The two basic styles of hypnosis
As you begin the the process of learning how to hypnotise, you’ll need to understand that there are two basic styles of hypnosis:
- Permissive style
- Authoritative style
The permissive style is the more usual style in therapeutic situations where the ‘client’ needs to feel like they are in control of the situation before they can begin to relax. Attending a hypnosis session for the first time can be a scary thing because of all the mythology that a person probably has about hypnosis.
The permissive style is about giving a person choice. For example, you might say to a person “You may or may not begin to notice that you’re breathing is beginning to relax”. That sounds like a simple sentence doesn’t it? But that simple sentence is stacked with enough hypnotic stuff to spend a whole afternoon explaining. But right now, I just want you to notice that you are offering choice – choice that the person may or may not notice. There is no threat here, no ‘I’m in control and you have no choice’ implication to the conscious mind of the client.
The authoritative style was common in the 1950’s and 1960’s and relied on the ‘aura’ and ‘mystique’ of the hypnotist. Stage hypnotists, some street hypnotists and even some hypnotherapists still use this style. It uses a much more direct authoritative command-like interaction, e.g. “you will notice how your eyes just want shut right now”.
The more congruent a hypnotist is in their ‘authoritative’ style (everything from tonality, dress, voice, style of language, body stance etc.) the more chance there is that the authoritative style has of working. It all reinforces in the mind of the person being hypnotized that the hypnotist is in charge here. The person believes their own myth that the hypnotist is ‘doing something’ that they have no control over – and that is exactly what happens. Of course, this is exactly what you want to leverage in certain situations where the ‘mystique’ needs to be maintained – e.g. a stage show.
So, as you begin to learn how to hypnotize someone, you may or may not begin to realize that there are different styles of hypnosis!!!!! (That was permissive by the way if you didn’t already get that 
)
An exercise for you in learning what is more ‘natural’ for you is to, in everyday life, is to ask someone you know to do something in a permissive manner (where you offer choice) and to also command it authoritatively.
e.g. “Could you go and buy a loaf of bread for me?” vs. “Buy a loaf of bread for me please” – an inane example perhaps, but the first is more permissive while the other is a command. Actually, they are really both commands, the first one only seems like there is more choice, but your relationship with the person and their sense of obligation is likely a ‘bind’ on them to obliging you anyway.
We’ll come back to some of those other hidden hypnotic secrets hidden in simple language in a future post in our learn to hypnotize series.
Themocracy
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