Hello everybody, Cal Banyan here. Cal Banyan's Hypnosis Etc. Where, what do we do? We talk about hypnosis, etc. And you know what, if you're watching this video anywhere else except Calbanyan.com, you want to go there right now. Because right below this video is additional text, graphics, and links that just support all the material I'm going to be talking about today.
Well, this is the third video in a row of all Cal episodes. And if I've got things scheduled right, this will be the last all Cal episode for a while. We should have a co-host back with us next week. I'm so excited. It's an awful lot of work to do this all by yourself, just to talk, talk, talk. And, you see, normally, when Brenda is talking, or Celeste is talking, or Meredith is talking, that's where I can look down at my notes, figure out what I'm going to say next, have a slurp on the old drink here; some coffee, or some, some kind of vitamin water, and that kind of stuff. But when I do it by myself, you'll see me slurping away, and looking down at my notes, and all that.
So, hey, we're into Part Two, talking about, really, hypnosis basics. Hypnosis techniques and concepts that we need to kind of get some ideas in common in the profession. And, as normal professions such as psychology, my background, would it be different schools of thought about how the mind works, and that's okay, but there's not a gazillion of them. You know, there might be four, five, or six main predominant schools of thought in psychology. And I found that, if I go to hypnosis, such as some kind of hypnotic event, convention or something like that, and I start asking simple questions, like, gosh, what exactly is hypnosis? And I'll get almost as many different definitions as there are hypnotists.
And so, what I'm doing is, I'm offering some concepts, offering some ideas that maybe we can get around. If you don't agree with what I'm saying, that's fine, I reserve the right to change my mind when confronted with new, powerful, objective evidence to the contrary. I have no problem with that. If you got evidence contrary of something I'm saying, put it down in the comments box, and I'll be happy to discuss it with you there online, or have other people chime in too. If you want to expand on what I'm saying, leave a comment.
All right. Who am I? I'm Cal Banyan, I've been in full-time practice since 1996. I was a hobby hypnotist when I started hypnotizing my friends and family members back in 1977, or 76. And I cautious been doing it for a long time, I'm kind of the hypnotist, and considered to be one of the best trainers in the world, and I'm training hypnotists from all over the world. I would invite you to come to our center and take training, I'll give you some dates later on, or to see one of our certified trainers like, Celeste Hackett. She is one of our certified trainers, and she offers classes out of Plano, Texas.
All right. Let's get back to the meat and potatoes of what we're going to do today. I've got my list of things to do. Maybe this will be a short episode today. I don't know, but, it would be really nice if I can get through this stuff faster than I planned. Let's see. Okay. So, last time, previous episode, I talked about what is hypnosis? What is suggestibility? How does someone prepare for hypnosis? And by prepared I mean to easily, and instantly go into a deep realm of hypnosis, with an induction that's, you know, maybe a few seconds long, up to three or four minutes long. Hey, the idea of having to do those long progressive relaxation induction, or eye fatigue inductions, these kind of classical outdated long inductions, they're over with. Get with it, let's do it quick, and get on to the more important stuff, the hypnotic techniques and suggestions that we want to do that help our clients change.
So I talked about what a hypnotic induction is, and now, how do you tell if someone's hypnotized. And, oh man, this is kind of a thing that scares me. Again, I'll be at some place where there's a whole bunch of hypnotists that are not 5-PATHers. Because 5-PATHers, those who are trained, certified in 5-PATH®, we've got our common concepts, our common definitions, and our common way of doing things, our community in the profession. When we go outside of it, then things start to vary wildly. And I'll say, 'Gosh, if you have hypnotized someone, how do you know if they're hypnotized?' And I get such crazy answers, like, 'Well, I did the induction. If they followed instructions, then they should be hypnotized.' That's a lousy way to find out if someone is hypnotized. Or they'll say, 'Oh, I can tell because they look hypnotized.'
Well, what does hypnosis look like? Hypnosis, in and of itself, doesn't look like anything. Hypnosis, in and of itself, does not feel like anything. So this, oh, the person has a hypnotic mask, absolute and complete removal of any stress or expression on their face, I'm sorry, that can be accomplished by just relaxing the person, and relaxing, and relaxing, and relaxing. And relaxation is not hypnosis. Hypnosis is a heightened state of suggestibility. So, in order to determine if someone is hypnotized, we must be able to measure, or test, their suggestibility.
So what do I have here? I've written this, How do you know if someone is hypnotized, i.e., your client. You must do depth testing. Depth testing is any technique used to determine the level of hypnosis, a heightened state of suggestibility. Okay? That level, which is obtained in an individual in which she would be aware that she's being tested; okay, let me read this entire sentence. Depth testing is any technique used to determine a level of hypnosis attained in an individual, in which she would be aware that she is being tested. Care needs to be taken when using over testing. Because if the client knows that she's being tested, then it may affect the state being tested, usually negatively. Also, failing a test will reduce the client's confidence and level of suggestibility.
So what am I talking about? In order to determine if someone is hypnotized, we must do depth testing. And that is, to suggest something to them and see if they accept the suggestion. For example, the lightest level of hypnosis according to Harry Arons Depth Scale is hypnoidal. And the test for hypnoidal is simple suggestion of eyelid catalepsy. It might go like this. You have the client hypnotized and you tell your client, in a moment, I'll count from one to three, when I get to three, your eyelids will lock down tight, one, locking down tight, two, twitching and tightening, and locking down tight, three, stuck like glue, they are stuck like glue. Now, you try to open them, but you'll not be able to. Try to open them, but you're not able to. Try to open them, but you cannot. Good. Stop trying and go deeper. And you would see them trying to open their eyes, but because of this heightened state of suggestibility, they experience catalepsy in their eyes and they're unable to open them. Now, this kind of depth testing, and similar such tests, such as, arm catalepsy where you tell them their arm is stiff and rigid like a bar of steel, they try to lower it, but they cannot. And things like number block, analgesia, all these things fall under the category of overt depth testing. Overt means that it's obvious to the client that you are testing them. And the problem with this is that, they may become nervous because they realize that they're being tested. Fear tends to inhibit hypnosis, or lighten hypnosis. So doing overt depth testing can be dangerous, but it's one way that we can test. The other thing that it can do is, if they fail the test, then what happened is they will tend to emerge, or lighten the hypnosis. Emerge completely or lighten the hypnosis, which is something we never want to have happen.
So, how do we avoid this? What we want to do is use covert testing, covert, cover it up. Testing that they don't realize they're being tested. And my favorite covert depth test is the way it is done in the Elman-Banyan Induction. Now, one of the reasons the Dave Elman, Cal Banyan Induction, one of the reasons it's the Elman-Banyan Induction, not just the Dave Elman Induction is because I made a lot of changes to that induction, especially in the covert testing part of it. I think one of the great geniuses in the world of hypnosis was Dave Elman. And particularly, it was expressed in the covert testing, which is built into the Elman Induction. And that is, that we're going to have them do something. Okay? Like, count a number, and then go deeper into hypnosis. And then say the number and then go deeper into hypnosis until they cannot recall what the next number is. And when they follow that instruction and they eventually cannot remember what the next number is, that is a test for somnambulism based on the hypnotic suggestion for amnesia, they cannot remember something. Amnesia is a test for a deep level of hypnosis. So, once again, if you don't know the Elman Banyan Induction, go to www.hypnosis.org , and the little video I play, tells you everything about how to get and learn that induction.
So what's really cool about doing covert testing is, one, they don't get nervous because they don't realize they're being tested, so that doesn't cause them to emerge, because nervousness is fear, depth of hypnosis. And, also, if they don't pass, then what does that do? It causes them to become less confident, and it tends to emerge them. But if they don't know that they are being tested, then they cannot be aware of not passing the test.
So here is the deal. How do you know if someone is hypnotized? You must test to see if they're hypnotized. The problem is, over-testing, just doing, like, eye lock, or arm catalepsy, is problematic because they could fail, they could become nervous and fearful. So all initial depth testing should be covert. A great place to learn covert depth testing is to learn the Elman Banyan version of the Elman Induction; because in there I teach you how to do the covert testing.
And, also, where would we want them to be at? We don't want them to be at hypnoidal, the lightest level, like, eye lock, or light hypnosis, and the test is arm catalepsy. We want them to be in the deep level such as somnambulism. And the built-in test that I tweaked in the Elman Induction takes them to test for somnambulism. Now, here's where it gets to be cool. Okay.
The next question on my list of questions to talk about is, what does deepening hypnosis mean? People don't really go deeper into hypnosis. What they do is, they become more profoundly suggestible. But it's understood that when we say go deeper into hypnosis what it really means is to become more hypnotized. And to become more hypnotized means to go into a higher state of suggestibility. For example, say in a moment I'm going to count from one down to three. When I get to three, go much deeper, one, deeper relaxed, two, going deeper and deeper, three, way down much deeper. Now, that just seems to work. It's understood that that means go more profoundly hypnotized, or become more suggestible. If we try to say it in the most accurate way, it wouldn't work. If I say, in a moment, I'm going to count from one down to three, become much more profoundly suggestible. One, becoming more suggestible, two, more profoundly suggestible, three, there you are much more profoundly suggestible. It's just as awkward, it doesn't make as much sense to our clients as go deeper. So clients don't really go deeper in hypnosis, they become more suggestible. So deepening is a process of taking them into more suggestibility, more deeper hypnosis.
Here's something very important, and most people don't get this. So what I'm saying is, how do you tell if somebody is hypnotized, you must test. Don't use overt testing because, one, it could make them nervous and they'll emerge. They'll fail and it messes up their confidence in you, in hypnosis, and in themselves to do hypnosis. So avoid overt testing. All initial testing should be covert, so that you know they're in somnambulism.
Now, here is the magic. Once you have determined that they're in stage four, five, or six, of the Harry Arons Scale, which are the somnambulist states. Four, the threshold of somnambulism, five, a full somnambulism, and stage six, which is, profound somnambulism. Now, you know that they will pass a test for light hypnosis. Doesn't that make sense? If you know that they're at stage four, five, or six, then we can be very, very, very confident that they would pass a test for, like, hypnoidal, eye lock, or arm catalepsy. So here's where we would use overt tests. Why? To convince the client that he or she is hypnotized. Because the client who believes that they are in hypnosis, instantaneously two things happen. One, their confidence goes up. Confidence in hypnosis, confidence in you, confidence that hypnosis really works, confidence that they can do hypnosis with you. It's just a great and wonderful thing. And they become hopeful, hopeful that what they're doing will work. And what this does instantaneously is it makes them more suggestible. So, when you do overt testing, after having done covert testing to make sure that they're deeply hypnotized, and then you do overt test to demonstrate to them that they are hypnotized. Okay? Then what happens is, their confidence goes up, and they go deeper into hypnosis. So using an overt test like eye lock after having done a covert test, such as losing the numbers in the Elman Banyan Induction, it deepens the hypnosis, it makes them hopeful, and they are convinced. And this is the ideal situation to start every hypnosis session with.
So what have we got here? We've got a client that comes in. We explain to them in the pre-talk what hypnosis is, and what it is not. Then we do the pre-hypnosis interview with them, okay, to find out what they want you to do for them. And then we're going to induce hypnosis, we're going to deepen the hypnosis, then we're going to covertly test for deep level of hypnosis. And then, we convince them they're in hypnosis by doing an overt test for a light level of hypnosis, such as, eye lock, or arm catalepsy. And, we've got a deeply hypnotized, confident, and hopeful client. This is the ideal situation to start any hypnosis process in. And this can all be done in the first session, it all should be done in the first session, and then you can go in to doing whatever technique is first.
Now, in 5-PATH®, Phase one is preparation, testing, and convincing. So I've been talking mainly about Phase one of 5-PATH®. Now, all sessions for all phases of 5-PATH®, or any kind of hypnosis system you may be using, should be concluded with direct suggestion. So, like, if I'm doing a first session with someone, and I do the preparation, the testing, and convincing phase, they're hypnotized, they're hopeful, they're convinced, and they're in deep hypnosis. Then I look at the clock and say, do I time to move on to Phase two? Have I only got, like, 10 or 15 minutes left? In that case, where I only have 10 or 15 minutes left, I would conclude the session with direct suggestion for whatever they came in for. Then I'm going to have them back anywhere between three to ten days, with five to seven days kind of being optimum, for their second session. I do not believe in one session hypnosis, because unless you see them a second time, you typically don't have time to do all the work you need to do. And if you don't see them over subsequent sessions, you don't have the ability to verify if what you're doing is working. If you just do a one session stop smoking session and they go away, how do you know if you were effective? Okay. So, we will do 5-PATH® for everything.
Alright, looking down my list here. Let's see. What exactly is hypnotic suggestion, or direct suggestion? When a hypnotic suggestion is given directly as opposed to being given in some covert way. Typically, the kind of work that I do, and 5-PATHers do, it's very obvious that we're doing hypnosis. We prepare the person, we hypnotize the person, they know that they're being hypnotized, and we even go to the extent of proving to them that they're hypnotized. Then we do direct suggestion. And we, at the very simplest level, it could be a one sentence kind of hypnotic suggestion where we just say, you now exercise three days a week and it causes you to feel happier and healthier. Okay? And you can just say that over and over, driving that suggestion in over and over. You are now a nonsmoker, you'll be a nonsmoker for the rest of your life. This leaves you feeling healthy, wealthy, and wise, or whatever it is. And typically, direct suggestion work is done best when you tell them that something in the present tense, you are now, or you always, kind of statements, followed by a reward of why they want to accept that suggestion. You now exercise consistently, and you feel more energetic, and you look more fit, and you're more confident. So feeling more energetic, looking fit, and being confident are the rewards. But, some conscious minds more readily accept suggestions when you associate the suggestion with some positive outcome. Okay?
And here's one last thing I want to get to real quick. It's so misunderstood, compounding a suggestion. Compounding a suggestion is not just repeating a suggestion over and over again. That is not, if you say, you know, you're a nonsmoker, you're a nonsmoker, you're a nonsmoker, you're a nonsmoker, you're a nonsmoker, that's not compounding a suggestion. If I give a series of different suggestions, each one of them different, they do not necessarily compound the previous suggestion. If you're really understand what compounding is, it is a technique that increases the power of suggestion. It increases the reliability of the suggestion. And this occurs when the client experiences the effect of the suggestion. Let's see how I have that written here. Okay. What is compounding, or compounding a suggestion? This technique is used to increase the reliability of suggestion, especially a post-hypnotic suggestion, a suggestion who's effect is experienced after they emerge from hypnosis. The technique consists of providing the client with the suggestion so that she can experience the phenomena, or suggested behavior, during or after the suggestion. Most commonly the suggestion is given during the session, and the client responds to it immediately. And then the suggestion is given again, and the client responds to it immediately again; the process of having the client respond to the suggestion repeatedly. Okay. So let's say, I want to install a suggestion in my client that I will do a certain thing and then they would always go into hypnosis instantly. So I have my hypnotized client, and I'll say, in a moment, I’ll count from one to three. When I get to three, you'll open your eyes and look at me, now, they're in hypnosis, and I'm going to snap my fingers, and say the word, sleep. At that moment, you'll instantly close your eyes and go deeper into hypnosis. Here we go. One, two, three, they'll look at you and you go, sleep, and they instantly go down deeper into hypnosis.
Now, what does deeper mean, more suggestible, right? So they go into a state of higher suggestibility, heightened state of suggestibility. They go in deeper to hypnosis. We say, 'Let's do that again. One, two, three, sleep,' or, 'deeper' or some trigger word, right? One, two, three, deeper, and they close their eyes. One, two, three, they open their eyes, look up, deeper. And each time that they experience you snapping your fingers, saying the word, like, sleep, or deeper, and then having the experience of going deeper, compounds the suggestion. It is the experience of experiencing the effect of the suggestion that makes the suggestion more powerful. So I could do that, like, three or four times. 'Good, look at me and, deeper,' 'Good, look at me and, deeperâ€, Or counting one to three, 'One, two, three, look at me and, deeper.' Then I could say, even after I emerge you, all I have to do is say the word deeper, and snap my fingers like that, and you'll instantly go back into this level of hypnosis, or deeper. If that's okay with you, nod your head. Good. Then you could emerge them. I'm going to count from one to three, when I get to three, totally emerged. Here we go. 'One, two, three, look at me. Good. How you feeling? You’re feeling good? All right, and, deeper.' And they instantaneously go back into hypnosis. And that compounds a suggestion further. You do it again. 'I'm going to count from one to three, when I get to three you totally emerge. One, two, three, look at me. How are you feeling? You feel good, don't you? Yeah, good, ready to go back into hypnosis?' Get permission, and they say, 'Sure,' 'okay look at me and, deeper,' and they go back down, and so this compounds the suggestion.
So, compounding is when you give the suggestion in hypnosis, and they experience the phenomenon, or the behavior suggested. Then, it is the experiencing of the behavior, or the phenomenon, that makes the suggestion more powerful when given again. In compounding you should always do it at least two or three times, four times, five times, that's fine. If possible, do it after they emerge, if you're going for a post-hypnotic effect.
Let's see. Okay. Doggone it, that's it. These are some of the things that in our profession we've got to get straight. I'm glad I had these last two or three all Cal episodes with you, some one-on-one time, from me to you, to really get some ideas across, looking forward to having our co-host back, and future podcast. As you're watching this, I'm probably off in Singapore somewhere. I've been doing a lot of traveling lately. Just before the podcast, the first of this series, I came back from a motorcycle ride, 2500 miles, going off to Denver from Orange County, going down to Durango, Colorado and back with some of my club brothers, it was really great. And we've been travelling, I was at the convention after that. I had some other stuff I was doing in San Diego before that. Some stuff I was doing in Florida before that. I come back, get all settled in, and Maureen says, 'Guess what we're doing Sunday? We're going to Singapore.' So hopefully, I get a chance to meet with some of our 5-PATHers in Singapore, and maybe do some 7th Path Self-Hypnosis® stuff with some of our 7th Path practitioners, also.
Okay. That's it. Please fan us on Facebook.com/hypnosisetc, get in on our conversation. Please, if you're not a 5-PATHer yet, let's step up, let's be a one-percenter. Let's get in on the classes. We have a class coming up in October. There's still time to get early registration discounts; January 27th through February 7th, 2014, here at our center. If you can't make it to our center, we have a limited number of seats online. They're interactive. You can ask questions. Your practice time is supervised. It's just as good as being at our center except you don't have to pay for travel, food, lodging, and all that kind of stuff, too. If neither one of those will work into your schedule, then, hey, get training by one of our CPHI (Certified Professional Hypnosis Instructors). Contact our office, we can give you the list, see if there's one near you. You already know Celeste Hackett, she's one of our trainers, she's outside of Dallas in Plano, Texas.
All right, that's it. See you in class. See you at Solid Gold weekend, I'm going to be there speaking. And it's all fun, it's all good. Let's do great things together. Let's lift this profession together, and really help people and ourselves to be more successful. That's it, Cal Banyan, signing off.
Copyright 2013 Calvin D. Banyan . All rights reserved.