In the novel Bleak House by Charles Dickens, Mr. Jarndyce asks the scheming lawyer Mr. Vholes to stay for lunch.
Mr. Vholes declines, saying:
“My digestion is much impaired, and I am but a poor knife and fork at any time.”
The phrase “a poor knife and fork” demonstrates that Vholes has digestive problems, he’s not a good eater and nor is he pleasant company at mealtimes.
It’s a metaphor, an example of symbolic language, used to add color and intensity to conversation and to stimulate the unconscious mind.
And that’s exactly what happens when Hypnotic Symbolic Language and Non-Awareness Set are combined.
The Hypnotic Symbolic Language System (HSL) incorporates symbolic language in hypnotic settings to help people overcome problems and address issues in their lives.
For instance, it’s easier to deal with trauma or phobias using symbolism, because the symbols allow you to confront the problems in an indirect manner.
They shield you from the impact so that you can still tackle the issues without suffering additional distress or discomfort.
When the HSL is used in conjunction with the Non-Awareness Set, it makes it possible to break down resistance quickly and gain access to the unconscious mind.
But what is the Non-Awareness Set and how might you put it to work?
Hypnotic Symbolic Language And Non-Awareness Set
As you probably already know, Hypnotic Symbolic Language is used as part of the hypnotic process. It’s particularly effective within the various Conversational Hypnosis techniques, and the Non-Awareness Set is one of those techniques.
The Non-Awareness Set (NAS) is perfect for this purpose because of how it works. It mirrors the 4-stage protocol of a complete hypnosis induction, which includes the following steps:
- Absorbing attention
- Bypassing the critical factor
- Stimulating the unconscious mind
- Leading the unconscious mind to a desired outcome, resulting in a change or transformation
The goal of the NAS is to draw your attention to something happening outside your awareness. That can happen automatically at certain times, such as when you’re trying to fall asleep at night.
It’s likely that you’ll notice your breathing, and you’ll also tune in to any sounds you hear around you, possibly from your electrical appliances or from noises outside your house.
Those things were all present before you got under the covers, but your attention wasn’t focused on them. In other words, you weren’t aware of them.
With the Non-Awareness Set you become aware of things that you were previously unaware of. However, where HSL is concerned, the idea is to draw your attention to a specific thing you were not aware of – your unconscious.
The reason for that is simple. Your unconscious mind is always operating outside of your awareness, doing things that are completely for your own benefit.
As soon as you become aware of it, however, you can use its power to make improvements in your life.
The truth is that you’ve got a lot of stuff going on in your life from one day to the next, and you can’t focus your attention on everything all at the same time.
The Non-Awareness Set helps you target your focus to where it can be as productive and beneficial as possible. And since your unconscious is totally benign, you know that it only ever wants what’s best for you.
Use it to your advantage and you can add unlimited value to your life. But before you can do that, you need to know what you want to change or improve.
Why You Need To Have A Definite Purpose In Mind
To add value, you need a purpose.
If you want to experience trance, then trance is your purpose. If you hope to learn something, then learning is your purpose. If you need to solve a problem, then solving a problem is your purpose.
When you know what the purpose is, then you can use the Non-Awareness Set to bring attention to an unconscious process, the benign unconscious process.
How do you do that? You start by setting the scene using priming questions.
Suppose the purpose is healing. You might begin with a priming question such as this:
“Isn’t it amazing how your body heals itself? And it’s done that for you many times in the past, hasn’t it?”
These questions bring the person’s attention to an unconscious process. In this case you’re priming for physical healing.
To prime for emotional healing, you could ask them to think about the times when their mind has naturally healed itself from emotional wounds.
To prime for problem solving, you could ask them about all the times their mind has helped them solve problems without their even thinking about it.
To prime for creativity, you could ask them about all the times they’ve been creative without knowing where that creativity came from.
Here is an example of a demonstration where the purpose was healing. Note the use of symbolic language to get the subject to understand how they can heal themselves from the inside out.
| Hyp: | Think about how your body naturally heals itself can you do that? |
| Sub: | Yeah. |
| Hyp: | And it’s done it for you many times in the past correct. Are you happy about this? |
| Sub: | Yes. |
| Hyp: | Are you happy you have this self-healing function? |
| Sub: | Yes. |
| Hyp: | So what animal looks like this kind of healing to you? |
| Sub: | The first thing that came to mind was a Pangolin. An animal you see in China. |
| Hyp: | What kind of Pangolin is this Pangolin? |
| Sub: | A very friendly one. |
| Hyp: | And friendly and Pangolin. And when Pangolin and friendly like this, what else is there about Pangolin when friendly and healing? |
| Sub: | It’s curled up. |
| Hyp: | And curled up. And friendly. |
| Sub: | It’s still smooth. |
| Hyp: | And curled up and smooth, and friendly and Pangolin. And when Pangolin is curled up and smooth, and all of this, what could Pangolin want to do? |
| Sub: | Pangolin could … laughter… I don’t know why it has a shovel. |
| Hyp: | And shovel. And Pangolin and shovel and then what happens? |
| Sub: | It’s just sitting with the shovel. |
| Hyp: | And shovel. And Pangolin and shovel and then what happens? |
| Sub: | It’s like there’s thunder. |
| Hyp: | And thunder. And when thunder then what happens? |
| Sub: | Just the sense that the lightning is red. |
| Hyp: | And lightning, and red lightning. And when red lightning then what happens? |
| Sub: | Red lightning is very nourishing. |
| Hyp: | And nourishing. And red lightning and nourishing and Pangolin and then what happens? That’s it. What’s happening now? |
| Sub: | Just relishing. |
| Hyp: | And relishing. And take all the time you need to really get to know what it’s like now that you’re relishing and Pangolin and thunder and red lightning and nourishing and all of this. Let me know when you’re ready to continue. |
| Sub: | Keep going. |
| Hyp: | And now that Pangolin has red lightning like this, what could Pangolin know about you? |
| Sub: | Many things. |
| Hyp: | That’s it. And what’s this? |
| Sub: | He gave me a bottle of it. |
| Hyp: | Of the red lightning? And bottle and red lightning. And now that you have bottle of red lightning, what do you know that you did not know before? |
| Sub: | Everything heals. |
| Hyp: | Everything and heals, and everything heals. And I can’t help but wonder what you’re healing now that’s everything. And really get to know what it’s like now that everything heals and you have red lightning in a bottle, and all of this. I’ll talk elsewhere, no need to pay any attention until you are satisfied with what you have gained. |
The 4 Parts Of The Non-Awareness Set
To use the Non-Awareness Set in a Conversational Hypnosis setting, you should make sure it includes these 4 components.
1. Orienting Question
The idea is to draw your subject’s attention to something happening outside their normal conscious awareness. You do that by asking simple questions. It doesn’t matter what the question is as long as it highlights something your subject isn’t aware of.
2. Echo Effect
Whatever question you ask, you echo the subject’s answer. This echoing effect helps to move their attention away from their conscious mind and towards their unconscious mind.
3. Reframe
You’ve indicated that things are happening outside their awareness. You want to ask even more questions to confirm exactly what’s happening.
4. Deepening Question
This is used to deepen the trance or to show them that they can tap into their unconscious mind. They’ve seen that things are happening beyond their control, so this is your chance to build on that. And you do it simply by asking more questions.
Here’s how those 4 components might work in practice. If the person is tapping their foot, you might ask: Are you aware that your foot is tapping?
When they say no, you echo back to them: No, you didn’t realize that did you? Next comes the reframe: I wonder what that means?
Finally, the deepening question: What does your foot know that you’re not aware of?
Because the unconscious is so powerful, you can use its power to bring more value into your life. Hypnotic Symbolic Language and Non-Awareness Set helps you tap into that power.
Conversational Hypnosis And The Non-Awareness Set
At the heart of the Non-Awareness Set is the tug-of-war between the conscious and unconscious minds.
It’s designed to create a dissociation so that your client can devote more energy to their unconscious mind and less to their conscious.
The secret is this. Whatever problem someone is struggling with, it’s their conscious mind that’s doing the struggling. Their unconscious mind knows how to fix it.
One of the reasons people have trouble solving their problems is because they stop looking for solutions.
By communicating with their unconscious mind, it’s possible to attack any problem from a different perspective and get new resources to deal with it.
In terms of the NAS, the easiest way to do that is by asking questions.
Why? Because questions force you to go inside your mind to look for the answers.
As soon as you do that, you’re focusing your awareness inward instead of outward. You’re giving your attention to unconscious processes rather than conscious ones.
Conversational Hypnosis is the perfect vehicle for implementing the NAS set.
After all, it’s natural during a conversation to ask questions, which means the other person won’t even suspect what you’re doing.
You’ve probably seen these conscious/unconscious dissociations in action yourself. It happens whenever you learn a new skill, like driving a car.
At first you have to pay attention to all the tasks required to move and control the machine, including the pedals, the steering wheel, the mirrors and lights.
Then there’s the road itself and the oncoming traffic to contend with.
It seems like a lot to get your head around initially. But eventually it all becomes second nature so you can just hop in and go.
And when that happens, your unconscious has taken over. You don’t need to consciously think about driving, because your unconscious mind has acquired and absorbed the skills you need.
Your conscious mind is still operating, but the whole process has become automatic, so there’s a lot less for it to do.
Conclusion & Main Takeaways
The Hypnotic Symbolic Language System is a powerful and dynamic method for applying Conversational Hypnosis techniques. One of those techniques is the Non-Awareness Set which mirrors the 4-stage protocol of a complete hypnosis induction to:
- Absorb attention
- Bypass the critical factor
- Stimulate the unconscious mind
- Lead the unconscious mind to a desired outcome, resulting in a change or transformation
The purpose of the Non-Awareness Set (NAS) is to draw your attention to something happening outside your awareness. That can happen automatically, such as when you’re trying to fall asleep at night.
You’ll suddenly notice your breathing, and tune in to sounds you hear around you, possibly from inside and/or outside your house.
There are a lot of things vying for your attention each day, and the NAS helps you focus your attention on unconscious processes. You do that by asking priming questions that have a specific purpose.
If your aim is to learn something, then learning is the purpose. The NAS is made up of 4 separate components, namely:
1. Orienting Question
Ask any question that highlights something your subject isn’t aware of:
2. Echo Effect
Whatever question you ask, you echo the subject’s answer.
3. Reframe
You’ve indicated that things are happening outside their awareness. You want to ask even more questions to find out what that means.
4. Deepening Question
Things are happening beyond their control, so this is your chance to build on that. And you do it simply by asking more questions.
The Non-Awareness Set creates a dissociation between the conscious and unconscious mind. Whatever problem someone is struggling with, the unconscious has the answer.
Coaxing the answer out of them can be done just by asking questions. Questions force them to look inside themselves for the answers.
And that’s what makes hypnotic symbolic language and non-awareness set such a powerful combination for making fast and significant life changes.