The actual trance induction is a lot easier than people imagine. There are so many ways to produce the desired outcome, some easier to administer than others, some more reliable and some more impressive.

The first induction process that we are going to look at is the “progressive relaxation” technique. This technique relies on the volunteer progressively relaxing until they allow you access into the subconscious mind. The basic procedure is rather simple. You help the subject to relax by direct instruction. Using carefully structured hypnotic language techniques enhances the power of the “progressive relaxation” induction. However, to simply say, “Relax your body”, is not descriptive enough. Many people have forgotten how to relax and your job is to re-educate them. To relax the body as a whole is a very difficult thing to do. The easiest way to overcome this problem is to start at one end of the body and slowly work your way along it. It doesn’t matter if you start at the head or the feet; the basic principle to both is exactly the same. I prefer starting at the top of the body as it seems more logical to me to progress from asking a subject to, “close your eyes”, to then suggest that they, “relax the tiny muscles around your eyes”, as opposed to, “Now relax each and every toe!”

I always begin a hypnosis session by asking the subject to take three deep breaths. This alone can relieve a great deal of tension. Next, you go on to suggest that the subject is getting, “more and more sleepy.” The words will receive some response from the subject, but it is the way that you say the words that is the real magic. Whenever you induce a trance use a confident, authoritative and reassuring voice also try to speak a little slower than you usually do. It is also very effective to start the induction process at your normal talking speed and to gradually reduce it as the subject becomes more and more relaxed.

While inducing the trance state it is also effective to emphasize your words. Whenever you are going to say, for example, “as you go deeper into trance,” the key word here is “deeper”. So, what could be more effective than to put a great deal more emphasis on this word? You can emphasize a word in many ways, firstly don’t simply say, “deeper into trance,” say, “deeper and deeper into trance.” This alone is a lot more powerful.

Additionally, if you split the word slightly so that the “deep” and the “per” become separated and say the “per” section in a slightly deeper tone the subject´s relaxation will follow and the result will be an even deeper state.

Another trick is to draaaaag out the word you wish to emphasize. Although very simple, this tiny factor alone will produce a much greater response. You could also aid a successful induction by making the second “deeper” even deep–per and loongeeeer than the first.

The sentence I have used for this example also carries a very important message. Although, when viewed as a whole, the message is lost, when the sentence is broken it suddenly becomes blatantly obvious, “as you GO deeper INTO TRANCE” quite obviously contains the instruction to “go into trance”. If you can pick this out with your voice tonality you are creating a subliminal message. Subliminal messages must bypass conscious awareness to be successful. You may very well be thinking, “How can something so vague produce any such response?” The reason this works is down to your subconscious mind. Have you ever been in a room with many people all having different conversations at the same time? If you have, then you might have noticed that if someone was to say your name you would instantly home your concentration in on what it is they were saying. If you were to try to consciously listen to each conversation at once waiting for someone to mention something of interest it would prove an impossible task.

Your subconscious was in fact listening to each and every conversation going on and as soon as your name was mentioned it alerted you to pay attention as it was obviously going to be something for your concern.

The point here is that your subconscious hears everything, so as it hears the sentence “as you go deeper into trance” with emphasis on the words, “go” and, “into trance” it will link these words together to form a new sentence that doesn´t have to be accepted or evaluated by the guardian before allowed into the brain´s processor or dismissed, as it is the processor which has in fact created the instruction in the first place. So the processing section of the brain will do all it can to obey the command “go into trance”.

Many people immediately associate subliminal messages with brain washing. I am sure you have heard of the famous case, where youngsters supposedly sacrificed themselves to the devil due to a suggestion recorded backwards behind heavy metal music. A subliminal message can be a very effective way of producing a desired outcome. It is the operator that chooses the outcome. As a responsible hypnotist, you can make positive use of subliminal persuasion to greatly aid the process of induction.

A subliminal message can be marked out in various ways. If your subject is looking at you, simply raise your eyebrows or use hand gestures on each word of the message, allowing their subconscious to pick it out from the rest of the sentence. If the subject has their eyes closed, you will need to change your voice tonality. Don’t let the change be too obvious, remember that it is subtlety that produces power. I simply turn my head to one side on each word I wish to be picked out. Consciously, no difference is detected but the subconscious mind is easily able to pick out where my voice is coming from in the room and the message is created and accepted.

By making use of what you have read so far, you will notice a remarkable difference between the two statements, “as you go deeper into trance” and, “as you GO deep-peer and deeeep—peeeer INTO TRANCE.”

Practicing each component of the hypnotic language in this manner is extremely beneficial as they quickly become part of your everyday language and, naturally, this leaves you to concentrate on more important things while you are inducing hypnotic state.