Hypnotic Depth: It’s All About Selective Thinking

If you think you know what defines the depth of hypnosis, you are most likely wrong. The current “wisdom” among hypnosis experts is that the reduction of brain waves or the ability to produce anesthesia is what hypnotic depth is all about. I will totally disagree. Being able to measure neural frequencies (eg, detecting that a subject has moved from Beta to Alpha to Theta) or finding that a medical or dental procedure can be performed without pain or discomfort can be a measure of depth and , not really defining it though. Now, before my trusted friends and colleagues start complaining again that I’m splitting hairs semantically, let me explain.

In the 1950s, stage hypnotist and radio personality turned medical and dental hypnosis trainer David Elman said that the essential elements of hypnosis are the suspension of the critical faculty AND the allowance of selective thinking. Studying Elman’s scripts and listening to his original course tapes, I came to the epiphany after many years that it’s all about “selective thinking.” Brainwave levels and state of anesthesia are simply the results of successful hypnosis, not “essentials.”

Having worked with Gerald Kein, the world’s leading authority on Elman hypnotherapy, along with my other studies and writing about Elman, I was fascinated by the fact that hypnosis does not require trance. In fact, I soon realized and appreciated that whatever results can be obtained in trance work can almost always be obtained without a trance induction. Consider awakening hypnosis, for example. Although almost all of Elman’s training focuses on brief, rapid, or instantaneous trance induction, rarely does anyone fully relate this to hypnotic phenomena.

Trance and relaxation is NOT the same as hypnosis. It can coexist and facilitate the hypnotic process, but it IS NOT a requirement. It’s about time hypnotists (of course, aside from the stage hypnosis variety, most of whom already understand this idea) wake up from their “trance” and finally learn what hypnosis is all about. Let’s look at the classic Elman technique.

In his standard protocol, Elman would suggest relaxation, asking the subject to close their eyes and then relax them to the point where they can’t open them or pretend they can’t open them. (That final statement serves both to help them suspend their critical faculty and to start selective thinking.) The following suggestions for physical relaxation, composition, and mental relaxation are other examples of iterative selective thinking. My point is that the “deeper” the topic, the more effective selective thinking becomes. Once the therapy part begins (to include the use of post-hypnotic suggestions), selective thinking involves suggestions related to the intention of the session.

How does this relate to Ericksonian hypnosis? If you look closely at his techniques, such as linking and dividing, confusion, metaphors, and advanced linguistic patterns, you will see that, like Elman’s suspension of the critical faculty, Erickson’s methods also tend to inhibit the functioning of the prefrontal cortex. This again allows the therapist to guide the patient through selective thinking. The rivalry between these two teachers was probably based too much on ego, pride and semantics and not on genuine differences.

Is selective thinking merely suggestive? Yes and no. Selective thinking is a process; suggestion is the content. Therefore, I “suggest” that you look at the state of hypnosis as a sliding variable on a straight-line continuum with critical faculty resistance (i.e., “left prefrontal cortex tyranny”) at one end and the level of the efficacy of selective thinking in the other. As the critical domain fades, selective thinking becomes more powerful. Any resulting trance, slowing of brain waves, or anesthesia is simply a phenomenon resulting from hypnosis rather than a requirement. Looking at it this way gives us the possibility to understand the true power of hypnosis. (This is why wakeful hypnosis works. It relies on a rapid reduction, or destruction, of the critical faculty and an equally rapid development of a high level of selective thinking.)

So why is it important? Don’t we get the same results? Again, yes and no. The real power of hypnosis has to do with brain sector inhibition and the release or discovery of latent potential AND the enhancement of the mind/body connection. Understanding the potential capabilities presented by focusing on enhancing the effectiveness of selective thinking to consciously inhibit and/or trigger physical and mental phenomena may very well define the future of hypnosis as a healing art.