This is an excellent and informative article written by Niy Mahmout about his experiences in applying Hypnosis Without Trance since attending the No-fail Protocol weekend and the Live in London workshops.
Niy has really taken the stuff on and is applying it creatively, so although the article was written for the Hypnosis Without Trance Groupsite, I thought that it would be useful for people following the blog to read too (much of the stuff referenced has been discussed here on the blog). Here are Niy’s words:
It’s been 4 weeks since the excellent HWT and NFP seminars and I’ve tested the protocol on 7 people and had 2 where no phenomena occurred and 5 where it did. I consider all 7 to be successful in teaching me something important, in this and other hypnotic processes.
First is that to be sure of ‘success’ then work on getting the other person to engage in the process. James emphasized this in his seminars and his videos. My first failure taught me how important this is. What is said or done needs to be geared towards obtaining engagement in a process. What gets people engaged in a process? Well, examples could be because they feel there’s some benefit to them; they’re interested to learn something; think it might be fun; interested in finding out what you’ve learned or a multitude of other things. Without this all the words that you say may continue to be just words.
One of my reasons for attending the HWT seminar was to see if it can be usefully adapted for pain management. I had an opportunity last week to ‘experiment’ on a friend who has a chronic knee condition. I attempted to hypnotise him a year ago using a relaxation style induction which he decided wasn’t working and continued with his pills. This saddened me at the time, for him and for me because I didn’t have the skills necessary to manage what was happening. Perhaps there should be more taught about what to do when things don’t go according to the plans as taught in workshops. (During his 2 seminars James covered this situation very well and it all made sense to me and hopefully to all who attended).
Coming back to my friend, the lead up was a chat about a 2 mind model that I learned; conscious/unconscious, internal/external. He piped in with yin and yang and was inputting his own interesting views. He was participating so he was involved or engaged.
I asked if he would like to take part in an interesting experiment where he’d learn more about this 2 mind model. He agreed but I noticed a slight withdrawal, but I knew that he’d get back on track because he did seem genuinely interested..
I started the process as we’d practised at the seminar until I asked him to test whether the fingers or palm were more stuck. He replied fingers but the movements seemed a bit too easy so rather than continue, I took a step back and asked him to imagine that strong glue again and tell me whether he was imagining a sticky type or a hard superglue type. His reply was sticky/tacky, so I asked him to imagine that sticky/tacky glue setting, getting more and more sticky as it set more and that when he could imagine this to test his fingers and palm and to notice in which the glue had set most. The way he struggled with his fingers told me the answer before his lips moved. I was then happy to proceed because I felt confident in his engagement in the process, which was the reason for taking that step back.
(James encouraged us to use language like ‘just allow your-self to be fully absorbed/involved/engaged’ and I have used these phrases with success, but perhaps using their own words or phrases just adds something to the process. If you hear them talk about being engrossed in something then engrossed is what to use. If they say that they’re glued to the box when they’re watching footy, then assume you’ve landed on your feet for the hand-stuck process, lol.
Anyway, all the phenomena we practised producing happened, including name amnesia, whilst he was still stuck to the seat. I then instructed him that as his name returned, his focus could move to the knee and to imagine the inflammation there having a colour and shape. It was red and round. I asked him to notice how bright the red was and whether round was a ball/disk shape and what size it was. Finally, I took the ball and moved it away slowly and told him to notice what happens as the ball moves further away and appears smaller and dimmer. The results were remarkable for both of us. I moved the ball further and nearer until he managed to do it himself. I explained that pain is subjective and he could choose the level that he needed to remind him of his condition.
He called me 2 days later to say that he’d been practising moving the ball and that he was amazed.
So yes, James HWT protocol can work with pain management and probably a host of other phenomena. As he said, “be creative with it”.
Some folks will say that this is nothing new as all I’d done is eyes open hypnosis with some NLP techniques like submodalities included, to produce a ideomotor response. People with language pattern skills can reframe these things anyway they want. But the way it quickly produces a strong phenomena acts as a far greater convincer and belief change than say, eyes-lock or finger magnets and the whole approach of checks and balances ensures a high success rate. Its also extremely practical as it can be used almost anywhere and people are far more willing to go along with you if their eyes are open and they’re aware of their involvement with what’s going on. Finally, for me at least, its fun.
I’m re-reading Monsters and Magical Sticks by Steven Heller & Terry Steele which is a wonderful book and will certainly increase my understanding of input and output systems and sensory acuity.
James also recommends learning clean language and cold reading and it would be great if anyone on the HWT group has any knowledge and ideas about how all these can compliment each other.
Thanks for taking the time to read this long write-up of one of my experiences with this method and please do take the time to write your own as I genuinely want to know.
I would love to have your comments on this, and I’m sure Niy would love to get your feedback too, so please do give us your comments!
All the very best
James
Hypnosis Without Trance 