, they are advancing an intention. Intention is the highest mental function. Our discussion in Chapter 3 identified three supports for our intentions: design, story, and introspection. Stories guide us through choices. Design leverages reason for adaptation. Introspection helps us to choose stories and designs best suited to our nature.

Counseling is the aspect of therapy that guides clients into self-discovery through design, story, and introspection. This is not unique to hypnotherapy. Psychotherapists, life coaches, and professional service advisors all offer insights that clients will integrate with therapy. Such contributions should be encouraged.

That said, lay hypnotherapy is unique in offering an integrated view of experience and the development of personality. We work as generalists among specialists, and our work progresses toward integration of the fragments built around the specialists’ narrow views of our client’s lives. For this reason, we must defend the integrity of our principal stories, principles of design, and introspective focus. That ensures that the client is realistic regarding what can be accomplished in our work, and thus can balance it against other advice.

Our goal here is not to address aspects of counseling related to acute personal crisis or trauma. Specialty training is recommended for those wishing to serve such clients. We will consider loss in our discussion of motivation.

The discussion will reference the concept of Subjective Units of Discomfort (SUDs). This is a personal assessment of severity, often on a range from 0 to 10. ‘0’ corresponds to “none,” ‘10’ to “debilitating.” ‘5’ is the midpoint at which the focus of experience shifts from positive to negative perceptions. The therapist should provide examples relevant to the condition. SUDs are elicited in therapy for panic, discomfort, and obsession.

GoalsCounseling is the initial step in therapy and serves the broad goal of facilitating the expression of love. That evolves step-by-step by cultivating virtues in the social identity that empower us to respond intelligently to events, rather than reacting primitively. Responses and reactions are both types of behavior.

While we often focus on the visible behavior, we must recognize that unproductive behaviors begin in the mind. Stuttering brings ridicule, but it originates in overthinking that causes the brain to race ahead of the mouth, lose track of where it was, and start over again.

Rumination is unproductive, repetitive thinking over past failures or future threats. Catastrophic thinking can produce energy by triggering the fight/flight reaction. Conversely, when danger seems inescapable, hopeless thinking can conserve energy by frustrating action. Both types of rumination prevent the sufferer from living in the now of their experience. Where rumination might seem to show an overactive imagination, blind spots seem to others to show a lack of imagination. The sufferer plods ahead in frustrating circumstances, ignoring opportunities to change their life.


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The subconscious may also use overwhelming emotion to control behavior. Emotion is more than a thought – it involves our enteroception. Hormones cascade through the blood stream, triggering reactions in parallel that overwhelm our ability to construct a rational response. The condition can be intensely pleasurable, but even so can be recognized as a weakness used by others to manipulate our behavior. When debilitating, the subconscious may walk away with the conclusion that “we survived again,” leading to generalization to other circumstances.

Over the long term, strategies for controlling behavior may descend to the level of physiological dysfunction. Insomnia is linked to anxiety and provides a time for independent action that can lead to escape. Dietary preferences reflect an imbalanced sensitivity to the needs of one part of the body (often the brain) to the detriment of others. Chronic illness or injury reflects a similar imbalance in priorities, with the subconscious responding to conscious cues that favor or disfavor certain activities.

These internal behaviors are the source for unhappy external results. The client may not be aware of those connections. Counseling must reflect their level of self-awareness. If the social identity evolved under pressure, the client may need to realize first that they have alternatives. (The awareness of difference is the root of consciousness.) Relaxation therapy can have a profound impact, starting the categorization of states and character traits that flowers into an independent identity. Conversely, as a client the master meditator may proceed directly to investigation of pent-up energies that block access to deeper oneness with a beloved community.

As counselors, we must make that assessment through dialog, and craft our strategies accordingly. The best question is “Why do you think that is?”

AssetsThe hypnotherapist sees unproductive behaviors as reflecting poor communication between the conscious and subconscious minds. The subconscious always seeks our benefit. Its concerns may involve implicit memories, many originating in early childhood, that do not apply to our current situation. To secure its willing participation in change, discovery must avoid blame.

Cultivating this attitude is a source of hope to our clients. Their well-being is under the control of their oldest, dearest friend – the subconscious. Onto this hope we add two powerful models of personal growth – one strictly social, the second explicitly spiritual and tailored to hypnotherapy.

ModelsBuilding client confidence begins with the power of hypnotherapy and the Theory of Mind. The text is written as scripts that may be modified but should be committed to memory and practiced until they can be delivered while monitoring the client’s affect. The client should be eager to encourage their subconscious to speak. Self-knowledge is the foundation of self-design.

The Stages of Development capture the most common social conflicts experienced during development of our identity. When a stage is incomplete, society pushes us forward, locking in deficits of identity. Several clues help us to identify the stage. In discussing problems, clients will use language that reflects the corresponding crisis.

Stage Deficit Characteristic AttitudeInfant Mistrust They are out to get me.Toddler Shame Something is wrong with me.


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Preschool Guilt I did something wrong.Childhood Inferiority I will never succeed.Adolescent Role Confusion I do not know who I am.Young Adult Isolation I do not belong.Middle-Age Stagnation Glory days.Late Adult Despair What is the point?

For emotional or physiological manifestations, the age of first onset is also indicative. A good question is “What else was going on in your life at that time?” The reaction may correspond to judgments passed by the authority who suppressed growth. Recognize that the suppression may not have been intended. A parent going through divorce or an employer suffering a reversal may attempt to justify a withdrawal of support in ways that avoid implicit culpability, with painful consequences to their partners. The loss of a social partner may also drive regression in dependents seeking a replacement.

The Hristic Path charts the relationship between the conscious and subconscious minds. As the conscious mind is organized around our social identity, the Path re-iterates many aspects of the Stages of Development but proceeds on no set chronology. The therapeutic work occurs in a separate space, with connections to society addressed as the client finds them relevant.

The Hristic Path also recognizes the sociability that often defines our most important relationships. Sociability is conditioned by our maternal relationship. It creates a bias in our perceptions and responses to experience, often leading to patterns in our reactions to apparently unrelated events. To avoid the conflicts that arise from that bias, we must either expand our sociability or identify a community that accepts our bias.

Both models are frameworks (or meta-stories) that assist the client in creating a life narrative. Both recognize the inevitability of crisis and conflict. Both specify factors that lead to resolution and acceptance. During discovery, the therapist selects one to build a story that offers hope and organizes the therapeutic plan.

In executing that plan, the client requires confirmation of against concrete goals. To ensure gratification, the SMART criteria are applied. Goals should be “Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Time-bound.”

Rapport is the foundation for construction of that story. The client must be able to reveal the most personal details of their life experience without fear of condemnation. That confidence is founded in the therapist’s unconditional positive regard.

Dialog with the SubconsciousCrisis and conflict undermine trust in the social contract, manifesting internally as a hardening of the barrier between the conscious and subconscious. Trance is only one method for piercing that barrier and may be resisted until rapport is solidified. Among the alternatives are ideomotor response (including handwriting), journaling, and dream analysis. When encouraged as a conversation that honors subconscious reticence, their use can be an aid in building trust in the therapeutic process.

Ideomotor response reflects the linkage between gesture and intention. An infant cannot say “yes” or “no,” so with the arms they push away or pull toward. Eventually those gestures are minimized in favor


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of language, but residual muscle tension remains. From this, a pendulum bob held above a table will change its motion as we shift our thoughts from desirable to undesirable experiences. When asked to consider a question without verbalizing an answer, the result can be read from the motion of the pendulum. The practice of kinesthesiology uses shoulder resistance to pressure on an extended arm. Both require some training of the subject, who must avoid thinking the answer to themselves.

Handwriting analysis is awesomely sophisticated, and the shift to electronic communication is depriving us of a powerful tool. The science of graphology is beyond to scope of this writing, but the principles are easy to state.

Sit down with a piece of paper in front of you. Before you write, you pick a tool, and even that choice reveals something. How nuanced are your views? Do they change depending upon the audience? How important are your emotions to full understanding? Pencil, ball-point, rollerball, and felt-tip all address those expressive needs in differing degrees, as does the color of the ink.

Then starting in the space of imagination, you put pen to paper near the top and at the left – the edge closest to you. As you compose the first line, the pen moves away from you - extending thoughts to your reader even as time advances into the future. Line-by-line, the pen moves away from your head, down toward your body.

The spacing on the page represents the directness and solidity of your engagement: letters as regards your thinking, words as regards your relationships, lines as regards your community, margins as regards your life.

As with the page in the large, so with each letter in detail. Verticals join the various realms of being (thought, society, and body). As they flow up and down, loops suggest the degree to which others are brought into those interactions (wider means greater openness). Ovals in the middle range reflect social interaction, and openings and little loops reveal the patterns of our communication. Are we more open to self or others? Do we tend to filter? Bowls reveal openness to new ideas, and from what source (self or other). Leading strokes suggest the concreteness of the commitments that motivate communication, and trailing strokes the principal context for their expression.

These principles combine coherently in ways that allow graphologists to ascribe meanings to each letter. A specialist course is recommended.

As home practice, journaling is effective when discovery is blocked. If done during the half hour just before sleep, it sends information in the opposite direction (from conscious to subconscious). During the descent into sleep, the information is still coherent when the transfer to the subconscious occurs.

A springboard is a sentence that focuses introspection on a specific topic. When positive associations are impoverished, the List of 100 can be assigned. Positive visualizations for change are focused by the sentence stem exercise (“When I get my degree, I will…”). Imaginary dialog is a form of rehearsal that reduces social anxiety. Unsent letters allow expression of emotions blocked by fear. Writing with the non-dominant hand may tap more directly into imagination, inner wisdom, and childhood attitudes.

Dream analysis is a principal therapeutic practice.

Exploring IdentityDescriptions of identity progress as we mature. The order is often:


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Focus Partner Question Stage Hristic StepBehaviors What can you do? Child SurvivalPreferences What do you like/dislike? Adolescent SexKnowledge How can you help me? Young Adult ExchangeAssociations What do you believe in? Middle Age TruthCharacter What are your values? Late Adult CreativityService What is your purpose? N/A Imagination

During discovery, the therapist assesses the maturity of the client and guides the construction of a story that advances toward higher intentions. This is obviously a rather abstract goal.

A basis for discussion is a survey of life satisfaction. The client offers a SUDs ranking on the following categories:

Family & Friends Health Significant Other/Romance Money Personal Growth Physical Environment Fun & Recreation Career

Areas of high and low satisfaction are often in the client’s mind. Their introspection can be matched against the progression of identity (CTI[-]).

To make the dynamic between identity and society explicit, I recommend a model derived from Dr. Dan Nightingale’s Strategic Action Planning (Nig[2019]). The inner rectangle characterizes the self-concept in all dimension: mental (character), physical (wellness), emotional (belonging) and spiritual (meaning). These qualities are expressed and validated in society, simplified as work, relationships, environment, and routine.

Counseling guides the client in creating lists to describe the aspects of the model. The client then ranks each aspect of the self-concept (inner rectangle) on a SUDs scale. Improvement is prioritized and related to changes in the social engagement. These are refined as SMART goals. Again, the focus locates the client on the progression of identity.

Perspective ShiftsUntil reaching the focus on character, introspection can be biased by social or cultural judgments. Methods to achieve a perspective shift help the client to get past the limiting opinions of parents, friends, spouse, and/or employers.

We seek to soften defeatist patterns of thinking. Normalization establishes that internalizing a judgment is a reasonable response to circumstances beyond our control. An inventory of virtues (see below)


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establishes that the client possesses skills that can be used to improve their situation. In analyzing their life narrative, we identify generalizations and prompt for past counterexamples.

The magic wand technique is simply to ask, “If I could wave a magic wand to create your ideal outcome, what would that look like?” The best friend shift has a similar formulation, “What would you say to your best friend if they were in this situation?”

More formal methods also shift the dialog toward higher focus.

Corrective Therapy takes a goal statement and word-by-word explores synonyms (Kap[1999a]). Sociability is important in the method: an adventurer is asked to “Give me another word for…” the original word, while the protector is referred to the last word. At least five rounds are demanded, the therapist noting heightened response to any of the alternatives. The highlighted words are read out as a statement of subconscious intention.

Paris Window weakens the power of external judgments. The page is divided into four panes. The upper left pane receives the client’s description of themselves in the context of their issue. The upper right follows with what they believe others think about how they deal with the issue. The lower right is for their feelings about those judgments. The final square receives their perception of their situation from this new, outside perspective.

Identity LiteracyAdvancement – either along developmental stages or hristic steps – brings change in the mind. We make a dramatic shift in language and priorities. This defines our identity literacy. We struggle to communicate with others at different stages or steps.

In counseling, we guide the client forward through each stage. In establishing new behaviors, we can then ask, “Which do you prefer?” With preferences established, we encourage, “You should learn more about that.” When knowledge gaps are discovered, we ask, “Is there a community that could help?” As those commitments deepen, we ask, “How do you balance personal and community needs?” Finally, we arrive at “How could your experience benefit others?”

The therapist must adapt their use of terminology to the sophistication of the client. Conceptual compatibility is therefore a critical consideration when selecting a therapeutic specialization.

Inventory of VirtueExploration of identity involves a series of context shifts as we engage opportunities. That can engender subconscious resistance to change. Trance allows us to adjust our focus but is not enough in of itself. The conscious mind must reinforce change with internal dialog.

Continuity in that dialog is achieved through cultivation of an inventory of virtue. These are character traits inferred from our social interactions. As an example, “persistent” applies in every stage in the development of identity, as do compassionate, intelligent, attentive, vibrant, generous, and courageous.

In establishing these concepts, we create an identity to carry forward intact through all of life’s changes. We also identify aspirations for personal growth. In hypnosis, the inventory of virtue is the source for personalization of therapeutic methods such as the staircase deepener, anchors, progressive relaxation, and desensitization.


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Stimulating the development of a client’s inventory of virtue is an ongoing part of the counseling process. Until later stages of focus, it may be implicit to therapy, maintained principally in therapist case notes.

Ultimately, the client must assume ownership of their chosen virtues. In managing the inventory of virtue, we find the intersection of story (“How did I become who I am?”), design (“Who do I want to be?”) and introspection (“What is my nature?”).

Counseling MarketplaceThe goals and methods of our counseling practice are mature but have a restricted scope of application. Clients must be able to define and accomplish their goals independently. The intimacy of our dialog restricts the degree to which we as counselors can extend our presence into the lives of our clients. For both reasons, clients will rely upon additional support in realizing their aspirations.

PsychotherapyWhen contradictions in the self-concept lead to self- or other-harm, psychotherapy is essential to healing. The training that supports that work also lends itself to applications also within the scope of lay hypnotherapy. As some estimate that two-thirds of adults have suffered trauma at some point in their lives, many of our clients may benefit from psychotherapy.

Conversely, experience shows that many clients will choose to move forward if offered understanding, a positive direction for growth, and a compelling experience of change. As lay hypnotherapists, those are the gifts we extend.

Given the extent of trauma, however, psychotherapists are a valuable social resource. That is reflected in the stature of their discipline and the care taken in qualifying practitioners. The discipline has worked over generations to transmit their insights to the public – not least with the goal of conditioning us to avoid traumatizing each other. Every client will bring those concepts to therapy.

Unfortunately, the underlying problems are difficult. Psychotherapy advances in faddish waves (Har[2019]), and in this generation the emphasis is on management of mood. The inspiration was the application of psychoactive drugs to cure psychosis, but over the last four decades they have increasingly been prescribed for preventative therapy. The philosophy appears to be that if mood is stabilized, patients will social harmony. (This is at odds with our theory of sociability.)

Having been given the remit to market directly to consumers, drug companies have popularized psychological terminology. Clients will speak of “depression” or being trapped in a relationship with a “narcissistic” personality. Self-help survival guides stimulates diagnosis of our intimates. Fighting against this misuse of terminology properly reserved for clinical diagnosis according to the DSM, I capitalize clinical diagnoses (“Depression”, “Narcissistic”).

Recognizing the limitations of mood therapy, clinicians increasingly emphasize introspection in counseling.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) increases sensitivity to anxiety-inducing thought patterns (Kna(2014]). The client learns to interrupt the progression, preserving calm. In studies of depression, it appears that CBT has higher efficacy than drugs alone, or even drugs in combination with CBT. I have not


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seen evidence, however, that psychologists appreciate the relationship between metabolism and thought patterns that induce anxiety. Patients under chronic stress can rely upon anxious thinking to build energy through the fight/flight reaction.

An extension of CBT, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) (Hay[2019]) recognizes the importance of linking thought to actions.

More flexible strategies are building around mindfulness practices. Moving beyond relaxation, modern mediation practices focus attention to activate specific mental functions (Sie[2010]).

I remark, however, that these counseling techniques are not limited to clinical practice. In fact, both have been popularized in self-help manuals. Both are outside-in approaches to behavior change, and thus relatively slow compared to hypnotherapy, which addresses both sides simultaneously. Of course, as lay hypnotherapists, in collaboration we may benefit from the psychotherapist’s sophisticated understanding of behavior.

As stated previously, when clients describe their goals in psychological terms, we must reframe in behavioral terms. Rather than “I want to get over my depression,” we seek “I want to stop obsessing about my breakup so that I can study for the bar exam.” Finally, we must always be sensitive to evidence of self- or other-harm and refer such clients for clinical care.

Life CoachingOne prototype for the life coach is the Twelve-Step sponsor. The coach has walked a path of accomplishment before the client. That experience empowers them to motivate, support, and guide.

Stated in these terms, we can also recognize the corporate mentor as a prototype. Systematization of life coaching methods started in the corporate consulting world, and eventually made its way out to the public.

The modern life coach may be qualified by experience, by reference, or by training. The most successful offer subscription modules in written or video formats. Terminology is idiosyncratic, the guru of the moment often using synonyms to recycle wisdom from the past.

Life coaches are syncretic, drawing upon terminology from clinical and non-clinical disciplines. Clients may be confusing (and confused) in their restatement of the coach’s advice. We should counsel with that in mind and be careful to establish consistent definitions for use in formulating hypnotic suggestions. If that strategy is frustrated, we must either master the source materials or educate the client to our terminology and methods.

Professional ServicesProfessional service is an umbrella including lawyers, financial advisors, ministers, and athletic trainers (among others). Clients seek them out to accomplish specific, concrete goals. The professional suggests methods for minimizing risk and maximizing reward. Often that involves constraints on client behavior. That may be as simple as “work out four times a week” or as subtle as “fulfill only the letter of the contract.”


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A professional advisor is sought out for their expertise. Their role is often constrained by law or contract, descending to the terms of their liability insurance. They seek to differentiate their service offering, thereby creating dependency in the client.

In exchange they relieve the client of anxiety. The trusted professional is expected to create the conditions that will allow the client to fulfill their ambitions. The realization of that goal is typically deferred and dependent upon a commitment of energy, money, or time. In this context, the client surrenders agency to the professional. This may need to be addressed in therapy to overcome resistance to change.

The most sophisticated advisors may insinuate themselves as extensions to the client’s personality. In that case, counseling must extend to spirituality.

PlaceboAn important factor in counseling is the client’s belief that they are being provided resources necessary to their success. When positive reinforcement is persistent, this message is received by the subconscious mind. Anxiety that stimulated right-hemisphere scanning for danger is replaced by calm consideration of opportunities. Physiological resources held in reserve are released for physical, emotional, and mental activity that generates value. That value may include healing of chronic illness, both mental and physical.

This response to positive support from a recognized authority is called placebo. The success of faith healing, prayer, alternative medicine, and hypnosis is also attributed to placebo. This is often put out as a negative, but we should recognize that medicine does not restore proper body function – it merely limits the effects of illness so that the body can restore itself.

Hypnotherapy as an adjunct to other forms of counseling can be thought of as a placebo amplifier. Rather than waiting for reinforcement to carry the message to the subconscious, hypnosis injects it directly. This is also true of any form of imagery that projects positive self-imagery into the subconscious.

Session StructureFrom our survey of counseling, we are driven to the sobering conclusion that counseling is incremental and iterative. Nobody can navigate the shoals of a distressed mind and map the waterway in a single sitting, much less clear the hazards.

Yet the process has logical dependencies, and those dependencies suggest the following sequence.

Start the session with this question: “How can I help you?” Then sit back and allow the client to tell their story. While offering emotional support, note key words. Body syndromes may help to guide exploration.

Remember that we are seeking to strengthen the bond between the social identity and the subconscious. We must be conscious of how nurturance serves in that process. Explore relationships, identify sources of support and resistance. If the inner bond is tenuous, counsel with feminine strategies of support; as it becomes more robust, switch to masculine analysis of outcomes.

Enrich the narrative with relevant points from the Stages of Development and Hristic Path. Engage the client in building a hope-filled narrative.


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Engage the client in behavior analysis and design. Identify common factors in their experience of crisis. Often these will descend from sociability. Inventory triggers that entrain unproductive reactions. Rank the severity of the outcomes on a SUDs scale. If necessary, prioritize based upon the severity, avoiding high-severity (7 or above) reactions until the capacity to change has been established.

Reframe responses as evidence of character traits that seek to serve survival and self-expression. Be sensitive to resistance that indicates a defense. Identify situations in which those traits were beneficial. If reasonable, identify traits that, if instilled, would transform crisis into opportunity.

Synthesize a therapeutic plan from the strategies to follow. Explain the principles in play and obtain assent from the client to proceed.


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InductionIn any hypnotic modality, an induction is a means of obtaining access to the subconscious mind and its store of implicit memories. In this chapter we will survey the types of inductions and provide scripts suitable for use by the lay hypnotherapist.

Of the three classical hypnotic disciplines, both stage hypnotism and clinical hypnosis seek to obtain direct and unregulated access to the subconscious landscape. Lay hypnotherapy is distinguished in assuring conscious participation in the therapeutic process. Early in the therapeutic process, the connection may be indirect. During discussion, the client consciously identifies goals that the therapist shares with the subconscious. This is classical hypnosis. As the client advances towards maturity, the conscious and subconscious are both active after induction.

Natural HypnosisHypnosis is a natural process that results whenever the social identity becomes an impediment to our survival. All inductions seek to exploit this natural tendency. Susceptibility to induction may be determined by associations to prior hypnotic experiences. For both reasons, an understanding of natural hypnosis is beneficial. It allows us to choose the right induction for the situation, and even to adapt and mix inductions to reflect client response.

But let us first remember the purpose of our social identity. The social identity exists to protect our survival behaviors from corruption by information that is irrelevant or manipulative. An example of the former is the child who comes back from watching Tarzan and breaks a leg swinging on a rope. As to the latter, we have the senior giving their credit card to a fraudster. In slowing the unfolding of such events, the conscious mind serves our survival.

In that service, the conscious mind defines goals that focus our attention as we move through the world. Those things that we attend to are stored in our explicit, daily memory. Those experiences may engender conflict, satisfaction, or wonder. Those emotions are also lodged in our daily memory.

Falling asleep idles conscious recording of events. The mind drops from relaxed waking toward subconscious dreaming. At the boundary, the social identity transfers information, the subconscious attaching high importance to events that generated strong emotional reactions.

The relaxed surrender into sleep is associated with maternal comforting. Speaking slowly with a soothing tone is often helpful. Other associations are closing of the eyes, restful breathing, and muscle relaxation. As we do this every night, the transition is easy to engender.

The second cause of identity breakdown is simple overload. We receive too many signals, the daily memory is full, and our reason cannot reconcile all the facts. The subconscious tries to establish control to assure that we do not get hit by a bus. In that state, we can have a mild form of disassociation. The conscious mind may continue to ruminate on an intractable problem while the subconscious drives the car. It is only after missing the exit that we realize we have not been paying attention.

A third context for idling of the conscious mind is an accident or physical assault (Aco[2002]). Analysis of information is a dangerous delay. The subconscious must respond immediately to ensure survival. Sensation is taken in and filtered against what we know about threat and safety. Since these memories


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go directly into our implicit store, often we ruminate upon them, raising them up to conscious awareness so that we can learn from our reactions.

The final and particularly painful form of identity breakdown occurs in situations of long-term social stress, often imposed by a stronger party. Progressing from frustration to depression, the subconscious is asking to get out. When the conscious mind insists upon protecting the status quo, a festering wound grows into our self-trust. Eventually the subconscious forces itself to the fore. Until an escape presents itself, decisions reflect only short-term survival.

In situations of extreme threat, a stronger form of disassociation can result. The social identity separates itself from events, watching them as if from outside, while the subconscious buries sensations and emotions in its implicit store.

Hetero InductionBeing put into hypnosis by another person (hetero-) is commonplace – mundane to the point that we should be training our teenagers to recognize use of a modality.

The classical hypnotic modalities are characterized by stage hypnotism and religious revivals. The elements are dominance, rationale, and experience. Dominance is used to command attention. Rationale seduces the conscious mind, often with an appeal to cultural norms (although if offered forcefully, a non-sequitur may suffice). Both contribute to overload, and then the intense experience calls the subconscious mind forward to manage survival. In the military these elements are rank, code, and training. In politics we have candidacy, platform, and rally. In religion we have pulpit, dogma, and ritual. Inductees may experience shock and awe.

For the feminine, the charm offensive can be effective. Often in sympathizing with the burdens of long-term social stress, the hypnotist cultivates acceptance as an extension of the social identity. Rationale is involved, but mostly to calm fears of growing dependency. When the experience is delivered, the inductee cedes filtering to the hypnotist. If this sounds like falling in love, that is a valid comparison. The lay hypnotherapist, often operating in this role, has transference as an ongoing challenge. Sophisticated operators – among them members of the oldest profession – may exert influence on the waking, adopting the pronoun “I” as they inject thoughts through the spiritual channel.

In lay hypnotherapy, prior to an induction, explicit consent is required on moral and ethical grounds. Formality depends upon the situation. In a stage demonstration before witnesses, typically “Do you want to be hypnotized?” suffices. Prior to adjunct therapy, written forms include emergency contact information, consent from a clinician, and consent for therapists to communicate directly.

Dominance InductionTo the naïve, the most impressive demonstration of hypnotic skill is the rapid induction (Dub[2009]). In limiting time for critical analysis, the technique can be helpful with analytical subjects.

To be done safely, shock inductions require subject participation. This can be a balance challenge organized around posture or strain. Shifting attention to the eyes with finger motions close to the face (implicit threat), the subject is prompted to close them. Imbalance is caused while loudly commanding “SLEEP!” Usually the subject is brought into a clinch against shoulder or bicep, and deepeners (rocking, thumb drops, count down) introduced while offering verbal reassurance of safety, success, and increasing depth.


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Pattern interrupts break social conventions or fortuitous repetition. Common are the two-fingered handshake, handshake interrupt, misdirection, or non-sequiturs. When the subject attempts to read the hypnotist’s eyes for intent, imbalance is caused simultaneously with the commanded “SLEEP,” followed by clinch, eye closure, and deepeners.

“SLEEP” and clinch is impressive to an audience, but not necessary. Both the shock and pattern interrupt induce a temporary state of catalepsy, recognized as a balance of muscle tone on both sides of a joint. This occurs when the social identity has surrendered initiative. So long as the subject has previously agreed to cooperate, the hypnotist may then guide movement verbally or physically. A pleasant introspection is narrated involving calm, deep breathing, relaxation and closure of eyes, and a mild tap on the forehead with the suggestion “deep sleep.” While less impressive, this method builds associations with secondary inductions used in later sessions.

Continuing toward more elaborate methods, pedagogical inductions rely upon overload. After investigation of the presenting issue, the hypnotist elaborates upon the possibilities for therapy. This entrains introspection, memory, and imagination. When asked to choose an option, the subject is often already hypnotized. This method is emulated in auto dealerships and other high-pressure decision-making contexts.

Submission inductions are lengthy and adaptive. Authority should be established in cognitive analysis of the presenting issue. The client is then positioned at the direction of the hypnotist and attention drawn to natural, subconscious changes in body state (breath, heightened tension in “some part” of the body, swallowing, eye twitches, etc.). This ratifies the hypnotist’s authority. Imagery is then introduced anticipating a change in body posture, all while reiterating the subconscious processes. As the subconscious begins to manifest the posture change, an endpoint is defined. When that endpoint is reached, a forehead tap and “deep sleep” cement the trance.

The sociability of the subject must be considered in framing the desired changes. Protective subjects will resist direct suggestions, as emotion preconditions their physical actions. Imagery of attached balloons, rubber bands, sandbags and others may raise emotions and progress naturally to movement. Protective subjects will also be focused on the outcome rather than the experience, so adding incidental criteria may generate anxiety while enhancing overload.

For resistant subjects, Erickson described the “my friend John” method (Eri[1964c]). The subject mimics the hypnotist, pretending to hypnotize a friend. In focusing on the implications of the commands, the subject prompts their production in himself.

Submission inductions often start with the larger limb muscles and progress to the tips, thereby building associations with relaxation and trust in the most basic brain functions. This foundation is important in attaining progressive depth. It is equally important when elevating hristosis.

Guided InductionGuided inductions explicitly secure the assistance of the subject to achieve trance. Reassurance is an important element. Every reaction to suggestion is valid, the client assured “You are doing well” or “That is really helpful” even when resistance or abreaction is expressed.

Collaborative inductions are like submission inductions but for the framing. Rather than commanding motion, the hypnotist frames the induction as a conversation between the conscious and subconscious.


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Terms such as “allowing,” “noticing,” and “gratitude” are useful. The goal is that the subconscious mind should come forward, rather than to idle the conscious mind. Clearly the tendency is toward hristosis rather than hypnosis.

Conversational inductions verge toward clinical practice. The subject is lucid, and the dialog assists the hypnotist to direct the induction (Zeig[2014]). Overload is achieved through irrational supposition and ambiguity that suspend rational analysis and expectations, creating a dream-like state. To prevent abuse, trance should be explained as a therapeutic state, with entry declared by the therapist.

Skill is achieved through study and practice of language patterns. When attained, the hypnotist may facilitate hallucinations and command amnesia. As the subject becomes competent in achieving trance, they may be told to “choose the depth that is appropriate” for the session’s goals.

Post-Hypnotic InductionThrough suggestion, the hypnotist may condition the subject to return to a state when a specific trigger is provided. This is reaction formation. In stage hypnotism, the subject will perform a demonstration and return to the waking state, often without awareness.

When using any elaborate induction, a post-suggestion for reinduction can be used to restore equal depth after a shorter secondary induction. The trigger is usually the phrase “deep sleep.” This is natural for hypnosis, which seeks to maintain the mind at the balance between the alpha and theta states. When the target state is hristosis, the suggestion can be reframed to associate with a state of full mental integration, or another phrase can be chosen. “Deep trance” is recommended as a compromise, maintaining the association with hypnotic experience as the client transitions to hristosis.

An anchor is a self-activated trigger, used often to control panic reactions. Either prior to or during a stressful event, meditative breathing and a calming mantra allow the subject to respond to events clearly perceived. Reflecting the steps of natural reaction, three words are chosen. The adventurer’s mantra sequences mental, physical, and emotional states; the protector’s mantra follows the sequence mental, emotional, and physical.

Auto-InductionAuto-induction pertains to several methods that allow the conscious mind to send messages to the subconscious.

Journaling in the half hour prior to sleep is effective. Handwriting is effective, also having the benefit of separating us from our electronic devices. Fine motor control engages the subconscious, and the use of writing prompts focuses attention on matters of therapeutic and emotional significance. This carries a strong weight in the natural transition through hypnosis, and thus receives priority in the dream process.

Meditation is a practice for control of rumination and deepening awareness of internal state. Most practitioners begin with focused attention. The meditator attends to breath or a simple mantra, attempting to release intrusive thoughts without judgment, thus strengthening the role of identity in mental regulation. Open monitoring extends the practice to the senses, again seeking to reduce the intrusion of reactions through strengthening of identity. Among those reactions may be implicit memories to be defused. Loving kindness integrates these two practices, building the capacity of the identity to respond constructively to events.


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Formal auto-induction seeks to organize the mind to maintain integration of conscious and subconscious thought processes. The state is likely to be hristosis, although historically it was termed hypnosis. This matches the progress through the mental faculties, beginning with physical state, continuing with emotional state, before asserting a mental state. For therapeutic purposes, a short script will be prepared that visualizes the behavior change, coupled with desired emotional and mental state during performance. Repetition usually ends with a shift to deep relaxation.

Auto-induction is contraindicated for persistent conditions that lead to intrusive thoughts, as the receptive subconscious may reinforce the condition. Such conditions include anxiety, depression, and chronic pain.

Trance DepthIntuitively, trance depth should be related to the functional hierarchy of the mind. Deeper levels of trance should allow access to more basic mental functions. The Indian fakir’s control of digestive flow and heartrate is illustrative.

In his paper on deep trance, Milton Erickson defines it as a state in which behavior is controlled by subconscious perception (Eri[1952]). His demonstration subjects were alert, but entered a separate reality, seeing only Erickson and the hallucinatory reality they built together. Erickson cultivated his early subjects as eager students of “trance work” (“hypnotic work” in his terminology). Before entering therapy, they would volunteer, “learning” to express control of memory, muscle tone, perception, and enteroception. A “deep” subject would allow the hypnotist reliable access to all these capacities.

In the Kappasinian tradition, hypnotic depth is determined by observation (Kap[1999a]). Subjects are not lucid during a stable trance, but passive and relaxed. Depth is read from eye movements. The lightest, hypnoidal state is registered by the rapid eye movement typical of dreaming. During catalepsy eye movement is strictly side-to-side, corresponding perhaps to transfer of hemispheric dominance. The eyes roll up under the lids during somnambulism, the deepest state. Somnambulism is further divided into three states according to amnesia of the trance work, corresponding to abeyance of the social identity that links to explicit memory.

Both approaches propose objective criteria for depth, presumably with the hope of establishing hypnosis as a scientific discipline. That ambition has not been realized, and both practitioners relied upon intuition to manage depth. Some principles are visible in Kappas’ work, telling clients in distress to “pass it and go deeper,” obviously associating depth with relaxation.

Ultimately, appropriate depth is “whatever is sufficient” to achieve the client’s goals. Both Kappas and Erickson developed depth progressively. The link between behavior and language must be activated before suggestions can be translated to emotional and physical responses. The higher functions of intention and communication are both involved in that translation. When the subject does not respond to suggestions, the hypnotist may lighten the state by asking “Can you hear me?” or offering “Let’s lighten your state by counting up to three,” inserting “Just a little bit higher” or “Coming up a little” between each count.

Once the link is established in deep trance, ideomotor response allows the subject to report physiological or emotional state. Usually an index finger is used. Corresponding to the hemispherical bias, the left index finger gauges primitive reactions, the right index finger intellectual defense. An


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association is established before initiating a rehearsal process, the index finger indicating severity of reaction.

Kappas highlighted the importance of maximizing depth in the first session. This reflected a focus on overload as the key element in induction, which is more difficult to achieve as the client habituates to hypnotic experience. The primary induction – the arm raising – is a submission induction, which explains the emphasis on maximum overload in the first session.

Considering hristosis, concepts of trance depth are to be developed. Recognizing that hristosis is a discipline for manifestation of intention, the client manages their own state. Erickson’s categories of trance work may be useful, with the principal role of the hypnotist to focus and guide their exploration.

In both natural and induced states, a rough progression of trance work into depth is:

Calm Physical relaxation Time distortion Muscular rigidity Hallucination (positive and negative) Amnesia and hypermnesia Disassociation Bodily regulation

MethodsWe now begin our survey of methods of induction. The resources contain detailed scripts.

Receptive Sociability TestsSociability is the foundation of relationships, and so a key to counseling. Expressive sociability is evident from behavior: communication, style of dress, avocations, and romantic history are indicative. Receptive sociability is independent, and incongruence can frustrate therapy unless recognized. Particularly in American society, protectors (termed “introverts” in psychology) are derogated, and many will project as an adventurer (“extrovert”) for social benefit.

In inductions, receptive sociability determines the path of least resistance to the subconscious. Adventurers visualize themselves directly in action. Conversely, protectors accomplish goals by managing context. In the preliminary stages of therapy, suggestions must be framed accordingly. Once rapport is established, direct suggestion may be effective for both.

For purposes of discussion, we will abbreviate with receptivity, and use ‘A’ and ‘P’ to abbreviate the types. On the scale from the extreme adventurer (“maniac”, or 100% A/0% P) to extreme protector (“paranoid”, or 0% A/100% P), the midpoint is balanced receptivity, with the corresponding tendency to somnambulism in trance.

The focus on receptivity is unique to the culture established by Kappas through the Hypnosis Motivation Institute.

The simplest tests assess physical response to imagery. In heavy/light assessments, the subject closes their eyes and holds their arms out parallel to the floor, the left palm up and the right palm rotated with the thumb upward. Imaginary weight is piled on the left and floating devices attached to right wrist. The


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patter typically induces overload, switching from hand to hand and changing the imaginary elements. Allowing a minute for the imagery to sink in, six-inch elevation difference is typical of balanced receptivity.

A second type of test compares response to direct and inferential suggestion. The finger spreading test starts with the right hand held before the face with fingers touching and uses a top to focus attention on the tip of the middle finger. Over 20 to 30 seconds, the patter then suggests that the fingers of the hand will separate. The procedure then shifts to the left hand, but without patter. If the spreading is more on the right, the subject tends to adventurous receptivity.

The third type of test surveys unconscious behavioral responses. To minimize logical analysis, yes/no questions are answered with a head nod or shake. Aspects include:

Aspect Adventurer ProtectorSynchronization of sleep paralysis

Sleep walking Waking in paralysis

Teen/parent bonding Emotional closeness Dependency upon inferenceSalivary reaction to imagery Yes NoRomantic affection in public Comfortable UncomfortableReading preference Fiction Non-fictionStranger environment Relaxed

Initiate sociallyTenseSocially reluctant

Social Scrutiny Accepts complimentsAsks questions

Deflects complimentsQuestions reluctantly

Rapport Mirrors physical state Mirrors emotional stateConversational stress Interruption Distraction

HMI publishes a 36-question assessment (though aimed at college-level literacy). A ranking matrix places the subject on the receptivity scale with 5% accuracy. The first two aspects indicate a tendency toward waking somnambulism (HMI[-]).

An aspect of the survey leads to fourth type of test: reaction order. When Yes/No questions are answered without speaking (with a head nod or shake), the order of motion vs. emotion is indicative of receptivity. This allows the survey to be used in phone sessions, where the subject assesses the reaction order as the personally probing questions are asked.

InductionsA hypnotist’s portfolio of inductions reflects personal preference, controlled in part by sociability and nurturance. Scripts can be found at HypnosisScripts.com, and demonstrations on YouTube. The stock-in-trade is the progressive relaxation, of which I offer a variation.

The examples offered here illustrate the variety of inductions. For complex inductions, examples may differ only in specific wording, facilitating comparison.

The palm press is a simple shock induction. Usually seated face-to-face with an offset, the subject presses the right palm down into the hypnotist’s upward right palm. Using split fingers to draw attention to the eyes, the hypnotist stares past the subject’s gaze and draws the fingers down near the eyes,


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commanding “eyes closed.” As they close, the palm is pulled away with a loud “DEEP SLEEP!” As the subject falls forward the hypnotist catches them against the right shoulder and bicep.

A feminine variation is the palm release. The subject holds the five fingertips together as though placing stress/resistance/fear in the hypnotist’s palm. After arranging the eye closure, the hand is pulled away with the commands “Let it go. And deep sleep!”

The two-fingered handshake is the classic pattern interrupt induction. A more complex variation is the handshake interrupt. Just before palms touch, the hypnotist grasps the extended wrist with the left hand and raises it to eye level. Pointing at the middle of the palm, they suggest “Look here and notice the changing focus of the eyes, and the changing focus of your breathing.” Transferring the left grasp to the raised middle finger, the split-finger eye-closing is executed with the right hand, followed by “Deep sleep!” At this point catalepsy should have set in, and the hand is released. The client is told to notice how the deepening breath and relaxation increases as the right hand descends (cataleptic relaxation).

A spontaneous pattern interrupt is the misdirection induction. The subject stands with their feet together and confronts the hypnotist’s elusive stare. While pointing left and right, the commands are given “Look this way! Look that way!” Then with “Look here,” the split-finger gesture draws attention to the eyes. As the subject leans forward, the hypnotist commands “Now look this way!” while pointing cross-armed in both directions. As the eyes defocus, the subject is gripped behind the shoulders and pulled forward into “DEEP SLEEP!”

The classic submission induction is the arm raising. After discovery and therapeutic plan are developed, a suggestibility test is performed. The client is positioned, and control cemented with picky (and irrelevant) adjustments to body placement. With dramatic emphasis, natural physiological changes are identified, with confirmation from the subject. Having created the illusion of control, attention is returned to the left hand, and a steady, maternal flow of suggestions delivered until the hand rises to touch the face.

The principle of the arm raising is that once the social identity surrenders control, the subconscious will accept executive control from the hypnotist, and raise the arm against the steadily decreasing resistance of the conscious mind. As always, the phrasing is adjusted for receptivity. If the standard patter does not achieve trance, the hypnotist may draw upon a series of fallback strategies, with the final resort a shock induction (tap on the forehead and “deep sleep”). Of course, the opposite may occur: the arm may rise too rapidly, indicating conscious control, and the patter may cycle the arm down and up several times to achieve unfiltered access to the subconscious.

The virtue of the arm raising is that in focusing on the left hand, it builds access to preconscious processing in the right hemisphere. When it occurs, the collapse of intention is total, bringing forward the primitive functions of the mind.

Eye fascination is a weak induction, although often used as a preliminary for stronger methods. The method relies upon irritation when the eyes are held open. After fixing their gaze on anything of interest, the subject takes three calm, deep breaths. Prompted to notice their muscles around the eyes becoming tired, they are invited to notice the eyelids becoming heavier and heavier until they close.

Among most lay hypnotherapists, the staple induction is the progressive relaxation. Having identified a desired state (peace, comfort, relaxation, etc.) in discovery, an image of a limitless source is offered.


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Entering respectively through the head/feet for a seated/reclined client, this is guided from one end of the body to another. The client is told to “feel” or “allow” the resource to enter where the attention is directed. If a body syndrome is evident, the progression dwells there, allowing images and sensations to arise.

An experienced hypnotist may recognize the opportunity to convert the finger spreading test directly to trance through a double bind (“Is it your hand or arm that is pulling in toward your face?”) with eye closure when the eyes begin to cross and “deep sleep” on contact with the face.

Collaborative inductions are a nascent form. The goal is to elevate the subconscious, rather than to suppress the conscious. The samples modify the arm raising, as the extended dialog allows the subject time to confront the reluctance of the subconscious mind to engage the social identity. A modified version of the progressive relaxation is also offered.

Late in his career, Erickson lead trance with memories of learning to write – a demonstrable success of the collaboration between conscious and subconscious minds. We offer a peace induction that leverages collaboration during speech.

Conversational inductions are a form of their own and rely upon principles for building rapport. Recognizing that 73% of communication is non-verbal, attention is paid to pacing of breath, body posture, and mirroring of gestures. As most clients will suffer from tension, a partnership is formed to recover calm. Trance may then be introduced as a “deeper state of comfort/relaxation.” These recommendations are interspersed with the discovery dialog. With practice, hypnotists may lead the subject into an arm-raising.

The principles of conversational induction include:

Collaborative rapport – the technique here is pacing and leading – three statements confirming current conditions and then one that guides the subject toward a more resourceful state.

Ambiguity – use of homonyms and indefinite timing so that the subconscious may assert preferences.

Confusion – addition of non-essential details to occupy the attention, allowing the subconscious to accept information implicitly. The hypnotist may use emphasis, rhythm, and gesture to “tag” suggestions, and obscure context through complex story lines.

DeepenersDeepeners leverage the principle of fractionation: the triune experience is most enjoyable in homeostasis. Universally, a deepener lightens trance, allowing the higher mental functions to ratify the preference for homeostasis, and then invite the subject to extend the state (with the usual “deep trance”).

As a preamble to every deepener, the hypnotist should describe the action and suggest that it will result in a deeper trance.

A staple is the count down. In the usual formulation, the preamble is “We are going to use a count from five to zero to deepen the trance.” The count activates the digital brain. The subject may also pace the count, as with the vanishing numbers deepener.


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An example of a somatic relaxation deepener is the thumb drop. Lifting an arm by the thumb, it is shaken gently. The subject must focus attention to relax the arm muscles. After forecasting the descent into deeper trance, the thumb is dropped. Eye closure is the simplest muscle challenge, with a focus on relaxation around the eyes that is so wonderful the they just stay shut “even if you try to open them.” A rigidity challenge is more complex but can be linked to an emotional block. After suggesting that the body part will become tighter and tighter, the subject is told that they may “try to relax” but “the more you try the tighter it becomes.” A brief count-down is followed by “let it go and go deeper,” or a cataleptic relaxation can link increasing depth to the descent of a raised limb.

In the reactional deepener, the subject is asked to open their eyes and close them on “go deeper.” To entrain upward gaze (encouraging somnambulism), the hypnotist suggests that they follow the downward motion of an object or a vertical visual element in direct view. At the bottom of the descent, we prompt them to “close your eyes and go deeper.”

As in muscle challenges, descent imagery is usefully linked to resource states. Examples include a staircase, garden path, or setting sun. After building the visualization, the descending object (perhaps the subject themselves) is associated with positive character traits. This association lightens trance. A count down stimulates acceptance of the traits by the subconscious mind.

The organic deepener activates the mental faculties, using a count followed by a count down. Cellular activity starts the ascent, followed by intermediate faculties until attaining learning at the top. The faculties are then quieted in reverse order until reaching “deep trance” at the bottom.

Secondary InductionsIn general therapy, the first session is devoted to establishing rapport and hypnotic conditioning. The principal therapeutic goal is to create hope through restoration of homeostasis. Within this framework, the hypnotist will perform an induction an as many deepeners as possible. According to the law of repetition, the hypnotist scatters throughout the post-suggestion for re-hypnosis. For dominance inductions, the formulation is:

Each and every time I suggest “deep trance” to you, you will enter trance to this depth or even greater.

For collaborative inductions, qualifications are added:

Each and every time I suggest “deep trance” to you – for the purposes of therapy and only with your permission – you will enter trance to this depth or even greater, and the physical body will relax.

With this established in the first session, almost any induction can be used as a secondary induction.

For therapeutic purposes, the progressive relaxation is preferred. The formulation allows development of a resource state. This includes exhortation of character traits and activation of networks that build into effective physical action. The latter are associated with the natural body syndromes:

Body Area SyndromeFeet and legs Move toward or away from experiences.

Connection to ground truth.Hips and lower abdomen

Sorting out what we retain and what we should return to the world for renewal.


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Focus for guilt and frustration.Sexual expression.

Arms and hands Reaching out to grasp or repel.Shoulders and back Responsibility and determination.Head and throat Social expression.

Decision making.

Syndrome-specific secondary inductions are useful. The hypnotist will build a library over time. We provide the hand-clasp induction as an illustration. This combines eye fascination, arm rigidity, and cataleptic relaxation.

Exiting TranceWith the wave of a hand in front of our eyes, a friend commands, “Hey! Snap out of it!” While staring off into space, many of us have heard that and remember the feeling of coming back into our bodies. Framed by our earlier discussion of natural hypnosis, we might recognize that we were brought out of trance.

That mild shock is not desirable in therapy. Gentler exits start with a clear demarcation of the transition into trance. The exit then reverses the procedure. In a conversational induction that progressed from eye closure, to breath, to relaxation, the exit would follow the sequence “as we come out of trance…gently flex your fingers…take a deep breath and hold it…and open your eyes.”

Given the centrality of the post-suggestion for re-hypnosis, in Kappasinian practice the client is counted out. Most simply:

We are now going to use a count from 0 to five to bring you out of trance. At a count of five you will awaken to a fully non-suggestible state. 0-1-2-3-4-5, eyes open, wide awake!

If the trance was profound, the final sentence may need repetition – particularly if the client has adventurous sociability. Raising the hands over the head and flexing the fingers may be helpful. The therapist should delay the client’s departure until trance is relieved.

The basic formula can be extended for therapeutic reinforcement. Particularly with a finger snap, zero associates with trance, and so will drop the client deeper. The therapist can summarize the positive suggestions for assimilation by lower mental functions.

When the session has exposed a defense, the count at zero must be accompanied with some formulation of:

Harvesting all the positives and sealing away any negatives.

The count can be enhanced by walking a client in deep trance back through the mental functions.

Count

Phrase Function

1 With a deep inhale and release. Metabolic shift.2 Feeling the support beneath you. Muscular-skeletal awareness.3 Remembering where you have placed

yourself.Intention


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4 Coming up and out.5 Eyes open, wide awake.

While we do our best to prevent disruption of trance, we will find ourselves at times competing with sensory disturbance. Relying upon the principle of the deepener, one way to avoid premature exit from trance is the suggestion:

Focus only on my voice. All other sounds are the sounds of ordinary life and will serve only to deepen the trance.

Finally, we return to the problem of natural hypnosis. Kappasinian practitioners are sensitive to the epidemic of hypersuggestibility in modern life. Many clients walk into our offices in a state of hypnosis. This is a boon to the conversational hypnotist, and few among them recognize the condition. The Kappasinian therapist seeks to drive the client even deeper so that the state of trance is demarcated, and then train them to count out when they become wooly.

1-2-3-4-5, eyes open, wide awake!

At the Hypnosis Motivation Institute, students can expect to hear this at least once during a full-day training session.


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ImageryMilton Erickson defined “deep trance” as a state in which behavior is controlled by subconscious perceptions (Eri[1952]). Those perceptions can be populated from within in response to minimal cues from the therapist. Erickson reports on a group demonstration in which authoritative pointing coupled with “What color, breed, and age are that dog over there?” caused the subjects to argue over the specifics, each claiming the hallucination was like their pet (Eri[1964c]).

Imagery is a class of hypnotic techniques used to lead subconscious perception. It is a powerful method for manifesting intention, preparing the subconscious with the conviction that it has already achieved the outcome that the identity wishes to realize. That conviction focuses energy and attention that would otherwise be expended without lasting benefit.

Imagery can be as limited as a poetic metaphor (“energy flowing from your heart as though the sun was within”). Conversely, it may be a detailed, multi-sensory experience that entrains a physiological response (such as glove anesthesia).

FormsBroadly, imagery has two forms. Both guide the subject through an experience termed a journey.

Directed imagery is explicit about the experience, engaging multiple aspects of perception. The experience may allow subconscious input (such as an item found in a treasure chest), but the outcome is controlled by the narrative. The power of the method is in ensuring engagement of the deeper mental faculties as the identity evolves.

The symbols of directed imagery must be drawn from a shared pool. Cinema has increased the size of that pool, but there is no substitute for having been there. The sensibility of standing next to a waterfall may be lost on a city-dweller. As that sensibility translates into hormonal and metabolic changes, the effects of the image will be diminished. An alternative may be necessary – perhaps standing at the edge of the stage at a rock concert.

Certain symbols have a universal or archetypal meaning. The four elements (air, earth, fire, and water), for example, relate to the operation of the body. Personalities may evoke different aspects of experience (scientist for mental, actor for emotional, athlete for physical, or fortune teller for spiritual). Cycles built around these images can be used to develop literacy in aspects of identity.

The second form of imagery is free style. The hypnotist guides the client into a journey that stretches the boundaries of identity. The subconscious supplies symbols to represent virtues and internal conflict, constructing an experience much as when dreaming. Prompting with questions, the hypnotist bears witness to the struggle, suggesting that the client summon resources or dissolve obstacles. This is easier for adventurous clients who speak freely about their experience; protective clients will offer less insight but more deeply internalize what is revealed about their identity.

The power of the free style format is that the client retains ownership of the narrative as they achieve the goals identified through counseling. Defenses dissolve in right timing as the subconscious deems the identity ready to confront them. Patience and dedication are essential assets. Control of the therapeutic plan is relinquished to the subconscious, and outcomes are less direct than with other methods.


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TacticsIn the quest to extend and empower the identity, imagery is intrinsic to certain tactics.

Resource StatesClients often come to us in desperation but just coming at all is an expression of hope. They either remember being more capable or are inspired by the example of others. From that experience, they can identify character traits that empower accomplishment. When no such experience is known, in counseling we start by identifying the deficits known from actual failures, and sort through antonyms until the client recognizes what is required for success.

A resource state activates a set of character traits. Imagery facilitates activation of that state by reconstructing a past occurrence, and then attaching anchors that allow the client to assert the state in waking life. The anchor may be any combination of mental phrase, gesture, or environmental cue (such as a podium and microphone).

Resource states build trust between the conscious and subconscious minds. They typically draw upon metabolic and emotional reserves, and – when exercised with restraint to achieve specific goals – prove the discernment of the social identity.

The most direct method for constructing a resource state is the staircase deepener. The client visualizes themselves at the top of the stairs while the therapist asserts the desired traits. When the client appears to have accepted the visualization, the image is walked down the steps to become a new known.

Directed imagery is advantageous for reactivation of a past resource state. The circumstances of the experience are built up, including details that may seem incidental. Food, setting, music, participants, and expectations were all involved in creating the context. The journey ends with activation of the state and association to agreed triggers.

When inspiration is drawn from observation, reconstruction of the event segues into projection into the experience of the exemplar. The suggestion is to “trade places” and describe the exalted perspective, and anchors are associated. Upon trading back, the perspective as onlooker is re-examined.

When the resource state is foreign, a free-style journey can facilitate its visualization. The subconscious is asked to produce a symbol for the achievement or failure, and places are traded so that the outcome can reflect on the client. Then the journey asks the client to move into or away from the symbol (as appropriate) and see what arises within.

Access to a resource state must be followed by utilization. Care should be taken when planning utilization – particularly when the reaction is fight/flight. Opportunity must also be considered. The client may learn that some factors for accomplishment have been addressed, but others remain unmet. Waiting until the date of a professional certification exam may be too late to correct the composition of the resource state.

RehearsalThe subconscious is concerned first and foremost with survival, and so resists change. It prefers what it knows. Rehearsal is a form of imagery that builds acceptance of a change. The goal is to ensure that the boundaries between subconscious and conscious control are clear so that in the actual event neither


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interferes in the other’s domain: the subconscious properly managing metabolism, emotions, and automatic behaviors; the conscious focused on navigating the social environment.

Rehearsal has two classes: mitigation and practice.

Mitigation is sought when the subconscious uses emotion and metabolism to seize control when social responsiveness is required. Therapy is often preceded by resource state development. Where resource state activation starts with detailed reconstruction of an experience, mitigation focuses on the general circumstances and the mental and emotional after-effects of success. A parable or fairy tale is a good model. The “why” of the experience is enough context. Adding too much detail can interfere with the resource state, as it creates a storyline that will almost always be interrupted in real time.

Practice is valuable when the conscious mind micro-manages physical and emotional expression. The subconscious does rely upon the conscious mind when developing emotional resilience and physical skills. Conscious attention is invaluable in the learning process because it activates mechanisms in the brain that encourage growth of connections and laying in of myelin that speeds reactions and refines coordination. But the conscious mind must limit itself to evaluation of outcomes.

Learning to print is a useful example. We start practice with lines and ovals. The conscious mind does not analyze the motion of individual muscles. It observes, when evaluating the last attempt to create a vertical line, “When we get to this point, we need to go a little more to the right.” This leaves the subconscious to determine how to coordinate that change.

In therapy, the client learns to imagine the skill in full detail. All aspects of perception are engaged. Initially the client focuses on the desired outcome, but imperfect outcomes (such as the imperfect line above) can be introduced to encourage the subconscious to explore mechanisms in more detail. As with any learning, this is daily work to be done after auto-induction.

TransformationAny aspect of our experience can generate distress that affects our social identity – and vice-versa. Either way, the conscious mind may ruminate on the immediate symptoms of distress, focusing attention that raises sensitivity.

Chronic pain is an interesting example. Our pain processing networks have feedback that suppresses chronic pain signals. It is emotional attachment that focuses the conscious mind on symptoms, sustaining the intensity as the subconscious accepts that “this is important to the social identity.” Unfortunately, this often disrupts the normal healing processes organized by the subconscious, perpetuating the distress.

Transformation is an imagery tactic that relieves rumination. A symbol for the symptom is established. To illustrate, the client may describe their boss as a “horse’s ass.” Pain intensity can be associated with a dial in our subconscious “control room.” The client is then asked to visualize a detail of the symbol, such as the color of the horse or the position of the dial. A series of transformations is then suggested that weakens the power of the image. The control room dial is turned down to a lower number, or the horse’s color is changed to a bright pink before becoming a balloon that the client can pop with a pin.

Another practice was touched on in our discussion of resource states. All symptoms are information that guides the growth of our personality. The symbol can thus be transformed into an ally. Trading places


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allows the client to explore the symbol’s perception of them, often yielding profound insights. With lessons harvested, upon trading back the symbol is less intimidating, softening the hold of rumination.

TrainingAnother mechanism for moderating conscious interference is training. In hypnosis, the client is walked through an experience in which the subconscious process was beneficial. It is then transferred to the current circumstance. With the authority of the subconscious restored, the conscious mind returns to its proper concerns.

Examples are glove anesthesia, nature imagery for relaxation, and sexual response.

Training is like resource state activation or rehearsal, except that the therapist often assumes a role as director of the subconscious response. Scripting a journey requires expertise in physiology. The client should confirm that the imagery is suitable, considering both familiarity and comfort.

Therapeutic ImageryLay hypnotherapy aids clients to reconcile subconscious motivations with conscious goals. A client seeks our aid because implicit memories drive motivation. That is information that we cannot reason about because it is inaccessible to the conscious mind. They include events in our early childhood, but also everything that happens when hypnosis is induced naturally or intentionally. And beyond that: everything considered during dreams, and any waking perceptions received when our attention is focused elsewhere.

The traditional practice of talk therapy attempts to make the implicit explicit, but as suggested by the list above, the pool of information is enormous, including most of our waking perceptions. It includes interoceptive information that we may not even be able to articulate, such as release of bile to the stomach or locking of a shoulder muscle under the pressure of a tormenter’s hand. And it includes spiritual exchanges that arise to our attention only after years spent learning to quiet self-concern.

In lay hypnotherapy, therapeutic imagery takes the opposite tack: it seeks to establish a haven in the subconscious realm in which the client can construct their chosen personality. As this work progresses in trance, the social identity works in parallel to assimilate the exalted self-concept. This collaboration requires a shared set of symbols spanning all aspects of experience: symbols representing physiological processes, symbols representing emotions, symbols representing ideas, symbols representing spiritual influences. It also involves the synthesis of the aspects as symbols representing resource states.

Therapeutic imagery is wonderfully eclectic and syncretic. Journeys may be directed or freestyle. Symbols may arise from the subconscious or be drawn from myth, philosophy, religion, or common culture. Symbols may be abstract or concrete, animate or inanimate, anthropomorphic or natural.

Exploration can occur independently in each of the aspects of experience (One[2014]). The foundation is the creation of a secure space (the “Place”) into which is introduced a representation of self-knowledge (the “Wise”). A category of journeys supports preservation of the chosen personality through life’s social crises – including motivation, relationships, trauma, and disease.

Other paths are focused more directly toward realization of the chosen personality. Each set of journeys starts by establishing a transitional space and guide before moving into exploration of spiritual experience, self-determination, or physiological regulation. A final set of journeys seeks to integrate the


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independent processes. Clearly, this is a guided practice: the therapist does not lead the client’s development, but rather bears witness to their progress.

The journeys often begin with a suggestion that speaking not interfere with the trance state (something taken as a given in conversational methods). Questions at transitions allow the hypnotist to harvest symbols from the subconscious and broaden the client’s engagement. When resolution is achieved, a “hypnotic shift” may be inserted, often placing the client on a staircase while positive lessons are reinforced and then walked down into the subconscious. The journey ends with exhortations to reinforce positives, seal off negatives, and a count out to the waking state.

Defenses are respected. If the journey is arid or submerged in negative reactions, the client is encouraged to assert the power of imagination to dispel unwanted intruders, call on their guides (ultimately the Wise), or to retreat to the Place. When defenses are known, doors are used to scope entry into the vulnerable part of the personality, and then to block negatives from infecting waking life.

This summary hopefully serves to illustrate the breadth, power, and subtlety of the therapeutic imagery. Developed largely by Cheryl O’Neil at the Hypnosis Motivation Institute, therapeutic imagery appears to have grown organically from the foundation of Place and Wise. Working under the guidance of the Institute’s founder (Dr. Kappas), O’Neil was initiated into a diverse case load. The library is comprehensive. Oriented towards sociability (Kappas’ sexuality and suggestibility), O’Neil was well-prepared to support relationship counseling.

Over time, the library of journeys assimilated Jungian “archetypal” symbol sets. The classical elements (earth, air, fire, and water), mythic roles and settings, and esoteric concepts are all represented. Locations considered potent within the New Age movement also appear. The inspiration of empowered clients was abstracted as the “Valiant Path,” a concept resonating with Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey” but formulated independently.

The structure of a journey sometimes parallels dream analysis. Titles, topics, and themes guide selection and sequencing as the therapist and client evolve their therapeutic plan. While emotional and intellectual reactions are elicited, the client is also encouraged to engage with symbols somatically (moving alongside, around, or through). Other Jungian analysis dream staples may be usefully incorporated: tracking a symbol back in time, following it into the future, and transforming its properties.

While the journeys prompt such engagement, analysis of experiences is normally discouraged. The essential conversation will be continued in dreams. Constraining it with interpretation is counterproductive. For the client, it is not understanding that counts, but transformation of experience – something pursued in dream analysis as tasks in waking life. The essential difference with dream analysis is that in therapeutic imagery the conscious mind is not attempting to realize the obscure promptings from the subconscious, but rather to negotiate the personality itself. The rewards are reaped in waking life, but the work is done within.

This summary of Therapeutic Imagery might not be recognized by O’Neil. The goal here is to guide others constructing new journeys (we provide Radiance Projection for Community Wellness as an illustration). The library provided to attendees of the HMI training course is licensed, with prohibitions preventing even recording of sessions for private reinforcement by clients.


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But the staples of Place and Wise are familiar in guided imagery practice. Inevitably similar libraries will arise. The author himself intends to build a library to support the Hristic Path.


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DreamsAs considered previously, lay hypnotherapy has a unique perspective on the nature of dreams. Prior to the development of therapeutic imagery, dreams were the only direct communication from the subconscious. As that landscape is the realm of our discipline, we studied dreams seriously when others discarded them as meaningless.

Communications engineers would bemoan the medium for two defects: it is both lossy (information is dropped) and noisy (the signal contains random garbage). Dreams rarely provide a clear “why,” rather they suggest the conditions under which behavior arose. When those conditions involve physiology (internal organs and glands), few of us even have words and images to describe the problem. The subconscious can only express itself with metaphors – which are lossy. And if we get anxious before a first date, we do not know whether it was a late arrival or the food that drove our indigestion. The subconscious may raise either or both as concerns – which is noisy.

The nature of dreams also changes as we mature along the Hristic Path. Initially, they are defensive, a means for isolating behavior development from the dangerous waking world. Symbols have a mythical nature, with monsters and angels occupying the child’s nights (Survival). As the social identity extends its influence into the realm of subconscious reactions, specific people and situations become evident (middle steps). Eventually the conscious mind may be invited to offer guidance in mid-dream, an experience now cultivated as lucid dreaming (Truth). When that window opens, we inevitably confront the presence of others in our nocturnal explorations. Dreams are recognized as a medium in which we negotiate the manifestation of our inmost desires (Creativity). The movie “Inception” was an exaggerated popularization of the principle; more representative is dream sequences in myths and legends (Shu[2019]).

Along this journey, disturbances to the dream process reflect obstacles encountered by the subconscious as it seeks solutions to the problems it confronts (Bar[1996]). Night terrors reflect lack of energy – a metabolic collapse in the middle of the night. Flashbacks are common for victims of trauma, often coming with insomnia. Anxiety also interferes with dreams, delaying sleep and lightening it as the subconscious creates pressure to seek escape from intractable problems. What better time to run away than when the rest of the clan is sleeping?

Given their importance, dream therapy is one of the most powerful elements of lay hypnotherapy. In our later survey of applications, its use is seen throughout. In this chapter we survey those methods.

InterpretationDream interpretation has a checkered history. Early on, only the dreams of the powerful were captured, and those histories capture a focus on mythic symbolism that justified political outcomes. As religious observance advanced, the power of spiritual avatars, devoted to the well-being of their community, comes to prominence. Again, those accomplishments are cast against the backdrop of mythic symbolism and personalities. (Shu[2019])

The prominence of myth can be rationalized by the role of stories in the formation of the social identity. Until the media revolution in the 20th century, the library of stories was limited to folk tales and religious parables. These were all the subconscious had to draw upon in communicating its concerns to the


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conscious mind. This may be why Jung held that dream symbols had universal meanings drawn from humanity’s “collective unconscious.”

Conversely, when counseling on practical personal matters, interpreters enjoyed a certain license. Native American shamans picked their successors, guided by wisdom keepers in their lineage and natural world. Rather than interpreting dreams, they cultivated dream-like trances to seek clarity from the spirit world (Ted[2019]). Rabbis, conscious of their suggestive authority, might fudge in interpreting a dire portent, providing an alternative channel for release of the psychic currents, thereby safeguarding their community (Has[2019]). This was also a trend embrace by Jung. In an age suffocated by divisive political symbolism, he counseled that interpretation must adapt to the client (Sav[1984]).

The lay hypnotherapist takes this shift to the extreme: symbols in dreams are a private language. Even mythic symbols may shift in their meaning as they relate to our private concerns. Interpretation is therefore a guided exploration that seeks to strengthen and clarify communication between the two parts of the mind.

Meaningful interpretation is predicated upon immediate capture of the dream upon waking. When dreaming, fear and hierarchical reasoning are suppressed. Delay in recording allows time for these to recover their force. The former will color the mood, the latter will tend to reimpose order and logic. The client should keep paper and pen near at hand during sleep.

The first factor in interpretation is the type of dream (assimilation, association, invention, reconciliation, and venting). Most common are “invention” and “venting.” If the sleep schedule is variable, the time should be written down upon retiring. After the dream is recorded, the time of waking is added. Allowing an hour and a half for each REM cycle, this determines the type of dream. For all except the venting dream, the dream is a direct expression of subconscious intention. The venting dream, however, seeks confirmation that a significant concern can be set aside, freeing us to address immediate problems.

The dream should be reviewed for timing clues. The apparent age of the dreamer is a clear indication, but we may also rely upon a location or person known at a certain age. If younger, we delve into the corresponding stage of development to uncover important events that may relate to unresolved crisis.

For dedicated study, each dream should be given a title and associated with a topic. A central question may also be formulated, either before or after interpretation.

The images of the dream are then sorted into two categories: literal and symbolic. For each of the symbols, emotional and historical associations are explored. The client then seeks an interpretation. In a dream of association, the subconscious may be asserting “This takes precedence.” In a dream of invention, the subconscious is often revealing a paradox or conflict that it cannot resolve. It offers “I am trying to get to this outcome, but something is missing.” In a venting dream, the subconscious is seeking to discard an element in a paradox or conflict. It suggests “I think that we can do this, but we need to let go of this old concern.”

If the client cannot formulate a satisfactory interpretation, additional processing is necessary.


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ProcessingEven when satisfactory, interpretation does not necessarily lead to resolution. Dream processing serves that greater goal (Sav[1984]).

Most processing involves journaling. If a symbol is ambiguous, we can follow it forward or backward in time. We can transmute its properties and see whether that clarifies meaning. Perhaps that red cup is like the green one that our grandmother owned, the color change reflecting an emotional association. For this purpose, free-style imagery in trance is superior to journaling.

Dreams in the middle of the night may bring up challenges that cannot be addressed due to distance or time. A conflict with a deceased relative is not going to be addressed except through spirit. If the client is not comfortable visiting with the dead, writing an alternative ending may provide the subconscious with options that will lead to resolution. This applies to other situations, such as anger with an abusive parent who is unwilling to take ownership of the past. Imagery journeys should be considered as an alternative to journaling, but we need to tread carefully with history arising in dreams of association. The alternative ending may lead into out-of-scope waters.

When dreams persist, actively taking on waking “dream tasks” may be helpful: calling that friend, performing an act of service, or reaching out to an estranged family member.

IncubationSome clients will complain that they “do not have dreams.” This is impossible. Even when we do not remember our dreams, we pass through periods of rapid eye movement during sleep. When those are interrupted, dreams are always recalled. More dramatically, when the transition to alpha state is monitored and REM sleep prevented, in a week or two the subconscious will generate waking hallucinations to satisfy its need.

The easiest way to improve dream recall is to ask. Write a note just before bedtime: “I’d like to remember more dreams.” Then write them down and process them. Eventually you will have too much material. Focus on dreams with high emotional charge. Give priority next to repetitive dreams or symbols.

If a dream cannot be resolved, write a note asking for greater clarity. If a topic is building to heightened anxiety, request special consideration at night. It may sound like prayer, but those methods contain ancient wisdom.

If you would like to cultivate lucid dreaming, you will need to do research elsewhere. I believe that the experience should emerge naturally as the personality matures along the Hristic Path.

Dream TherapyAs a process of self-improvement, lay hypnotherapy strengthens the relationship between the social identity and the subconscious. That alone requires consideration in dreams. For the protector, this consideration is obligatory, often delaying manifestation of new behaviors by several days. In extreme cases, the therapist can face the deflating judgment that “You did not really do anything for me.”

A trance session is always enhanced with a suggestion that “this improved partnership will be reflected in dreams during the middle of the night, as the subconscious seeks for opportunities that bring greater


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meaning and satisfaction.” If a resource state has been enhanced, the suggestion can emphasize the added virtue.

When a limiting belief or limiting emotion has been addressed, we can also suggest that “in venting dreams just before waking, you will release motivations and concerns that no longer serve you.”

Other suggestions pertain to specific concerns.

LearningThe first element in academic learning is exposure to information in study. Studying is a routine, involving commitment, staging, assessment, and repetition. True learning involves integration of knowledge as behavior. That occurs in dreams.

Commitment is crucial. When assimilating events in the first stage of dreams, the subconscious prioritizes by perceived value or importance. Prioritization protects against information overload. We might all wish to have perfect memory, but those so blessed complain that they are almost disabled in adult life by the onslaught of recollection. Conversely, the student thinking “this is useless” during lecture is conditioning the subconscious to reject the knowledge imparted. Such rejection is addressed in motivational therapy.

Knowledge integration is an expensive process that occurs in the association, invention, and reconciliation stages of dreaming. New neural networks are assembled, and others suppressed. Evoking the future, professional self in trance to walk it down the stairs into the subconscious helps to allay resistance to that investment.

The rehearsal of studying in trance should be extended to dreams. “As you have committed to your future as a <career>, it is your true self. The subconscious will release the resources needed for it to arise, both when waking and during sleep. Upon falling asleep, the subconscious will give highest priority to what you have studied, capturing it in your permanent memory. Use of that knowledge will be considered in dreams throughout the night.”

Conceptual knowledge (such as academic learning) is organized by the hippocampus and appears to be built upon the facility that allows us to navigate in three-dimensional environments. Thus, learning can be facilitated with spatial metaphors for the organization of knowledge. The client should choose their metaphor. A law student might identify with a legal library, a biology student might identify with leaves on a tree.

While psychologists like to think that knowledge is encoded in the brain, my experience is that it is collected in a shared “space of ideas.” Those structures have defenses, and the client may be empowered with a guided imagery journey that emphasizes respect and gratitude for access to their chosen metaphor.

Traumatic DreamsRepetitive dreams of pursuit or danger are symptomatic of chronic anxiety. After counseling to clarify the moral principles, we may reconstruct the dream in trance, and suggest that the client turn and confront the threat, clearly asserting their moral authority and demanding to be left in peace.


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During a trauma, memories are sent directly to the implicit store. To integrate the experience in the life narrative, the subconscious may bring the conscious mind into the dream process to transfer the most important events as explicit memories.

Psychologists specializing in dream therapy for trauma distinguish between passive and active engagement with the memories (Bar[1996]). As with moral authority, those that assert an active role in dreams also display hardiness during recovery. They mourn the value that has been lost and organize effort to recover it. Those that grieve over their vulnerability are more deeply affected. This has a paradoxical outcome: after natural disasters such as fires, those who escaped the worst loss may be driven to grief as they bear witness, day after day, to the devastation suffered by their neighbors.

This anticipatory anxiety is susceptible to rational suggestion. A man kept awake by fear of tornadoes was counseled in trance that sirens will sound. Imagining that familiar sound, the subconscious was advised to wake him immediately should it be heard. Rehearsing that scenario allayed the fear, allowing him to sleep.

Once the trauma is allayed in trance, we add that in dreams it will pass to the venting stage and be released without recall. The last assures that the client is not retraumatized.

Sleep DisturbancesOur most important investment in well-being is to allow eight hours to rest each night (Wal[2017]). Most restoration occurs during NREM sleep, and without it the body accumulates wear and poisons that eventually manifest in disabling, chronic conditions. The impacts on the brain compound the problem. When confronted with a threat to its integrity, the brain emphasizes the lower mental functions. We become susceptible to our primitive impulses, including sloth, confrontation, and a preference for foods that are processed directly to sugar. All of these serve to hasten our decline.

Sleep deprivation is strongest in the developed world. Artificial lighting allows absolute control over our waking hours. Our lives are not physically demanding, and so we try to have our cake and eat it, too. We live both maxims: “The early bird gets the worm” and “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy.” And get four to six hours of sleep a night.

Unfortunately, falling asleep is a ritual that signals that the conscious mind is ready to cede control to the subconscious. Once disrupted, a conscious effort must be made to restore the ritual.

The sleep/wake cycle is driven by four factors. The first is sunlight. A part of the brain called the caudate nucleus monitors the activation of blue light signals heading to the visual cortex. That signal is used to synchronize our metabolism with the sun. As diurnal creatures, we need more energy during the day than at night. Our energy output therefore increases before sunrise, peaking in the middle of the day, and drops to its lowest levels in the middle of the night. This is called circadian rhythm.

Secondly, our brain monitors toxins in the cerebral-spinal fluid. This increases steadily during the waking hours, making us groggy when it begins to interfere with normal function. When declining energy output also occurs, we feel a strong sleep pressure.

Thirdly, upon waking the brain begins to produce melatonin. Roughly an hour after the caudate nucleus signals that the sun has gone down, the melatonin is released, slowing brain activity, and pushing us into sleep.


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Finally, falling asleep also brings physical changes to the body. The extremities (hand, feet, and face) warm, dumping heat into the air, slowing our metabolism. Breathing slows and muscle tone relaxes.

These factors are coordinated by our sleep ritual. Given the importance of the circadian rhythm, it is best to maintain the times for retiring and waking. Some experts even counsel that the hour of waking should be maintained even if we retire late.

The first sleep cycle starts with a rapid descent into the deepest sleep state (NREM). The behavior of the brain changes dramatically. Signals emitted from the prefrontal cortex propagate from front to back of the brain. Glial cells shrink and the cerebral-spinal fluid begins to clear.

The sleep state lightens every hour and a half, lifting the brain up into the REM state, and dreaming occurs. Brain activity in this state is like waking activity, consistent with dream content that simulates waking experience.

InsomniaInsomnia, or the inability to sleep, takes two forms: the client may be unable to fall asleep when laying down to rest, or they may awake and be unable to fall back asleep.

Both conditions are made worse by stimulants and anesthetics. Found in soft drinks as well as coffee, caffeine remains in our system for up to ten hours after consumption, blocking our sensitivity to waste in the brain. When consumed just before retiring, it reduces the depth of sleep. Anesthetics (such as sleep aids and alcohol) disrupt the flow of signals that organize NREM, again lightening sleep and lessening its restorative benefits.

The inability to fall asleep arises when our sleep ritual is disrupted. Aging shifts activity from physical to mental effort, potentially breaking the coordination of circadian rhythm with the accumulation of toxins. Blue light is emitted from TV, computers, and cell phones. Their use can delay the release of melatonin. Anxiety stimulates the waking mind, muting the effects of all three chemical sleep signals.

Therapy begins with counseling regarding the benefits of sleep, and the importance of a sleep ritual. The primary sources of disruption are reviewed. If media use or chemical dependency is present, we may need to consider habit control or routine development. Adopting the mindset of a parent working with grade school children, the client schedules their sleep ritual.

The trance session rehearses the process. When the client lays down to sleep, they will fall asleep quickly and deeply. The mind will clear, and in dreams solutions will arise to challenges faced. Clock visualizations can help to pace the sleep process, starting at bedtime and walking forward hour-by-hour until waking. The final suggestion is that they will awake refreshed for the day ahead.

If anxiety is a challenge, journaling may be effective. Writing down the things left to be done tomorrow, the client ends with an affirmation that deep, restful sleep is the best preparation for getting them done. The waking mind releases them so that in dreams the subconscious may imagine new solutions.

If woken in the night without terror (see below), the client should be counseled to remain calm. Waking may be due to a sudden shift in temperature as well as a spontaneous shift out of REM sleep driven by active dreams. If a concern, sleep walking and paralysis should be explained. A meditative resource state and anchor should be defined. Dream images are common, and the client may simply wish to “watch the movie.” If physical cooling and open monitoring meditation do not drop the client back to sleep,


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repetition of the sleep ritual may be helpful. If dreams are repetitive, interpretation may be beneficial in providing the subconscious with the means to resolve the underlying concern.

The trance session is unchanged.

Establishing the new sleep ritual can be frustrating. When combined with other therapy, the subconscious may go into “happy puppy” mode the first night and wake the client up. Protectors also have a chicken-and-egg challenge: before suggestions are implemented, the subconscious needs to process them in dreams. The client should be counseled to patience. Projecting frustration to the subconscious will interfere with progress.

Night TerrorsNight terrors are a panic experience, often driven by metabolic collapse. The client will awaken with a feeling of unease that may progress to pounding heartbeat. Dream fragments often include portents of disaster. The abstract nature of the threat distinguishes the night terror from a traumatic dream that recalls lived experience.

Consumption of sweets and alcohol near bedtime should be discouraged, and a high-protein snack recommended. If not managed, the intensity may increase, sometimes with fatal consequences. If occurring regularly, the client may wish to participate in a sleep study.

Trance work should explain the syndrome and the changes being made to prevent their recurrence. Systematic desensitization is inappropriate, as during sleep the conscious mind is not available to regulate the reaction.


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Part III – ApplicationsWe now turn our attention to therapeutic applications. In prior treatments, development is organized around presenting issues: fears and phobias, addiction, and pain are typical. This is sufficient as a practical preparation but leaves the therapist unprepared to anticipate the interactions between behaviors.

In the pages that follow, we organize our study in expanding circles of influence. Placing the client’s relationship with self at the center of therapy, we consider challenges of motivation, often presented as issues of self-esteem and self-confidence, but extending to loss that undermines the identity. Suggestibility is concerned with disruptive reactions to the physical environment, resolved in therapy with methods that build mental balance and tolerance. Before considering social interactions, we delve into spirituality at a depth that will be disconcerting to most practitioners, offering methods that ensure that clients have the capacity to manage their personal energy. With relationships we turn to therapeutic practices that cultivate sociability and nurturance, and manage the fall-out from collapse that is inevitable when commitments are unbalanced. Finally, we touch on the link between mental and physical wellness, a subject that demands specialty certification.

The development leverages the foundations laid in the first two parts. I have added cross-references to facilitate reinforcement in context.

In reading this material, I adopt a declarative tone. Remember that in therapy the tone must be adjusted to the needs of the situation. Some clients will benefit from authoritative assurance, some prefer maternal reassurance. In either case, we must remember that we are facilitators. Regarding suggestion, everything offered in counseling must be held in reserve until ratified by the client. Once that occurs, the methods of trance may be employed to rebalance the personality.


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MotivationExperience in our age is dominated by society. Physically, we walk a half an hour each day and proclaim ourselves “fit.” Spiritually, we worship for an hour on Sunday and imagine ourselves “fulfilled.” For the rest of our waking life, we negotiate relationships, trying to figure out how to “motivate” the realization of our goals. Sometimes that analysis is focused inwardly, and sometimes upon the community that surrounds us. But universally “motivation” is articulated as “reasons why” people should do something.

The lay hypnotherapist should see through this confusion. Motivation is an energy that arises within, liberated not by reason but by an alignment of the personality with effort. We may offer explanations for that alignment: After a flood, we might say, “he was driven by the threat to his home.” We may tender rationalizations: When the entrepreneur retires at 45, we conclude cynically “all she wanted was money.” But to the striver, motivation is a felt as a vital energy coursing through the mind, body, and spirit.

The greatest drag on motivation is chronic anxiety. The metabolism is hyperactive, draining reserves, and requiring catastrophic thinking to maintain a “functional” state.

Motivation therapy seeks to identify and clear the mental conditions that block motivation. Paradoxically, it is concerned with the articulation and analysis of goals only as a means of securing the commitment of the conscious mind. True motivation originates and is sustained by the subconscious.

Natural MotivationNatural motivation arises from two powerful emotions: fear and euphoria. Both generate metabolic arousal. While triggered by more basic signals, pain and pleasure (respectively) are transitory. The emotions are associated with social behaviors that create motivation.

Fear drives the fight/flight response, pushing the mind into the beta state. Resource allocation shifts to threat detection and physical action. Intense or chronic fear sidelines the social identity, pulling the subconscious and right hemisphere forward. Over time, the social identity dissolves, preparing us to reorganize our attachments. Relocation, walking off the job, divorce, and psychological disorders (“flight from reality”) are all symptomatic. A more constructive escape is into mysticism.

When turned outward, fear becomes anger that manifests as aggression.

Euphoria also draws the subconscious forward, but in relative balance with the conscious mind. It is triggered by a conviction of security and social acceptance. The mental shift is upward toward the gamma state, and resources are allocated for creativity. The impulse can be focused inwardly as fitness or gluttony (creating the self), or sexual passion or lust (procreation). Outwardly euphoria translates into social action. Euphoria is a fragile state, tending toward Mania in the undisciplined, and easily redirected by manipulators into illusions that collapse into fear.

When turned outward, euphoria becomes love that manifests as nurturance.

The healthy personality maintains a thoughtful balance between euphoria and fear. The emotions are recognized as indicators that shift attention immediately to fundamental perceptions. “Why am I feeling this way?” Once that is grasped, the next question is “Where does this lead?” Rather than reacting reflexively to our emotions, the healthy personality constructs a response.


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Self-ImageMany clients needing motivation therapy are desperate to overcome chronic imbalance. Reflecting tendencies from childhood, the protector will have argued themselves into a box; the adventurer will express frustration that their intimates do not fulfill their expected roles. The sensible reaction to such unhappiness, of course, is to evolve the design or story (respectively). When that does not happen, we expect that the client is blocked by subconscious constraints in their self-image.

The lay hypnotherapist recognizes such constraints as a wound in the personality. Unlike the psychotherapist, however, we do not characterize such wounds as disabilities. Our understanding is framed by the evolution of personality and the Hristic Path. To confront our wounds is to assume the most noble of human burdens, and to overcome them prepares us for a flowering of experience in unexplored dimensions.

The therapeutic development below emphasizes causation as revealed through the Stages of Development. The perspective shifts suggested are usefully framed, however, inside two messages of hope: as a species, we have the unique opportunity, after billions of years, to experience relationships built around love. That comes with the challenge of learning to heal, but once mastered that knowledge seeds us with courage and sensitivity that transforms not just our lives, but the lives of our intimates.

AssertivenessConfronted with authority, clients may manifest neurotic responses. As identified in our discussion of authority, those responses include passive, aggressive, and passive-aggressive patterns. Each creates daily conflict and delays the development of therapeutic rapport.

Each is also a defense and requires replacement before being removed.

Journaling is helpful for the passive client, building literacy in self-assertion. Rehearsal may be used to encourage expression in daily life. The therapist reveals the neurosis sympathetically.

The aggressive client is prepared with anchors to metabolic control and resource states. Reframing broken relationships around collaboration expands their literacy in self-assertion. Trading places with imagery expands empathy for their co-combatants. The reveal is matter-of-fact: in generating resistance, aggression is self-limiting.

Subscribers to passive-aggressive tendencies have a unique character. Execution of the strategy requires intelligence and discipline. Career independence can be developed through the Mental Bank. With the conscious mind established as the authority, we point out how progress is limited by self-sabotage. The reveal is characterized as “busting.” The client is forced to confront the damage done over time to their supporters.

Once revealed, in counseling we describe the neurosis and contrast it with the virtue of assertiveness. Further work directly strengthens that quality in the social identity.

Inner Child WorkA distorted self-image is a natural outcome of an unfulfilled stage of development. The early stages (Infant, Toddler, and Preschool) are difficult to revisit in adult life. Parents are not eager to examine history that leads into blame, and the client is rarely able to manage the emotions that arise.


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The stage of onset is revealed in the client’s introspection. Mistrust is characterized by lack of empathy. Conflict is viewed mechanically. Shame is typified by “something is wrong with me,” guilt by “I did something wrong.”

While any of these can originate in adulthood, in that case therapy typically starts with desensitization rather than development of the self-image.

The therapeutic process, inner child work, has three threads.

In counseling, we work to shift the client’s perspective concerning motivation (or its lack).

We seek to develop metabolic control. Slow, calm breathing into the abdomen is taught, and associated with an anchor. Induction will create relaxation – particularly the progressive relaxation. Once in hypnosis, the anchor is associated with the calm state. We can also develop resource states. If the client is troubled by triggers, desensitization can be undertaken.

Once rapport is established, we continue the work in trance. After asserting the adult virtues with a staircase deepener, the client is presented with two doors. Behind one is a child of the age corresponding to their principle defect of character: mistrust, shame, or guilt. The client opens the door and describes the setting. Carefully monitoring for abreactions, the client is guided into reassurance of the child:

Projection of sympathy or caring. Tendering of physical closeness under the child’s control (an infant can grasp a finger). Soothing words of affirmation (eventually scripted by the client). Intimate embrace. Promise of reconnection.

Responses from the child are captured by the therapist. The engagement is ended gently if abreactions cannot be soothed. The client then leaves the room, shutting the door firmly on the younger self. A calm setting is entered through the second door, where affirmations reinforce the virtues demonstrated during the visit.

When the inner child is known to invade waking life – often as traumatic memories – an additional thread is added. In such circumstances, the client is almost always spiritually sensitive, but we should first obtain confirmation. We then explain that when confronted with an overwhelming fear, the subconscious explores every avenue for support. As a child often lacks practical alternatives, survival may be secured by reaching into the future for support from the adult self. Often that connection occurs in moments of profound happiness. If thus confronted by the younger self, it is best to offer an organized response. The client should summon the energy of their happiness, turn to the younger self, and speak these words inwardly: “I love you. We are strong enough. Come to me.”

Esteem and ConfidenceSelf-esteem is a conviction that I am worthy to receive life’s gifts (and conversely that life’s disappointments are not merited). Self-confidence is a conviction that I can create value that others will reward.

Every failed crisis in the stages of development creates a block against self-esteem and self-confidence. Regarding the former, the block may be expressed as a belief that life offers no gifts, that gifts must be


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reciprocated, or that I will misuse them. Regarding the latter, the block is expressed as a belief in personal incompetence, unfairness, or (paradoxically) entitlement.

Any of these beliefs can be addressed in counseling with perspective shifts. But we should remember that motivation is a felt experience. Esteem and confidence are inferred from functional relationships. Our goal should be to empower that experience.

The client comes to us knowing that their beliefs are self-limiting. In exploring specific consequences, our inventory of virtue is seeded with antonyms to the causative vices. If lying undermines trust, then we assert honesty as a desired virtue. If fear paralyzes, then calm is upheld. If the list is extended, a SUDs ranking will guide the order of resolution in trance.

Anxiety is usually associated with deficits in esteem and confidence. The therapist should clarify the role of the social identity and the destructive consequences of chronic anxiety. In pushing the right hemisphere forward, anxiety prevents us from perceiving gestures of support from our community. It inhibits our ability to organize meaningful responses to events. We become reactive, defensive, and hostile. The goal of therapy is to strengthen the social identity, which emanates from the prefrontal cortex and extends connections to organize constructive responses in the other parts of the brain.

Trance suggestions concerning esteem and confidence should avoid Pollyannaish exhortation. We do not demand “Respect yourself! Be confident!” for should the client again be overwhelmed, subconscious trust in therapy is undermined.

Rather we start with anchors for metabolic control. Systematic desensitization follows to weaken vices. On the exit, the client is reminded that such behaviors no longer serve them. The resource state is invoked and walked down the staircase as the desired self-image. An extended free-style imagery interlude allows the unified mind to visualize the positive impacts among family, friends, and professional colleagues.

Therapy reaches its conclusion as the client abandons their old thought patterns. Experiences that sapped motivation only remain an obsession when the client is anxious. To elaborate: during dreams, the chemicals that sustain fear are not produced by the brain. Anxiety can occur only if the chemicals are held over from the day. As peace is restored in daily life, the chemical concentrations drop. When in dreams the subconscious reviews our life history to plan our future, it reconsiders those old experiences and concludes that they are no longer a threat.

Dream therapy facilitates this change. We suggest that the subconscious, in precognitive dreams in the middle of the night, turn its attention to planning the expression of the empowered self, and in the dreams just before waking vent any concerns that no longer serve the client.

Self-esteem and self-confidence result, then, as the client begins to perceive and accept both 1) gifts offered by their intimates and 2) opportunities to exchange value with the rest of society.

Social ExpectationThus far we have focused on building motivation through healing of the personality. Another source of internal tension, however, are stories. The stories that interfere with motivation generate two conditions: fear of failure and fear of success.


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Fear of failure is fostered when adult expectations and consequences are used to assess development. The helicopter parent is symptomatic, building stories concerning imperfect performance that pass from preschool through “not attending Harvard” into poverty and isolation. The story may be reinforced by family history. The child, unable to devise autonomous strategies for success, either falls into paralysis or is driven to unsustainable effort. Later in life, the adult either procrastinates or pursues goals single-mindedly.

Fear of success also festers around a paradoxical story. Success is held as carrying unsupportable costs, among them separation from family, social abuse, or moral hazard. Family history is again a factor. The adult tendency is to pursue many areas of achievement, only to abandon projects just as they come to fruition.

When either syndrome is identified, journaling can be effective in building a new life script. The Mental Bank formalizes that process. The Hristic Path offers a framework that encompasses moral factors, addressing a central objection to success and broadening accomplishment into dimensions unexplored by materialistic parents.

The Mental BankThe Mental Bank, promoted by the Hypnosis Motivation Institute (https://hypnosis.edu/ mental - bank and https://hypnosis.edu/books/mental-bank-ledger), is a hybrid of journaling, self-induction and dream therapy.

The old poker adage goes, “Winning is not in the cards You are dealt. It is how you play them.” This is the first principle of motivation therapy. Society may push us down, depriving us of resources and creating stress. But stress is only an indicator of need, not a remedy. Remedies are found through engagement organized by our social identity.

With mindfulness all the rage in psychotherapy, the Buddha’s enlightenment merits consideration. Siddhartha sitting under the bodhi tree had tormented himself to find the solution to pain, but enlightenment came in the realization that he did not have to allow pain to define him. He did not have to suffer. He could choose to change himself to receive what is good when it was presented. That principle penetrates to every aspect of life: the Buddha’s eightfold path exhorts “rightness” in view, intention, speech, conduct, livelihood, efforts, mindfulness, and concentration. A mature practitioner becomes a “bodhissatva” – a saint.

While subscribing to the view that we find success through self-realization, the Mental Bank takes a pragmatic view. The process starts with the client’s recognition that they have subscribed to their unsatisfactory status. They are successful in living their life script (what elsewhere is called their narrative). The first step in finding satisfaction, then, is to change their narrative. That narrative must be believable, so it starts with definition of SMART goals. Those goals are then broken down into activities called value events. The Mental Bank is in part a project planning discipline.

On the foundation of this belief we then layer the principles of hypnotherapy: repetition, ideomotor action, prioritization of explicit memories, and dreams. Every night, just thirty minutes before bed, the client writes a record of accomplishment and rewards himself with fantasy dollars. This taps into deep social conditioning that wealth is a universal measure of accomplishment.


https://hypnosis.edu/books/mental-bank-ledger

https://hypnosis.edu/mental-bank

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The Mental Bank process does involve some arcane detail. The first is setting the bank balance goal. Kappas advises twice current earnings for hourly workers, and four times current earnings for professionals. For those living as a dependent, those earnings include the cost of their lifestyle: a fraction of the mortgage or rent, utilities and food, and sundry expenses.

Some clients will resist the allocation, believing that they are setting themselves up for practical disappointment. We must emphasize that these are fantasy dollars, intended only to convey to the subconscious that change is valuable. That is accomplished for the hourly worker by assigning four times current earnings for Mental Bank effort and subtracting actual earnings from their Mental Bank balance. The differential for professionals is higher due to the need to overcome the conditioning of business culture.

In counseling, we should encourage the client to develop a balanced set of goals. “What does success look like to you?” is a good start to that dialog. Career is almost always an avenue of expression, but family and leisure should not be forgotten.

Once the fantasy earnings are adopted, the Mental Bank practice is initiated with a kick-off session. We build the client’s resource state and march it down the stairs. A chalkboard is presented. The client picks up chalk and writes “My annual earnings are…” with the number written in long-hand. Ideomotor response can be used to indicate completion of each of three repetitions. A free-style imagery interlude then projects the client’s goals into each of their primary avenues of expression.

The client then begins the nightly Mental Bank journal.

The Mental Bank goals and events are not set in stone. Remember that we are hoping to light the fire of motivation. In support of that process, subsequent sessions reinforce the commitment to the Mental Bank, deal with resistance to value events, develop the self-concept, and build access to resource states.

Law of AttractionThe discovery of self-esteem and self-confidence demonstrates a general principle of self-fulfillment, popularized in Western culture as the Law of Attraction. The principle, which deepens into all layers of experience, holds that “the world gives you want you expect.”

Our discussion of motivation reflects this principle at the most basic level. If you accept inner conflict, you will lead a frustrated life. Your subconscious will rebel against your unhappiness, and eventually withdraw support for the social identity. Conversely, when we clearly explain our goals and show enthusiasm for its participation, the subconscious will come on board. That willingness extends down to the roots of perception. Literally, our experience of the world changes. The subconscious adjusts the filters that control what goes into our explicit memory, bringing attention to opportunities that previously were invisible.

In the ancient Indian tradition of the Veda, this mundane principle was extended into the realm of spirit. In committing to creating lasting effects in the world, the guru recognizes that resistance arises not only from within, but in the social and spiritual dimensions of life. In the context of our culture, we must recognize the needs of our peers (understood in Buddhism to include “all conscious beings”) and ensure that our ambitions facilitate their self-expression. In the spiritual plane, we must seed our vision in the realm of light and truth – not only to prevent corruption, but to connect our work with the work of


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others seeking compatible aims. We become joined across space and time to a community of creators, and our vision lives on with them.

This practice is known in Buddhism as “co-creation.” To the Western mind it sounds hopelessly foggy and indirect – particularly to those that are hoping to purchase wisdom. The corruption is known as “The Secret” – the idea that we call into existence the reality that we expect. Thus, a foreign coed states that her childhood conviction that she would live in America created the opportunity to study at an international school of business, not pausing to reflect that the school was funded by corporations that profited from foreign business. The most charitable interpretation is that her intention met the intention of the school’s supporters. Another way to see it is that she had invested tens of thousands of dollars in a delusion, much as do subscribers to the “Theology of Wealth” (in contradiction of Jesus’ edict that “you cannot love both God and money”).

Authentic communities sometimes seek to facilitate this realization by guiding favored children into advantageous relationships. The vocalist will break into song walking down the street and be accosted from a passing Mercedes by a major label producer. Unfortunately, those opportunities become oversubscribed. The producer swayed by such pressure produces a string of flops, for the vocalist’s creative engagement must be with the listening public.

Sustainable practice of the Law of Attraction requires humble projection of our will into the world. We dare not command events, for that entrains resistance that will tear us apart as we lose control. Rather we negotiate hopefully, preparing reality to accept our talents with reciprocal value. We do not become attached to specific outcomes, treating setbacks only as an opportunity to learn.

LossIf we cannot control outcomes, we will confront disappointment. It is here that we may confront most intensely the extent that our personality invests in intention.

People, pets, homes, and jobs are not just things – they are the backdrop for our behavior. When we first acquire them, we are conscious of learning to adapt to their presence. Over time, those changes become automatic behaviors managed by the subconscious, woven together as a pattern for our life. Remove one element and the pattern vibrates. It may be a trivial disruption, such as when we lose a penny. Or it may be a near-collapse, such as when we lose a child.

When the loss is great, we may be overwhelmed and seek to avoid change. Most directly, we may deny the loss. We might imagine that the loved one will walk through the door any second, or that after the tornado we are at the hotel on vacation. When denial becomes a permanent condition, the sufferer should be referred to a licensed mental health professional.

Another strategy is to cultivate dependency. We may expect other people to care for us, take refuge in pleasant experiences, or consume substances (food and drugs) that boost our energy and mood.

Healing begins when we discard denial and dependency to accept that we need to change our lives. We turn our attention now to therapeutic strategies for facilitate healing. I consider first the work of Kubler-Ross, the staple of grief counseling, before considering innovations that offer a more intentional framework for healing.


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Kubler-RossElizabeth Kubler-Ross broke ground with her study of how terminally ill patients dealt with loss and grief (Kub[2005]). This can be considered as natural grief: it is what people do without counseling. The reaction is also typical of terminal illness, which tends to overwhelm coping strategies.

In the popular formulation, the process follows five stages, but the middle three stages can become a whirlpool. The stages are:

Denial Anger Depression Bargaining Acceptance

We have already discussed denial and its helpmate, dependency.

Anger is the natural reaction to the realization that there is no answer to “Why?” It can be focused on the self for past misbehavior (such as cigarette smoking) or toward others (the tobacco companies). In the grief process, anger is important because it breaks down neural pathways. It is a mechanism used by the mind to get rid of behaviors that no longer serve us. In the context of a broken heart, this is clearly necessary: we need to stop acting like we did when we had a romantic partner and prepare ourselves to seek a more fulfilling relationship. In the case of a terminal illness, anger prepares us to accept that life as we knew it is going to end.

If the loss is due to illness, persistent anger also has dangerous consequences: it stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, which increases inflammation in our tissues. This can inhibit healing or even stimulate metastases.

Depression is a term in psychology used when we are unable to respond to the world. In severe cases, that manifests as avoidance. The highly depressed person can end up hiding in a darkened room. It is more severe than denial because while in denial we can at least function. What is different is that while in depression we are recovering from the mental disorder created by anger and gathering energy to create a new life.

After anger has softened our old behaviors and depression has allowed us to gather strength, we begin bargaining. This can take two forms. The less helpful is whining: “Dear God, what do I need to do to make this cancer go away?” Whining often loops back into anger and depression. The better is imagining: “If I heal from cancer, I will commit more of my time to charitable work.” Imagining builds new behaviors to replace those erased by anger.

Imagining prepares us to move forward to the last stage: acceptance. Acceptance is a great gift. It is the ability to take life one day at a time, savoring every moment and opportunity, while trying to enrich the experience for ourselves and others. Having achieved that wisdom, you will hear people say that getting divorced (or sick with cancer or arrested or…) was “the best thing that ever happened to me.”

TrujilloThrough his teaching and trauma response work, Timothy Trujillo has developed tools to aid those trying to recover from loss (Tru[2015]). Where Kubler’s focus is practical (“This is how people grieve”), Trujillo


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offers a metaphor for healing. Trujillo starts every therapy with the mind/body connection, establishing that it is possible to feel good.

The table elaborates the physical metaphor for psychic healing:

Stage Physical Healing Psychic HealingWholeInjuryHemostasis Stop bleeding. Separation from trauma.Inflammation Clear damage, fight infection. Release old behaviorsProliferation Repopulate with new cells. Evolve new behaviors.Remodeling Cells organize as tissue. Reconstruct relationships.Adaptation Compensate for lost function. Deal with unexpected consequences.Recover Return to normal.

The power of this metaphor arises from the fact that often recovery from psychic trauma is impeded because the wound is projected into the body, causing discomfort to persist. In emphasizing the body’s natural healing powers, the client associates increased physical comfort with psychic healing. In effect, the conscious mind no longer interferes with the subconscious effort to restore balance and harmony.

Confronted by traumatized communities, Trujillo captured this psychological transition as a hypnotic script titled “The Five-Minute Miracle” (https://timothytrujillo.com/projects/five-minute-miracle).

Beyond HealingIf we have a wonderful relationship that falters and fails, do we want to release those cherished memories and behaviors? Or do we want to learn from the failure and expand our vision of future possibilities? Not just sexual satisfaction, for example, but also children and society?

Loss and wounding both have negative connotations. We have seen that at the end of grieving, we achieve a positive resolution – but the steps along the path are dreary, to say the least. With physical wounds, we can be awed and humbled by our natural healing powers, but in most cases after recovery we are less capable than before the injury. The metaphor suggests that the mind will also lose function during grieving. Why should we accept that?

I prefer a simpler, positive model. Like Trujillo, I recognize the connection between mind and body, but would emphasize that it goes both ways. The reason we say the old lover’s name is because we remember them when our cheek is kissed. We have associations between physical sensation (the kiss) and old behaviors (saying their name).

The first step in recovery from loss, then, should be creating space within the self. This can be done many ways, but all involve intense physical exertion with focused attention. Shaking our fist at the sky is one example, as is a long, wracking cry. Other methods are possible: I use Sunday dance celebrations to create space within myself; others might go rock climbing. The point is to be aware that we are consciously creating these sensations of exhaustion within ourselves.

The next step is to rest until our energy recovers. Finally, we imagine what we can do with this new awareness and energy. That inevitably collides again with loss: we would like to have dinner with lost


https://timothytrujillo.com/projects/five-minute-miracle

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spouse, but That is not possible. So, we return to creating space inside ourselves, resting and imagining until we have established that it is myself that needs dinner.

How is this space inside created? In my view, it is from the heart. When I weep or dance, I have the sense of something inside bearing witness to me and my loss. If I allow it, it flows from that deep inner source and enters the situation as it is to bring healing – not just to myself, but to everyone that will accept it.

TherapyHow is this model facilitated by hypnotherapy? When anger (or other negative emotions) are entrenched, the hand clasp induction is effective; otherwise a simple eye fascination suffices. Complete awareness of the self is built through a long progressive relaxation starting at the feet with attention paid to expansion around the heart to allow the emanation of light. Gathering all the resources of the being and the represented potential, the progressive passes up the neck and over the back of the head to rest over the forehead, above the prefrontal cortex where all planning is done.

From there the therapeutic strategy depends upon the specific needs of the client. Those in deep grief often need to establish resources in the subconscious landscape through free-style therapeutic imagery. That work leads to reconstruction of their self-image. Those seeking to implement behavior change may have phobias to clear using desensitization.

Between sessions, breathing meditation and mindfulness reinforce personal boundaries. Dream therapy can be used to assess the readiness to change, to release resistance, and to focus subconscious attention to find constructive solutions to specific behavioral problems.

ProphylaxisWhile the lay hypnotherapist might appreciate repeat business, the client will benefit if we cultivate qualities that support detachment. Psychology recognizes resilience and hardiness (Zol[2012]).

Resilience is a set of behaviors that minimize the likelihood of loss. In folksy terms, we do not put our eggs in one basket. We are predictable within our routine but otherwise flexible. We invest in partnerships built around trust and transparency. We cultivate enduring virtues and honor their presence in others. In crisis, these qualities make us a reliable resource that others seek to sustain.

Hardiness is an attitude that allows us to weather loss. It starts with the conviction that what we do makes a difference – that we have influence over the world. Secondly, the hardy personality sees difficulty as a learning opportunity. Finally, they believe that effort will be recognized and appreciated, even if only in the afterlife.

Hardiness has a huge impact on recovery from loss. The psychologists recognize five outcomes. The first four are persistent depression (before and after the loss), persistent grief after the loss, depression after the loss, and after-loss grief with recovery. The fifth is healthy mourning: the loss is felt but does not interfere with our ability to conduct essential business. The qualities of hardiness were discovered through studies of that fifth cohort.

Both resilience and hardiness are complex resource states that can be assembled in trance and projected through dream therapy into waking life.


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SuggestibilityFor lay hypnotherapy, we have staked a claim as negotiators of the boundary between the social identity and the subconscious. Nowhere is this asserted more directly than in the adjustment of suggestibility.

As pertains to therapy, Kappas saw suggestibility as a predisposition that distorts our perceptions and responses. Regarding perception, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) identifies distortions, deletions, and generalizations, then passing the resulting input through a complex processing system to produce a response. Kappas did not articulate so complex a strategy. Rather, he started from the perspective of sociability, following the breadcrumbs of cognitive inconsistency until he was confident that he had his fingers on the loose threads of the client’s knotted suggestibility.

In criticizing students in discovery, the video history (HMI[-]) records him musing along the lines of “Did that sound like a well-adjusted response to this situation?” The frequency with which students bought distorted narratives is – if nothing else – a testament to the coherence of our protective façades. Softening and piercing a façade is undertaken in counseling. We emphasize again that a façade is a defense and removal should never be undertaken until a replacement is in place.

For this reason, after addressing hypersuggestibility, we focus on routine development. Breaking the association between a trigger and an asocial reaction is the basis for habit control. We then turn to fears and phobias, illuminating how the therapeutic approach must respond to client history.

Neurochemically, suggestibility is driven by the dopamine system that indicates “what comes next is important.” When the norepinephrine (anxiety) system is activated by the event, the mind avoids similar experiences. When anxiety becomes a conditioned response, the client struggles to modify their behavior. When the serotonin (reward) system is activated by the event, the mind seeks similar experiences. When reward becomes a conditioned response, the client may be susceptible to manipulation.

HypersuggestibilityTo protect us from manipulation and unforeseen consequences, the subconscious resists behavior change and entrusts the social identity to validate information. Reflecting sociability, two broad strategies are followed: an adventurer leans into social consensus and loyalty; a protector seeks understanding and control.

Hypersuggestibility arises when the subconscious concludes that the social identity is unreliable. The scenarios are diverse. First might be dependency on parents during the teen years. Such dependency is not necessarily unpleasant – the child may feel comfortable and protected in their relationship. Either way, the social identity may remain underdeveloped and thus unable to handle normal adult stress. Secondly is trauma arising from circumstances beyond our control: a culture of violence, environmental disaster, or social upheaval. The social identity cannot evolve effective strategies, and so atrophies. Next, we have poor decision-making. A history of bad relationships, substance abuse, or failed ambitions may cause the subconscious to conclude that the social identity is heading down paths that threaten well-being. Finally, we have creative necessity. Creative personalities must apply esthetic discernment while navigating intuitively to an expressive outcome. The subconscious is dragged into the waking


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world. The flow of information between the hemispheres is intense and exhausting. The links remain after the creative effort concludes. The resulting reactivity destabilizes behavior.

While the Hristic Path aspires to unification of the mind, without a supportive community an assertion of subconscious control is dysfunctional. The conscious is deeply involved in schooling, and so when pushed aside the mind loses the tools of reason and social decorum. That is amplified by volatility: the buffer of explicit memory is lost. Events are processed reactively. Decision making must be simplified, leading to magical thinking, susceptibility to political conspiracy, and either dependency or absolutism in relationships. Social support is gradually lost, making every interaction a survival experience. The metabolism shifts towards chronic activation of the sympathetic nervous system (fight/flight), weakening the immune system and attacking the networks that encode the social identity. The downward spiral ends in clinical disorders. Kappas observed that the hallucinations attained in a somnambulistic trance were like schizophrenic delusions.

Short of clinical decay, the exit from hypersuggestibility begins with therapeutic rapport. The client’s decision to invest in normalcy is rewarded with patient support. The therapist should offer a confident, paternal explanation of the condition with reassurance that hypnotherapy will lead to better balance. Emphasis should be on the partnership between conscious and subconscious minds, illustrated by common behaviors such as handwriting, artistry and crafts, and driving.

Having established respect for the subconscious, counseling continues with different focus according to whether the expression is adventurous or protective. Adventurers project emotional energy. Protectors use imagination to reinforce their isolation. Note that most clients have mixed expression.

For the adventurer, we observe that emotional regulation originates in the social identity, our highest mental function. The first step in hypnotherapy is to reestablish its calming influence. That process is built upon emotional literacy. The adventurer should be encouraged to name the emotions that trouble them most. In counseling we distinguish between healthy and unhealthy expressions: for example, desire versus lust, anger versus rage, frustration versus hate. In seeding the social identity with these distinctions, we empower it with discernment.

The adventurer is assigned the home practice of recognizing and naming emotions as they arise. We counsel that to suppress an emotion, the social identity must first refine its ability to stimulate it. In refusing to legitimize a negative emotion, the adventurer reverses stimulation, and suppression is attained. We reassure the adventurer that should difficulties arise, we have the powerful method of systematic desensitization.

For the protector, we emphasize the importance of the social identity in recognition and response to positive social cues. The first goal of hypnotherapy is to identify positive social goals and encourage our perception to identify opportunities to realize them. An inventory of virtue is built around hypothetical and actual social partners. Where conflict is ingrained, we counsel that positive expectations serve to transform relationships: anger channeled into passion, conflict into harmony, revenge into justice.

The protector is assigned the home practice of mindful presence. The goal is to quiet internal dialog to see things as they are. As that skill develops, the next step is to focus on what is good and enjoyable. We reassure the protector that the skill will be developed through free-style imagery.


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The session then continues with resource state and anchor definition, suggestibility testing (as necessary), and induction. Whether as induction or deepener, the progressive relaxation should forecast the anchor. If systematic desensitization is planned, the deepeners should include a challenge.

Hypnotic relaxation therapy alone will moderate hypersuggestibility in clients with relatively balanced sociability.

Bilateral BalancingIn breaking the grip of extreme hypersuggestibility, we must broaden processing of perception. In the adventurer, perception channels a flood of irresistible emotions. With the protector, perception gallops into hostile implication.

While interpretation of perception always starts in the right hemisphere, reactions should be delayed by sequential analysis in the left hemisphere. In the adventurer, that second step never takes place. In the protector, hyperactive pathways in the left hemisphere override perception. Trance is a state that allows these imbalances to be addressed directly. Neurological adjustment is immediate, not delayed until REM sleep.

Bilateral balancing is a technique that uses muscles to alternate activation of the hemispheres. This is obtained through two neurophysiological effects: motor control is the foundation for all mental processing, and blood flow is also hemispherical. Correspondingly, when muscle control is focused on the right or left side of the body, respectively the left or right hemisphere will become more active.

During counseling, we prompt the client to identify a distressing context. The context may be an actual situation, an imaginary situation, or an unfulfilled dream. It should not involve tangible threat, but rather be recognized as involving an over-reaction to normal events. Examples include a meeting with a supervisor, being asked to take out the garbage, or finding our soul mate.

We determine the client’s relaxation resource state. This is anchored in trance. We then start the balancing.

For the adventurer, we establish an ideomotor link between their distress and the left side of the body. This is usually the left arm lifting as distress builds. We then suggest that they recall the distressing context, repeating the suggestion that the left arm lift as the distress grows. Monitoring for the formation of an abreaction, we then suggest that they will begin to increase the use of reason in managing their distress. Keeping the left arm lifted, they begin to raise the right arm as they adopt a more rational view of the context. When the right arm is as high as the left, we suggest that they allow reason to assume control of their response as the left arm descends. After reasserting the relaxation state, we suggest as the right arm descends, they will go deeper into trance.

For the protector, we establish an ideomotor link between their distress and the right side of the body. This is usually the right arm lifting as distress builds. We then suggest that they recall the distressing context, repeating the suggestion that the right arm lift as the distress grows. Monitoring for the formation of an abreaction, we then suggest that they will begin to perceive the context more clearly. Keeping the right arm lifted, they begin to raise the left arm as they focus their perception. When the left arm is as high as the right, we suggest that they allow their senses to heighten even further as the right arm descends. After reasserting the relaxation state, we suggest as the left arm descends, they will go deeper into trance.


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Repetition is recommended. The session should be concluded with dream therapy, asserting that in precognitive dreams the subconscious will integrate this learning in waking behavior.

Routine DevelopmentRoutine is essential to our well-being. This is most obvious when flying across time zones. The subconscious has a schedule for eating, working, sleeping, repairing, and thinking. Energy and resources are moved around accordingly. When we stay awake an extra three hours, that schedule is disrupted. It can take several days to get back on track.

This is the challenge of routine development. The conscious mind identifies a new goal, say walking a half an hour at lunch time. We visualize dropping two clothing sizes and enjoying increased energy. But on the first day, we use up energy and time that was already allocated to another activity. Our muscles ache in the morning. The benefits are preceded by the costs. The subconscious wonders what we are getting ourselves into.

Therapy for routine development is about increasing our susceptibility to change. As the examples illustrate, that is largely about organizing change on a time frame That is natural for the subconscious, rather than in the time frame of imagination. Neurochemically, we want to engage the dopamine system that signals “what comes next is important” and then stimulate the serotonin system that signals “that was rewarding.”

Trance work for routine development focuses on resource state anchors, rehearsal, self-image and dream therapy. Auto-induction is a valuable method of reinforcement, with a simple script that evokes the physical, emotional, and mental rewards of adopting the new behavior. If auto-induction is not comfortable for the client, the trance work should be recorded and used daily for reinforcement until the habit is established.

The specific aspects of habit development are seen in home practice. Rather than trying to instigate the new behavior in “down time,” it should be established in association with an existing activity that is already considered important (dopamine system). An exercise program can be initiated with gentle stretching and calisthenics before showering. Learning a musical instrument can start with a few minutes of handling before dinner.

Staging is important (Duh[2014]). A reminder should be prominent when the existing activity is approached. A list of exercises on the shower stall, or the instrument case left on a counter. The routine is performed. Finally, a reward is offered (serotonin system), even if only a positive affirmation such as “This is a great start” or “I am glad I did that.”

Performance of the activity establishes a known to the subconscious, which may then during dreams begin to integrate it into the daily routine. The client may enjoy greater flexibility with respect to time and place. The trance work outlined above may be supplemented with suggestions that the achievement is desired, accepted, and therefore true to the identity. All resistance may be surrendered, and resources allocated for its realization, both in waking life and in dreaming that reorganizes the body and mind.

Systematic DesensitizationThe desired conclusion of personal development is a graceful integration of social sophistication with the lower mental functions. The integration is rarely smooth. Mistakes are part of learning, and


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particularly when those mistakes lead to metabolic collapse, the subconscious may seize upon crude mechanisms to avoid similar circumstances in the future. Fear, rage, aggression, exhaustion, frustration, and insomnia are all symptomatic limiting emotions. (Panic requires special methods, discussed below.)

When the sensitizing event preceded the development of the social identity, no criteria can be offered to guide the subconscious. The conscious mind must assert control over the reaction. This is the goal of systematic desensitization (Kap[1999a]).

In counseling, we explain the virtues of a calm response, covering metabolic efficiency, clarity in perceptions, the ability to negotiate support, and learning. The client describes the context of the reaction and considers the consequences. The desired resource state is defined, and the client lists the benefits of a controlled response. We teach the client how to use the breath to restore homeostasis.

In trance, we start with an arm rigidity challenge to clear tension from the body. If the client is not susceptible to the Law of Reverse Action, additional challenges may be necessary to establish the reaction. However, as the preamble to the arm rigidity promises relief, this is rare.

After establishing the resource state and associating the anchor, we begin desensitization. Ideomotor response is required. Normally this will be the left index finger, which ties to the right hemisphere and defensive emotions. We associate lifting of the index finger with the limiting emotion.

We suggest that the subconscious create the limiting emotion, asserting that “you know how,” and raise the index finger “when the <emotion> is felt.” As the finger raises, we ask them to “hold on to it. Really feel it.” Monitoring for abreactions, we wait for strain to be evident and then command “now pass it and go deeper. Allow the index finger to drop and enjoy <the resource state>.”

The procedure is repeated twice. As the resource state is preferred, we allow that option in the second repetition. Rather than “when the <emotion>…”, we suggest “if the <emotion>…” Often habit will bring the emotion to the fore, but with less intensity. If the intensity remains, we repeat “if” on the third repetition. If the intensity has weakened, we use reverse action to try to extinguish the emotion: “try to bring up that <emotion>, really try. Try harder. But you find that the harder you try, the more deeply you feel <the resource state>. Now pass any remaining <emotion> and go deeper. Take pride in this growing ability to choose how you feel.”

The effect of this is to bring the conscious mind into partnership first in stimulating the limiting emotion, and then suppressing it. Through trance, we bypass the natural resistance to assertion of control by the social identity. This is accomplished by dousing the stimulating neural networks with GABA.

The trance concludes with assertion of the desired self-image through a staircase deepener and dream therapy. The procedure may be reasserted in further session if extinction was not gained.

Home practice is to utilize the anchor to dampen the limiting emotion when it arises.

Habit ControlIn therapeutic terminology, “routine” consists of those activities that sustain our wellness, while “habit” has negative implications for wellness. The client seeking habit control has obviously recognized those negative implications. Typical habits are cigarette smoking, nail biting, and social media.


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We will see similarities here to systematic desensitization. The important added factor is that the habit entrains motor control in its execution. This adds an implicit association to address in trance.

Habits become established through several pathways, the predominant being identification. We see family members, friends, or prominent personalities enjoying the habit, and adopt the behavior to secure their company. Substance abuse or overspending often start here. Another pathway is replacement. We adopt the habit as a distraction from distress. Nail biting or pornography are typical. The final pathway is necessity. We adopt the habit as a means of survival. Opioid addiction or social aversion often start here.

As the habit becomes entrenched, two factors sustain it. The first is biochemical addiction. Drugs, for example, unbalance our metabolism and body chemistry. To optimize wellness, the body adapts to restore normalcy. If the substance is removed, however, the body remains out-of-balance until our original chemistry is re-established. Where addiction exists, the lay hypnotherapist should tread carefully. While nicotine addiction is mild, more serious addictions require medical supervision during withdrawal.

The second factor is neurosis, or the tendency to ignore or rationalize dysfunctional behaviors. Most clients coming in for habit control have crossed this threshold but may not recognize their habit as a defense against unrecognized psychological distress.

Even without addiction or neurosis, removal of a habit travels through a stage of resistance. To suppress the behavior, the conscious mind must first isolate the neural networks that control it. This entails heightening the intensity of the craving or tendency. Just as in systematic desensitization, steadfast resistance leads to suppression of the network’s activity.

Habit control begins with a survey costs and benefits of the behavior. For the benefits, alternatives are identified. We then list the triggers that stimulate the behavior. The strengths of the associated cravings are ranked on a SUDs scale. A strategy for weakening the triggers is defined. Triggers around 4 are routinely extinguished and create confidence and experience that supports attack of higher-ranking triggers.

In trance, the procedure is like systematic desensitization, except that imagining the trigger is used to produce the emotions that entrain the habit. Just prior to “pass it and go deeper,” we add a STOP mechanism. “Whenever you feel this <tendency/desire/craving>, you hear the word ‘STOP!’ ‘STOP,’ because you recognize that it no longer serves you.” This weakens the association of the habit with the motor control networks that carry it out.

Historically, many practitioners have used aversion to control habits. This is recommended only when the consequences are natural to the habit. Cigarette smoking does fill the lungs with tar, so imagining a room filled with choking smoke and dripping with tar is suitable. Suggesting that the cigarette is excrement is not recommended – the client may end up vomiting when a loved one lights up. A milder case is a common nail-biting suggestion: “imagine that you’ve just had your hands in raw chicken.” This is again not recommended. Use of any unnatural aversion weakens the integrity of the social identity, undermining its ability to generalize suppression to other triggers and habits.


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PanicPanic is a condition of physiological distress arising with mortal danger beyond our control. It involves activation of the AHPA cascade: amygdala-hippocampus-pituitary-adrenal. As the subconscious asserts control to ensure our survival, metabolism shifts from sympathetic to parasympathetic control. The immediate reaction is to freeze, which segues into fight or flight if either opportunity is presented. Sweat, pounding heartbeat, intestinal knots, shaking, and rapid breathing are all symptomatic.

Therapy for panic requires safety. Clients in an abusive relationship should be referred to social support services. For those refusing that aid, therapy should focus on self-image.

Once triggered, the reaction is coordinated through the vagus nerve. The nerve bypasses the spinal cord, interacting directly with the organs it manages. It has two fibers: an unmyelinated fiber that originates from the brain stem and a myelinated fiber that originates from the cerebral cortex. Signals travel faster on the myelinated fiber, which allows the cerebral cortex to assert control over the reaction. This is leveraged in training for combat as well as in panic therapy.

Without that training, during panic perceptions go directly into our implicit store. The social identity has no opportunity to interpret the experience, which almost always violates our life narrative. Bereft of reassurance, the subconscious may ruminate upon the experience in dreams, and even raise it to our waking attention. The mind has two methods for releasing that concern: a sustained period of peace and security (Wal[2017]), or reintegration of the experience in our life narrative (Bar[1996]). The former, sadly, is rare in modern society, so full of threatening stimuli ranging from unhappy intimates to loud machinery.

In therapy we seek both to instill cortical control of the panic response and to integrate the experience in the life narrative. Regarding the former, the tragedy of panic is that triggers are often beneficial resources: elevators, iPhone camera clusters, or left turns. We should ask the client to list such benefits of extinction. To illustrate the latter, I note that recovery from panic is commonly offered as a motivation for training in lay hypnotherapy. Not every narrative will be so inspirational, but the ability to manage panic is an essential skill in a civilization dominated by aggressive personalities.

The construction of narrative is complicated by panic that arises from a metabolic deficit. Hypoglycemia is the common culprit: when effort is demanded too long after our last meal, the brain seeks glucose to sustain its operation. While highly processed foods are attractive, caffeine may also be seized upon as a means of quieting the brain’s clamoring. In either case, the result is further collapse of blood sugar concentrations (see below for details on processed foods). The panic response is entrained to shift the metabolism to convert protein to produce sugar.

Certain people have hypoglycemic tendencies. The interval between normal mealtimes is too long for them to sustain normal activity. Snacking on protein or complex carbohydrates is essential. High-sugar or processed carbohydrates provide a temporary lift but lead into disaster. Both lead to rapid increases in blood sugar concentrations, burned rapidly in the active state. The initial surge, however, also stimulates the production of insulin to prevent damage to the cardiovascular system from sugar crystals. Twenty minutes later the sugar is pulled into fat cells, sometimes simultaneously with its depletion by the body. Blood sugar levels plummet to levels potentially harmful to the brain.


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As hypoglycemia is inherited, it may influence gestation. One test is to turn the left hand palm-out with the middle finger vertical. Comparing the ring and index fingers, a taller index finger indicates gestational hypoglycemia. Some clients will also have had a blood sugar test and know their status.

As lay hypnotherapists, we may provide general nutritional information, but not dietary guidance. We should counsel all sufferers from phobia (panic not associated with actual injury or overt threat) to try snacking between meals on high-value foods.

Until this is understood, the tendency of the conscious mind is to correlate the resulting panic attack to external factors. This stimulates the phobia. Typically, the first incidence will occur in a situation that produces anxiety or excitement. The subconscious usually does admirably in assuring that it signals when food should be provided to ensure metabolic stability. The uncomfortable situation often limits both access to food and stimulates arousal that demands more energy. The metabolic collapse is thus attributed to the uncomfortable situation: a crowded elevator, a plane flight, or a spider in the bathroom. Unfortunately, later panics do not correlate perfectly with the initial cause, and so the tendency is to generalize to other uncomfortable situations. Worse, the subconscious finds it a satisfying method for ensuring survival and may come to rely upon it whenever it doubts the strength of the social identity. In providing a compelling life narrative, education regarding metabolic collapse is essential to extinguishing a phobic syndrome.

Metabolic deficit is not the only cause of phobia. Trypophobia, triggered by clusters of small holes, is becoming common in the developed world. I remember looking into a microscope in elementary school and going home horrified that so much of my body appeared to be empty space, and being disturbed enough that I asked my father “how did they get the cells out of the body?” Confrontation with mortality, implied or actual, is a common cause of phobias in young children.

Panic arising from an overt threat is termed a fear. In this case, the life narrative is built around normalization (it is not your fault, others have suffered the experience and recovered), statistics regarding exposure, agency (the capacity to learn from experience), and the benefits of the conscious mind in addressing the social aspect of a threat.

For phobias, these elements are also beneficial in weakening the strength of the association between panic and the triggering situation. But they also apply when the phobic response arises as a threat. In this case, the sufferer will feel incipient panic even when imagining the situation. This is termed anticipatory fear and must be managed as a fear in of itself.

This distinction between fear and phobia is central to the therapeutic plan.

Circular DesensitizationCircular desensitization is a specialization of systematic desensitization for a specific event. In most cases, this is a single event such as an auto accident, but it can also be the phobic who feels panic whenever the thought of an elevator enters their mind.

The systematic desensitization therapy is enhanced as follows: In discovery, we encourage the client to detail the history of the event, starting with a safe interval and continuing to restoration of calm. To elicit panic, we walk the client through the history. When the left index finger rises, we suggest that they pass it and go deeper. The repetitions start the experience anew. In the normal case, the client will reach the safe conclusion by the third repetition. If not, to avoid exhausting the client, we postpone


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extinction to the next session. The trance is closed out with affirmations of their effort, free-style imagery regarding the benefits of extinction, exercise of the resource state, and assertion of the ideal self. These positive images will continue to work in dreams to create the strength necessary for extinction.

Conical DesensitizationWhen a phobia has generalized, the therapeutic plan must recognize the inevitability of confrontation with the trigger. That is normally the goal of therapy: to confront the trigger without panic.

Such confrontations come with a risk to the therapeutic process: should the panic reassert itself the client’s confidence is undermined, and the strength of the phobic reaction may be strengthened. In training videos, Kappas reported on cases leading to cataleptic paralysis and suicidal ideation, and therefore prohibited circular desensitization for phobias.

In the intervening years, practitioners at HMI developed a technique that uses SUDs ranking to prioritize circular desensitization. The technique, which I term conical desensitization, has the benefit of allowing the client to confront lesser triggers to build confidence in progress toward extinction.

Conical desensitization modifies circular desensitization. In discovery, the client is asked to identify a situation of complete comfort, and a situation that would result in complete panic (“curled up in the corner”). The first is the point of the cone (0, or total comfort), the latter the base (10, or complete panic). They are then asked to rank their triggers on the scale from 0 to 10.

When the ranking is done, the client is asked to identify a trigger, typically around 4, that brings uneasiness without preventing them from perceiving the benefits of the experience. In trance we do circular desensitization on the trigger, framing the history with general statements such as “approaching <the trigger>” and “leaving feeling comfortable and relaxed.” Home practice is to confront the trigger with the support of an intimate.

In subsequent sessions, we repeat the ranking. If the encounter was successful, the trigger becomes the new point of the cone. As desensitization is for the panic (not the trigger), each successive step will weaken the anticipated intensity for the remaining triggers.


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SpiritualityIn facilitating the manifestation of love in a client’s life, we must model that principle. That is a gift lay hypnotherapists share with all mental wellness practitioners, but also a potential hazard. There are far fewer of us than there are people seeking healing. This imbalance of supply and demand forces the public to repress anxiety and press ahead with life. As with medical illness, the outcome is a collapse under accumulated strain that we address as acute caregivers.

Transference is inevitable in that dynamic – the client seizes us in desperation, as though seizing a lifeline to love. That will continue until they develop sensitivity to the force itself. In that light, cultivation of spirituality is an essential part of therapy.

Spiritual awakening is not a trivial undertaking. Understood properly as “the negotiation of the boundaries between ‘I’ and ‘we’,” still we should understand that parties are not equal.

An anecdote is illustrative. On my first trip to Europe, the shuttle bus from the Gatwick had a mix of English and American riders. An American student, touting the advantages of American liberty, demanded an explanation for why the servants in manor houses were told to face the walls when the lords and ladies passed. The Englishman replied, “Maybe it was for their protection.”

Spiritual insensitivity is a protective strategy, with the soul shielded within the dense body. Few emerge without risk. The orientation provided here aims the client toward the only certain haven: unconditional love.

Among the challenges we must confront is the psychic energy stored in the body from past conflict. We encourage a policy of reconciliation and healing. This may be envisioned as a light or harmonious tone. Or it may be an etheric conversation with the personalities that participated in creating our spiritual knots. Rather than combat, we seek to rescue one another from confusion, liberating all involved to pursue more creative pursuits.

Broaching the TopicSpiritual experience is often indistinguishable from psychotic hallucinations. In visits with a counselor, I was told “We only prescribe drugs if the voices in your head make you uncomfortable.” Never-the-less, the stigma of psychological diagnosis makes many hesitant to speak of spirituality, unless shielded by the umbrella of religious dogma.

That said, many will not be offended by inquiry, “Do you have a spiritual orientation?” The response may lead directly to religion, but the bashful may parry with, “What do you mean by that?” The definition I offer is both novel and abstract, allowing us to maneuver around the stigma of psychological diagnosis.

Safe topics include the connection between audience and performer, the lift that comes from charitable service, falling in love, and the origins of the word “politics.”

Physics and SpiritualityThe vulnerability of spiritual expression has fostered a culture of denial. That denial has two stages. The first, rooted in scientific materialism, denies the existence of spirit. The second, observing the pragmatism of selfishness, denies the preeminence of love. Once the first claim is addressed, preparing the client to accept spiritual experience, the second is dispelled in direct encounters with the divine.


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The physicist’s argument is rooted in the mathematics of the prevailing theories of the universe. No basis for spiritual experience is found, even in the quantum mechanics so often cited by mystics such as Deepak Chopra. Promoting spirituality is thus a challenge to theories that have garnered decades of Nobel prizes.

Surprisingly, it is not hard to reconcile the two viewpoints.

The modern theories hold that space is a void. It contains nothing except the matter we observe. This is based upon two observations. The first arose from Newton.

First Law: An object persists in its state of rest or moving uniformly straight forward, except insofar as it is compelled to change its state by a net external force.

Let us assume that space was filled with a substance, or aether, that interacted with matter. We would expect, from our experience of objects moving through air, that the aether would resist the motion of an object, causing it to slow in violation of Newton’s First Law. That presumes, however, that aether is not subjected to a pressure that maintains its order. In coming back to order it would have to return energy to the moving object.

This is a known behavior of super fluids. Up to a limiting speed, objects moving through liquid helium (one example of a super fluid) obey Newton’s First Law. So, if aether is a super fluid, Newton’s First Law allows its existence.

The second observation is that light from distant stars does not appear to vary in speed as the Earth travels around the sun. If light is a vibration in the aether, we might assume that as the Earth moves around the sun, at times it would be moving along with or against the light. From experience with water waves, we would assume that the light would then change its velocity with respect to the Earth. The constancy of the speed of light implies that space is empty.

However, we know of another wave that does not change its speed as the Earth moves around the Sun: sound waves. That seems obvious because the atmosphere is carried along with the Earth. If aether is also carried along with the Earth, then the speed of light on the Earth would be constant, consistent with experiment.

Having answered these objections, aether allows us to envision a universe that incorporates spirituality. We need only add something that disturbs the aether, and that can attach itself to the particles that compose the aether. In current theories, this second element would be called “charge.” When charge is detached from the aether, it is weightless, a quality often attributed to spirit. Free charge uses the aether as a framework on which to organize complex structures. When attached to the aether, it becomes what we know as “matter.”

I will not dwell on the details here, but this model also simplifies our understanding of fundamental physics. For example, our theory of quantum particles teaches us that moving particles constantly release energy into the “vacuum” and then reabsorb it. This is exactly what we would expect were they moving through a super fluid such as our aether.

Let us now consider the effect of spirit on the aether. One analogy is a water bubble at the bottom of a glass of water. To create such a bubble, we might blow through a straw, lifting the water ever so slightly


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as the bubble forms. That lifting stores energy in the water. When the bubble rises to the surface, that energy is converted to ripples.

The metaphor of the straw leads directly to the practice of meditative breathwork. In the teachings of the Veda, breath is considered the vehicle for the transfer of “prana,” or life energy. This insight informs the practice of breathing meditation.

This analogy of the air bubble is useful in understanding miracles. Where spirit concentrates, energy is stored in the aether. That energy can be tapped to reorganize the aether and the matter embedded in it. In Reiki (a Japanese word for “divine love”), this principle is stated in the most expansive form: “Everything is consciousness.”

Miracles are not manifestations of “mind over matter.” Rather they represent an agreement among witnesses that a situation should change. “Miracles” are the norm – their lack is evidence of selfish resistance.

The Structure of TimeWhile the model outlined above supports the existence of spirit, it does not accommodate one universally recognized aspect of spiritual experience: the complexity of time.

The first step in scientific study is to break the subject into parts. Sometimes that is done conceptually, but often it is done concretely. Particle physicists, that specialty that studies the smallest parts and their interactions, do that with incredible violence. That is evident in the complexity of the collisions studied at the last of the great particle accelerators (CERN, near Geneva).

Naturally, anything that is conscious would seek to avoid study through those methods. It was for this reason that, when I left the field back in 1992, I was motivated in part by a belief that the human mind was the system that would drive future insights into the nature of reality.

So, it should not surprise that my questioning of particle theorists was guided by personal experience. Those experiences led me to this question, “If the current theories of the universe allow us to have directions in space beyond the three we normally experience, why can’t we have extra paths through time?” The answer was “because we don’t know how to write the equations.” In other words, the idea was unexpected but not disallowed.

In layman’s terms, the idea allows that events do not necessarily progress sequentially from the past to the future. Considering the nature of memory often leads to an admission that it is easier to understand if we think of the brain as a time-travel device. In the middle of a conversation we may feel gripped by a memory, immersed to a degree that creates the sense that the two events are occurring simultaneously. This concept is elaborated in the movie “Arrival,” which I recommend to those that find it difficult to grasp.

Of course, time-travel must work in both directions. Among the most compelling and beautiful of my spiritual experiences are moments in which I feel the past and future conspire to bring love to me in the present. I cannot offer a model that explains such events, and so rely upon my authority as a spiritual guide to open minds to that possibility. Such claims are supported with the celebration of prophecy (more generally precognition) in all cultures not biased by 20th century materialism.


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DichotomiesTo the wise, the preceding discussion should be bracing. We are introducing concepts that describe a level of reality underneath the models that we use to harness nuclear energy. The energies available there are comparably greater than nuclear energies are greater than chemical energies. A bomb carrying a chemical payload can level a building; the same package carrying a nuclear payload can level a city. Misuse of spiritual energies has serious implications.

Fortunately, the personalities that designed this reality incorporated safety factors that limit abuse. The most important is the aether itself. It slows things down to a degree that spirit alone cannot change its organization. It must incarnate or attach itself to a body. Conversely, it is difficult to damage a spirit that is willing to surrender its body.

These limits are tested by tyranny and realized most beautifully by our religious avatars. Their behaviors are characterized by degree between the endpoints of dichotomies.

We have encountered dichotomies previously. We often cite the dichotomy of sociability, with endpoints “adventurer” and “protector.” The dichotomy of nurturance has endpoints “feminine” and “masculine.” No individual an survive at the extremes. The perfect adventurer stands in front of a freight train; the perfect protector refuses to eat. We are all hybrids. Maturity is found in balancing competing tendencies.

In developing spirituality, the ethical therapist counsels a client in the dichotomies of morality (love versus selfishness), and ethics (vice versus virtue). The individual that acts consistent with their preferences possesses integrity. Communities the cultivate integrity bear witness to one another. What we conclude, however, is that commitment to negative principles is inconsistent with integrity. The hypocritical individual or community tends toward self-denial.

MoralityOur concept of love is corrupted by the degree to which other love is a seeking for self-love. We say “I love you” because we feel good in the presence of the beloved. It is a magic spell of binding, and often hypocritical.

F. Scott Peck punctured this delusion in his ground-breaking work “The Road Less Traveled.” He is not as direct as I am here, transmitting wisdom rather by omission. The book does not speak of self-love.

As I interpret Peck, love is not an emotion, but an intention. In the most basic terms, to love is to offer a gift of power. We create an opportunity for the beloved to expand their influence over the world. Our motivation is simply to encourage them to reveal themselves.

Ideally, our beloved reciprocates. Surrendering the concern of self-protection, we collaborate more effectively than those around us, and so entrain more and more energy in the relationship. I use the word “entrain” because it captures the willingness of that process. All of reality is consciousness, and the energy that we accumulate is drawn to the good feeling of our collaboration.

Understanding that love is an intention, rather than a feeling, we can be clear that hate is not the opposite of love. Rather, love’s opposite is selfishness, the desire to acquire power from others. Regarding its obsessions, the characteristic attitude of selfishness is “I do not care what it cost to make


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this. I do not care how much damage its loss will cause. If I want it, I will take it; and if it threatens me, it will be destroyed.”

In modern culture, where survival is determined by relationships, the most active strategy of selfishness is illusion – to promise to reciprocate at some later date, only to dash the lover’s expectations. The sociopath goes further, collaborating with others to create the impression that failure was the fault of the exploited party. The investment strategy failed because “you did not make that last installment.”

Protecting ourselves from exploitation is often thought of as “self-love,” but love cannot be self-reflective. We cannot grant ourselves power that we do not already have. When people say, “You can’t love someone unless you love yourself,” I hear “self-esteem.” We need to trust the witness of our being and do what feels right to us. We do not allow others to exploit us.

The best means for assessing moral character is thus to watch how our partner interacts with others. Do they talk about benefit to the community, or do they seek to accumulate power? If the latter, be prepared to confront a final tenet of morality: there is no loyalty among the selfish. When we no longer serve their interests, they will discard us.

EthicsThrough morality we land in the frying pan of paradox. If we cannot love ourselves, then do we live for another? If we live for another, do we then become merely an extension of themselves? If so, then because they cannot love themselves, what do they have to love?

Let us look at the problem from another angle: if we cannot allow another to determine our behavior, how do we decide what to do? Early in life, that is a matter of parental conditioning and natural talent. We do what works. Then we leave home to negotiate a life with new partners. How do we organize that effort?

The selection of goals is the problem of ethics. Ethical judgments are not made in isolation. They reflect the collective experience of our culture. Some behaviors are sustainable, and others are not. Unsustainable behaviors are vices. Sustainable behaviors are virtues.

We readily grasp the cost of an individual vice. One steals and lands in jail. One abuses substances and decays mentally. One submits to passion and confronts responsibility for an unwanted child. The social vices are more challenging. We organize our politics to reward individual merit– and complain when the losers haunt urban alleys or idle in jail. We burned fossil fuels for centuries – and cannot avert Global Warming. We redesigned our health care system for cost containment – and spend more on administration than most countries spend on delivery.

The intellectual turns to reason. We examine the consequences of our choices and adjust course to avoid harm. But ethics leads reason, not the other way around. If we want to be a billionaire, we make one set of choices. If we want to transform the world with information technology, we make different choices. The two are not incompatible (witness Bill Gates), but we pay attention to different things along the way. In the first case, money is an end; in the second, it is a means.

That last distinction is the key to ethical judgment. As individuals we have unique capacities, and naturally seek opportunities to express those capacities. Along the moral dichotomy, the seeking can be


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self-promoting (selfishness), or it can be in service to others (loving). We discern the moral intent in the depth with which ambition is informed by knowledge of social needs.

The more abstract the justification, the less respectable. Thus, “greed is good” is recognized as delusory. And “because it feels good” is understood to be temporary.

But we still lack a general framework for critique of intentions. The variety of vice and virtue has motivated many attempts. Yoga is not just a physical discipline but includes aspirations for conduct. The Catholic Church promulgated the “Seven Deadly Sins” and the “Seven Heavenly Virtues.”

The list offered below seeks to guide ethical judgment through the analysis of motivation. Each pairing defines a different strategy for ethical expression, with the results turned by vice to selfish ends and by virtue to love. To the disinterested outsider, the behavior patterns may be indistinguishable until the moment that the act of service is consummated. It is love that distinguishes the virtue from the vice.

Vice/Selfishness Virtue/LoveDomination seeks to control resources Stewardship husbands resourcesConflict turns intimacy toward weakness Harmony turns intimacy toward strengthOpportunism exploits need Invention addresses needNeglect ignores needs, stimulating outrage Peace moderates outrage until needs can be metVengeance forces the future to conform to the past Justice liberates the future into new possibilitiesAnger generates fear for temporary advantage Passion sustains commitmentDestruction disempowers others Creativity empowers others

In counseling, this list is an effective tool for analysis of anxiety and trauma. In victims, the hallmark of sociopathy is fear of love. It is the expectation that every hope will be demolished by vice. In labelling the strategy of the abuser and contrasting it with the opposing virtue, we build ethical literacy or discernment. In therapeutic imagery journeys of discovery, a representative symbol can be summoned, and the client walked either toward the virtue or away from the vice. Walking toward the virtue, the client trades places and sees themselves through its eyes. Walking away from the vice, their subconscious is liberated to construct a life free from abuse.

In any such journey, the resources of Place and Wise must be previously established. The Wise is turned to as a resort when abreactions become evident; the Place is a haven when abreactions become uncontrollable.

OrganizationIn execution, ultimately vices leave behind no trace except our own passing. They lead into isolation. Most profoundly, selfishness is unsustainable because at some point we will die. Those we leave behind have no reason to honor our memory. Thus, Caligula is followed by Vlad the Impaler and onward to Hitler, while we still remember Jesus of Nazareth.

Integrity is a quality of character that reflects the alignment of our behavior with our circumstances. It reflects harmony in the self. The social identity and subconscious do not dispute with one another. Integrity arises in the darkest places: a killer despises their victims, while the warrior honors his brothers. The difference is that the warrior, in mastering destruction, has chosen to yoke it to the service of virtue.


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Achieving this balance requires conscientious effort to organize the personality. Often this is facilitated. We have boot camps and boarding schools, trading floors and stock yards. Of immediate interest, of course, we have the therapist’s office.

The reason morality has been left to this late consideration of spirituality is because vices and virtues represent ancient patterns of behavior entrained by powerful spiritual structures. In Christian terminology, they are known as principalities or strongholds.

Denoting those strongholds with capitalization, Vices are themselves selfish, seeking only their perpetuation. The ideas they harbor are illusions, serving only to hide the inevitable demise of those that choose their association. The spirits they capture are discarded after being sucked dry of their virtue.

Virtues are democratic, seeking after truth to better guide their service. The relative power of a single truth reflects the extent to which living creatures bear witness to its utility. In receiving that witness, the Virtue accommodates the souls of individual living creatures, preserving them from corruption. In hewing to the witness of truth, agents of virtue also gain facility in navigating through time. Their prophesy is most accurate because they hew to the truth, rather than seeking to bend it to some political or practical outcome.

We may now resolve our moral paradox: in expressing virtue, we do not surrender our uniqueness, which rather is preserved through the witness of others. Love needs selves to join. Its goal is not to consume us, but to enhance the joy that we experience in one another.

When we are taught, we are “introduced” to ideas. As charge moves along our neurons, it interacts with strongholds. In our physical actions, we either submit to the expression of Vices, or facilitate the manifestation of Virtues.

This final section is not intended to be offered immediately to clients seeking to deepen their spirituality. Rather, it is a caution that therapists proceed deliberately, routinely assessing the client’s sensitivity to Vices and Virtues, keeping the brakes on until a disposition for virtue is expressed.

Managing EnergyThe foundation of all spiritual organization is learning to manage personal energy. The heart box method protects us from manipulation. Physiological circulation offers another set of metaphors, the most common of which is breathwork. This is already applied in the cultivation of resource states. We emphasize the spiritual aspect of the work before extending it to other forms of circulation.

Heart BoxThe heart box metaphor is designed to honor the witness of our body in guiding us toward joy, while avoiding attachment to consummation with an individual that may be unprepared to reciprocate. Spiritual resistance precedes the offer of companionship, engendering anxiety prior to the offer and hostility (whether overt or implied) when tendered. The client projects themselves into the psychic space of the desired companion. Consequently, the rejection is internalized and often the focus of rumination.

Adventurers are predisposed to the syndrome. Once discovered, we can ask where they feel the rejection in their body. It is almost universally in the chest. If so, the client is typically blocked in their


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fourth chakra (the Trust/Healing step on the Hristic Path), and the heart box is recommended. If elsewhere, breathing meditation is recommended.

In a progressive relaxation, we dwell in the heart space, asking the client to be “aware of the vital energies arising from within” and guiding them to look “deep within for the source.” Once this metaphor is established, in counseling we can describe the heart box.

Any offer of companionship is prepared in the heart space as a visualization of shared joy. When the partner is resistant, we need to build psychic energy in the vision to engage their consideration. That is felt intuitively, requiring them to marshal psychic energy to preserve their intentions. The dynamic is a form of psychic competition, and when the offer is rejected, the accumulated energy is wasted, draining both parties.

To avoid this, when building the visualization, we focus on what we desire to gain from the event, leaving space for the participation of our companion, but not assuming their participation. We decorate that visualization with our positive intentions and wrap it in a beautiful box that we place in our hearts. Just prior to the invitation, the client visualizes taking the box out of their heart, holding it in their hand. If the invitation is accepted, the box opens, and the energy of the visualization is released to their companion.

If the invitation is rejected, the box is returned to the heart. The client can either redirect the invitation to someone else, or simply allow the energy of the visualization to accumulate around them. At some point, the companion will submit to the attraction of the visualization, or a more receptive partner will arise to participate in its realization. The client is asked to choose their preferred outcome.

In trance, the heart focus is reiterated during the progressive. Their resource state is invoked, and then they are guided into an imagery journey involving an invitation to their partner. The heart box process is rehearsed, first along the pathway of rejection. The journey continues with a second charging of the box, allowing the client to experience the doubling of energy, before concluding with the preferred outcome.

Dream therapy is invoked to integrate the learning. During the exit from trance, the client is told that the learning will be available in the waking state. Home practice is to exercise the heart box.

Physiological CirculationPrior to spiritual awakening, psychic tension is stored in the body. The dynamics of that association are subtle. The entanglement may include elements seeking escape from a toxic personality. Hostile elements may yet be converted as guardians to warn against possible repetition.

The metaphor of physiological circulation reflects the symbiosis of all life. We inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide that is renewed by plants. We swallow food and eliminate fertilizers that become soil. We project the healing energy of love into the world and the strengthened community heals us in turn.

During the progressive, this is emphasized as “taking in what is healthful and releasing what is unneeded for renewal by the world.” For specific areas of concern, we can dwell on the body part, recommending that the client “allow it to speak.” This can be linked to the mental space by drawing attention, as the progressive rises through the neck, to the circulation of awareness between the body and mind.


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Breathing MeditationBreathing is the most direct means for tension relief. Metabolic response is a factor: inhale stimulates arousal, and exhale is calming. (Recall that an anchor is recited on the exhale.) In releasing psychic tension, this effect is enhanced by the physical action of breathing. We can feel the body expanding on the inhale, with room created for the other organs on the exhale. In yoga, this method also facilitates stretching of the muscles.

Breathing meditation is a form of self-hypnosis. After clients have experienced a progressive relaxation, they will be comfortable with the concept of a body scan and performing one will have hypnotic associations. This can be strengthened by guiding them through a scan in trance, followed by a post-suggestion for self-hypnosis that will end when they count themselves out.

The breathing meditation begins with entry to the client’s preferred resource state. The circulation of breath is recalled: receiving what is necessary on the inhale and releasing what is useful to the world for renewal.

To perform the scan, the client visualizes a sheet of white light, a harmonious vibration, or focused awareness passing through the body from head to toes. The client invites each part to reveal held tension. After the toes are reached, the client chooses a hotspot to address. With the inhale, resources and openness are sent into the tension. On the exhale, it releases what is no longer necessary to the world for renewal. This is not an expulsion or a cord-cutting, but acceptance and release.

Release occurs incrementally. Abreactions (twitches or warmth) are expected. Emotional distress can be moderated by pausing the circulatory visualization, and then shifting it to the lungs and tear ducts. When the emotional intensity is bearable (perhaps after several sessions), the client begins to investigate the persons or situations attached to the tension. This is not a regression or reengagement with past events. Rather the threads of connection are followed in the present. A gentle breath is used to expel them from the body. Love is sent behind as a witness to call awareness should the connection begin to create new tension. The client imagines projecting it out to the boundary of the personality, where the guardian is posted.

This process always leaves behind the residue of the client’s own self-negation. The breathwork continues, with the tension reinterpreted as a protector of the personality from more serious harm. It may then be reintegrated as a sentinel against future occurrences.

While the client may be introduced to this process in trance, home practice requires a written guide. Exhaustion should be avoided. In some sense, this is a self-induced loss. The guidance on loss applies here as well.

Dark Fiber TransmutationWe build psychic knots in attending to wounds that we do not know how to heal. Those experiences stand out, but they are not the only form of psychic tension that resides within us. The person that cuts past us at the checkout, the snarky bank teller, the roll of the eyes at our new wardrobe – all of these are projections of psychic energy. As we become habituated to them, they fall beneath our awareness to be assimilated automatically into our body as dark fibers.

In a very important sense, these fibers reflect the tone of our culture. In working to transmute them, we elevate its ethic.


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The transmutation requires a metaphor for filtering. A metaphor for the dark fibers is elicited: the visual image itself, itching, or an irritating static are possibilities. We offer the client three practices: a sheet descending from above, a supportive force rising from below, or a bubble arising from within the heart. The cleansing element may be light, healing warmth, or a harmonious tone. The client chooses a metaphor for the source of that cleansing. Possibilities include a door, a spring, or the moon.

The summary below presents an advanced version of the therapy. A simpler journey simply passes the cleansing element through the body. That provides relief for the client but leaves the residue for others to confront. For this reason, the practitioner is encouraged to practice the process in self-induced trance so that the full experience may be offered.

Therapy begins with a progressive that develops interoceptive awareness. Relaxation or comfort may be yoked to awareness as quiet attentiveness in all the parts of the body.

Once trance is established, the client is guided to the source of cleansing. They embrace the element with their will, then turn back to their resting body, looking at it from above as they prepare to guide the element through them.

Returning to the body, the heightened awareness is again invoked. The cleansing pass is visualized, the motion of the element carrying the fibers forward as it passes. When that pass is complete, the client visualizes concentrating them together with their hands, eventually cupping the residue between their palms.

The transmutation begins with inspection of the residue. What is its energy? What emotions lie within? What ideas? To avoid re-attachment, after each recitation the client breathes the words into their cupped palms. The same questions are asked regarding the cleansed bubble. Anchoring the positives, the client breathes love into their palms. If possible, the therapist invokes the transmutation of the residue by indicating the ethical conversion: anger becoming passion, jealously becoming admiration, and so forth. The residue is then envisioned as its opposite: dark fibers become luminous sparks, static becomes harmony, etc.

The final step of the transformation is a visualization of psychic circulation. With the thumbs pressed together, the transmuted fibers are released and offered to the world for renewal. The client rests in visualizations of their contributions to the world. Then attention is turned to the return of the circulation: transmuted fibers sent by others, entering with the breath, transformed and enriched by their experience, and then on the exhale offered to others.

The therapy concludes with a return to the source as a guardian, closing it with the assurance that it will open when needed. The subconscious is encouraged to continue this transmutation each night during dreams. The positive perceptions of self are reinforced prior to the exit from trance.

Personal HistoryAs the client establishes control over their personal energy, the work is expanded through time. The client learns to trace and weave their experiences to emphasize virtue in this life. As guided by their intuition, they may extend that work to alternative lives.


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Memory RecoveryClients seek two types of memory recovery. The first is termed hypermnesia, which can be understood as enhancement of explicit memories with details held in implicit memory. The technique is straight-forward. In discussion, the explicit context is described. In trance, the client is guided into visualization of the experience. When the moment of interest is reached, the frame is frozen and the client takes an outside perspective, exploring the scene for additional detail.

The American Hypnosis Association counsels against the second common request: regression therapy to recover memories lost behind a veil of trauma. As discussed previously, in surviving trauma the social identity is thrust aside so that the mind’s full resources can be rallied for survival. While after a mild trauma the subconscious will engage the conscious mind in rumination, memories of severe trauma are kept hidden to enable the social identity to sustain acceptable conduct. When the conscious mind is confident in its security, they will be released in venting dreams.

When confrontation is forced, the spiritual knots stored in the body can be released with violent consequences. That violence may be directed toward others or against the self. This is made worse in that the client often comes to us only after worrying over the gap in memory. The conscious mind will have generated suppositions and associations with other events that may be unrelated. Those thoughts will interfere with recall in trance, potentially leading to open hostility with innocent parties and renewed susceptibility to manipulation by the guilty.

We have touched on one alternative to regression therapy – inner child work. Esteem and confidence therapy is also valuable. The conduit of virtue is another method for achieving healing without forced confrontation with trauma.

The use of regression therapy is common among clinical hypnotists. Exposure to the initial sensitizing event (ISE) is touted as a cure-all for many antisocial behavior patterns. The defect in this strategy arises in attachment theory. A child raised in a disorganizing environment adopts to antisocial parental behavior. Their conditioning is functional in context; there is no discernable ISE.

Conduit of VirtueA conduit of virtue is a container for realization of a desired self. In imagining the effort of its realization, we allocate mental, physical, and spiritual resources that might otherwise be expended without gain.

Constructing a conduit for virtue is not difficult. In discussion, we ask the client to imagine a pleasing object in real life, and then something jarring. Noting that the pleasing image is known by juxtaposition with its opposite, we ask what part of the self is it that considers both at once. That part is eternal and timeless, qualities that we associate with the soul. We then suggest that whether the soul exists or not (eventually the client will be convinced of the former), that timeless self enables us to escape the limitations of our narrative. We can envision accomplishing our goals as a totality, rather than as a sequence of isolated events.

We proceed with definition of the virtuous self, a resource state consisting of cherished or honored virtues. For a concrete goal, we emphasize pride of accomplishment.

In trance we do the same invocation of the timeless self. With it present, we invoke the virtuous self. The timeless self is then asked to seek it through time and build a conduit connecting its manifestations.


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A stack of ten mattresses is invoked as a metaphor for the realization of the virtuous self. Laying down, we suggest that the eternal self allocates the physical, mental, and spiritual resources needed to achieve that self. The client envisages a known activity that reflects expression of the virtuous self. As the activity concludes the client sinks through to the next mattress. Allowing the timeless self to continue bringing images forth to complete the realization, we count down to zero, the client melting through the mattresses with each count. Upon zero they find themselves fully united with their virtues. We may elicit details to deepen the immersion.

Before exiting trance we suggest that the client accept all visualizations and images as true. The eternal self is given stewardship of the resources needed for manifestation of the virtuous self. In dreams each night the subconscious will work to guide them, day-by-day, toward their goal.

Applications of the conduit of virtue are diverse. We can bridge innocence and joy known in childhood past trauma into the present. Much as with the fast rewind technique, we can allow a future self to guide us from current suffering into healing. We can allow the mature self to guide a naïve youth away from limiting choices such as conflict or addiction. Finally, we can use the conduit to focus resources to achieve an immediate stretch goal.

In this protocol we may see aspects of déjà vu, intuition, and prophesy. The client should be advised that during moments of realization, they may have the sense that they are watched by themself.

Alternative LivesWith the introduction to the eternal self, the curious mind is drawn to the popular fascination with past lives. While those lives often contain trauma, the most intense psychic knots are left behind at death. This principle is evidence of the grace which was imbued in the conception of this reality. Matter, the locus of selfishness, is also the mechanism by which it is purged from our souls.

The standard regression procedure is biased toward past lives (Guz[2007]). The formulations walk the client back through this life and into their mother’s womb, back to the “Universal White Light” that harbors our soul between lives. While in principle our future death also leads into that white light, the regression back to the womb matches our evolutionary perspective. In the material realm, problems manifest in the past and inspire solutions in the future. And our religious teachings also tend to that perspective: in the traditions of Abraham, original sin lies in the past, redemption in the future. In the Vedic traditions (including Buddhism), karma comes forward from the past, and enlightenment lies in the future.

Conversely, near-death experiences (NDEs) hold tantalizing hints that evolution unfolds through more complex temporal pathways (Sar[2017]). Common in NDEs is a realm of pure light, populated by those that cherish us and governed by our religious avatar. The future seems to reach back into the past, and we do not need to die to witness its virtues. We just need to enter a profound hypnotic state – that being, of course, the most immediate consequence of a severe trauma (Aco[2002]).

The protocol outlined below has no bias. We allow that struggles in this life may be preparation for accomplishment in a future life, as well as the residue of prior trauma.

The protocol also focuses on a specific concern. For the curious, existing protocols for life regression and progression are sufficient. Here we focus on clearing of a block that inhibits satisfaction in this life. Thus,


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as each episode is completed, the client is encouraged to “move to the next moment that relates to the issue of…”

Much as when watching a horror film, abreactions are possible. They may be as mild as becoming stuck in a moment, or as intense as panic when receiving images of assault or destruction. In preparation for the latter, in discussion the client is advised that we will establish an anchor of return combining physical touch and calling of their name, bringing them back immediately to the room. With this in reserve, the therapist may address an abreaction with encouragement to “move forward a little.” Dominance can be asserted with a count down from three and finger snap on “Now!” If the client is disturbed by the experience, they may step back from the scene to view it as a movie or skip to another episode.

An avatar is selected to represent the virtues sought. The induction is followed by training to the anchor of return. After invoking the virtuous self, a brief imagery journey ensues:

Walking on the shady side of a hill along a meadow just out of sight. Voices of friends and family drift in and out of hearing but being firmly on the path “from where you were to where you are going,” the journey continues onwards and upwards. As the way rises, a cloud settles from above, the mist enveloping comfortably while growing gently luminous. All sense of time and place fades.

Finally, the path rises through the mist and opens onto a dimly lit hilltop. All along the hilltop are mementos of this life: cherished possessions and experiences, as though walking through a kaleidoscope.

Stepping finally onto clear ground, visible above the mist in all directions are other hilltops, with possessions and experiences representing other lives.

In viewing those hilltops, a spark leaps to alertness in the heart and mind – a spark that seems somehow to be present on those other hilltops.

Then the avatar strides out of the mist from the other side of the hill. Walking forward in greeting, all the virtues of the avatar settle around the client. The avatar posts itself alongside, as though a guardian.

And something seems to call – something familiar. Familiar not to flesh but to the eternal spark. Something calls from out of the mist and while the flesh cannot touch it the spark within yearns to grasp it. It is something that a child would cherish. The yearning grows stronger and stronger until it is overwhelming, and then, knowing that the material self is safely guarded, the spirit slips free and reaches down and is pulled, pulled, pulled through the mist.

And then you are there, holding it. You open your eyes and look at your feet. What do you see? And what are you holding?

The progression of episodes continues until the implications for the issue are exhausted. The client is then brought to the moment of departure from the life. As it is released, if time allows the call of the childhood object can be repeated, triggering a transition to another life.

Exhaustion should be avoided. The exit is a return to the hilltop alongside the avatar, where gratitude is offered, and dream therapy suggestions entrain assimilation of new understanding for realization of the


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virtuous self in this life. If negatives were encountered, they should be sealed away before the client turns to the kaleidoscope of memories, walks through the mist, and returns to their intimates.

IncorporationFrom the moment that the soul enters the womb until the moment of death, life unfolds through concrete action to achieve spiritual transformation. The spiritually sensitive experience this as a hierarchy of awareness:

Investment in objects, such as body, home, or fishing rod. Communion with others, such as family or religious congregation. Association of ideas, such as freedom or science. Worship of spiritual exemplars, such as saints, demons, and gods. Allegiance to principles of relation, such as democracy or greed. Submission to the constraints of Unconditional Love.

The hierarchy obviously expands into a complex spiritual ecology.

Transformations may be intentional as with party registration or unintentional as with a car crash, voluntary as with marriage or involuntary as with rape, considerate as with blessings or inconsiderate as with curses. We share rituals for both creating spiritual bonds (weddings) and for breaking them (excommunication).

It is as a nexus of transformation that others experience our personality. The paradox of personality is that in being small – in focusing on material investment – we increase our sense of control. That sense of control is inevitably upended by physical evidence of life’s fragility. We are powerless against the natural tyrannies of weather, disease, disaster, and predation. Conversely, the avatar in service to a community is powerless in the face of rejection, but confidently surrenders life to infect others with their dreams – as did Martin Luther King, Jr. Most of us lead lives between those extremes.

As therapists we encourage transformations that are intentional, voluntary, and considerate. We help our clients manage their personality.

Boundary ManagementSelf-definition is best envisioned as boundary management. At the lowest level (investment) those boundaries are physical. Material things, by their very density, serve to corral spiritual energy. Habitats, such as oceans and landscapes, accommodate different behaviors, and become imbued with the personality of the things living in them. Migratory creatures carry their personality with them, forming mixtures of personality through sex, struggle, and predation. Intentional creatures, most notably people, reserve expressions of aspects of our personality to spaces such as schools, homes, and offices.

Most clients come to us because they have trouble controlling their impulses during physical proximity. That may be proximity to a food, a person, or a situation such as a meeting room. Desensitization is a form of boundary management that empowers the client to sustain self-control. That process can be a gateway to spiritual awareness. As proximity increases, where and how does the impulse enter triune existence? Reconstructing the experience in trance allows retrieval of details from implicit memory. In tracing that entry, can we manage its progression? This is a form of rehearsal.


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As this facility develops, the client considers relationship boundaries. Here developmental, emotional, and ethical literacy are essential foundations. They create points of spiritual attachment in the brain that empower us to respond intentionally to events, where priorly we would have reacted according to the conditioning of the lower mental faculties.

Therapeutic imagery offers a rich toolbox for this work. The Place and Wise define a subconscious haven for the chosen personality. Journeys of discovery deepen our appreciation of the value of ideas and principles. Our integration with them is intentional.

As the chosen self solidifies, we develop a sense of the boundaries of our personality. Breathing meditation is valuable as a home practice. For intractable connections with overpowering personalities, the therapist may guide the client through a cord-cutting experience. The Place and Wise are again valuable supports in cementing the transformation.

Hristic ActivationThe Hristic Path structures our application of the tools of boundary management. As well as characterizing social maturity, it encapsulates the chakra metaphor for maturing spiritual sensibility. Each step on the path leads to higher spiritual awareness. Survival is concerned with investment, sex with communion, and so on until imagination opens the door to allegiances.

Each of the chakras is located at a part of the body that serves as a physiological metaphor for spiritual engagement.

Hristic Step Chakra Body Part MetaphorSurvival 1st – Muladhara Hips Stability and securitySex 2nd – Svadhishana Reproductive organs Pursuit of pleasureExchange 3rd – Manipura Digestive tract Pursuit of resourcesTrust/Healing 4th – Anahata Heart Wellness (heart rate)Truth 5th – Vishuddha Throat Self-expressionCreativity 6th – Ajna Prefrontal cortex Self-controlImagination 7th – Sahaswara Crown Spiritual connection

Developing maturity reflects mastery of the concern implicit in each metaphor. Without stability, we cannot pursue pleasure. Pleasure motivates the acquisition of resources. Resources allow us to manage our wellness. Social dependency channels concern for wellness into self-expression. Social rejection demands self-control. And only when we have self-control can we organize our personality.

Obviously, we have the body parts throughout our lives. Regardless of our awareness, the concerns are managed at the level of physiological reactions. As we focus intention on each concern, to evolve effective responses our personality must take control of those reactions. As the prefrontal cortex works to identify the implementing neurons, we feel greater awareness in the body part. This is the implication of spiritual sensibility.

Hristic activation starts with an honest analysis of maturity. Given that context, we guide the client in defining their image of the virtuous self. In trance, we first draw awareness to the body part. That begins with special attention during the progressive relaxation but is also associated to the virtuous self, either


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immediately before or after the staircase deepener. Dream therapy focuses subconscious attention on its realization. The sensations originating from the body part are offered as a signal for progress.

In subsequent sessions, boundary management methods are used to overcome resistance to expression of the chosen virtues.

As confidence is established, discussion turns to the next hristic step and the corresponding metaphor. The client defines the next version of their virtuous self. In a transition trance, imagery connects the client to the mastered chakra and its body part. The attainment of virtue is celebrated. Then the imagery focuses awareness on the next chakra and body part. The new virtuous image is invoked as describe above, with the association to the body part and dream therapy for its realization.

Organization of the personality normally arises as a concern only with the fourth hristic step, so initially activation begins with the heart. However, imbalances in the activated chakras arise occasionally as we negotiate boundaries. Hristic activation can be used to restore harmony.

Co-EmbodimentDarwin held that the wonder of life originated in the pursuit of novel biological forms. Modern biology attributes that innovation to genetic mutation and recombination. As regards behavior, of course, that knowledge offers little power. Our genes encode an architecture for the brain that supports endless adaptation. The psychological problems that originate at the level of genes are often fatal at an early age. Adult disorders originate in social experience – a fact known to psychologists who find that detailed case histories are essential to therapy (Nes[2019]).

When we add spirit to the mix, the picture becomes even more complex. From the discussion of physiological metaphors in the previous section, we do not have to leap far to reach this observation: Darwin was half right. Life is the co-evolution of biological and spiritual forms.

In choosing our parents, we seek harmony at the level of spirit. We would expect compatibility between spirit and genes as well, but that is a subtle problem. Genes influence our form and metabolism. Both create spiritual susceptibility. At the gross level, a weak body demands different spiritual associations than does a strong body. Regarding the former, patience and guile are suitable, as opposed to assertiveness and directness with the latter. But genes come in pairs, and we get half from each parent. Our physiological traits will be a complex combination of the traits held by our grandparents.

This is the basis of spiritual evolution. We are born into a body that is imperfectly compatible with our soul. This forces us into spiritual transformation. Part of that occurs through bonding with our parents, which leads us into their spiritual ecology. In our uniqueness, however, we will be driven to innovate in all dimensions of our triune existence.

In attracting a spirit for their child, parents engage in intercourse. Blood aggregates in the sexual organs, concentrating awareness. The masculine impulse to change meets and penetrates feminine receptivity, establishing a deep psychic bond. The growing fetus cements that bonding, further enriched by the spirit of the child.

Given all this complexity and variability, would a selfish personality be motivated to participate? Selfishness desires only itself, and the mechanisms of life force adaptation. We should not be surprised that some souls choose another route.


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This is the route known as possession. The selfish personality attends a personal crisis, often afflicting a child confronted with psychological or physical abuse and offers aid in return for obedience. That obedience is reinforced by withdrawal of support when demands are not met. Over time, the selfish personality insinuates itself more and more deeply in the prefrontal cortex, and thus into the lower brain functions. As an adult, the victim is unable to sustain social independence. The original possessor may delegate mental functions to specialist personalities, increasing the complexity of the therapeutic landscape.

More sympathetic co-embodiments are known to the psychologist as multiple personality disorders. The alternates are recognizably human and will often agree to disincorporate when the original personality develops the strength to cope independently.

In trance co-embodiment is felt as a presence waiting behind a veil. I will not offer treatment here. Successful therapy depends upon the degree to which the therapist channels unconditional love to the aid of the victim. All possession is founded upon the illusion of dependency, and unconditional love has parts to spare to fill in any capacities ceded to the possessor. Any therapist lacking confidence in that capacity must refer the client to a clinical specialist in personality disorders, a religious exorcist, or a respected peer.


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RelationshipRelationship is our highest mental process, involving faculties from perception through intention. That complexity is amplified by the division of the mind into conscious and subconscious realms. Only after achieving self-control are we fully present. Prior to that, we respond not only to what is before us, but to subconscious expectations conditioned by childhood and prior relationships.

As lay hypnotherapists, we are not competent to engage in joint relationship counseling. The process of discovery is complicated by fear of retaliation. Counseling must avoid taking of sides, focusing only on teaching communication skills. In romantic liaisons, intimacy enters as a driving force, potentially triggering violence. When children are involved, the complexity of the dynamics goes up as the square of the number of family members, requiring increased subtlety in counseling. Children themselves have recognizable strategies for dealing with parental dysfunction, strategies that may be cited as reasons to put off work on the marriage. When the relationship is fragile, attorneys, social workers, and law enforcement may become mixed into the dynamic. Sessions may need documentation to support trial testimony. These considerations are obviously outside the scope of “self-improvement.”

Despite this, lay hypnotherapists have much to offer in relationship therapy. Most fundamentally is to facilitate as the individual client builds a life narrative around their relationship experience that aligns subconscious motivations with conscious goals. Our unique skill is built upon sociability, the legacy of Dr. Kappas, who through tens of thousands of cases developed practical insights that have escaped academic psychology.

Kappas brought eclectic insights to his couples’ practice – not insignificantly his service during World War II as a brothel guard. The principles of sociability (termed suggestibility and sexuality) were invaluable in explaining relationship dynamics, and a healthy tonic for the bias towards extroversion in American psychology (Kap[1999b]). Unfortunately, Kappas did not benefit from attachment theory, and in his reliance upon intellect (logic, reason, and analysis) was biased to believe that the Protector was “more evolved” than the Adventurer.

PreferencesStarting with the foundation of sociability, we see how compatibility and complementarity propel us into relationships. Sadly, the same factors also drive wedges between us. Nurturance also has its influence on the relationships we choose.

SociabilityHaving to this point focused on therapeutic methods, our emphasis has been on receptive sociability. Given a sense as to the balance of adventurous and protective responses, we know how to phrase suggestions to avoid triggering resistance in the client. We now turn our attention to expressive sociability, the behaviors that address our needs and satisfy our desires.

As we know from attachment theory, sociability arises through relationship, historically with mother but in the modern age with the primary caretaker.1 The conditioning arises from the degree to which the caretaker offers a meaningful response to a child’s signaling of need. Doting (protective) caretakers raise

1 I identified an exception in HMI’s introductory course: the mother in the Addam’s Family, Morticia, is her children’s primary undertaker.


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Adventurers that do. Adventurers are (literally) sensational. They are comparatively sensitive to bodily perception, physically confident, intellectually peremptory, and socially relaxed. Disengaged (adventurous) caretakers raise Protectors that plan. Protectors generate value. They are comparatively insensitive to bodily perception, physically cautious, intellectually deep, and socially intense.

How does sociability influence relationships? Through two contradictory principles. Compatibility is expressed in the adage “birds of a feather flock together.” Conversely, complementarity is stated “Opposites attract.” The contradiction is resolved by recognizing that each applies to different domains. Compatibility applies to social associations and complementarity to relationships.

Given their characters, adventurers and protectors socialize in different ways. Adventurers enjoy gatherings with many people and physical competition, factors that drive the protector into anxiety. Protectors meet in small groups for intellectual competition, conditions that bore the adventurer to distraction.

But adventurers in relationships compete to claim the social attention they enjoyed as an infant. That competition drives them apart. Protectors in relationships fall into a work-a-day routine indistinguishable from their life apart. There is nothing to keep them together. Long-term relationships – whether in business or romance – tend to be cemented in complementary pairs.

In analysis of complementarity, we must recognize that we are all admixtures. Most people lie near the middle of the sociability spectrum. We are adventurous in some areas and protective in others. That means that in relationships we can expect to share compatible interests while also enjoying the opportunity to admire what we find in our partners that we lack.

This appreciation is heightened in the early stages of a relationship, the honeymoon phase. The protector seeking a new partner is starved for attention, and the adventurer delights in being appreciated for their decisiveness. The adventurer is often confronted with the consequences of impetuosity, and the protector basks in being appreciated for their steadiness.

As the relationship matures, we can hope for harmonization. As highlighted in the Hristic Path, sociability is not fixed. We are conditioned by our childhood, but our prefrontal cortex empowers us to integrate new behaviors. In a complementary relationship we may learn from each other and grow closer together.

Unfortunately, the opposite also happens. As Henry Higgins observes of Eliza (in “My Fair Lady”): “Why can’t a woman…be more like a man?” Commitment to a relationship limits our ability to enjoy our preferred society (our friends).

Stress is also destabilizing. When a protector is stressed by work, they withdraw to “mull things over.” An adventurer’s request for time together will be met with resistance. This rejection is the greatest threat to the adventurer, who lays guilt on the protector. When the adventurer is under stress, they seek sensation (“blowing off steam”), creating anxiety in the protector that fears loss of control. Negotiation is not necessarily salutary. The adventurer, seeking relief from physical and emotional discomfort, escalates because that experience associates with past events. They “gunny sack.” The protector, seeking to limit disruption, attempts to partition problems, and will defer discussion until mentally prepared.


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In both types, then, the response to stress creates stress in their partner, triggering a downward spiral that tears the relationship apart, as summarized below.

Behavior Adventurer ProtectorIrritation Self-Indulgent CriticalTrigger Rejection GuiltReaction Pursuit AvoidanceSelf-Care Entertainment WorkExpression Gunny-sacking Clam StewExit Strategy Destructive Vicious

Into this unstable balance we then add practical concerns such as finances, skills, culture, and maturity (see next section). Even in a stable relationship, adding a child or renovating a building can introduce stress, triggering a downward spiral. The adventurer in pursuit becomes more adventurous, the protector in avoidance becomes more protective. When a crisis arrives, each drives the other to a dysfunctional extreme.

One strategy for harmony is to allow each partner to remember why they were unhappy alone. The protector lets the adventurer fall on their nose. The adventurer lets the protector rediscover loneliness. The hristic path offers expansion of sociability as an alternative.

Therapy begins with assessment of expressive sociability. While that is often congruent with receptive sociability, both culture and experience introduce variance. An adventurous mother trapped in the homemaker’s role may project her ambitions on her protective child, conditioning them to express as an adventurer. American culture has a bias for adventurous behavior, Asians cultures for protective behavior. And an inexperienced adventurer drawn to a wilder partner in high school may find themselves pressured by family or circumstances to maintain the relationship and evolve into a protector to survive the chaos that engulfs them.

Subconscious “tells” for expressive sociability include:

Dress (how much skin is revealed). Posture. Eye contact during conversation. Elaboration of “yes/no” responses to questions. Negotiation strategy. How they respond to tension (confront/avoid). Source of satisfaction (sensation/accomplishment). How deeply they understand their partner.

To these factors may be added the patterns of home life: how did the secondary caretaker behave?

Counseling begins with self-esteem: do shame and guilt originate from the relationship or prior experience? If the second, motivational therapy is called for. Otherwise, their behavior patterns are often not unhealthy – it is the relationship that needs attention. That leads immediately to celebration of complementarity. “It was what brought you together in the first place.” We explain the origination of


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sociability and the two behavior patterns. As they relate that understanding back to their relationship, we explore strategies that would avoid the downward spiral.

In trance, relaxation therapy de-escalates the exaggeration of sociability, allowing the client to respond more graciously to their partner, bringing the relationship back toward the middle. Bilateral balancing can have a profound impact in moving responses toward the middle of the spectrum.

NurturanceIn our orientation to nurturance, we focused on how the feminine and masculine strategies work together to promote excellence.

The tendencies are again compatible and complementary. Regarding compatibility: feminine personalities enjoy the harmony they nurture; masculine personalities are inspired by the accomplishment that surrounds them. Regarding complementarity: in the presence of the feminine, the masculine discovers lasting purpose; in the presence of the masculine, the feminine recognizes stimulating possibility.

Nurturance can be pathological. The downward spiral has masculine clamor stimulating confusion in the feminine society. As the society fragment, supporters focus narrowly on the survival of their constituents, projecting unease that drives masculine organization of destructive means.

It may seem that feminine nurturance should be protective, but that is not necessarily so. A supporter may project charges into stretch experiences, stimulating self-discovery. We might also expect a masculine adventurer, but the masculine protector looks beyond the immediate situation, building skills methodically to prepare a realization many years down the road.

Masculine nurturance does not have to stimulate a sympathetic response, but stress can build when coaches exclude feminine support. Feminine nurturance does not have to lead to conformity, but mediocrity can ensue when supporters exclude masculine criticism.

As lay hypnotherapists, we may adjust the style of the nurturer through imagery journeys that shift focus between participants and outcomes. Most commonly, however, we will seek to condition constituents to awareness of the benefits of association with each style, empowering them to seek environments and relationships suitable at each step of their growth. Trance work may include desensitization to stereotypes, rehearsal, and dream therapy.

MaturityRelationship maturity reflects integration of sociability and nurturance. It is expressed as the capability to balance our happiness and well-being against that of others and possession of the strength to act accordingly.

To those on the lower steps of the Hristic Path, self-denial seems unappealing, if not actually self-abusive. The zero-sum mindset of the first three stages sees self-denial as surrender of opportunity that will never be reciprocated. That attitude shifts only when the natural outcome of a circular firing squad becomes understood. Even if you are the fastest draw, sooner or later you will lose someone that you depend upon. Dreams will be snatched away.

Entry into the higher steps of the Hristic Path offers the rewards of personal growth and spiritual integration. Hristic Activation speeds that progression.


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RomanceRomantic partnership is the most immersive of our relationships. Simply sleeping next to somebody each night has physiological consequences. But we also have powerful physiological and psychological urges to procreate, urges that in nature are exercised only when we have attained comfort. Mating is a powerful signal of success, so much so that it was coopted by advertising.

So, while as lay hypnotherapists we cannot offer relationship counseling, neither can we avoid romance as an issue. Without romance, few find contentment in adult life.

The single most important challenge in romantic partnerships is the expectation of absolute commitment from the adventurer, while their protector is sensitive to opportunity. This is paradoxical, on the surface, for the unattached adventurer aggressively approaches a potential mate, while the protector stays at home to binge NetFlix. We understand the contradiction, however, as arising from the adventurer’s assurance that a relationship can be rewarding, while the protector expects the inevitable disappointment. Once in a committed relationship, the adventurer is all in, while the protector hedges their bets.

These tendencies do not originate only from infancy. Given the tendency for complementary pairings between parents, the teen looking for someone “just like caretaker #1” emulates caretaker #2 and finds their infant conditioning reinforced as it is refined. The principal challenge of this stage is that the teen fails to question their conditioning. Resistance to parental authority motivates exploration of peer relationships. Lacking that experience gained through that exploration, the young adult is susceptible to manipulation.

StrategyRelationship recovery assumes emotional stability. Clients suffering a recent break should be evaluated for loss therapy.

Our vulnerability reflects our sociability, and so we organize therapy around sociability. That said, we should never project onto the client’s experience. A moderate protector in a relationship with a strong protector will be forced into adventurous behaviors and may present symptomatically as an adventurer. Even when the protector is in a complementary pairing, inductions such as the progressive relaxation may focus attention that heightens awareness of physical sensations of loss.

Counseling always starts with an orientation to sociability. This leads naturally to hemispheric balance, with the helpful metaphor “The heart guides the head, and the head protects the heart.” When culture is biased regarding sociability, the derogated tendency may need encouragement. They are normal, and in fact represent a psychological drive for cultural balance. For those drifting without a narrative, the Hristic Path can provide a foundation.

As these lessons are assimilated, the client will often reveal deeper traumas. This may need to be addressed before returning to relationship therapy. Therapeutic imagery provides a resilient framework, empowering the client to harvest and integrate virtues as they move from issue to issue.

For those seeking to salvage a relationship, a review of attachment theory may develop responses that defuse situations that send their partner over the cliff. Frustration may be addressed with systematic desensitization. Anger is better addressed through conical desensitization over triggering behaviors.


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While celebration of complementarity is a foundation, relationship stability requires strategies for sustaining the honeymoon phase. Rather than trying to prescribe (which is really in the scope of marriage and family therapy), we observe only that it requires a shift in sociability to the middle. The protector must find their inner adventurer and allow it to be expressed, and similarly the adventurer must express their inner protector. This is the vision of hristic creativity: being what is necessary in the context of events, rather than as we were conditioned by our parents. Imagery journeys are an effective tool, both for rehearsal and for seeing the world from their partner’s eyes.

Recovery for AdventurersThe adventurer gives their heart, a gift cemented in the intimacy of intercourse. Rejection may be felt like a knife in the chest as their partner walks away with their energy. Until that gift is recovered, they are walking wounded, leaving a trail of hurt behind them. Perhaps understanding this intuitively, unhappy adventurers seek a new home for their heart before leaving their partner.

Given the intensity of the physical response, therapy begins with recovery of their heart. Especially effective is an imagery journey involving the agent of that first heartbreak. Visualizing that person holding their heart, the client is urged to state “That is my heart, and that energy was meant for me. I’m taking it back now.” They then reach out, cup the imaginary heart in their hands, and press it back into their chest.

Bilateral balancing and the Heart Box mitigate against future disaster. Dream therapy stimulates integration of new learnings and release of painful memories as new solutions are found. The internalized strain of rejection may be released through dark fiber transmutation.

The adventurer will benefit from esteem and confidence therapy as they consider their next relationship.

Recovery for ProtectorsThe protector gives their mind. Their commitment is to study of their partner, an effort that empowers them to either nurture or harm with exquisite precision. While the richness of the space of ideas allows them to redirect their attention after a breakup, a partner’s anger is experienced as a bomb that shreds those delicate associations. Not untypically, the partner’s anger is incited by a romantic threat at work, often another protector united in the pursuit of intellectual goals.

Given the need to restore the sanctuary of the mind, breathing meditation is an effective therapy.

After failure, the protector tends to feel that romance is a waste of time. Counseling should focus on the value proposition. Approaching late adulthood, the protector may be sensitive to the need for mutual support in the elder years. In the young, freedom from the cost and irritation of the dating scene may be motivating.

Gender and IntimacyLeaving gender to the end of a discussion of relationship may seem absurd, but there is a method to the madness. Biological differences between the sexes stimulate behaviors that simulate sociability and nurturance. Having separated those out, we can see how complex gender is, and better appreciate its nuances.


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Excepting the organs of reproduction, physiological differences are minimal. Both in musculature and neurology, scientists see more overlap in the sexes than they see differences. Men tend to be stronger and organize specialized centers in gray matter to respond to experience. Woman tend to greater constitutional resilience and involve more of the brain in their responses.

Sexually, mammalian pregnancy drives huge differences.

In spreading their genes, men benefit from promiscuity. Their sex glands recover rapidly, and every man is driven to seek relief when they are enlarged. This is enhanced in the adventurer that seeks intimacy, who typically does not empty the glands upon ejaculation. The protector is driven to sex by need, and resists ejaculation until the glands will empty. Thus, while the adventurer’s refractory period (between ejaculation and arousal) may be tens of minutes, the protector falls asleep immediately and seeks sex only every few days.

Sex for a woman is more of a psychological process. The adventurer seeks to keep her mate close with daily sex, while the protector tends to resist its disorganizing side-effects. Orgasm is a generalized bodily experience that the adventurer surrenders to, while the protector tends to focus on genital sensitivity until it reaches irritating climax.

Given these tendencies, relationships with complementary sociability suffer from sexual incompatibility. These are generally masked during the honeymoon period, where everyone indulges pleasure until the protector faces a social consequence. Expressions of frustration further suppress the protector’s eagerness, making the problem more acute.

As negotiation can enrich romance, I will speak obscurely regarding harmonization. Techniques can be used to delay ejaculation by the adventurous male, extending the refractory period. The protective male should be enticed to sex well before bedtime and fantasize during a warm shower. The adventurous female is soothed by physical closeness, while the protective female must be aroused gently (respecting “no” as “no”) and may distract herself with fantasy during intercourse.

Socially, we live in an era that celebrates adventurous indulgence. Protectors should be assured that their responses are normal, and not predetermined. Kappas believed the combination of adventurous male and protective female was optimal, as the woman could manipulate the man’s sexual needs to stabilize the relationship. As a reticent male, I find the opposite to have its attractions, as when Hristic maturity is attained, to witness a woman’s orgasm is well worth any inconvenience.

But sexuality is far more complex than the conventional pairings. At the extremes, attraction may be dominated by psychology rather than physiology, leading to same-sex pairings. The psychological factors include both sociability and nurturance, the latter seeming to relate to the nature of the soul. As a sophisticated witness, I observe same-sex marriages and sometimes think, “She’s a he. And he’s a she.”

Part of the challenge of lay hypnotherapy is that for many people, sex is the only time that they allow themselves to receive the witness of love. When we bathe a client in unconditional love, they may have no other behavioral association. This is the most potent and vulnerable form of transference, and the therapist must be resolute in resisting it.


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Physical WellnessBecause so much of adult life is social theater, we lose our childhood sensitivity to the connection between thoughts and physiological function. As adults we use words to motivate others to subscribe to our agenda. In childhood they were used to describe and organize our reactions.

Trance is powerful because it reestablishes the immediacy of the connection between thought and experience. Anchored in the trust implicit in rapport, the subconscious mind is receptive, translating words directly into physiological reactions. The client does not just receive a message, they have an experience.

In natural trance, those experiences are often dis-integrating. School schedules require us to set aside exciting ideas for subjects that seem irrelevant. The rhythm of the assembly line entrains reactions under social pressures that force us to deny our need for relief. Athletic competition converts playful exploration of physical capabilities into skill development that distorts muscle growth. Rather than consuming according to our natural appetites, we pick a number from a fast-food menu. As these constraints are internalized during sleep, physiological activity is partitioned into segments and contexts. If it was established, the organic harmony of childhood is disassembled.

The side effects of dis-integration are diverse. Blood flow is reorganized, encouraging growth of some tissues and atrophy of others. When muscles are affected, skeletal alignment shifts, making us vulnerable to strains during physical activity. The efficiency of digestion reduces, and nutrient processing in the gut is destabilized. Toxins do not clear from the body. While it may seem that there is no reason for this to happen, it happens because it cannot happen unless the mind ignores the signals sent by the body that tell us when to stretch, walk, or sit in the sun, and what to eat.

While self-neglect leads naturally to chronic digestive and muscular discomfort, it also weakens the systems that heal injury and disease. In sensitizing us to our enteroception, hypnotherapy has an overall positive impact on physical wellness. Through rehearsal of medical care, as necessitated by injury, illness, or surgery, we can also ensure that our clients make best benefit of their healing resources.

In promoting relaxation and enteroception, hypnotherapy always promotes wellness. When a client specifically seeks relief from pain, injury, or disease, we must always work under consent from a licensed medical practitioner.

This chapter summarizes the potential of hypnotherapy to affect physical wellness. Therapists seeking to assist in physical recovery should seek specialty certifications.

Body SyndromesOur bodies are the mechanism given us to improve our mental condition. When those goals are frustrated, few of us can turn off the conditioning, dating back to infancy, that associates action with comfort. Our subconscious continues to signal to organs and muscles, signals that are over-ridden by our conscious resistance. When that resistance is accepted by the subconscious, the conflict is internalized. This may happen gradually during sleep, or instantaneously during trauma.

It is through this mechanism that mental tension converts to physiological stress. The early physical manifestations include fatigue, pain, allergies, tics, and atrophy. Even when no complaint is evident, loss


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of sensitivity and flexibility means that often our injuries and illnesses occur in the part of the body that is the focus of psychological distress.

While a student of physiology may diagnose mental tension from the affected organ or tissue, organic language guides us in a general way. We have interpreted these once in our discussion of the progressive relaxation, with the goal of building positive associations during induction. Conversely, here we focus on mental cause.

Body Area Mental TensionHead and throat Social expression.

Decision making.Shoulders and back ResponsibilityArms and hands Desire or rejection.Hips and lower abdomen Guilt and frustration.

Hanging on.Feet and legs Need to escape.

Uncertainty in the future.

During counseling, the identified mental tension is used to guide discussion. In trance, healing imagery (light, sound, and/or sensation) may be guided into the area, softening resistance to behavioral change.

Placebo EffectExpectation has powerful physiological effects. If we plan or order our food in advance, our body is prepared to digest it well before the first bite. It will have produced the enzymes and secretions specific to the food.

Similar effects follow injury and illness. Being told of adverse outcomes by an authority figure (such as a doctor) predisposes the mind to acceptance. In dreams, the subconscious adjusts resources to match the expectation. As far as it is concerned, the outcome is already true.

Fortunately, the converse is also true. If told that the body will recover naturally or through treatment, recovery is more likely to occur. This is known as the placebo effect. It appears that our belief in a cure accounts for 30-70% of the efficacy of surgery and medication. Therefore, medications cannot be certified for use except after comparison to an inert placebo in expensive controlled, randomized clinical trials.

The placebo effect is so pronounced that some conclude that most alternative healthcare methods are placebo. These critics assert that chiropractic, acupuncture, hypnosis, and energy healing (including reiki) have no lasting physiological effect on the body. Melanie Warner, in “The Magic Feather Effect” (War[2019]) asserts that if doctors were allowed time to sit and talk with their patients, alternative methods would disappear.

In “The Cure Within,” Anne Harrington takes a less jaundiced view (Har[2008]). Harrington references case histories that prove the importance of the mind in physical wellness. Treatment of the mind does change the body. In the modern era, the focus has been on the effects of stress. Chronic excitation of the sympathetic nervous system leads to inflammation and suppresses immune response. The former stimulates chronic discomfort and illness; the latter makes us more susceptible to disease. No syndrome


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may be more insidious than cancer, which in the healthy is suppressed by natural killer cells that differentiate tumors by the stress markers they exhibit. Cancer may be associated with stress because many of the cells in the body display stress markers, forcing suppression of natural killer cells.

Even when fully committed to a course of treatment, any patient is confronted with a loss of agency. Their physiological state is under the control of others. When that involves discomfort or injury (through surgery or side-effects of medication) the subconscious may lose faith in our conscious judgment, generating stress and its debilitating side-effects. Worse, the will to live may be exhausted, and resources no longer allocated for healing.

The unique value of hypnotherapy is to speak directly to the subconscious to restore confidence in the healing process. Healing imagery directed to the affected body part releases resources held in reserve for the rest of the body. Visualization of procedures and treatments lessens trauma and identifies points of recovery to build confidence in the overall course.

DiscomfortPain is a signal from the body that demands behavioral adjustment. The body differentiates pain according to the immediacy of the need, transmitting them along fibers with different degrees of myelination to different parts of the brain. Some signals, such as the itch of an insect bite, are suppressed after they have generated a response, but may intensify when a response is suppressed. Consider the itch under a cast.

The distribution of pain processing around the brain impedes the development of a universal pain killer. Disturbingly, hypersensitivity can arise that causes the perception of pain by the brain when sensory nerves are silent.

The effect of emotion on pain is well documented. In the most extreme cases, disassociation of the conscious mind allows us to completely bypass the experience of pain. We drift off to a golf course or outside view of the self and allow the subconscious to manage the trauma. Of course, that prevents active participation in recovery. Ideally, we want to be sensitive to pain, but not sustain awareness with rumination. This is Buddha’s point about suffering: do not allow pain to define you. Figure out what you can change and take action to alleviate it.

Several hypnotherapeutic processes leverage these mechanisms of the pain response. With intense pain, visualization of a safe, soothing environment can provide temporary relief. Systematic desensitization can defuse the emotions associated with the pain. We can also use imagery training to remind the subconscious that it can suppress the conscious experience of pain. Common techniques are the control room dial and glove anesthesia.

The immediate tendency following physical trauma is to stiffen the body to resist further injury and conserve vital fluids. When pain arises from mental tension, this multiplies the generation of toxins around the affected tissues and restricts blood flow. The effect is not unlike suffocation. Sufferers describe it as the most intense pain imaginable.

Dr. John Sarno upended the treatment of back injuries with studies that showed pain is unrelated to the defects uncovered in imaging studies (Oza[2018]). Ruptured discs and pinched nerves are found frequently in scans of patients without back pain. Dr. Sarno attributes most pain to unresolved emotional distress that induced tissue suffocation, a syndrome that he initially termed tension myositis


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syndrome (TMS). He now crusades to end back surgeries, 90% of which have no long-term effect except to create scar tissue that impedes healing.

Dr. Sarno now prefers the term mind-body syndrome, or MBS. MBS associates with migratory pain. A treatment will alleviate discomfort, only to have it pop up somewhere else in the body.

In therapeutic imagery, journeys of discovery encourage the subconscious to reveal the underlying cause of mental tension. Once understood, introspection, narrative development, and loss therapy facilitate the release of tension, allowing the body to initiate the healing process.

Emergency HypnosisThe most direct natural route into hypnosis is a physical or emotional trauma. The mind discards the filtering mechanisms of the social identity because what is happening is manifestly true and requires immediate response.

Once the trauma is over, the body begins the healing process. Muscular tension is released, and blood flows to purge wounds.

During this stage, victims are receptive to the words they hear. Inspired by Timothy Trujillo, Costa and Prager (“The Worst is Over” Aco[2002]) report on controlled studies that demonstrate that when emergency medical technicians (EMTs) introduce themselves with a reassuring script, the patient is more likely to reach the emergency room, recover faster, and suffer fewer long-term effects of their injuries.

Prager and Costa offer scripts tailored to specific injuries. For non-arterial bleeding, the EMT might offer “I am going to sterilize that cut, so you can turn off the bleeding.” This is a reassurance that can also be offered in pre-surgical hypnosis.


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