Deepening
methods:
First one
must reach a medium trance state, then the hypnotist will
continue to deepen the trance. There are numerous methods,
and maybe he will start by saying something like:
"Your hand
is so tightly closed that you are not capable of opening
it...")
Method
of passive deepening
This
method consists of alternating suggestion with periods of
silence, which can change between a few seconds and some
minutes, during which, it is supposed that the subject
deepens his hypnotic state himself. It is always convenient
to prepare the subject.
From time
to time the hypnotist will make him breathe, deeply, adding
that to every new respiration, then the sleep sensation will
increase. Gestures can be established with the patient, for
example, to touch his hand on his shoulder, saying to him
that in this moment he will submerge into a deep sleep and
will hear neither sound, nor noise until I touch him again.
Such periods shouldn't, nevertheless, be too lengthy (no
more than ten minutes every time), otherwise, there's the
problem in which the subject goes from the hypnosis state to
a normal sleep.
1956
method of active deepening
We are
going to achieve this deepening by making the subject
believe that he has no bodily control.
example:
"I am
going to caress your arm. Little by little you will notice
that it becomes heavier and heavier, up to such a point that
you are not capable of moving it. I will count from one to
five, and when I say five, the arm will weigh so much that
it will be impossible to raise it."
The
hypnotist counts slowly, with heaviness suggestions. Come to
five, he will raise the arm of the subject dropping it
again; if he is unable to support it, it means that he is in
a deep situation and that it's possible to proceed to a
further deepening of this state. If he resists and supports
his arm up high, it is necessary to begin again from the
beginning, insisting that in the second test he will feel
the arm much heavier than in the first one.
To obtain
the cataleptic rigidity, the hypnotist raises the arm of the
subject placing it horizontally at a height of the shoulder,
and after three or four times having stretched it lightly,
says:
"You will
have noticed that your arm has become very heavy, like the
lead. It will turn to steel or like a stone. While I caress
your arm, you will see how the arm will become rigid, the
muscles will contract and harden."
The
hypnotist continues caressing the arm above and below, until
he warns that the muscles are so rigid. Then he continues:
"Here your arm is so hard that it is impossible to bend it.
I am trying, but I cannot bend it. Try it yourself. Do you
see? It does not bend".
If this
test is positive, it is added:
"Now relax
completely, relax the muscles of the arm. The arm either is
not hard, it is already much more flexible, neither heavy.
Everything is normal. If I want to bend it, it
bends."
And he
continues:
"Have you
seen how the arm can bend? It relaxes the whole body and you
sleep deeply, more deeply than before."
"Now sleep
deeply, more and more, deeply." etc.