This is page 7 of a detailed tutorial. I recommend you start with page 1. Every page contains tons of practical information & no fluff. It’s thoroughly linked: You can master one tiny piece at a time—easy peasy—even though it’s almost book length. Every time you master a tiny piece, you’ll be more effective in life. I promise.
Main Step 3: Relax Your Body
Relaxation has always been an element of traditional hypnosis, and even nontraditional hypnosis, such as the Active and Aware Trance, begin by releasing stress. Relaxation therapy and stress-release therapy have a long history and many positive benefits on emotional and physical health, so that even if you find you can skip this step, don’t advise it.
In addition, in the Skills Practice Trance section, I’ve presented research, my own personal experience, and an experiment that you can try that demonstrate that we when we think about any form of action, we actually think with our muscles. This document is a practical guide, not a research document, so I recommend that you try the experiment, look over the background research that I did include, and form your own opinion.
Essentially, I believe that relaxation is helpful for trance because when we’re thinking with our muscles, we’re distracted from the use of some of our other imaginal senses. When we reduce the use of our muscles in visualization, the images are sharper, the situations are clearer, and our experience is more vivid.
If every muscle in your body is toned and you have no tension anywhere, you can skip this entire section—after first congratulating yourself thoroughly, of course—though you might not want to skip it, anyway. Most of us carry emotions and stress in our bodies, which can reduce the effectiveness of trance and meditation.
If you carry a normal load of stress and tension that doesn’t bother you overly much, just tighten all of your muscles, hold them for ten to twenty seconds or so, and release them. Pay attention to the relaxing muscles after you’ve released them for as long as you can detect tension draining away. Breathe deeply a few times, and consciously relax the muscles on each area of your body, including along each limb.
Then begin the trance induction that you’ve chosen from the following list. If that’s too much work, breathe deeply a few times, and consciously relax the muscles on each area of your body, including along each limb. Then begin the trance induction that you’ve chosen from the following list.
However, if stress and tension is bothering you and you want to develop a more relaxed body and lifestyle, locate the folder called “Relax Tension and Stress” in the download folder: “Grok Wisdom Journey Free Trance Downloads.” From this folder, you can download a variety of stress-busting recordings of various lengths and various types.
For a list of stress busters, download the pdf file: “ReadMe–Introduction to all Free Trance Downloads.pdf,” which will be in the same folder. I have planned many recordings, but I’m doing many things at once, and I can’t predict when I’ll add to the number that are there. The pdf file will always be the most up-to-date inventory.
For personal guidance in learning these skills, find my coaching profile at Cougar Brenneman Coaching. Contact me directly on the contacts page of this site. (This boring 😐 paragraph appears throughout this document to accommodate people who use our links exactly as they were intended to be used.)
(Go to Beginning, to Trance Recipe Overview.)
Main Step 4: Select and Use a Trance Induction
The Grok Wisdom Journey curriculum contains a growing number of trance inductions that you can choose according to how much time you have and how much of an old hand you are at using trance. Use our recordings when you start out, and it will not take you very long before you can simply borrow the parts of the inductions I’ve provided when you’re no where near your computer.
In addition, as you gain skill, you’ll eventually learn to simply close your eyes, intend to go into trance, and be in trance, ready to go. When you’re skilled at this level, you’ll be able to go into trance for five minutes while waiting at a bus stop or sitting in a café.
Skilled meditators can reach inner peace very quickly, yet they will still practice their meditations for hours on occasion. Similarly, even when you’re skilled at entering trance for a five-minute boost, you’ll still gain value from taking longer and going deeper. You may appreciate our recordings, even when you no longer need them.
Download the inductions you want to use from this folder: “Trance Inductions for your Own Suggestions & Programs.” You’ll notice that there are three subfolders for short, medium-length, and long inductions.
Use a long induction if you’re a complete novice in using self-hypnosis or if you’re using our system for the first time. Once you start getting more skilled, use the medium length inductions. Graduate to the short ones when you feel you’re ready to. I don’t recommend starting with the short inductions
Yet even when you’re already very skilled, you may gain some additional benefit from using the longer inductions. For descriptions of each induction, including what additional benefits you’ll get from each, download the pdf file: “ReadMe–Introduction to all Free Trance Downloads.pdf” that is located in the download folder: “Grok Wisdom Journey Trance Downloads.”
Sometimes, learning trance skills are easiest with a guide who can help you with your initial experiences and tailor a program for you to develop your skills on your own. My coaching profile is at Cougar Brenneman Coaching. Contact me directly on the contacts page of this site. (This boring 😐 paragraph appears throughout this document to accommodate people who use our links exactly as they were intended to be used.)
(Go to Beginning, to Trance Recipe Overview.)
Main Step 5: Guide Yourself Verbally
One of the results of entering into deep trance is to be receptive and open. This is why trance is so effective at allowing suggestions and post-hypnotic suggestions. By going into trance, you’ve reduced the mental activity that you normally use to evaluate everything you experience.
If either you or a professional hypnotist tells you to evaluate an idea or an input, your focus and awareness will be significantly heightened. With the right suggestions, you can be creative and insightful at a much higher level than normal. But without those suggestions, you’re libel to be more passive and focused.
Since this is self-hypnosis, and you’re training yourself to be able to go into trance whenever you want to get an answer about anything, you need to know how to:
- If you’re using an Active and Aware Trance method, the danger of falling asleep is minimized. But you’ll probably want to sometimes use traditional trance inductions, such as those that invoke deep relaxation, closing your eyes and going very deep. For these, it’s important to know how to keep yourself awake—especially if you use trance after a hard day at work. One way to stay awake is to guide yourself through the trance verbally, rather than just thinking the instructions to yourself. You can speak the words aloud, or you can speak them in a whisper.
- When you’re very skilled, you can speak to yourself silently, using a technique called “subliminal whispering.” With subliminal whispering, you use words as if you were speaking them—but without moving your lips or larynx. (Don’t try this for the first time when you’re sleepy. It’s hard to stay focused when using subliminal whispering, and it takes practice.)
- When you’re guiding yourself, please give yourself sufficient time to imagine the scene or the action that you just suggested. What I like to do is to say a sentence or two aloud and then pause for two or three slow breaths while I vividly visualize what I just described. During those silent breaths, I don’t use my verbal mind at all; I just visualize and experience what I set forth.
In our hurried world, it’s way too easy to rush through any trance and fool yourself into thinking you’re getting the full benefit without actually getting the benefit that you seek. When you’re guiding yourself verbally, you’ll stay away, but your attention is divided. One part of your mind is processing your thoughts into words, and another part of your mind is imagining the meaning. This can pull you out of trance—or at least reduce the depth of trance that you’re experiencing.
I therefore recommend that you give yourself several breaths between every instruction you give yourself to imagine what you’re suggesting without the interference of your verbalizing mind. Don’t rush; you’ve got plenty of time, and your time will be much better spent if you take the time to be most effective.
Staying focused can be too great a challenge for many people who are attempting to learn this skill. I can help you reach independence in this regard with far less pain. Find my coaching profile at Cougar Brenneman Coaching. Contact me directly on the contacts page of this site. (This boring 😐 paragraph appears throughout this document to accommodate people who use our links exactly as they were intended to be used.)
(Go to Beginning, to Trance Recipe Overview.)
Main Step 6: Count Yourself Out of Trance
You can come out of trance as abruptly as you want. If you’re on a bus and you hear the driver announce your bus stop, just pop your eyes open and get off the bus. You’ll experience no harm in doing so.
But most of the time, you’ll probably want to bring yourself out of trance gently, rather than just suddenly opening your eyes. I personally believe that a gentle return from trance will serve your self-hypnosis skills most effectively.
A minimal gentle exit would be something like the following, which is not a script to be memorized, by the way.
Now, I’m going to count from one to five, after which I’ll be fully awake, present, and refreshed, remembering everything that happened. One. I’m thinking about my body and again noticing how it feels. Two. I’m beginning to stir. I want to wake up. Three. Beginning to move my hands, arms, and legs. Four. Taking a deep breath. Letting it out. Feeling oxygen entering my body. Five. Opening my eyes. Fully awake and refreshed.
You might want to precede this counting out of trance with some suggestions about:
- Remembering everything that happened. When I go very deep, details sometimes fade before I get a chance to write them down, so I like to give myself the suggestion that I’ll remember everything. This might be especially important for longer or deeper trances, such as a Self-Exploration Trance or a Clairvoyance Trance.
- You might want to mention how grateful you are for everything that your subconscious mind and higher self have taught you in this experience.
- You might suggest that what you learned today is part of a longer path, and that things learned today may still be growing towards completion in a week, month, or year.
None of these suggestions are necessary, but I feel that when I’m respectful of my subconscious mind, my subconscious mind is more cooperative with me. For this reason, I like to leave trance gently, and I advise you to do the same. The goal of self-hypnosis is to establish a partnership with the deeper, more subconscious parts of yourself, and being kind to yourself helps.
(Go to Beginning, to Trance Recipe Overview.)
Main Step 7: Journal Your Results Immediately
Please have your journal available when you go into trance, and please plan to take a little time to record a little of what happened. Our memories are state dependent, and even if the memories aren’t actually gone, they may not intrude into your normal consciousness if you don’t have a record.
Even if you’re not a person who forgets your trances, you will probably appreciate having a journal entry for easier review. Some formal methods of journaling (such as the methods of Jungian psychologist Ira Progoff) recommend reviewing your experiences on three separate occasions. I mention this because the Progoff journal also uses a slightly altered state of consciousness to achieve its ends. (You can sample a Progoff journal method from the app “In a Journal, Complete your Relationships with People or Concerns,” which is also part of the Grok Wisdom Journey curriculum.)
Hypnosis, whether induced by another person or by yourself, is notorious for producing amnesia about what happened. For most people, this notoriety is not actually deserved. Only about 10% of us go so deep that we can’t remember what happened, and this percentages is based on traditional hypnosis. The percentage for self-hypnosis may be lower.
In my experience, details do fade, and I suggest that you may want to preserve all of the details. If you don’t write them down, you may not remember some crucial elements of what happened, and that may, in fact, piss you off sometimes.
You’re going to want to remember. You may learn just as much if you don’t remember, but it’s hard to reinforce what you learned with other trances and other practices if you don’t have a record. My opinion is that keeping a record will make you happier in the long run.
(Go to Beginning, to Trance Recipe Overview.)
Main Step 8: Select & Schedule Follow-Up Practice Immediately
No matter how much you learn in any trance situation, there will always be another question in your mind. It’s important to be alert for these other questions so that you can develop a consistent relationship with your inner self or subconscious mind. Please write them immediately. Hypnosis can cause you to forget the question by its very nature. Even if you do remember it, it will seem to belong to another time or another dimension. It won’t fit into your normal, everyday patterns of living… Unless…
- You write down the question—and no, you not as likely to remember it without writing it down as you might think you are.
- You put it on a schedule—not as something you’ll consider doing when the time comes, but as something you will do when the time comes.
If you want to certify yourself as a Master of Self-Hypnosis in an honorable way, I advise you to practice each type of trance for things that you need it for, repeating each type over and over. Do you feel skilled using each type?
(Go to Beginning, to Trance Recipe Overview.)
Main Step 9: Explore Times to Routinely Use Trance Daily
Ultimately, scheduling time to do a follow-up practice trance will be just too much work, and if you rely on that step to keep you going, you may find the effort somewhat annoying and distracting. The reason for habits and routines is to save mental energy. This is a very effective perspective for motivating yourself to master trance. Turn it into a routine that you use at predictable times and that you’re committed to, and it no longer takes will power or effort. It just is. It’s your long-term choice, and with that long-term choice in place, you’ll gain far more value than if you simply try to be ad hoc about it. Your desire to create a routine will grow as you use trance in more ways. For instance, you’ll start exploring a specific question about your future or life, and you’ll start wanting to go back into trance to get more information about the answers you’ve already received. You’ll create a practice of post-hypnotic suggestions, and you’ll want to go back regularly to reinforce them. You’ll begin practicing a skill or a sport in trance, and suddenly, those trance practice sessions will be twice as important.
(Go to Beginning, to Trance Recipe Overview.)
Main Step 10: Periodically Try Trances without a Recorded Induction
You will certainly find that you have favorite trance inductions, and you’ll soon start using them without the recording. This is good. It’s worthwhile writing down how deep your trance was on a scale of 0 to 100 when you’re working with a recording and when you’re not. Your goal should be to go just as deep without using a recording. I also advise you to seek proficiency in many forms of trance induction, because that will give you greater experience for tailoring your own experiences most effectively. Happy Trancing!
(Go to Beginning, to Trance Recipe Overview.)
Cougar
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