Table Of ContentHypnotic Realities
Hypnotic
Realities
The Induction of Clinical Hypnosis
and Forms of Indirect Suggestion
by
Milton H. Erickson Ernest L Rossi Sheila I. Rossi
With a Foreword by Andre M. Weitzenhoffer
IRVINGTON PUBLISHERS, Inc., New York
Copyright © 1976 by Ernest L. Rossi, Ph.D.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatever, including information
storage or retrieval, in whole or in part (except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews), without
written permission from the publisher. For information, write to Irvington Publishers, Inc., 740 Broadway,
New York, New York 10176.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Erickson, Milton H. Hypnotic Realities
Bibliography: p.
1. Hypnotism — Therapeutic use. I. Rossi, Ernest Lawrence, joint author. II. Rossi, Sheila I., joint
author. III. Title
RC495.E72 615'.8512 76-20636
ISBN 0-8290-0112-3 (Formerly ISBN 0-470-15169-2)
Printed in The United States of America 15 14 13 12 11
Reprint Edition 1992
Dedicated to an ever progressing understanding of the total functioning of the individual
person within the self separately and simultaneously in relation to fellow beings and the total
environment.
MHE
Dedicated to those clinicians and researchers who will further explore some of the
approaches to enhancing human potentials described herein.
ELR
Dedicated to all those persons learning through hypnotherapy for personal growth and
professional development.
SIR
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We wish gratefully to acknowledge the help we received from the following friends and
colleagues: Roxanne Erickson, Christie Erickson, John Hedenberg, Jack A. Oliver, M.D.,
Robert Pearson, and Kay Thompson.
OVERVIEW CONTENTS
Foreword, by Andre M. Weitzenhoffer / xii
Introduction / 1
One
A Conversational Induction: The Early Learning Set / 5
Two
Indirect Induction by Recapitulation / 27
Three
The Handshake Induction / 83
Four
Mutual Trance Induction / 127
Five
Trance Learning by Association / 149
Six
Facilitating Hypnotic Learning / 205
Seven
Indirectly Conditioned Eye Closure Induction / 233
Eight
Infinite Patterns of Learning: A Two-Year Follow-Up / 281
Nine
Summary / 297
References / 315
ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword by Andre M. Weitzenhoffer
Introduction
ONE
A Conversational Induction: The Early Learning Set
Observation and Erickson's Basic Approach
The Conscious and Unconscious in Clinical Hypnosis
The Utilization Theory of Hypnotic Suggestion
Truisms Utilizing Mental Mechanisms
Truisms Utilizing Time
Not Doing, Not Knowing
TWO
Indirect Induction by Recapitulation
The "Yes Set"
Psychological Implication
The Bind and Double Bind Question
The Time Bind and Double Bind
The Conscious-Unconscious Double Bind
The Double-Dissociation Double Bind
A General Hypothesis About Evoking Hypnotic Phenomena
Reverse Set Double Bind
The Non Sequitur Double Bind
Contrasting the Therapeutic and Schizogenic Double Bind
Unconscious and Metacommunication
Open-Ended Suggestion
Suggestions Covering All Possibilities of a Class of Responses
Ideomotor Signaling
THREE
The Handshake Induction
Confusion in the Dynamics of Trance Induction
Dynamics of the Handshake Induction
The Handshake Induction
Compound Suggestions
The Paradigms of Acceptance Set, Reinforcement or Symbolic Logic
Compound Statements
The Paradigms of Shock and Creative Moments
Contingent Suggestions and Associational Networks
Multiple Tasks and Serial Suggestions
FOUR
Mutual Trance Induction
The Surprise
The Confusion-Restructuring Approach
Therapeutic Trance as a State of Active Unconscious Learning
FIVE
Trance Learning by Association
The Implied Directive
Questions that Focus, Suggest and Reinforce
Questions for Indirect Trance Induction
The Fragmentary Development of Trance
Depotentiating Conscious Mental Sets: Confusion, Mental Flux, and Creativity
SIX
Facilitating Hypnotic Learning
Displacing and Discharging Resistance
Multiple Levels of Communication: Analogy, Puns, Metaphor, Jokes, Folk Language
The Microdynamics of Suggestion
SEVEN
Indirectly Conditioned Eye Closure Induction
Trance Training and Utilization
The Dynamics of Indirect and Direct Suggestion
Indirect Conditioning of Trance
Voice Dynamics in Trance
Intercontextual Cues and Suggestions
Right- and Left-Hemispheric Functioning in Trance
EIGHT
Infinite Patterns of Learning: A Two-Year Follow-Up
Infinite Possibilities of Creativity, Healing, and Learning
NINE
Summary
The Nature of Therapeutic Trance
Trance Viewed as Inner Directed States
Trance Viewed as a Highly Motivated State
Trance Viewed as Active Unconscious Learning
Trance Viewed as an Altered State of Functioning
The Subjective Experience of Trance
Clinical Approaches to Hypnotic Induction
Orientation to Hypnotic Induction
Approaches to Hypnotic Induction
Depotentiating Habitual Frames of Reference
Indicators of Trance Development
Ratifying Trance
The Forms of Hypnotic Suggestion
The Nature of Hypnotic Suggestion
Indirect Approaches to Hypnotic Suggestion
Structuring an Acceptance Set
Utilizing the Patient's Associative Structure and Mental Skills
The Facilitation of Human Potentials
REFERENCES
Foreword
For the many who never had the opportunity and never will have the opportunity to
attend workshops led by Milton Erickson, this work will serve as an invaluable surrogate.
Psychotherapists, in general, as well as hypnotherapists, will find the work rewarding reading
and study, for Erickson is above all a psychotherapist, and his modus operandi transcends
clinical hypnotism. As for academicians and researchers, I believe they will find enough food
for thought and research here to keep them busy for some time to come.
My first encounter with Milton Erickson was in 1954 or 1955 at a meeting of the Society
for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis in Chicago. When I met him he was engaged in
conversation with a small group of colleagues in a hotel lobby. I had never seen the man or
even a photograph of him. Yet in a strange way, as it then seemed to me, as I saw him from
some distance out of hearing range, I knew this was Milton Erickson. I have thought back to
this incident a number of times. Conceivably I had heard somewhere that he had had polio
and the fact he leaned on a cane might have been the clue to his identity. I cannot be sure,
but I am inclined to believe the clues were more subtle. In a way, I had encountered Milton a
number of times previously—through his writings which I had studied exhaustively. Through
these, I had begun to appreciate the uniqueness of his person. I believe that some of the
qualities which have made him the individual he is, were communicated to me through these
writings, and that I experienced them more directly as they were manifesting themselves as
he interacted with others.
In the years which followed I was to have other occasions, by far too few to suit me, to
meet with him, watch him demonstrate, watch him doing therapy, and listen to him talk about
hypnotism as well as other matters. More particularly, I had the opportunity to see why, as
the years have gone by, he has grown into a quasi-legendary figure to whom the title of "Mr.
Hypnosis" was once given. I have also had the opportunity to see in action such famed stage
hypnotists of the forties and fifties as Ralph Slater, Franz Polgar, and others, many of whom
billed themselves as "America's Foremost Hypnotist," the "World's Fastest Hypnotist," etc.,
and who extolled their fantastic prowess ad nauseam. Good entertainers, yes. As hypnotists,
however, they came up poor seconds to Milton Erickson, and yet there never was a more
quiet, unassuming man.
It is not surprising then that many professionals have tried to emulate him. None thus far
have ever truly succeeded, although a few have managed to become a fair approximation.
Some of the reasons for this become clear on reading this work. Some of these will still
remain unclear. If the authors have failed to deal with them to the extent that their importance
calls for, it is only because they are not exactly the kind of things one can adequately teach
merely through the written word. Perhaps it is also because they are not teachable and, I
suspect, there is some unwillingness on their part to admit this to themselves and the reader.
As the work makes it most clear, not only what one says to the patient or subject, how
one says it, when one says it, and where one says it are all extremely important factors in the
effective use of hypnotism, particularly in a clinical, therapeutic setting. It also becomes clear
that one must view the hypnotherapeutic interaction in its totality and not piecemeal, and go
even a step further by viewing it within the totality of its utilization. This takes the use of
suggestion, and more broadly, of hypnotism out of the domain of the use of simple magic
formulas and places it within the framework of the science of interactional and
communication networks.
Erickson, however, is not just a master of verbal communication as the work makes
evident. He is equally adept at non-verbal communication, which is one of the aspects to
which the work does not and can not really do justice. This is unfortunate but unavoidable
and certainly not an oversight on the part of the authors. One of the more memorable
demonstrations of his skill at non-verbal communication that he has given in his career was
in Mexico City in 1959 when he hypnotized and demonstrated various hypnotic phenomena
with a subject with whom verbal communication was impossible. He spoke no Spanish and
the subject spoke no English. From beginning to end, communication was carried entirely
