Taylor Sherman, a young American hypnotist, recently posted an article last month on his hypnosis blog. This was for the product launch of his course on speed inductions that he launched with co-autor with Joshua Houghton, and in this blog post there was a  22-minute video about how hypnotic inductions are rituals.

I had left a comment on his page, speaking about a similar conversation that I had at a recent Hypno MeetUp. At the Hypno MeetUp we were talking about the Elman Induction and someone had asked if that was something that she needed to memorize to be able to perform it. That got me thinking about the many other assorted videos, and articles on the internet on covert hypnosis and conversational hypnosis, and open-eyed hypnosis, that proves that hypnotic phenomena can effectively be achieved without the formal hypnotic induction that so many of us are familiar with.  So why use one if you don’t need to?

Well… if we are following the premise that the formal hypnotic induction is a ritual of sorts, we can take a moment now to sort out what a ritual actually is.

A ritual is usually a prescribed set of actions that are performed without variance. While not always necessarily functional, they are purposeful. The performance of these actions usually signifies a process of transition from the mundane to the sanctified. Think of when a member of the clergy dons their vestments before giving a service on a High Holy Day and how the order and procedure and placement of ritual garments and objects are important and significant.

A ritual also provides focus for a specific context. Think of the act of lighting a candle in a house of worship, or kneeling to pray. Perhaps reclining on a couch at the therapists office can also be considered as  part of a ritual.

There are every day actions that we take that are performed with a ritual-like focus that almost have the power to trance without us knowing it. Think of polishing a pair of boots, or cleaning a firearm. Professional athletes often have very personal, sometimes peculiar private rituals that they perform before important matches or games. Perhaps even the convivial dinner table toast can be considered to be an abbreviated ritual that we do when we clink our drinking glasses together;  a social convention to mark of sharing drink together.

Most of the daily rituals that we have are quite specific and often they are performed as a condensed a series of actions or processes into a shorthand version or codified gesture. Both process and outcome are predictable. The process sets up an expectation. Doesn’t that describe, at least in part, what a formal hypnotic induction is?

Going back to the earlier question; why use a formal hypnotic induction if you don’t need to? Well, because they work and they usually work well. When Dave Elman taught a lecture hall full of physicians about how they could use hypnosis to augment their medical practice, he gave them a formulaic induction that had a high probability of a successful outcome, even if they had little to no rapport and had a squeaky voice, and no air of mystery. These were dentists, general practitioners, surgeons, and they already had their training, their degrees and practices. They didn’t want to become hypnotists. They just wanted another tool in their medical kits that they could use with reliability if the occasion came up.

The ritual of induction works well for the one who performs it, but how about the person it’s being performed on? If you share the meaning of the ritual with them, the probability of a successful outcome increases. Now you have a reason for the pre-talk, the patter, the client interview. Explain how it supposed to work. How it WILL work. Describe what they might experience as well as what they might not experience. Ally and anxieties or fears they may have. Dispel any myths they may be clinging to. Tell them hypnosis is not mind control and you will not make them cluck like a chicken all the way home. Explain what the expectation is and what the outcome will be.