By now, you may have realized that we enter many different states of consciousness throughout the day. You are “different” when you are reading, from when you are lying on the beach, or when watching t.v., working, talking at a party, riding an elevator, driving; and the list goes on. Think of how different you were during your last drive, when you were “inside” having some experience, as you approached a red light. Suddenly, the car had stopped…and so did you!

While all of your experiences are communicated through your senses as states of consciousness, then stored unconsciously, they are retrievable. And in order for this to happen, you must access the state of consciousness (with all its attendant sensory input) in which the information was provided. We often do just that. During the course of a day you communicate in many states of consciousness, altering incoming information with a variety of accessed unconscious states for the purpose of learning, remembering good and bad feelings, daydreaming, creating, exercising, working, intimacy, and many other regular activities. Professional individuals use “hypnosis” by communicating with people’s various states of consciousness– accessing and amplifying one or more of them– (often called, “trance”) in order to teach them to have more choices, relate more effectively with family and associates, learn new skills, as well as eliminate unwanted behavior patterns.
Perhaps no individual has had a greater impact in the area of hypnosis than Dr. Milton Erickson. At the very least, the current renaissance of therapeutic hypnosis owes a great deal to Erickson’s contributions. In Ericksonian hypnosis, it is presupposed that there are unconscious states which contain resourceful and valuable life-learnings that could benefit a person when properly accessed. Furthermore, unlike traditional views of hypnosis as a special state that only some are capable of experiencing meaningfully, Erickson believed all people experience trance spontaneously and routinely during their day. Thus, hypnotic techniques are “naturalistic.” That is, conversational, attention-absorbing, but gentle, patterns capable of joining an individual’s states of consciousness, that are selected and amplified for trance work.
A question which often arises when one thinks of hypnotic treatment is, “once someone’s in a trance, then what happens?” It is not enough to simply to amplify a state of consciousness, thereby creating a trance. That would be like administering anesthesia but not performing surgery. The “surgery” in hypnotic treatment is often called, “utilization.” This is generally accomplished by first inducing a trance, then accessing resources (strengths) from other states of consciousness, and connecting them to the problem, either directly or indirectly. Utilization is often accomplished through a variety of techniques. One is the anecdote, often called, “therapeutic metaphor”. This pattern actively encourages an individual to identify with, and learn from a story, since it is introduced in a way which matches his state of consciousness, and is relevant to his needs.
Another approach involves inserting specific words or phrases into a routine conversation, while in trance, designed to build new associations that lead to the expectation of positive change. For example, “You are reading this hoping that I might say something that would…allow yourself to feel better about your understanding of hypnosis…” As you might imagine, there are many other patterns that occur during utilization, that help people achieve desired outcomes. A useful assumption shared by these patterns is that there is an appropriate state of consciousness for any desired response to occur naturally. The task is one of finding or developing it through utilization techniques in hypnosis. A common misperception among people unfamiliar with hypnosis is that they are out of control, or are being controlled in some mysterious way. Nothing could be further from the truth, as this concern discounts the individual’s ability to respond in unique and resourceful ways to suggestions. As most human experience is stored unconsciously, there is greater “flexibility” of choices available, than exists in our conscious awareness. Thus, when accessing unconscious states, which may contain resources useful for achieving a desired change, we invoke comparatively more “control” than in a singular conscious state, where our choices seem limited, and change is not forthcoming. The greater one’s understanding, the more choices are available from which a person can gain control and make useful responses. Having been enlightened about hypnosis, you need only let your unconscious be your guide.