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not see if you can produce an involuntary activation of these?
Hint: Focus attention on breathing; then on the sound of the out breath, then suggest a slight sighing
might develop, then increase its intensity - probably some sound like "aah". (A feedback loop, as usual,
in which a slight change leads to expectation of a greater change which leads to more change, and so on.)
Once you have achieved this (which is the equivalent of an involuntary movement of a finger) you might
start to look for the involuntary activation of the verbal system.
Hint: Start with the simple sound that you have obtained. And then suggest that there will be some
involuntary motion of the lips or tongue which will change the sound. (You might then get a "ma" or
"aa-oo-aa".) Then after a while you might introduce something like the following into your script, "Now
that your mouth can form all sort of sounds, it can also form words. I wonder what words will come? Do
not control them. Just let a word come with each breath." And in this way you can gradually get the
sounds to form words.
The formation of sentences and verbalising of meaning involves a higher order system again, but you
might like to aim for that. It is the verbal equivalent of the creativity of the visual imagination that you
have already explored. Or it is the equivalent of automatic writing, as above. You might just say, "Now
those words are the building blocks of phrases. Just let them come more and more freely. There will be
no meaning at first, but they will gradually, of their own accord, start to come together to make more and
more sense. You can listen to them with interest, as if someone else is talking. Do not try to change them
yourself, though."
Occasionally these methods of opening up channels of communication which are not under conscious
control will give access to some high level system in the mind which has not been in communication
with the conscious centres for some reason. This can be of great importance in a therapeutic context, but
you would be best to avoid such things if you are not working under supervision.
Sensory systems
At the lowest level you will be simply aiming to increase or decrease the activity of the wide range of
sensory systems that the body is provided with. (Try to forget the phrase "the five senses" - it involves
only a rough categorisation)
You have already done this at a simple level: you have for example aroused a sensation of touch - of a
slight tickle, when there is nothing there, and in relaxing a hand or arm you will probably have reached a
point where it is unable to feel whatever it is that it is resting on. In that way you will have on the one
hand made the system so inactive that it is signalling nothing, or so active that it is signalling something
that is not really there.
Here are just a few ideas of other goals you might have, working simply with the palm or back of a hand,
with the eyes closed. Aim at getting the subject to feel the sensation of something moving on the hand.
Then of fur or silk or leather or paper or metal. Then of a glove on the hand. Then heat or cold. Then
pain or numbness. Strictly speaking the sensors from touch are different from those for temperature and
those for pain, so you are really working with three distinct senses here, united by all relating to the hand.
Hint: A good starting point for the above is to suggest (as usual taking time), "Now in a while I am
going to draw a thin thread over your hand. Just signal when you can feel it." (You will not actually draw
a thread over the hand: the subject will be imagining it.)
Note that you are not then leaving the subject the question of whether or not there is a sensation, but only
when it will appear. It will therefore be expected. And the expectation is always fertile ground in which
the sensation itself will grow.
This principle is used quite often in hypnosis. (As it is in selling! Don't ask the customer, "Do you
want to buy this or not?" but always "Would you prefer the economical model or the one with all the
extras?" or "Will you be paying today or on credit?" - you don't want the customer to be wondering
whether he will buy, only which or when or how.)
Once you have achieved the sensation of the thread it is that much easier to build up to the other
materials. Once these sensations have been noticed you can move quite easily from a feeling of wool or
leather to a glove of the same material. Once you have got the sensation of metal you can start to work on
the idea that the metal is hot or cold. It has been recorded in some people that a redness will develop in
the place that you suggest the heat to be. To produce the feeling of cold it might work better with some to
go for the idea that there is ice on the hand. Pain can be imagined if you suggest that a needle will be
used, but touch only with something like a pencil. If the person is expecting the needle then the message
from the nerves will be interpreted by higher centres as the touch of a needle. And the thing can work the
other way. If a light touch is firmly expected then even if you pinch quite hard it will only be felt as a
light touch.
NB However, I do not recommend aiming at inducing unpleasant experiences of any kind. The
reason from your own point of view is that it will tend to produce a more and more unwilling
attitude on the part of your friend who is acting the subject.
Notice that whatever is being "sensed" in the above instances is in fact an hallucination, meaning
something that appears in the mind as a sensation of a real thing but is only a real sensation.
Of course those same senses can be activated and altered in any other part of the body in rather similar
ways. As an opposite to the imaginary glove on the hand you might like to try to produce the sensation of
a naked foot in one that in fact is safely in a shoe.
Hint: a visualisation involving being on the beach might help here, with suggestions of a slight breeze.
You might see if the suggestion of some material being drawn over or placed on the forehead is more or
less readily felt than on the hands.
In a pet lover you might well find it easy to get a very strong sense of a pet lying in the lap: this will
include feelings of pressure, or warmth and (if it is a cat purring) even a slight vibration.
For all-body sensations you may already have discovered that it is not hard in many people to evoke the
feeling of warmth that lying in the sun commonly produces. You could also try the feeling of warmth
plus gentle pressure that lying in bed will bring, or the feeling of water flowing all over you that
swimming will bring.
Taste and smell
These two senses are closely related, so that in fact much of what we think of as taste is really sensed by [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]