Hypnotic Language E-Book

John Burton

• Herausgeber: Crown House Publishing
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 503

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2009

Beschreibung

Milton Erickson's complex language patterns form a major part of most therapists' work. This remarkable book develops the language further and includes comprehensive scripts and case studies. "Should be part of every therapist's tool chest." Jeanie Phillips MA LPC

Leseprobe

Hypnotic Language

Its Structure and Use

John J. Burton EdD & Bobby G. Bodenamer DMin

Contents

Title Page

Foreword

Preface

Part One: The Three Facets that Allow the Mind to Be Susceptible to Hypnotic Language Patterns

Introduction: Hypnosis and the Cognitive Pathways It Travels

Chapter 1 The Conscious–Unconscious Mind Split

Chapter 2 Cognitive Factors in Hypnotic Language

Chapter 3 Gestalt Perceptual Principles in Hypnotic Language

Part Two Case Examples Showing the Application and Effect of Hypnotic Language Patterns

Chapter 4 Language Patterns Addressing Beliefs, Behaviour and Possibilities

Chapter 5 Language Patterns Addressing Time Orientation

Chapter 6 I: Language Patterns Addressing PerceptionII: Language Patterns Addressing States and Behaviours Through Perceptual Shifts

Chapter 7 Language Patterns Addressing Spiritual Matters

Chapter 8 Language Patterns Addressing States of Mind–Emotion

Chapter 9 The Milton Model of Language

Bibliography

Index

Copyright

Acknowledgements

I would like to extend my gratitude to the fine people at Crown House Publishing. This includes Martin Roberts, Bridget Shine and Matt Pearce whose patience and skill allowed this book to become a reality.

I would also like to extend my appreciation to Bob Bodenhamer for immeasurable contributions and guidance.

I would also like to thank Michael Hall for sharing his mind, giving feedback and for his written contributions to this work.

I would like also to acknowledge Milton Erickson for his crucial contributions toward making hypnosis what it is today. What a fine model for combining genius with compassion.

Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to the source and foundation who makes all available.

John Burton EdD 2000

Foreword

Imagine meeting someone on the street or in a coffee shop, or at your office tomorrow who whispers something important to you. They take you aside for just a moment and say,

“You can, by just saying some words, send people into wild and wonderful places and give them altered experiences, and possibly change their lives, empower them with new abilities, and much more.”

Would you believe that person? Would such magic and power seem possible? By just talking?

There is a language that makes this possible. We call it the language of trance. Such language invites us out of any present moment and into a state of the mind where we ‘go inside’ and see, hear, feel, smell, taste and experience an altered reality. Did I say, ‘altered’? That’s probably over-stating it. ‘Different’ may be more accurate. We call this state ‘hypnosis’ yet that too miscommunicates more than it communicates. Because, as Dr Burton will show in this book of language patterns, we cannot not experience trance-states. To ‘think’ about another time and place is to transition out of this moment and to hallucinate another time, whether past or future.

That language hypnotizes, you know well when you think about it. Any good storyteller, minister, mother, novel, etc. can invite us out of the present and into a world constructed in our mind. From the outside all of this seems mysterious. Even spooky. From the outside the person seems to be asleep (hence the word hypnotism). But from the inside, ah, from the inside—your mind is never more alert and awake, more in control and expansive. And it all occurs upon the wings of language.

But how does language do this? Wherein lies the magic? What kinds of words facilitate this near magic-like process? This book will first of all give you an extensive understanding of some of the mental or cognitive processes that make it so and then will put into your hands some of the most powerful hypnotic language patterns. In this work, John uses his extensive knowledge of Neuro-Linguistics and Neuro-Semantics—his field of expertise—child developmental psychology, Gestalt psychology and even Meta-states.

Meta-states? You know, a state of mind or emotion that relates to another state as when you begin to feel really curious about learning about hypnotic language patterns. The learning state is one thing, feeling excited and full of anticipation about your learning is a higher state. And now that you can go in and make sense of that, I’m sure that you can just as easily appreciate your skills at feeling excited as you expect to expand your skills in the process of this learning, can you not?

If that doesn’t invite you to trance out, we only have to add another level, or seven more. Each shift upwards invites you into a hypnotic state as the referents do not exist ‘out there,’ but ‘in there’ (imagine me pointing to your head, ah, another invitation to trance!). See, it’s inevitable. Accordingly, Dr Burton along with Dr Bob Bodenhamer have taken Meta-states as the newest NLP model and used it to articulate many new language patterns in the context of assisting people to make the kind of transformations in their mental maps that will give them a new lease on life.

Should you buy this book? Yes, of course, if you’re interested in how language works its magic. Yes, if you’re interested in becoming more playful with your language skills. Yes, if you’re interested in inducing powerful states that can enable others to become more empowered and skilled, buy this book. In fact, it seems to me that from psycho-hypnotists, psychotherapists, coaches, consultants, to teachers, writers, trainers, marketers, advertisers, parents, lawyers, politicians, many will want to get their hands on this volume. But that’s just a suggestion.

L. Michael Hall PhD Colorado

Preface

In 1996, I received a call from John Burton who had an interest in taking the Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) training that I offered. I learned that John worked as a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Greenville, SC. This thrilled me, as I love training counselors in the skills of NLP. Soon John was with me in the NLP summer practitioner training course.

We were not very far along in the training before I realized that in John Burton I had a unique student. John brought with him immense knowledge and keen insight. I learned that John received a doctorate from Vanderbilt, a highly acclaimed university in Nashville, Tennessee. John did his doctoral studies primarily in the field of developmental psychology.

During the NLP master practitioner training, I and the other students stood in awe as John began delivering hypnotic language patterns. I have had other students who could outdo their trainer with hypnotic languaging. But, never, and I mean never, have I heard language patterns flow from a person as they did from John.

John comes up each year and teaches the hypnosis training of my master practitioner training. He was up last December for my present students. Three months have passed since John last taught and those students are still talking about John Burton and their amazement at his skill.

Thanks to Crown House Publishing, you now have access to his genius. I know that on the front of this book you have both our names as the author. However, I cannot lay claim to the genius of this book. Inside these covers you will find numerous examples of ‘doing hypnosis’. Most of the patterns come from actual client sessions.

Also, in the first three chapters you will learn the ‘how’ of hypnosis. Indeed, you are in for a real treat and for an understanding of ‘how’ hypnosis works based on the latest in the cognitive sciences and from developmental psychology.

Indeed, I am honored to have been just a small part of this work.

Bobby G. Bodenhamer DMin

Part One

The Three Facets that Allow the Mind to be Susceptible to Hypnotic Language Patterns

Introduction

Hypnosis and the Cognitive Pathways it Travels

Suppose you treat a mistake, any mistake, like an oil spill at sea? What then? The oil recovery team will place barriers around the oil to contain the spill. As you imagine this, notice how the ocean outside the containers remains clear and clean. Also, knowing that oil is lighter than water and floats, resting only on the surface. This allows the water underneath the oil to remain clear and clean.

This means that the only task remaining is to remove the oil by skimming the oil from the sea… so that you can see it disappear slowly or quickly and as you do, noticing the feeling as the oil departs to leave more and more sea to see and feel…the clear and clean return. Now, how will you enjoy the sea sight as you set your sights on your future?

I used the above hypnotic language pattern with a client who came in complaining of depression. He had a foolproof way of creating depression. Any time he made a mistake he would generalize from the mistake and contaminate his whole self. He would conclude, ‘I made a mistake, therefore I am a bad person’.

Does that sound familiar? He was an expert in making a bad person out of himself. He would stew for days in self-criticism, which resulted in constant feelings of depression. A vicious circle of self-criticism, pessimism and self-depreciation would put him in and keep him in a state of depression. He had the depression strategy down pat. Once he heard this pattern, it changed his way of viewing his mistakes.

From this point on, he saw any mistakes he made as isolated errors and relied on his positive memories of his many successes to nullify these mistakes. Instead of generalizing from his mistake to the whole of himself, he generalized to the part making the error and thereby brought his successful self to bear on this part. In doing this, he thus nullified any depression (a Meta-stating process—more about Meta-states later).

He reported in our next session how he had made some errors, but was not upset by them, rather he went right on working toward solutions. He stated that, for a change, he was enjoying being in a good mood and that he was feeling very competent. That was our last session.

A follow-up over six months later revealed that he continued feeling good and no longer had any of those self-criticism spells. He even began resuming some of his favorite hobbies that he’d given up while trying so hard to prove his competence.

What happens in the mind that empowers it in such a way that it can hear a few hypnotic words, and the listener turns her world totally around? You will find out as you learn the concepts in these first three introductory chapters.

All communication invites the receiver into a hypnotic trance.

In this text, a hypnotic state or trance refers to a focusing of attention on a thought, idea, concept, thing, etc. which excludes all other focusing on anything else.

It is important to recognize that all communication invites the receiver into a hypnotic trance. Whenever we make a statement, the person hearing our statement cannot help but respond to those words and to the thoughts that they stimulate. They will connect some meaning to what we say, and, at least for a moment, as they focus on that meaning, it puts them into a state—a hypnotic state of inward focus. When they focus on the meaning that they give to our statement for that moment, they enter trance.

In this text, a hypnotic state or trance refers to a focusing of attention on a thought, idea, concept, thing, etc. which excludes all other focusing on anything else. Now, as we focus on just one chunk of data, we are able to move or transport that chunk to another. In effect, we take the first thought and apply it to another thought.

For instance, if I have a problem and, during hypnosis, my focus moves from my problem to focusing on a resource for healing my problem, I can so focus on the resource that I realize its ability to solve my problem. Then, I can move that resource to the problem and solve my problem by putting new meaning to the problem (Meta-stating). The process resembles using a computer to put up a picture of a person’s face on the screen and then ‘try on’ different hairstyles or colors. In hypnosis you can take the problem to the infinite collection of possibilities and select the one that works for you.

The content of the problem becomes open to change from the new information that exists in our memories or imagination. This information resides in the unconscious mind. Trance permits taking conscious mind material (the problem in this example), cut off from the unconscious mind, and integrating it with the rich resources of the unconscious mind (the resource). To distinguish conscious from unconscious mind you could think of your conscious mind as represented by where you are physically, right now, as you read this. Your unconscious mind is everywhere else in the universe. And since your response to this statement is a trance, just imagine the possibilities.

Chapter One

The Conscious–Unconscious Mind Split

This book explores the function of three particular factors that allow the mind to be susceptible to hypnotic language. These three factors are the conscious–unconscious mind split, the cognitive style of processing information that we rely on during our childhood years and the perceptual principles of Gestalt psychology. After describing these concepts and their dynamics, we will explain the role they each play in generating hypnotic language. This will allow us to identify and understand the construction, purpose and effect of hypnotic language.

The bulk of the text consists of hypnotic language patterns that will illustrate these three principles. We will explain the logic and purpose of these language patterns. Additionally, case examples will show the application and effect of these language patterns. Hypnotic language rarely provides the entire solution to a client’s problem; rather it may provide a sort of linguistic loosening or tightening device. This means that in the process of arriving at a solution, hypnotic language provides this loosening device that allows the client to release rigid thoughts, emotions or behaviors.

Hypnotic language rarely provides the entire solution to a client’s problem; rather it may provide a sort of linguistic loosening or tightening device.

Hypnotic language may also provide the final tightening after a mental, emotional or behavioral shift to hold the change in place. And certainly, at times, hypnotic language may truly stimulate the full change process. This now leads to identifying and explaining the concept of hypnotic language through the three facets that allow the mind to be susceptible to hypnotic language.

The Conscious–Unconscious Mind Split

Most forms of communication create a trance. It happens when we develop an exclusive focus on the message that the communicator is sending to the receiver. Communication occurs through any one of the five senses alone, or in combination.

Consider the chef who creates a collection of flavors and textures for your palate. If prepared properly, you will lapse into a trance filled with delight over the flavors, texture and other aspects of the culinary masterpiece. You will want more and will probably return to that restaurant. Even the invitation to partake in the gustatory trance involves trance through the visual and olfactory and, at times, auditory senses. The foods you choose and the style of foods you prefer come to be so, in part, because the chef succeeded in ‘trancing’ or entrancing you. Of course, while in this trance you will decide if the experience is satisfying enough for you to want to repeat it in the future. But a trance must happen before you determine the quality of the experience.

The way all communication involves trance holds true for your other senses. Consider having a massage from a masseuse. The pathway to the intended relief travels through a trance state. You miss the message of the massage if your mind wanders from the physical sensations to some task in your past or future. One of the reasons some people buy the clothes they wear is because of the way the clothes feel on their skin (kinesthetic buyers). Before purchasing they will feel the material with their fingers and evaluate if the fabric feels right to them. This evaluation involves a light trance as this person focuses on the ‘feel’ of the material and then imagines what it will feel like when they wear that piece of clothing.

Music easily induces an auditory trance-state. The musician’s ability to induce a trance through music determines whether or not the listener accepts the music. Music-induced trance makes for one of the most popular and easily accessed kinds of trances. Lovers of music spend millions of dollars each year buying music just because it induces an enjoyable trance within them. There are even certain sounds that induce a trance and pre-determined response. Various bells, whistles and sirens automatically activate a certain response. Some research indicates that various types of background music can encourage a person to buy more in a store or to eat more in a restaurant than normal.

Think about trances induced through the olfactory (smell) sense. Remember the enticing scent of a perfume or cologne. Or recall the emotionally warming aroma of bread baking. What about the concept of aromatherapy? This treatment banks on the trance inducing ability of scents for improving health and well-being.

Scents for the sense to make cents, how do all those words I sent to you sound?

Certainly we do not want to overlook trance induced through visual means. The visual artist, whether painter in any medium, sketch artist or photographer seeks to induce a trance by getting the attention of those who view her work. Go into an art gallery and watch the intense observers go into trance. If the visual aid propels you into a trance and in this trance your experience appeals to your emotions, you may buy the work of art. And what is very often the first catalyst of attraction between two eventually romantically involved people? Before you meet someone, what you see and then think provides the motivation for getting to know this person.

No doubt you can think of many other examples of how communication through the senses produces a trance in the receiver. If effective, the receiver of the communication goes into a trance. Consider these questions:

♦ What features make some communication more effective than other communication for inducing a trance?

♦ What makes the receiver of linguistic communication respond to the invitation and go into trance?

♦ What takes place while one is in trance that makes this form of communication produce change in the receiver?

Hypnotic language presupposes a conscious mind and a rich resource filled unconscious mind.

To answer these questions we first explore the mental ingredients that play a role in hypnotic trance. Hypnotic language presupposes a conscious mind and a rich resource-filled unconscious mind. Another way of viewing the ‘split-mind’ involves what I refer to as primary and secondary awareness.

Primary awareness (the conscious mind) consists of your current awareness, in any given moment, your conscious mind. For instance, you are focusing on the words on this page right now. This is primary awareness. Secondary awareness (the unconscious mind) consists of all the other information you have gathered throughout your life, but do not presently realize in your primary awareness. Secondary awareness refers to the storehouse of information residing in your unconscious mind. You probably were not aware of your right big toe until these words just now called attention to it. Well, your unconscious mind or your secondary awareness knew about it all the time. You just weren’t aware of it consciously.

George Miller (1956) determined the nine value upper limit of your primary awareness. His studies indicated that we can consciously hold 7±2 items in awareness at any given moment of time.

George Miller (1956) determined the nine value upper limit of your primary awareness. His studies indicated that we consciously hold 7±2 items in awareness at any given moment of time. Yet, it would appear that we experience subtle ‘knowings’ that ‘all other information’ resides within. For example, you may get a ‘gut feeling’ that something’s wrong like leaving a stove burner on after leaving your house. You don’t know just what is specifically wrong but you trust this ‘instinct’ and return home to check the stove.

We believe that hypnotic language overwhelms our primary awareness limitations in order to communicate with our secondary awareness.

We believe that hypnotic language overwhelms our primary awareness limitations in order to communicate with our secondary awareness. Secondary awareness represents everything not of primary awareness or everything other than your awareness now. Secondary awareness has knowledge of the complete resource inventory within your conscious and unconscious mind. The style and content of hypnotic language invites your primary awareness to focus upon the content of the spoken words, but then the content exceeds the processing ability of the primary awareness. This results in passing the information to the secondary awareness where everything becomes possible.

The Thalamus and Cortex

Further, it seems that the thalamus and cortex play a role in this primary and secondary awareness. While likely remaining unproven, I will present this position for your consideration. Alfred Korzybski took this position in his class work that initiated the field of general semantics, Science and Sanity (1994 [1941]).

The thalamus serves the role of initial processing site for all incoming sensory information with the exception of the sense of smell—Korzybski’s lower abstraction level.

Some say the sense of smell can trigger a memory faster than the other senses. Perhaps this bypassing of the thalamus is the reason for this. This is an established fact in neurology, as noted by both Bandler and Grinder, in The Structure of Magic and Korzybski in Science and Sanity. After the other senses pass information to the thalamus for general identifying and categorizing, the thalamus then passes the sensory information to various lobes of the cortex for more detailed analysis and complex meaning making.

Support for the role of the thalamus and cortex in simple and complex processing of stimuli comes, in part, from the work of Jean Piaget (1965).

Support for the role of the thalamus and cortex in simple and complex processing of stimuli comes, in part, from the work of Jean Piaget (1965). Piaget studied the cognitive development of many hundreds of children of various ages. His research spanned several decades. One way Piaget studied children’s cognitive development involved observing their ability to process and understand information of varying degrees of complexity. Piaget presented children of different ages with a reasoning problem. He observed how the children understood the variables within the problem and how they manipulated the information to reach their conclusion.

For example, Piaget would show children a photo of two trees. The two trees differed in type and height. Piaget then asked children of different ages which tree was older. Invariably, children below the age of seven, or thereabouts, chose the taller tree as the older. Children older than about seven years of age asked when the trees were planted to find out the age of the trees. The older children had the ability to take more information into account for reasoning. They could do more complex thinking involving simultaneous consideration of different categories of information. The children over seven years of age not only looked at the height of the trees but thought about additional factors that may account for the difference in height. They did this through the higher level (Meta-level) processes of the cerebral cortex.

Data Categories of Complexity

We list here the four different categories of data that represent ever-increasing degrees of mental/cognitive complexity (the capacity of processing more and more complex abstractions—meta-level processes). These categories are nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio.

Nominal data represents itself in all-or-nothing terms. When you place any information within a category or give it a general label it becomes nominal data. Information fitting into this data level includes: winning–losing, pregnant–not pregnant, good–bad, etc. This level of data contains no gray area. Nominal data also evidences itself when a person speaks in all-or-nothing language patterns, i.e. ‘You are either with me or against me’. Some information naturally lends itself to fitting as nominal data (pregnant or not pregnant) and sometimes people force-fit data into the nominal category by ignoring the shades of gray, i.e. ‘You are either with me or against me’.

This nominal perceptual style (way of processing information), or Meta-program in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), limits awareness and choice (see Hall and Bodenhamer, Figuring Out People, 1997a). This type of thinking frequently accompanies limiting beliefs and their consequences. Young children cannot escape this style of thinking due to their cognitive limitations. They cannot simultaneously hold differing or competing ideas so their evaluations of situations become either–or types. When under stress some adults revert to the child-like either–or thinking style.

This style of thinking may also occur in adults when they feel emotional stress. Information within nominal data fits in one of two groups. The information is dichotomized into either–or categories. The details either don’t exist, such as when a woman is pregnant or not pregnant, or they get left out of the evaluation. This leaving out of details is one of the trademarks of personality disordered people. In particular, borderline personalities do a process that is called affective splitting. These people either hate someone or love someone. No middle ground exists. Another example could be someone believing that someone is all good or all bad with no in-between. Reframing as a therapeutic tool relies on this nominal category because it seeks to change the meaning of a circumstance. In doing this, it shifts the meaning from one category to another more resourceful category of meaning. For example, just because you changed some behavior and now someone objects doesn’t mean you have to return to your former ways. It actually means you have successfully changed and that you can now more fully strengthen this new way, reaping the benefits.

Watzlawick, Weakland and Fisch (1974) talk about reframing in these terms:

In its most abstract terms, reframing means changing the emphasis from one class membership of an object to another, equally valid class membership, or, especially, introducing such a new class membership into the conceptualization of all concerned. (p. 98)

Watzlawick et al. (1974) emphasized three aspects related to reframing. They state that our experience of the world is based on categorization of the objects we perceive into classes. The authors also state that once an object is conceptualized as the member of a given class, it is extremely difficult to see it as belonging also to another class. This class membership of an object is called its ‘reality’. Thus, anybody who sees it as the member of another class must be mad or bad.

Once an object is conceptualized as the member of a given class, it is extremely difficult to see it as belonging also to another class. This class membership of an object is called its ‘reality.’

Finally, what makes reframing such an effective tool of change involves frame stability. That is, once we perceive the alternative class membership(s), we cannot so easily go back to the trap and the anguish of a former view of ‘reality.’

The second category for evaluating the complexity of mental processing ability is that of ordinal data. Ordinal data provide a way of ranking the complexity of information in terms of the increasing or decreasing of some quality within the data. Ordinal data compare stimuli and generate an order or rank using relative comparisons from within the group.

As an example, when children run a race they receive recognition in terms of where they are placed at the finish. Ordinal data reveal which child ran faster than another child, though all the children ran. The child finishing second is not twice as fast as the child finishing fourth. The positions contain no flexibility or degrees. Positions exist, but not on a sliding scale. Within ordinal data no true zero exists because the data represent comparisons within the group rather than comparisons to an entity outside the group. All data in the group possess some degree of the quality measured, so results are relative. Within individuals, emotional states may receive ranking in terms of being stronger or more intense than other states on a continuum. For one person, anxiety may rank as a stronger state than worry and worry more intense than concern. Or a person may say that they feel more scared than angry about his child being very late coming home one evening.

Interval data include the characteristics of the first two categories and adds more sophistication through more abstraction. Not only do the items within interval data relate to each other in terms of rank, but they also vary in degrees of a relationship with each other. The interval between items has meaning. The details receive attention and become important in evaluating the data. Ranking children who run a race represents ordinal data. But if these children’s race times get included along with their order of finish then interval data occurs. In this case, the race times serve at a Meta-level to the ordinal data (Hall, 1995, 1996, 1997).

In these usages, the term ‘Meta’ simply means ‘above’ or ‘beyond’. The structure of Meta-states naturally organizes them in an ordinal data way. Each higher Meta-state controls the state below it so a sort of built-in ranking happens with Meta-states.

In the Meta-states® model, Hall has drawn upon the work of Alfred Korzybski (Science and Sanity, 1933/1994) and Gregory Bateson (Steps to an Ecology of Mind, 1972). This has led to an understanding of how our brains not only have thoughts about our immediate experiences of the outside world (primary level thoughts) but also thoughts about thoughts (Meta-level thoughts, or Meta-cognition feelings about feelings [Meta-feelings], etc.). Bateson revealed that when we take one thought and then create another thought about that thought, the original thought will experience some modification from the second and higher-level thought. Bateson said higher-level thoughts, i.e. thoughts about thoughts, modulate (change) lower-level thoughts.

For example, I can experience fear about some external experience. From that I will have a certain state of mind. Now, if I become fearful of my fear, what then happens? My fear will intensify. But what if I become calm about my fear? What will then happen? I will certainly experience a different state of mind when I bring fear to bear on fear. Try it out. Think of something that you have some fear about. Now, access a state of calmness and bring calmness to bear on the fear. What happens?

Back to our example with interval data. When a competitor who finishes a race looks at his own placement and then ‘brings to bear’ the collective individual times on his placement in the race, a more complex relationship develops. He Meta-states his individual placement by bringing the other individual times to bear on his placement. This process can drastically change the original thought-feelings he had about his placement. If a racer finishes a race in third place, but in the process broke his personal time record that would certainly change his thought-feelings about being placed third and not first.

How much time did the first place runner finish ahead of the second- or third-place finishers? All of this information ‘brought to bear’ on the time finishes will modulate or change his perception of his finish. These comparisons can also occur between any of the items within the category. Time itself represents interval data. Ten seconds is twice as much time as five seconds and 15 minutes is half as much time as 30 minutes. When a child begins to abstract and have thoughts about thoughts, they have begun to process interval data.

The interval level of data permits hypnotic induction for comparing different data which requires a ‘going inside’ which in turn creates trance.

As a side note, did you find that this interval level of data permits hypnotic induction? Did you go into a light trance when you compared the larger time increment with the smaller and then the smaller with the larger, essentially a switching of perspectives (a going Meta through having thoughts about thoughts)?

The comparison of seconds and minutes went in two directions and involved degrees of difference. Two computations take place at the same time, rank and degree of difference. Prior to this level of data only one computation occurs, either–or or rank order. With interval data degree of difference become perceivable making the continuum more detailed. The interval level of data permits hypnotic induction for comparing different data which requires a ‘going inside’ which in turn creates trance. It is important to remember that in hypnosis, any statement or question that requires a person to ‘go inside’, to respond or to answer will induce trance.

Ratio data make up the most sophisticated type of data. While interval data possess a zero point such as with time and weight, the zero holds no meaning beyond an absence of quantity. Zero represents a void with no measurement below it. You cannot experience ‘below an absence of time’ nor can weight measure below an absence, so we must restrict these to interval data. On the other hand, the data in the ratio category contain the characteristics of the previous three categories and add another dimension. Interrelationships between data occur, but a zero point receives meaning rather than representing just an absence.

Our number system represents ratio data. This category of data possesses a zero point but this zero holds actual meaning within a larger continuum. The zero in our number system can play an influential role in relating to the other data within the group. The later two data categories possess significantly more sophistication. They move beyond just all-or-nothing labels and simple rankings to degrees of relations between data and finally to an infinite continuum. This last category permits awareness of and access to the realm of all possibilities within each of us, as we possess an infinite continuum. Our brains can have thoughts about thoughts ad infinitum.

To illustrate all four data categories in action, consider an example of conflict resolution. Labeling the situation as ‘conflict’ reflects nominal data. Ordinal data come into effect because the people in the conflict each hold a different rank order of importance about the issue in conflict. Otherwise, no conflict could exist since they would be in agreement about the issue. Interval data occur in the value attributed to the various agreement possibilities. In the process of attempting to reach a compromise each side may receive various concessions. These concessions and their various values hopefully add up to what both sides believe is equal. The concessions take the form of interval data because they exist in various amounts and the difference between them has significance. This method of various concessions for each side can bring a solution to a conflict.

Ratio data emerge when a person rises to a higher level of thinking (a Meta-level) that permits seeing all possibilities in no longer pre-arranged or set styles. In rising to this higher level, we in fact ‘step outside’ the system and from a Meta-position view ourselves within the context of the entire system. By stepping outside our selves and the system (conceptual dissociation) we remove ourselves from much of the emotion and operate from a more rational perspective.

By going Meta, the world becomes denominalized (or unfrozen) and all things become possible. This allows new and creative solutions to challenges to arise; even the concept of conflict disappears here.

From that Meta-level or ‘system’s position’, new creative arrangements now become available to us. We can see how each part in the system functions in relation to the other parts. Since we have ‘stepped outside’ the system and ourselves we invite our unconscious mind to access additional resources. When we are in the conflict, we feel it intensely. And, in feeling it intensely we tend to operate off our emotions rather than our intuition thus shutting down many of our unconscious resources. By going Meta, the world becomes denominalized (or unfrozen) and all things become possible. This allows new and creative solutions to challenges to arise; even the concept of conflict disappears here.

Our ability to think in terms of these various data categories develop over time as a matter of development or maturity. In the process of human cognitive development, as chronicled by Piaget, children gain the ability to process data on a more complex level after the age of seven and increase this ability until maximal development around age 11–12. The thalamus seems to remain generally steady in presence and capacity throughout development. The changes apparently occur within the regions of the cortex, the complex data processing center. By this logic, we suspect that the thalamus accounts for lower level functions such as nominal and ordinal data. This then passes the role of more complex processing, interval and ratio data (Meta-level thinking), to the cortex as it develops this ability over the course of child development. The end result is that the structure of hypnotic language invokes the more sophisticated capacities of the cortex for understanding the message. And this development seems to occur after the age of seven up to age 11–12.

The structure of hypnotic language invokes the more sophisticated capacities of the cortex for understanding the message. And this development seems to occur after the age of seven up to age 11–12.

Later, in examining the thought patterns of children under the age of 11, you will find that almost all, if not all, limiting beliefs and states develop out of limited cognitive capacity. This means that, given the child’s brain and maturity development, the early mapping reflected the best the child could do. And yet, it also reflects the thinking level and skills of a child, not of a mature mind.

The point of therapy in general, and hypnotic language in particular, involves transporting the complex thought skills back in time allowing this ability to reprocess ‘the limiting cognitive knot’ in the persons’ psyche. This means that you can use what you know now on what you did not know then. You can update your old maps and create new and better referent experiences.

Nominal and ordinal data, or perceptual styles, can then become interval and ratio. This allows more details to come to light, popping the Gestalt bubble and freeing the person from her previous restrictions. An issue gets shifted from the conscious mind’s limited thinking ability to the unconscious mind’s unlimited thinking ability.

Chapter Two

Cognitive Factors in Hypnotic Language

Anytime you concentrate on any stimuli, you go into a trance for at least a brief time to perceive, encode and store the information. Since this is the process of storing then it also needs to be the process of accessing and altering the stored information.

The next category of factors contributing to hypnotic language’s effectiveness involves the specific cognitive style of processing information. When unconscious parts form or limiting beliefs originate, they result from the brain operating in certain ways (more on beliefs in chapter 4). These parts, or limitations, require particular perception and thought in order to generate and remain supported. Anytime you pay attention to any stimuli you must go into a trance for at least a brief time to perceive, encode and store the information. Since this is the process of storing, then it also needs to be the process of accessing and altering the stored information. As an analogy, if you plan to change the shape of ice, first melt it, then decide what mold you want for the final shape, fill the mold with the water and refreeze it.

Hypnotic language returns the mind to the scene of the crime in a general way. It thaws the belief or state.

In a general way, hypnotic language returns the mind to the scene of the crime. It thaws the belief or state. When beliefs or concepts become rigid, they reach a condition known as nominalized. The word ‘educating’ nominalizes into ‘education’. ‘Depressing’ nominalizes into ‘depression’. In general, nominalizing converts a process into a rigid, frozen condition. Hypnotic language comes in a non-traditional form of language so it denominalizes, or decrystallizes a concept or belief. The hypnotic language itself comes in a denominalized form within the general guidelines of language. To comprehend the language you must dissociate (step outside of, go Meta to) from the rigid nominalized state and associate (be totally present in) into a denominalized state. So just listening or reading and processing hypnotic language dissociates you (a Meta-state) from your present, now former state. Then you can deal with specific content or states with free choice.

Actually, all effective therapy seems to involve hypnotherapy.

The client must associate into the problem state then dissociate from it, access a resource state, associate into it and apply this new resource to the problem state. John Overdurf taught me (BB) what he calls ‘The Mother of All NLP’. I have found his model most helpful and, in my opinion, true to fact. He suggests that all NLP patterns that work will consist of four basic steps. I believe that effective hypnosis follows the same patterns.

1. First the client must associate into the problem state. Most of the time clients are associated into the problem state when they arrive in your office.

2. Second, the hypnotherapist dissociates the client from his problem. This conceptually moves the client to a position Meta to the problem. From a dissociative perspective, the client can see himself within the context of the problem but outside of it. This position allows for the consideration of other alternatives. You cannot solve a problem on the level of the problem. Dissociating moves the client Meta to the problem.

3. Third, from the dissociated perspective, the hypnotherapist directs the client to discover a resource state, associate into it and apply this new resource to the problem state (Meta-stating). It is at this point that the efficient hypnotherapist becomes a Meta-stating genius. Richard Bandler offers a superb example of skill in this area.

4. Finally, the hypnotherapist Future Paces the client with the additional resources. NLP future pacing is a Meta-stating process as the hypnotherapist takes the client with his resources and applies (Meta-states) these to future occurrences. Before the therapy the client would run the old problem state in any perceived future memories but now, with the new resources, the client runs the resource state as he brings it to bear on future-oriented perceptions.

Actually, all effective therapy seems to involve hypnotherapy. Unless you and the client focus exclusively on the issue, a trance, then no real change can happen. No matter the model used in accomplishing ‘The Mother of All NLP’, hypnosis will be involved. Sometimes the process occurs overtly; at other times the induction is covert. Either way, or with any style of therapy, hypnotherapy takes place in the process of change. Hypnotic language represents one of the more direct ways of accessing the seat of change.

For change to happen in therapy, the client must first associate into the problem state. The client then dissociates from it, accesses and associates into a resource state, and applies this resource to the problem state. Sometimes the process occurs overtly, while sometimes the induction is less obvious. But either way, or with any style of therapy, hypnotherapy takes place in the process of change. Hypnotic language represents one of the more direct ways of accessing the seat of change.

More specifically, hypnotic language communicates with the brain in the same language and cognitive style that goes on while forming the problem state or belief.

More specifically, hypnotic language communicates with the brain in the same language and cognitive style that is used while forming the problem state or belief. Almost all, if not all, limiting beliefs about self, others or life form during childhood. By childhood, I mean the first 12–15 years of life.

Communicating with the mind in the way it thought during the formation of the limiting beliefs allows access to, and altering of, the contents of the ‘problem’. Hypnotic language speaks the language that was spoken when the problem formed. Thus, accessing and altering the problem becomes available. If these beliefs or states form in adulthood they still conform to certain laws of misperception—flawed laws you may call them.

Certain perceptual flaws must occur to form a limiting belief or non-resource state. These flaws dominate childhood perception and also take place when developing a ‘problem state’ in adulthood (Burton, 1999). These perceptual flaws of childhood, to be explained shortly, include:

1.Either-or thinking. Thinking in black and white terms, all or nothing. (We have discussed this earlier when we considered the nominal category of the data categories of complexity).

2.Irreversibility. Inability to perceive events as they existed before the trauma.

3.Over-generalizing. Using inductive reasoning to draw conclusions and generalize the conclusion. This is a sort of Meta-level inductive reasoning.

4.Egocentrism. A focusing on self to the exclusion of other points of view.

5.Transductive logic. Two events occurring closely in time receive cause–effect attributes.

6.Centering. Focusing on only one element of a whole, excluding other important details.

7.Inductive logic. Reasoning from a specific event and making general inferences.

8.Animism. Giving inanimate objects life. To a child, ‘Teddy Bear’ is alive and the walls can hear.

The brain utilizes these styles of thinking when forming the limiting belief or problem state in the first place. Hypnotic language also assumes the brain will use these cognitive styles when the hypnotherapist delivers the hypnotic language. And, since the brain utilized these thinking styles in formulating the problem to begin with, when the neurology of the problem is re-introduced to the same type of thinking in the hypnotic language patterns the hypnotherapist will have instant rapport with the problem. This happens because the problem-state will have familiarity with the hypnotic linguistic structure as it activates and conforms to the structure of the problem.

The purpose of therapy is to give old behaviors new choices for obtaining their outcome.

The reframing, or healing, of the problem happens as the linguistic structure of the problem-state is given new and healthier choices for obtaining its original purpose. NLP asserts that all behaviors have behind them a positive intent for the person doing the behavior. Old thinking patterns that developed during the earlier years of life when we had limited resources often fail to serve us in adult life. The purpose of therapy is to give these old behaviors new choices for obtaining their outcome.

We can utilize similar linguistic structures through hypnotic language patterns in accessing those old and limited thinking patterns and give them new choices. By giving them new choices we bring a familiar linguistically structured resource to bear on the problem. Once in place, the new perspective will take center stage and direct the individual to more constructive ways of thinking, feeling and behaving.

Hypnotic language speaks with most of the same characteristics as the perceptual flaws that form the ‘problem’. These perceptual flaws include all or nothing thinking. It is either black or white; there is no gray area. This shows up within the double-bind pattern.

Hypnotic language often uses animism referring to inanimate objects as though they possess human qualities. Animism is another of the traits of childhood thinking. Animism occurs when inanimate objects are given animate qualities. All objects come alive when animism is at play or work. This means that, to a child, the walls do have ears and the shoes under their bed can come to life. Their teddy bear or doll is a real living and breathing being. The shirt in the closet becomes a monster in the night. Cartoons, animated films and children’s books utilize this animism principle to reach children where they think. All of us retain this ability throughout our life. We just put so many layers over it (Meta-states), but it still resides within.

The hypnotic language category of selectional restriction violation draws on this mental skill and harks the listener back to his childhood. Now the root of the limiting belief becomes accessible because the listener associates into his childhood mentality. A person never seems to lose this ability. At most they just place other layers of alternate thinking styles over it.

Irreversibility refers to the inability to remember how things were before the present set of circumstances. When a person is associated into a state it is usually hard for them to remember what they thought or felt before the current state. To assist them in remembering, we need to dissociate them from their current state. Hypnotic language helps a person with limiting beliefs to dissociate and remember how they were before the limitations. When associated into their new resource state, they will often find irreversibility happens again. Since they are associated into a resource state they really won’t care to remember their old limitations.

Over-generalizing happens when a person jumps to conclusions based on limited information. They will notice one piece of a current situation that resembles a previous one and assume they must be the same. This makes up prejudice. The limited awareness of childhood, and often of primary states, results in over-generalizing. The details of a circumstance get ignored because the mind does not consider the differences; instead, it only notices the similarities.

Egocentricity describes yet another quality present in all children. And it shows up in many of the hypnotic language patterns. The egocentric person focuses on self to the exclusion of other points of view. Egocentricity involves an individual believing that their point of view exists as the only point of view thus all others think the same way. The egocentric assumes that their own map of the world governs the thinking that occurs in everyone’s head. Hypnotic language requests an exclusive focus on self and this request occurs in several patterns. Egocentric thought acts as the undercurrent in all hypnotic language as it requests the listener to utilize this skill for application to self.

Children use transductivelogic in explaining events in their world. Children tend to take one specific event and generalize from that specific event. A classic example is of the mother in San Francisco who told her child that if he slammed the door, something terrible would happen. Well, he slammed the door and they had a severe earthquake. Unable to go ‘Meta’ to the experience, the child believed his bad behavior ‘caused’ the earthquake. Don’t you wish you had that kind of power? A child’s mind does.

This type of thinking leads children to conclude that events coinciding in time serve as acceptable explanations for causal agents. The family dog walks into the room just when the child spills his milk. Using transductive logic, the child attributes the spill to the dog. It seems all of us at any age seek knowing cause. In the primitive thinking patterns of children seeking a ‘cause’ feels like it saves them from taking responsibility for their own behaviors.

Asking the ‘why’ question so often seeks for justification for doing the behavior and rarely leads to solving the behavior (See Dennis and Jennifer Chong, Don’t Ask Why?!A Book about the Structure of Blame, Bad Communication and Miscommunication, 1991). Asking ‘why?’ shifts our perspective to the past. Yet we will not find the solution in the past. The solution exists in present mental constructions. No wonder asking why leads to the frustration of unsatisfactory solutions.

The Anatomy of a Problem(From States of Equilibrium by John Burton, forthcoming)

Piaget’s meticulous mapping of these cognitive principles and their function, contributes considerably to understanding how people function, or dysfunction. It may be safe to say that these cognitive styles or Meta-programs that develop in childhood during the first seven years of life, make up the basic ingredients of most, if not all, problem states. It may be safe to say that these cognitive styles or Meta-programs that develop during the first seven years of life make up the basic ingredients of most, if not all, problem states.

Consider the primary state of anger as an example. Anger carries with it impulsive urges much like early childhood developmental stages identified in children. Anger as a primary state exemplifies generalizing (how quickly do you believe the offending person always does this or everyone treats you this way?). If you generalize like this and believe either one, then anger intensifies. If you do not use this generalization then anger decreases.

Centration displays itself when anger and the ‘offending’ event become the sole focus, excluding contrary evidence. You dwell on the other’s ‘offending’ act to the exclusion of all that is contrary. You may then go on a hunt for other similar examples from this person’s past. Irreversibility leads you to further dwelling and loss of memory for the state or person’s behavior prior to the adverse event. You lose awareness of resourceful states to respond from and find it increasingly difficult to focus on anything but the upsetting event. In fact, if you consider contrary evidence, your anger modifies into another state such as confusion or curiosity about the event, becoming solution-oriented instead of self-protecting and vengeful.

Transductive reasoning comes into play when you believe the other person’s behavior caused your emotional state. You notice your anger came right after the other person behaved a certain way or said certain words. You attribute your anger to the other person because that was the event just before your anger started. Never mind what took place in your mind that really generated the anger. Anger and its Meta-programs prevent considering other sources of anger, other points of view or additional information outside the initial perception.

The cognitive styles identified by Piaget build walls around information and beliefs that prevent alternative information from being considered.

We use these same cognitively limited styles when we generate problem states or limiting beliefs. If you alter one of the perceptual pieces the whole irrational structure crumbles. The cognitive styles identified by Piaget build walls around information and beliefs that prevent alternative information from being considered. Therapy in general, and hypnotic language in particular, challenges the narrow thoughts or beliefs and expands awareness. This expanded awareness defeats and removes these cognitive clogs.

Hypnotic Language

Hypnotic language plays to this need to know ‘why’ in several ways. When a person leaves behind former meanings attached to familiar items in her world, she can frequently only tolerate this for a short time. The passion for explanations drives this cognitive hunger. And so she becomes mentally hungry for meaning and structure.

For the therapist this opens up the opportunity to supply new possibilities that the client can use to explain and ‘cause’ new outcomes. At some level the client seeks a tool that can cause her desired outcome. In hypnosis the client is more receptive to using new tools. The client can also form new mental associations or structure in her mind. This makes for new belief systems and new sources of believed cause.

By the concept of centering we refer to the process of a person focusing her attention on a narrow range of information. That excludes other significant information about the stimuli or event. In practice, centering equates to trance. While in trance a person focuses intently on one small area. Likewise, in centering, the focus of the person narrows to a fine point to the exclusion of all other details. In centering, the person takes some portion of an event or stimulus out of context. Children remain in this centering state for about the first seven years of their life producing quite an effective learning machine due to their intense focus. While effective for learning, the limited information available through the narrow focus may produce significantly limiting beliefs.

Hypnotic language relies on centering to induce a trance, but then leads the focus to something other than the limiting belief and event, i.e. the resource for healing. Hypnosis allows the client to be shown an alternative resource on which to center and then consider the benefits of this new resource in his life. In essence, the trance allows the client to choose between focusing on the problem or focusing on the resource. In either case, the centering process takes place. Focusing on the resource just makes constructive use of the already existing centering.

Hypnotic language relies on centering to induce a trance, but then leads the focus to something other than the limiting belief and event, i.e. the resource for healing.

A particular case serves as a good example to illustrate the influence of these cognitive principles and how hypnotic language can bring about a more effective choice. This case involved Doug who tended to fly into a rage when others made comments that he perceived questioned his sense of personal worth. Doug and his fiancée, Linda, came in for counseling. Doug’s temper outbursts had almost ended their relationship. Doug regularly took offense at benign comments that Linda made about his actions and his appearance. Both agreed, when looking back, that the comments could easily have been taken as either lightweight or offering alternative perspectives rather than criticism. But when Doug heard Linda’s criticism, he immediately personalized them as a threat to his sense of personal worth. Upon hearing her comments, Doug would go into a rage. He would yell, cuss and berate Linda. This led to several short break-ups between them. In order for their marriage to survive, they had to overcome these accumulated hurdles.

Several cognitive elements became evident when Doug described his reasoning about these comments that led to rage.

First, Doug took them as personal (egocentrism). Doug believed that Linda’s comments must be about him. Doug had ‘I’ trouble as his awareness totally focused on himself. Rather than being comments about a behavior or his appearance, Doug felt the comments referred to him as a person thus addressing his sense of personal worth. He ignored the lengthy relationship history with his fiancée that included much mutual support and encouragement (irreversibility).

Doug admitted that the good times occupied at least 98% of their time together. The fits of rage required centering his focus on the 2% of the time with ‘derogatory’ comments. Centering on these comments led Doug to conclude, ‘She is always finding fault with me’. So, in Doug’s eyes, Linda ‘caused’ his rage (transductive logic). The rage response also required over-generalizing and black-white thinking. Due to Doug’s tendency to center his focus on just the bad times with Linda, he over-generalized to ‘all’ of their relationship as being bad. Nor, could Doug see any shades of good or bad. In his mind it was either good or bad, and mostly bad. He inductively reasoned that since he perceived Linda as making specific judgments about his sense of personal worth, she must have believed that everything about him had a bad connotation in her eyes (Inductive logic). Egocentrism prevented Doug from taking Linda’s point of view. Doug could not consider a different purpose for the comments at the time they were spoken.

The first goal of the intervention involved expanding their awareness and thus opening them up to additional information. Accomplishing this goal involved injecting broader awareness into the cognitive cluster that generated the rage. I first mentioned to Doug the possibility that much more was going on between him and Linda than he had previously noticed. When he agreed that this was a possibility, I invited his curiosity about what was going on outside his centering focus. I further suggested that if he did find different information and interpretations, the conflict might disappear and that this disappearing conflict could allow him to feel better. This comment appealed to his egocentricity.

Then I left him wondering by suggesting that he might never know what existed outside his point of view, which possibly excluded the most helpful information, the very information that could make the problem disappear. And just how would he ever know? This suggested the possibility that his perception was incomplete and tended to place in him a desire to search for completeness