The Hypnotic Reality

One of the things I've come to realise about the Hypnotic Reality, is that there are some really useful things to know about how to best interact with it. In experiential terms this relates to both our own experience and also that for others.

It is well understood of course if I have guided someone into an altered state of reality for therapeutic or changework purposes, or am even helping them to experience the amazing power of their own imagination through displays of progressive hypnotic phenomena.

However, if I encounter someone in an altered state (what I describe as a Hypnotic Reality) who I might need to guide to a place of greater comfort or safety, then the best way I have of interacting and getting their compliance is for me to actually step into their Reality. It comes from one of the first things I learnt when working in the hypnotic domain - the need to "go there myself first".

So when might we encounter such a person in an altered state? It's when certain hypnotic phenomena are displayed by the subject, such as time distortion, catalepsy, anaesthesia, amnesia, positive or negative hallucination, sonnambulism, age regression etc. Even post-slumber disorientation can be described as an altered state because it is a transition between an unconscious state and a waking consciousness. Once we realise the reasons for these displays and also the usefulness of them, then to be able to navigate around them for the subject can be invaluable.

The Sleepwalk

After my mother had suffered a number of strokes she could only walk consciously with the aid of a wheeled walker or a Zimmer frame. She could also move around enclosed spaces by holding onto walls, rails etc. but there was always a concern that her hand(s) might slip and cause her to fall. Her bedroom had an en-suite bathroom, so once she had gone to bed there was no need for her to emerge from her room until the next morning.

However there was one occasion, in the middle of the night - about 3am - that I became aware of some sounds of movement in the passageway outside my bedroom. I got up and went to look and found her about to go downstairs and she was obviously sleepwalking. We had a conversation - as you do with sonnambulists - and I discovered she was going down to get the breakfast ready. I said it might be a better idea to do it later in the morning when everyone had got up and that it was ok for her to go back to bed and get a bit more sleep until then. She acquiesced, turned around and went back along the passage, through her bedroom doorway and got back into bed. I wasn't aghast, although I was fascinated by what I saw. She did not hold onto anything as she walked along - and actually walked in the way she had always walked, as if she had never had any strokes.

Conversations in Trance

Recently my Dad had fallen asleep in an armchair, and was in slumber for a couple of hours. During this time his right hand and wrist had become wedged around the chair arm, in such a way as to eventually cause cramp. However, I didn't notice this until he started to stir and was talking in German. He was clearly associated into a wartime experience in POW Camp (hence talking in German) and that whole right side of his body was both numb and cramped and presumably felt 'frozen' - something he must have endured many times in the course of 5 harsh winters.
I talked to him, and took his right hand and arm and manipulated them, entirely in a way I might do with any client who I was guiding into and around a Hypnotic Reality. His spoken responses were first in German and then half in English, and then completely in English. In sound terms they were all in in the style of "a hypnotic conversation". I knew our dialogue was taking place at an unconscious level and that the best way for him to come back to the 'here and now' would be by gentle guidance. This I did for him, and once 'back in the room' we then set about massaging the cramp out of his right hand and arm which took about 15-20 minutes.

Conclusion

In both these instances it doesn't need much imagination to contemplate what might have happened (a) if I had not been present and more to the point (b) I did not have an understanding of negotiating the highways and byways of the Hypnotic Domain.

For me it was both a fascinating and a learning experience - and broadened my experience of the mind-body link in a very powerful way. And for my parents? Well, to be honest, they had no idea of what had actually taken place for them. The Hypnotic Reality was not imprinted in their conscious memory!