The art of hypnosis and learning hypnosis are all about learning how to use language, body language, gestures and unconscious sub-communications. In hypnosis you are going to be inducing trances.
These inductions will largely be taking place through your ability to use your language in certain ways. However there are other important aspects and skills that you will combine with language in order to alter the state of mind of your subjects.
One of those other various skills will be using the Hypnotic Gaze Induction. This is not a certain look you will shoot across the room at a person and they will suddenly slump over into a deep sleep. Quite the contrary, this is a skill you will practice, perfect and use to invite a person into the world of induced hypnotic trance.
This is a skill you will learn to use in the context of normal conversation. You will use it along with your language skills to induce a hypnotic trance and produce an outcome.
The hypnotic gaze induction is a tool you will first learn to use very directly, people will see you are doing it. They may not know quite what you are doing but the actual gazing will be detected, it must be as you will be looking directly into their eyes. As time goes on you will be able to refine your gazing skills to become more indirect and conversational as you apply your hypnotic gaze.
Again this is not a will power type of thing that you read about in story books. You will not be able to simply look at a person and ‘will’ them into a trance. There is no form of overpowering an individual with a simple look that will produce a trance alone.
What you will do is get their attention by making direct eye contact with them. This direct eye contact will affect them on many different levels allowing you to coax them into an altered consciousness.
Eye contact, as you will soon see, does have a very powerful effect on people. Because of this simple fact you will need to be aware of the different signals you can send with it and be sure to send the signals that will have the best intentions for both of you.
It needs to be clear in your mind that you are not overpowering someone with your will. You are not producing a mind controlling magnetism. And you are not creating any type of occult condition; you are having a natural effect on another person through the very natural effects of eye contact.
The first thing that a hypnotic gaze will do for you is to absorb the attention of the person you are applying it to. It is a great and powerful way to do this. Hypnotic gaze can assist in the first stage of the 4 Stage Protocol, absorbing the attention of your subject.
How does it do this, well the simple fact is when you make and maintain eye contact with another person it obligates them to respond in some way. That very thing, that obligation is what begins the trance response; it gives you the ability to turn that eye contact into a hypnotic induction!
The simple unspoken demand for attention through eye contact begins the trance process.
The second thing that will take effect in the Hypnotic Gaze Induction is it raises tension in the other person. This is a response; the eye contact increases responses through the tension it raises in the person you are locked in with.
This does two things in your favour as the hypnotist. The first is the tension that is being produced from the constant eye contact will drive a feeling of obligated response from your subject. The second thing this tension accomplishes is the bypass of the critical factor.
Remember the more tension that builds, the more unconscious the person’s thinking will be, meaning less critical factor will be interfering with the connection. This direct unconscious way of thinking allows you to move smoothly into the suggestion phase, the third phase of the hypnotic protocol.
In this we find the third secret of the hypnotic gaze that is to subtly suggest a hypnotic trance. The way to incorporate this new step is to find it in you first, yes ‘go first’. If you are accessing and sending out the signals of hypnotic trance it will non-verbally invite the other person to do the same.
Going first in this instance is to alter your eye contact that you have been diligently maintaining to look through them. Instead of focusing your eyes on their eyes look to the backs of their eyes. This will give the person the feeling that they are no longer being looked at but that they are being looked inside. This will sub-communicate that you are in a sort of trance and unconsciously they will want to follow that lead.
The next step that you need to be very aware of is that you should not just be sub-communicating that they go into a trance but that there is a connotation of goodwill involved. Projecting goodwill to the person you are involved with is very, very important.
You will get back whatever you are projecting through your gaze; if the person feels you are hostile they will be defensive, if they then feel intimidated you will start to loose rapport. So it is vital to be conscious of the feelings you are projecting for the process to continue correctly.
Projecting goodwill onto the person you are gazing at is as easy as feeling it yourself. Think about how you want them to feel, that feeling of goodwill, and “will” it over to them. In doing this your body language will change with your mood and give subtle suggestions about the interaction you would like to have with them.
The fifth secret of the hypnotic gaze is this: confidence breeds success. Being confident in your actions will result in success from your actions. If you don’t have positive expectations going into this trance you will not get positive results. The sub-communication of insecurity and hesitation will definitely affect the success of your induction badly.
You must expect the other person to go into a trance, to do this there are things you need to watch in yourself to be sure you are sending the right signals out. The simple fact is you must avoid showing any automatic defence mechanisms.
These are things like blinking too much, yawning, shifting your gaze excessively, fidgeting and so on. Basically the things that make you look nervous and unsure of yourself, you want to project goodwill and confidence. This is done by having softer features in your face, eyes relaxed, breathing normally and comfortably.
On the other hand you want your subject to be doing the opposite, when they are showing the automatic defence mechanisms it is a signal to you they are building pressure within. That pressure means they are beginning to respond to you hypnotically.
As this tension builds they will lose the will to want to escape it, they will be open to your suggestions. When you see the signals that this is happening you will make a clear and concise direct instruction for them to go into trance.
In building up to this suggestion to go into trance you will maintain a constant gaze. You will maintain a friendly manner that is conveyed softly to them. This will keep them comfortable and relaxed enough to agree with your suggestion when the time is right.