Here Is Your Handout for My Talk Titled,
“Hypersuggestibility For Permanent Change–Could Be THE Most Suggestible State Of Hypnosis”

One of the problems with simple hypnotic suggestion work is that it tends to “wear off” over time unless it has been reinforced through the repetition of the suggestion time and time again, or if the change in behavior is somehow consistently reinforced naturally in your client's environment.

What if there was a way to greatly increase the permanence of the suggestions given in a particular hypnosis session? The good news is that I discovered that there is, and I call it “hypersuggestibility”.

As a new hypnotist many years ago, I found it frustrating when the suggestions I gave my new clients did not last. It seemed to me that simple and direct suggestions for change lasted about 3 days to 2 weeks on average. With more sessions the suggestions lasted longer. Some hypnotists require their clients to listen to audio recordings to reinforce the work they do. But the problem with that is you are depending on your client's ability to follow through on that instruction to listen to recordings every day in order to be successful. Client follow through with homework assignments like that is definitely not 100%. As such, it reduces their success.

As I always say, “Our success comes from our clients' success”. So, anything we can do to increase our clients' success increases our practice success.

With that in mind, I developed the 5-PATH® (Five Phase Advanced Transformational Hypnosis®) system of hypnosis, which is a five phased approach to conducting professional hypnosis sessions with clients. This is not an article about 5-PATH®; I mention it because 5-PATH® contains insight generating hypnosis processes.. They include age regression work, age progression work, forgiveness work, and Parts Mediation Work™.

As I used this approach, I discovered that insights created a whole new kind of suggestibility that I have named hypersuggestibility. This new kind of suggestibility is not a deeper state of hypnosis, but rather a state of mind that occurs in the hypnotic state that enables the subconscious mind to accept suggestions as being “true” and as such lasts longer or can even be permanent.

First off, before I go any further, I want to reiterate, hypersuggestibility is not a deeper level of hypnosis. I use the Harry Arons Depth Scale in my practice. In that scale, Stage 6 is the deepest level (Profound Somnambulism). Hypersuggestibility is not a “Stage 7”. There is no Stage 7. Stage 6 is the deepest level of hypnosis.

Hypersuggestibility causes all the stages to become more “sticky”. Any hypnotic process that causes your client to have an insight about herself, be it about her past, her situation now, or any upcoming future events can create this hypersuggestibility but, you have to know what to do next.

This is one of the things that makes 5-PATH® so effective. Age regression, age progression, forgiveness work and Part Mediation Work® are all processes that naturally create insights in your clients. Let me use hypnotic age regression work as an example for this article.

Let's say that your client comes in because she has a life-long sense of anxiety that does not seem to be associated with any specific situation. She just describes herself as a “nervous person”. She tells me she feels nervous in just about every situation, including situations which most people would feel safe and secure in.

If in her hypnosis session I conduct an age regression I would have her connect to that feeling of “nervousness” in her body, then I can Affect Bridge regress her or Time Tunneling Technique™ regress her back in time through earlier events in her life where she felt that way and continue regressing her back until I find the first time, she felt that way. Once at that time, where it all began, I can begin the work which will permanently change her life.

Since this is not an article on age regression, I will not go into great detail on how to do age regression. Instead, let me focus on the main insight generating part of the session, the Informed Child Technique. Once we have the first time your client felt that way, we can put that “child-self” into the background for now while we address the “grown-up” aspect of your client (the un-regressed part of your client). In essence, we are going to do a “reality check” on the perceptions of the child in that first event that created the life-long sense of fear and anxiety. To do this, I like to ask grown-up something like, “Boy, it sure would have been nice if you knew then what you know now, right?”

To keep things really simple for the sake of this article, let's say that in the first event something happened, and the child perceived that her mother was not there for her, and she became very afraid and had the thought, mother does not care for me, or she does not love me, or any other thought that leads to the thought that she might die or be hurt physically in that situation. This creates a belief in the child's subconscious mind that if her mother is not going to be there for her, then she is always in danger and may be hurt or die.

When I ask the grown-up, “Boy, it sure would have been nice if you knew then what you know now, right?” I can demonstrate without a doubt to the child that she did not die in that event, or the grown-up would not be here talking to me and the child. In addition, in the vast majority of cases, either the child is not hurt in any way in that first event, and if she is, it is not nearly as bad as she feared. When you are a child, literally everything is bigger and more likely to be misunderstood. This age regression reality check replaces those misperceptions.

Next in the Informed Child Technique, we can have grown-up go “back in time” and be with that child before that first event occurs, and tell her (what adult wished she knew back then) that she is not going to be hurt and that she is not going to die, and anything else that the child needs to hear that will enable her to go through that first event without being negatively affected by it, and maybe even benefitting from it.

With that new information we can then take the informed child through that first event not thinking those untrue thoughts; like, I'm going to die, or I'm going to get hurt. So, this time through the event, her perceptions and thoughts are based in reality. We have literally “reality checked” the event. The changes are based on the truth about the event and that truth came from the adult aspect of your client, and as they say, “hindsight is 20/20”.

As the child accepts this new truthful information, this hindsight provided by the grown-up creates insight in the child. This insight overwrites the misperceptions of the child regarding that event, and everyone involved including her mother and herself.

NOTE: This insight forces the mind of your client into a state of reorganization as it accepts this new insight.

In order to crystalize these insights into firmly held beliefs in the subconscious mind, I created the following process; once the insight has been accepted, I have my clients put an ending on these sentences:

1. I have changed because now I know...
2. I have changed because now I feel...
3. So now I can...

I developed these statements, I call the “I've Changed Statements” which are to be completed by your client in order to make clear the changes that are being made and so that I can use the state of hypersuggestibility to attach hypnotic suggestions for what the client came in for. In this case feeling safe and “normal” in everyday situations.

I generally have my client complete these statements three different times in the session:

1. first at the time the insight is generated and accepted (when the Informed Child Work is done),
2. then once again before my client emerges while in the un-regressed state and
3. then immediately after emerging my client from hypnosis.

Any time insight is generated in hypnosis, it creates hypersuggestibility, but you must know how to use it when it is created. Basically, the hypersuggestibility process is created and used in this way detailed below.

1. A powerful insight must be generated in the hypnotic state like in the example above where the child learns that she is safe in an earlier event in her life and her fears are not based in reality. This shifts what she is thinking and how she is feeling in that situation, in this case from fear to feeling safe and secure.
2. That change needs to be stated outright by your client causing her to crystalize it into a firmly held belief and take ownership of the new way of thinking, feeling and ultimately a new way of behaving as well.
3. In this example the client would say something like this...
   1. I've changed because now I know that I get to grow up and I'm safe.
   2. I've changed because now I feel safe and secure.
   3. I've changed because now I can feel calm and relaxed in any normal situation!
4. Those statements are said by the client at the first event in the age regression (or wherever the insight is gained, for example, if you weren't doing age regression but some other insight generating process), then just before emerging your client, and finally right after emerging (which causes your client to take ownership of the change in the post-hypnotic emerged state).
5. Here is where we really use hypersuggestibility in its most effective way... Right after your client makes those three powerful statements, “I've changed because now I know that I get to grow up and I'm safe. I've changed because now I feel safe and secure. I've changed because now I can feel calm and relaxed in any normal situation!”, you can directly and specifically suggest the changes that your client came in to experience.
6. Specifically, we “segue” by stating those three statements and then you suggest plainly and directly the change that is now in effect. It would go like this, “Now that you know that you get to grow up and you are safe. Now you actually feel safe and secure in any normal situation. This change now enables you to feel safe and secure at home, or at work, or any public situation (and so on)”

NOTE: As we get older our firmly held beliefs seem to become more resistant to change, like hardening cement. When we go back to when those beliefs were first formed it is like the cement is soft again and we can write new beliefs that generate new abilities and enable our clients in that “soft” cement.

To wrap this up, I once again want to point out that in order to create hypersuggestibility, one does not have to do age regression work. Any technique that creates insight creates hypersuggestibility. It could be a direct suggestion script that creates insight, metaphor or story work, parts work, and so on.

It is important to recognize when insights are made and to realize as a professional hypnotist that this causes the subconscious mind to have to adapt to that new insight and as such goes into a state of reorganization. When this occurs then your client is hypersuggestible. When this hypersuggestible state occurs, your client needs to specifically state the new belief and the new (and better) feeling generated by it.

Once this is done then then you can attach suggestions related to those changes by doing the following. I call this the “Segue”. Attaching the suggestions to the insights is done by stating something like “You have changed because now you know...” and “You have changed because now you feel...” and finally “So now you can accept these suggestions more powerfully than ever before...” and then you should continue with the suggestions for what your client came in for, e.g., you now feel safe and secure in all normal situations at work in public situations, and so on.

Since I developed and have been teaching and using this hypersuggestibility approach, the hypnotists that I teach, and their clients have reported experiencing much greater success in their hypnosis sessions. I hope you will look into this as well.

LEARN MORE: You can learn more about 5-PATH® Certification Course by going to www.CalBanyan.com and click on HYPNOSIS TRAINING.

You can also access my many free hypnosis training videos by going to www.CalBanyan.com and clicking on FREE HYPNOSIS VIDEOS.