Don't dream it, be it . . . taking the trance and enhancing the imagination into a fully realized sensory experience . . . experiential hypnosis.
Goal:
Welcome to the world of Experiential Hypnosis. This is an intensive training program in Experiential Hypnosis, a modality in which a trance partner is guided into hypnotic experience via processes that engage the imagination with all senses active with an aim at fully experiencing suggestions as sensory enhanced hypnotic realities to a degree that suggestions are experienced as real or hyper-real within the senses . . . in effect, suggested experiences are ideally experienced as if they are real experiences.The experiential approach to hypnosis relies upon maximum sensory involvement and is appropriate for many contexts and applications. Experiential Hypnosis is ideal for increasing the effectiveness of other trance processes as well as for helping trance partners or clients in ways unavailable to others.
This training provides hypnotists with a powerful new approach to helping clients quit smoking, reduce weight, overcome fears, manage pain, and much much more. Experiential hypnotists have tools at their disposal that allow them to guide their clients and trance partners into success.
While the experiential approach to hypnosis can be applied to any context, this course has a clinical focus, providing students with the tools they need to enhance their effectiveness in helping others reach their goals.
As a comprehensive program, this course requires students to jump in full throttle. Beginner and experienced hypnotist alike will be given a complete program in experiential hypnosis. Those with no previous experience will receive all the tools they need for success while those with previous experience will find a new approach that allows them to take their previous skillsets to the next level, increasing their effectiveness with clients a great deal. While a portion of the course incorporates an intensive review of some basic hypnosis skillsets, albeit with an orientation towards experiential approaches, the main stage of the course is focused upon Experiential Hypnosis techniques via an orientation towards creative application and development of new experiential processes through improvisation and other creativity enhancement exercises.
This is not a lecture course. There is very little theory taught. It is a full five solid days of demonstration, explanation, and practice, practice, practice.
This is a full course in skills related to hypnosis with advanced approaches in sensory enhanced experiential hypnosis, focused trance, and guided imagery for application in any context. Each student should finish the course with a solid understanding of the material and competence in the skills. The course is specifically designed to ensure opportunities for gaining competence in applying hypnosis, experiential hypnosis, focused trance, and guided imagery to appropriate desired contexts but students must learn the material and take advantage of the practice experiences to do so and then they must take these skills out into their "real world" beyond the classroom and apply them in new and interesting ways to gain true competence. Due to the nature of the course, determined novice and advanced learners are both welcome.
Instructor:
The course is taught by Dr. Brian David Phillips, an internationally known and respected hypnosis practitioner, educator, author, and entertainer. Dr. Phillips is President of the Society of Experiential Trance and has in the past served as editor of the peer-reviewed Journal of Applied Hypnotic Arts and Sciences. Dr. Phillips is the coordinator and chief instructor for the oldest English-language hypnosis and focused-trance practice group in Taiwan and is the owner and moderator of one of the largest online email discussion communities related to hypnosis and focused trance techniques. He has taught numerous workshops and seminars on hypnosis, focused trance, and experiential hypnosis as well as a number of webinars (web-based seminars) on these and related subjects. Dr. Phillips is an associate professor at National Chengchi University. Dr. Phillips uses rapid and instant hypnosis inductions routinely in his Waking Dreams Hypnosis Show, the only ongoing entertainment comedy hypnosis stage show in Taiwan.
Teaching Methods:
This course relies upon a very fast-paced system of demonstration and practice. More than any other course, this seminar consists of demonstration, explanation, practice, practice, practice. It is NOT intended as a lecture or passive learning experience. It is a very fast-paced and energetic program so students should come ready, willing, able, and eager to jump right in and run full speed ahead. The teaching methodology is very active. Students will learn through all of their sensory learning channels, particularly aural, visual, and kinesthetic . . . listening, seeing, and doing . . . as it is a practical applications competence course, there is a great deal of supervised "doing" with immediate and useful feedback. Typically, for each subject or technique, the training is within the following process model: 1. instructor briefs students on the topic, 2. instructor demonstrates technique with student volunteer, 3. the demonstration is then broken down into steps, 4. students then practice the technique several times with one another under guidance of the instructor with ongoing feedback, 5. class debriefs about experience and technique with performance notes from instructor, 6. students continue advanced practice (including homework for some techniques), 7. final debriefing with instructor. The course focuses upon practical competence and experienced application of the material.
Course Content:
The key concept for this course is Experiential Hypnosis (a deep trance state in which a person is guided into experiencing suggestions as vividly as possible by engaging and experiencing imagery or suggestions as fully as possible within in all of the senses (sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste). This maximum sensory involvement increases the hypnotist's effectiveness in clinical situations as well as other contexts. Other aspects to be covered are an intensive review of basic hypnosis skillsets as filtered through the endgoal of enhanced sensory experiential hypnosis applications, focused trance and experiential guided imagery.While some students in the course will be previously familiar with basic hypnosis, please note that all material for this course is taught and practiced with an experiential or sensory enhanced orientation. Some of the material may at first seem familiar but you are asked to please leave all preconceived notions of what hypnosis is or isn't at the door and come with an open mind and an attitude of playful curiosity and willingness to play because the experiential orientation takes many of the skillsets you may have previously explored in other trainings and retools them in effectiveness and power.
Concepts related to applying hypnotic operators or suggestion to a wide variety of contexts will also be covered extensively. Students will find themselves being asked to use and demonstrate skills in very spontaneous, improvisational, creative, and real world conditions. While students will be given models to work from, they will learn how to see and understand the processes behind the scripts so that they can adapt any given process to new circumstances seamlessly. Competence in the basics of experiential hypnosis and focused trance is emphasized as the course segues into more advanced clinical application. Each of the basic skillsets in Experiential Hypnosis are demonstrated and explained in this course as well as a number of unique experiential hypnosis processes. Specific skill sets and areas of instruction include:
BEFORE WE BEGIN
- Defining Hypnosis, Defining Experiential Hypnosis
- The Eye of Experiential Trance
- The HYPNOTIST: Clinical, Entertainment, Recreational, Educational, and Other Contexts of Applied Experiential Hypnosis
- Session Orientations
- Trance Partner Evaluation
- Rapport Building
- Pretalk
- Exciting the Imagination and Enhancing Sensory Involvement
- Enhancing Effectiveness
- Trance Depth versus Intensified Imaginative Involvement
- Clean Session Language: Guiding versus Leading, Implied Success or Failure, etc.
- Some Pitfalls to Avoid and Some Advantages to Embrace
- . . . and more!
IMAGINATIVE SUGGESTIBILITY GAMES
- Finger Magnet
- Hand Magnet
- Hand Clasp
- Arm Levitation & Lowering (Balloon & Dictionary/Rock)
- Arm Stiffening
- Pendulum Ideomotor Acton
- Postural Sway
- Muscular Relaxation
- Finger Ideomotor Action
- Lemon
- Thirst "Hallucination"
- Eye Closure
- Eye Roll
- Spiegel Eye Roll
- Hand-Tingling
- Arm Lowering
- Arm Levitation
- Eye Catalepsy
- Leg Catalepsy
- Open Mouth Catalepsy
- Name Amnesia / Lips Catalepsy
- Stuttering
- Name Amnesia / Name Change
- Hand Shaking
- Fastening a Stick to Hands
- Impossible to Sit
- Impossible to Stand
- Spontaneous Qigong
- Ouija Dancing
- Drunk Induction
- . . . and more!
INDUCTIONS
- Dave Elman Induction
- Dave Elman Abbreviated Reinduction Sequence (Step Process)
- Phillips-Elman Induction
- Eye Fixation
- Muscle Tension Relaxation Induction
- Progressive Relaxation
- Experiential Senses Induction
- Post-Hypnotic Reinduction Trigger
- . . . and more!
INSTANT & RAPID INDUCTIONS
- Arm Pull Induction
- Clasped Hands
- Drop Back Induction
- Finger and Thumb Shake Technique
- Hand Drop
- Handshake Interrupt
- Pencil Drop Rapid Induction
- Rapid Hands Together Method
- Conversion of Imaginative Suggestibility Games into formal hypnotic induction and experiential waking hypnosis sessions.
- Creative Inductions
- . . . and more!
DEEPENERS AND EMERGING
- Breathing Deepener
- Dial Deepener
- Esdaile State, Hypnotic Coma State (Elevator)
- Fractionation
- Number Counting Deepener
- Sounds Around You Patter
- Staircase Deepener
- Emerging from Hypnosis
- . . . and more!
TRANCE DEPTH TESTING
Adaptation of the Arons Scale as a measure of and tool for enhancing imaginative involvement:
- Level One (Eyelid Catalepsy)
- Level Two (Arm Catalepsy)
- Level Three (Inability to Articulate)
- Level Four (Suggested Amnesia)
- Level Five (Positive Hallucination)
- Level Six (Negative Hallucination)
TRANCE PHENOMENA UTILIZATION
- Age Progression (you see yourself doing really well in the exam)
- Age Regression (remembering a time when you felt really good…)
- Amnesia (and it's easy to forget)
- Dissociation (you watch yourself speaking easily to the audience)
- Negative Hallucination (you just don't notice…)
- Positive Hallucination (you notice how pleased people are to see you)
- Post-Hypnotic Suggestion (you easily say no to the offer of a cigarette)
- Sensory Distortion (and you feel satisfied sooner)
- Time Distortion (and it's only later you realize how fast the time went…)
HYPNOSIS/TRANCE TECHNIQUES
ENHANCED VIA EXPERIENTIAL MAXIMUM SENSORY INVOLVEMENT
- Phrasing Suggestions
- Direct Suggestion Patter (Multi-Compounding)
- Anchoring
- Automatic Drawing
- Automatic Writing
- Change Hands
- Disconnect Process
- Eyes Open Focused Trance and Hypnosis
- Fast Phobia Cure
- Higher Self
- Ideomotor Questioning
- Parts Therapy
- Core Processes
- Pendulum Autoquestioning
- Post-Hypnotic Suggestion Trigger Response
- Regression Hypnoanalysis (Affect Bridge, ISE/SSE Regression, Informed Child, Chair Therapy)
- Sanctuary
- Six Step Reframe
- Stress Relief Constructs (Crystal Bottles, Garbage Cans, and Worry Trees)
- Swish
- Talismans, Amulets, and More
- Universal Therapy Processes
- White/Grey Room and Other Metaphor Techniques
- . . . and more!
EXPERIENTIAL HYPNOSIS PROCESSES
- Experiential (Sensory Enhanced) Constructs
- Experiential Guided Imagery
- Flooding Sensory Experience with Positive Suggested States
- Vicarious Experiential Machine Process (Film/Video, Photo, and Text variations)
- Experiential Roleplay Games (context-specific)
- Archetypal Avatar
- Associative Emotionally Induced Affect Bridge Regression Induction
- Drug of Choice Technique
- Emotional Release Strategies
- Fantasy Creation Constructs
- Furry Fun
- Happy Finger
- Higher Self
- Hyperempiria
- Hypno-Sleep
- Hypnotic Roleplaying Games
- Ideomotor Sigil
- Magick Egg Fairy Dragon
- Magickal Thought Forms
- Tarot Trance
- and Much Much MORE!
CREATIVE PROCESSES
- Students in the course will learn creative processes that allow them to create and demonstrate two wholly new and original hypnotic processes or trance patterns.
TAKING IT INTO THE REAL WORLD
- Ethics
- Business Practice
- Scope of Practice
- Working with Others: Building Positive Relationships with Other Caring Professionals
- Community-Building
- Where Do I Go From Here? Being the Hypnotist!
- Resources for Further Exploration
HYPNOTIC GAMES
As a training tool, students in the seminar will learn several hypnosis learning games that are not only loads of fun but help accelerate mastery of the skills taught in the course. These games include but are not limited to:
- Hypnotize Trancersize (random skill callouts that must be immediately performed)
- Hypnotist Challenge Game (a creative game in which players must immediately create a completely new induction based upon a challenge created by another player . . . with very little time to act)
- Speed Trance Train (players perform a series of hypnotic inductions – from memory – with different partners within the time limit . . . imagine yourself going down a line of ten people, performing ten different hypnosis processes, from memory, within five minutes)
- Creative Trance Train (following principles presented in the course, players create new powerful experiential processes on the spot)
- Hypnotic Role Play (take deep trance identification and add it to a roleplaying game with experiential sensory enhancement)
- Walkabout Trance Teams (participants will be grouped into “teams” for hands-on actual practice with members of the public in - optional afterhours activity)
- . . . and more!
You will learn all of this and much, much, much more. Obviously, this is a very fast-paced and extremely comprehensive course. This is an intensive training in hypnosis toward a comprehensive orientation in Experiential Hypnosis and as such requires clear concentration and full involvement on the part of students who must come ready to engage themselves fully in the process. Do not merely learn this material, learn how you can become a true master of EXPERIENTIAL HYPNOSIS.
This is a comprehensive accelerated course in Experiential Hypnosis. As this is an intense accelerated program, there is no traditional lecture, no theory, no history. It's all demonstration, explanation, and practice, practice, practice. Come prepared to do the work and participate fully.
While all of the above material will be taught, please note that the speed and nature of how material is covered and the amount of time spent in practice on any given section will in part be determined by the general level of experience and degree of competence of students attending the course. To maximize your learning experience, it is to your advantage to leave all preconceptions behind and jump in head first into all practice drills and activities.
Course Requirements / Grading Criteria:
While some will attend this course for general information and instruction in Experiential Hypnosis, those wishing to fulfill membership certification and hypnotherapist specialization requirements with the Society of Experiential Trance should take note that they will be evaluated based upon:
- Regular attendance
- Participation in classroom activities
- Completion of assignments
- Ongoing Oral and Demonstrational Competence Activities or Tasks
Course Materials:
Students will be supplied with handouts related to the presentation topics in the form of the Experiential Hypnosis text by Brian David Phillips.Please, students may not use recording devices during the course. However, the instructor may record portions of the training.
Online Resources:
- Brian David Phillips Waking Dreams Hypnosis at http://www.briandavidphillips.com
- Brian David Phillips Hypnocast at http://briandavidphillips.libsyn.com
- Brian David Phillips Blog at http://briandavidphillips.typepad.com/brian/
- Hypnosis Technique Exchange at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HypnosisTechniqueExchange
