[Neurons] 2010 Meta Reflections #15

[L. Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

Meta Reflections - 2010 - #15

April 5, 2010

 

META-STATE TRANCES

 

 

While "hypnosis" is not real (Meta Reflection #14), not real externally, not
an objective thing, it is subjectively compelling and can be transformative.
Well, it can also be destructive and neurotizing.  It all depends on what
suggestions you are giving yourself in the process.  In other words, the
content of what you are programming into yourself with your images, sounds,
words, language, ideas, frames, and meanings determines the quality (or lack
thereof) of the state you are inducing.

 

That's what "hypnosis" is-an induction of state and you are always inducing
yourself into states.  And every time you alter your state and go into an
inward focus of attention on something that you are remembering or imagining
that's not currently present- you are in a hypnotic state.  There's really
nothing mysterious about it, it is how "thinking" works.  You can be present
listening to someone or walking down the street or driving on a highway or
working out in the gym, but on the inside you are not there.  You are
somewhere else!

 

Realizing and recognizing that such state inductions is a trance,
de-mystifies hypnosis a bit.  It also highlights the fact that you, and only
you, can hypnotize you.  That's why it is said in the literature on hypnosis
that ultimately all hypnosis is self-hypnosis.  You are doing it to
yourself.  Yes, someone may be leading the process, but it only works if you
allow it to, if you follow along and use the words to go somewhere in your
mind.  You can always resist.

 

So all of the myths about a hypnotist "controlling" you and making you do
things you don't want to do is just that-myths.  It is not hypnosis that
makes some flap their wings and make sounds like a chicken.  They are doing
that and they are choosing to do that.  Yes, this myth makes for fascinating
Hollywood movies for those who don't know better: a hypnotist hypnotizes
someone to murder someone and then gives a post-hypnotic suggestion that
they won't remember it!  But it does not work that way.  Milton Erickson
once said that if hypnosis had that kind of power, "there would be a whole
lot of people healthier and more sane."

 

Do we use hypnosis in Neuro-Semantics?  Do we induce states so that people
transition (trance) from the state that they are in and access new and more
resourceful states?  Yes, of course.  In fact, every pattern is actually a
hypnotic pattern.  That's because every "pattern" invites a person to go up,
up and away, into the higher realms of the mind, to set new higher frames
that will create more positive and resourceful states.

 

When we do this, we participate in accessing higher states of mind that we
find enjoyable and effective.  We move upward to our frames of reference.
Now in writing this, I'm using the "up" metaphor for trance rather than the
"down" metaphor.  Both also are metaphors and so not real!  It's just a way
of talking about things.  The "down" metaphor is more traditional and in NLP
history, it came from Transformational Grammar (TG) that talked about
surface sentences and the "deep" structure.

 

Using the Meta-States Model, in Neuro-Semantics we turn the metaphor upside
down. We talk about going inside and then up to your reference system as
your frames of references by which you create the meanings that you give to
something.  These higher frames establish the structure for how you are
thinking about something.  And whenever you set a frame, you are programming
into your mind a meaning that contains suggestions and implications and
these will induce you into a state.

 

What do you think about criticism?  Wherever you go in your mind as you
answer that question, you are inducing yourself into a hypnotic state.  Do
you know that?  That's because "criticism" is not real. It does not exist in
the real world.  What you call "criticism" is a construct that you have
created.  If it means to you that someone is saying something that disagrees
with you or your ideas, or saying something that attacks your behaviors,
your person, your reputation, etc., then you probably have some movie
playing in your mind about someone saying words in a certain way that you
call "criticism."  If I could peak into the movie of your mind, what would I
see playing?  What do you see?  Or hear?  Or sense?  What hypnotic induction
have you used on yourself?

 

Now given that movie, how much fun do you have playing that movie?  Not
much?  How much fun would you like to have?  And how could you create that
fun, that humor, that silliness?  Are you skilled at exaggerating your
pictures?  At editing the sounds so that you can alter the way the
"criticism" is spoken so that sounds really different?  What if it was sung
by someone who can't carry a tune?  What if it was spoken with a sexy voice?
Or a lisp?  By Yoda?  Donald Duck?  Now did you recognize those questions as
a hypnotic induction?  They were!

 

If you went along and playfully entertained fun representations, then you
radically altered the suggestions and implications you have about criticism,
didn't you?  Suppose you access a state of un-insultability and then
entertain those representations and try really hard, as hard as you can try,
to feel the hurt of the criticism.  What happens then?  What if you step
into a state of unconditional love and appreciation for people, knowing that
there's a little insecure child inside the person criticizing.

 

Ah, another paragraph is full of hypnotic language inviting you into more
resourceful trances!  Did you notice?  I invited you to go up to new frames
linguistically.  And it was so easy.   I just used some modifiers (adverbs
and adjectives).

I qualified your "representations" by the word "entertaining" and that word
by "playfully" - playfully entertained fun representations of criticism.

I invited you to access un-insultability and hard trying to feel the hurt.

I invited you to step into unconditional love, knowing there's a little
child ...

None of these are externally real; but if you want them to be subjectively
compelling to your way of being in the world and processing criticism, then
you can go into those higher states about your primary experience.  And if
you do, then they set up various suggestions and implications as
post-hypnotic suggestions that will generate a more resourceful response.
All of this "hypnotic" language and framing is just another way to talk
about self-development.

 

To your expertise with great hypnotic self-actualization!

 

 

 

 

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            Grand Junction Colorado

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Registration forms.

 

 

L.  Michael Hall, Ph.D.

(ISNS) International Society of Neuro-Semantics

The International Meta-Coach System

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO.  81520 USA

1 970-523-7877

      <http://www.neurosemantics.com/> www.neurosemantics.com 

       <http://www.neuro-semantics-trainings.com/>
www.neuro-semantics-trainings.com 

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       <http://www.meta-coaching.org/> www.meta-coaching.org

       www.meta-coachfoundation.org 

       <http://www.ns-video.com/> www.ns-video.com 

 

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