HYPNOTISM WITHIN THE ADVENTIST CHURCH:

 Above all-Keeping thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues
of life. {margin) Pr 4:23

PART THREE OF TEN

What does the hypnotic operator consider to be your needs; what does he think should be your beliefs, goals, and way of reaching them? What does he believe should be the things you avoid and enjoy? It is not you that makes these decisions fraught with eternal destiny; it is the operator. .

"This certification training will present the fundamentals of Ericksonian Hypnosis in a carefully sequenced format, giving you a set of approaches, resources and skills that will allow you to deal much more creatively and effectively with your client's needs. The Institute's skilled and experienced trainers will guide you through supervised experiential learning to acquire behavioral competence in using Ericksonian Hypnosis." New England Institute for NLP, brochure.

Below that statement we are told that both the classical (stupor-like trance) method of hypnotism and the Ericksonian (unconsciously-received) technique are taught in the course.

"What you will learn from this training: . . Use of a variety of methods for inducing and deepening trance both through formal hypnotic induction and conversationally."NEINLP brochure.

On another brochure, NEINLP points out that, because the world is changing, we should, in working with people, assume that they are changing also. This is an ominous thought since hypnotists are in the business of changing people in accordance with their own views of what that change should be.

"The accelerating globalization of the world and its people has made the necessity for an updated and improved model of human interaction and relationships more necessary than ever. The traumatic changes happening in Eastern Europe are a reflection of an emerging new model of the world that is affecting our whole planet. Not only do these changes require a new concept of what people, groups, and culture are, but they also call for a new set of skills for communicating and interacting with systems of people . . The primary goal of this seminar is to integrate systemic thinking with NLP models and methodology." NEINLP brochure.

"A new concept of what people, groups, and culture are" is required. Using Ericksonian hypnosis, the operator can then adapt his subjects to fit the new concepts. And here is how the new feelings, beliefs, likes, dislikes, and goals are placed in the subject:

"NLP is a systematicized study of subjective experience: what we take in through our five senses, how we encode or organize that raw sensory experience into 'maps' or personal models of the world, and how we then express our experience. This map-making process, and how it determines our choice of behavior, is often out of our conscious awareness. As an NLP practitioner, you develop increased sensory acuity for observing human behavior, and acquire new abilities to identify the language patterns in a person's verbal communications. Using these skills, you discover that the previously unconscious and seemingly inaccessible 'maps of the mind' become Conscious and directly perceptible. It then becomes within your capacity to alter these 'maps' if appropriate transferring personal resources from one context to another, transferring excellence from one person to another, and thus provide both yourself and those with whom you work more options in choosing behaviors." NEINLP brochure.

"It then becomes within your capability to alter these maps.' Who decides what thoughts, feelings, and beliefs will be changed? The hypnotic operator does. He may have ever so good intentions, but he is the one who is in the driver's seat of the other person's mind, not the person who owns that mind,

"Erickson's legacy is a wealth of vital information for understanding and influencing behavior, and is very useful for increasing skills in achieving specific outcomes, whether in psychotherapy, or in other communication contexts. NEINLP brochure.

Here are the type of skills that NLP trainees are taught:

"What you will learn from this training: Facts vs. myths and misconceptions about hypnosis; how and when trance states occur naturally in our everyday lives. Use of a variety of methods for inducing and deepening trance. A number of proven procedures for utilizing trance therapeutically. Application of hypnotic language patterns, indirect suggestions, Ericksonian reframing and other techniques. Diagnosis and treatment; planning; handling the 'resistant' client and utilizing resistance to further therapeutic goals. Creating and telling metaphors to access unconscious resources, including multiple embedded metaphor. Several induction methods for self-hypnosis. "NEINLP brochure.

Here is another description of several aspects NEINLP teaches its instructors:

"The Meta-program and its use for diagnosis and change in psychotherapy and in business. Verb tense shifts, directionalized Metamodel (Metamodel lll) and verbal patterns to produce change. Threshold patterns, including those for restoring relationships and for breaking compulsions. Identification and utilization of the structure of emotional states as the basis for interventions. A wide range of advanced submodality techniques. The structure and change of beliefs. The identification and use of presuppositions. Advanced work with criteria. Motivation, and creation of compelling features. . Generative chaining model. Deliberate multilevel communication. Re-imprinting of past formative experiences. . Personal change using the timeline. Modeling: thorough training in eliciting and reproducing behavioral excellence, using both conscious and unconscious methods. Advance holistic methods, such as the 'meta-mirror' and the 'resonance pattern.' Over 24 'sleight of mouth' patterns for reframing and belief change " NEINLP brochure.

What classical hypnotist can do all that we find in the above paragraph? Ericksonian hypnosis can provide the operator with: Meta-programs to affect the subconscious. Using the way you phrase words to change the way they think, believe, and act. Subliminal threshold patterns. Interventions: implanting new patterns within them. How to change their unconscious, their beliefs, and their premises. Changing criteria: changing the norms by which they make their moral judgments. Getting them to do what they did not previously want to do. Implanting new, crucial reasons for their doing something they had not planned to do. Linking one emotional reason to another. Talking to their hypothalamus at the same time you talk to their frontal lobes. Bringing back their earlier experiences as a reason for doing different things now. Changing someone else's behavior to match what you think it ought to be. Reflect their emotions as you speak with them so they will do what you suggest. Using facial appearance to overpower their will.

You will recall that Milton Erickson's hypnotic methods were somewhat adapted by John Grinder and Richard Bandler. We will now analyze portions of a book Grinder and Bandler wrote. As you might expect, this book is recommended both by LEAD and by NEINLP, which use their restructured Ericksonian hypnosis as the basis of LEAD and NEINLP courses.

LEAD, the counseling seminar which is instructing our leaders in Takoma Park, recommends that the following 10 books be read in a four-level sequence, with the most elementary books being the first four:

"Listed below are some of the finest books on NLP LEVEL ONE: Bandler and Grinder, Frogs into Princes . . . Lewis and Pacelir, Magic Demystified. . , Sid Jacobson, Meta-Cation. . . Gene C. Laborde, Influencing with Integrity. .

"NLP-LEVEL 2: Bandler and Grinder, Reframing. . ,Steven Langton, Practical Magic. .

"'NLP-LEVEL 3: Bandler and Grinder, Patterns of Hypnotic Techniques. . , Grinder and Bandler, Trance-formation. . , David Gordon, Therapeutic Metaphors. .

"NLP-LEVEL 4: Robert Dilts, NLP, Volume 1 . . , Robert Dilts, Roots of NLP . . , Robert Dilts, Applications of NLP . . , Richard Bandler, Using Your Brain-for a Change. "LEAD brochure.

The very titles of the above books will afford you an idea of their contents. Magic, hypnotism, and séances are closely related. They not only have a lot in common, they have a common source.

SPECIAL NOTE: Some readers will only want a warning to avoid Ericksonlan and other forms of hypnotism, but there will be others who want an Insight into how they operate. In this way they may recognize "casual conversation hypnosis" when someone starts to use it on them or a loved one. Therefore, we will supply a section providing you with early-warning danger signals when conversational hypnotism is underway. If you do not want to read this section, skip over to the next section and continue reading. Let us now consider the type of material in the very first, and most elementary of the books that LEAD recommends that its students read: Frogs Into Princes. We would expect this to be one of the first LEAD-recommended books that our leaders and church workers have read, which have, or are taking, the LAB II course.  

The title of the book indicates the magical aspects of its teachings. As we scan part of it, you will note there is a more-than-human knowledge and power evinced here. The mystical front cover portrays a frog in the process of changing into a genie-like prince.

In pacing and mirroring, the operator (the hypnotist: the one hypnotically fulfilling his objectives through your behavior) mirrors your expressions, voice, and posture as much as possible, so that he can get you to do what he wants. (page 79-81)

"When you join someone else's reality by pacing them, that gives you rapport and (their) trust and puts you in a position to utilize their reality in ways to change it."Frogs into Princes, P. 81.

This book consists of a written transcript of training course lectures given by the authors. In various places in this volume will be found situations in which the operator says, perceives, and accomplishes things beyond what we would normally expect a human to have the grasp or ability to do. People sense this supernatural aid, and are fascinated by It. Ellen White tells us In Great Controversy that people will, in spiritistic situations, sense the working of a power beyond the human. This will lure them on and on, to their destruction. Our leaders should not be taking these courses.

In one sequence, Linda, one of these In attendance, comes up for a demonstration (pages 82-87). The operator (one of the two men who gave the seminar and authored the book) then tells her to pick an unpleasant topic he will then, almost magically, change her view of. After she has selected such a topic, he says:

"Linda, what do you recall that gives you the unpleasant feeling? Is it a set of images or a voice? Okay. She already answered the Question nonverbally. If you were watching her eyes, you saw them move up to her left and then down to her right. So she makes an eidetic visual image and then has a feeling about it." Frogs into Princes, page 82

Then the operator tells her to close her eyes and intently look at that unpleasant experience In her past, which he says he will call "Y,"

Then the operator touches Linda's right shoulder, although she may not have noticed that he did this. He then tells her to again shut her eyes and this time think of something pleasant, to be referred to as "X." While her eyes are closed, he reaches out and touches her left shoulder. After this, he speaks with her and to the audience for a time, and then he again touches her right shoulder, and she immediately drops into an emotional depression and tension.

"Did those of you watching notice some changes [in her demeanor as she thought of the two different things]? Let's call the response she gets from the picture Y, and the new resource that she needed back there, we'll call X. Now, let's demonstrate. Which of those two responses is this? (He touches her right shoulder.) Now, you should be able to see the color changes, lip size changes, breathing changes, actual trembling In her body, that we have called Y.

"Now, which response is this? (He touches her left shoulder.)"-Op. sit. page 83

I here suggest that that is not humanly possible. It would require a definite thought or action to bring on such extreme and sudden mood changes. Yet all the operator did was to touch her shoulder. In my opinion, more than human power is at work here. Then, very significantly, the following conversation occurs:

Now, why does response Y occur when I touch her right shoulder? Have you noticed that that occurs? Has anyone in here noticed that? What is going on here? It's really spook time! Linda, do you believe in free will? "'

Linda, Yeah.

"(He touches her right shoulder.) Now, who tightened the muscles around your mouth? Whose free will do you believe in? Free will is a funny [thing]. It's also a nominalization [Just a name for something else] . . Someone is making those pictures and It isn't you. . Now, what's going on here? Did anybody make sense out of that?

Woman [in audience speaks up]: When you were asking her to go deep Inside of her and see that Image, you put your hand on her right shoulder as she was feeling the bad feelings, so she had an  association with the touch.

"Do you mean to tell me that now every time I touch her on the shoulder like that, she will have that response? (He touches her right shoulder again, and response Y occurs.)

"Man: It sure looks that way. I agree with you.

"How could something that powerful be overlooked by modern psychology? Here you are, adult human beings. Most of you have been to college, and most of you are professional communicators. You've learned about human beings and how human beings work. How do you make sense of this?

"Does the name Pavlov ring a bell? This is straight stimulus-response conditioning . . That touch is now associated with the entire experience that she recalled. 

"When a person is in a certain state of consciousness such as the experience Y for Linda, you can introduce a new dimension in any sensory system, such as a touch. We call this an anchor,' in this case, a kinesthetic anchor. As long as I repeat that touch with the same pressure at the same point on Lindas body, and she has no stronger competing states of consciousness when I begin, it will always re-access that experience. It's straight conditioning. It constitutes, in my opinion, one of the most powerful covert tools that you can use as a therapist or as a communicator. It will get you almost everything." Frogs into Princes. pages 82-85.

This is NOT conditioning! Ivan Pavlov and B.F. Skinner pioneered "behavioral conditioning. " Their concept was based on the evolutionist theory that people are only animals and can be trained like animals. "Conditioning" is a modem pseudo-science that Christians should have nothing to do with. Yet you should be aware of the fact that when Pavlov trained his dogs and mice, and Skinner his pigeons, -it took days, and sometimes weeks, of repetitive work to condition their animals to salivate when a bell rang, or peck a certain way in response to a signal for food.

What the above author did is NOT normal conditioning, but a supernatural instantaneous conditioning. And that would not be conditioning ." A hypnotic trance occurred, without Linda realizing it A single, hardly noticeable touch cemented in a powerful response. The anchoring can be done so stealthfully (covertly) that it cannot be noticed by the one being anchored, and yet, he assured his audience, it would remain strong from that time forward. My conclusion is that only a supernatural power was enabling the operator to do what he did.

"Man [in audience asks a question]: do you have to anchor as obviously as you have been demonstrating?

"We are being very obvious and exaggerated in our movements as we are anchoring here because we want you to observe the process and learn as the changes occur. If we had brought Linda up here and anchored her auditorily, with voice tonalities, you'd have no idea what we did. The more covert (secretive) you are, the better off you will be in your private practice. You can be very covert in the way you touch. You can use tones of voice. You can use words like 'parent', 'child', and 'adult', or postures, gestures, expressions. You can't not anchor. Frogs into Princes, 102.

"As long as these [the Y and the X] are full experiences, and we're guaranteeing that [they will always henceforth remain in her mind] by anchoring [having touched each of her shoulders just one time to anchor each one) both will serve equally well as guides for future behavior.

"Linda: (She opens her eyes and smiles broadly.) I love it!"-Frogs into Princes, Page 85.

Is this how you want to obtain your "guides" for future behavior? Five pages over, the author significantly mentions that a good pantomimist is also using anchoring techniques. It you have seen our videos on the West Coast celebration churches, you will recall the peculiar movements of Dan Simpson's hired actor, who goes through various body movements and trains others to do the same for each Sabbath morning celebration service at the Colton Church. He is using hypnotic anchoring techniques to fascinate the audience.

Here are additional examples of hypnotic power in action:

"One thing that we have done with couples [who come to counseling because they have been arguing with each other] is to take away their ability to talk to each other. 'You can't talk to each other any more until I tell you to. if I catch you talking to each other, I'll give you warts' "Frogs into Princes. page 91.

"We don't ordinarily create new personal histories for people anymore. We have spent three hours doing it. And we have done it fifteen minutes a week for six weeks, and we trained somebody to do time distortion once, and did it in about four minutes. We programmed another person to do it each night as they dreamed. We literally installed, in a somnambulistic trance [a sleep-like trance, but not lying down while in it], a dream generator, that would generate the requisite personal history, and have her recall this in the waking state the next day, each day." Frogs into Princes, page 101.

"The same patterns that you can use to change somebody quickly and unconsciously, can be used to hook them and keep them as patients. That's a strange thing about therapy." Frogs into Princes, page 102

[Speaking of an allergic person:] "However, if you put an animal in her presence, or told her that one had been in the room recently, she had a very strong allergic reaction. So we simply gave her a childhood of growing up without being asthmatic (he hypnotically changed her childhood memories). And an amazing thing happened: not only did she lose her allergic response to animals, but also to the things she had been found to be allergic to by the skin-patch testing."-Frogs into Princes, page 100.

After giving a remarkable example of how a person was physically changed, someone asked about which aspects were hypnotic. Then the following statements were made by the authors, the first to express the fact that all these methods are hypnotic; the second, seemingly denying the fact, wishing to avoid the its implications, but then saying more.

"Richard: Everything is hypnosis.

"John: there's a profound disagreement between us. There is no such thing as hypnosis. I would really prefer that you didn't use such terms, since they refer to nothing.

 "We believe that all communication is hypnosis . .

"Do we have any official [classical, sleep-like trance inducing] hypnotists here? How many of the rest of you know that you are unofficial hypnotists? We've got one. And the rest of you don't know it yet. I think that it is important to study official hypnosis if you are going to be a professional communicator. It has some of the most interesting phenomena about people available in it. One of the most fascinating things you will discover once you are fully competent in using the ritualistic notions of traditional hypnosis, is that you'll never have to do It again. A training program in hypnosis is not for your clients. It's for you . . You will also discover that most of the techniques in different types of psychotherapy are nothing more than hypnotic phenomena."-Frogs into Princes, p. 100.

As we earlier saw from both LEAD and NEINLP brochures, their courses are founded on Ericksonian casual-conversation hypnosis. According to NLP expects, their students can learn many significant things about human mind control by studying classical hypnotism, but they will not need to do it, for Ericksonlan hypnosis can accomplish far more, and without the client's realizing the means by which It was done.

PART FOUR OF TEN

An interesting point brought out was the use of storytelling in the hands of a trained Ericksonian hypnotist. After mentioning again how invaluable it is to use "secret therapy" (changing the client's behavior and feelings. without their knowing how it happened), he then goes on to say that his present preferred method is to not let the client tell him anything about his needs or problems, but instead just tell stories to the client!

As a result, emotional and thinking changes occur over the next several months, in ways the operator wanted those changes to occur. Yet after telling him stories for 15 minutes to an hour, he would not see him again! This is not mere storytelling; this is Ericksonian hypnotism! If the client told him nothing, how could he know what changes needed to be made? Why, weeks and months later, would that person change because of stories told him earlier by the hypnotist? We all read or hear stories all the time, but they do not have such life-changing effects on us.

If you place yourself before such men, your thinking may change also.

We have received a number of telephone calls in recent months about new theology pastors who tell peculiar and sometimes harebrained stories on Sabbath morning. Perhaps there is a deeper reason why these odd stories are being told.

Another interesting case is the pastor of the Collegedale Church in Tennessee who, about a year ago, wrote a short, but strange, cartoon book about animals talking to each other. He gave this to his church members to sell to raise money for a church project. One of the animal stories is about the importance of attending church every Sunday. We could not figure out that book until we read the following:

PART FIVE Of TEN

"If you ask the people who were up here for demonstration purposes, my guess is they would assign very little responsibility to us for the changes that occurred in them, much less than they would in traditional content-oriented therapy. That's one of the advantages of secret therapy. It doesn't create that kind of dependency relationship. .

"In our actual private practice, which is severely reduced now because we're moving into other areas of modeling, we tell stories. A person will come in and I don't want them to tell me anything. I just tell them stories. The use of metaphor is a whole set of advanced patterns which is associated with what we've done so far. You can learn about those in David Gordon's excellent book, Therapeutic Metaphors. I prefer metaphor artistically. I don't have to listen to client's woes, and I get to tell very entertaining stories. Clients are usually bewildered or infuriated by paying me money to listen to stories. But the changes they want occur anyway. . You do things so covertly [stealthily) that they don't have the faintest idea what you are doing. . "Is there anybody here who has been to see Milton Erickson? He told you stories, right? Did you find that six months, eight months, or a year later you were going through changes that were somehow associated with those stories that he was telling?

"Man: Yes.

"That's the typical report. Six months later people suddenly notice they've changed and they don't have any idea how that happened, and then they get a memory of Milton talking about the farm up in Wisconsin or something. When you were with Erickson did you have the experience of being slightly disoriented, fascinated and entranced by the man's language?

"Man: I was bored.

"Milton uses boredom as one of his major weapons. If Milton were here, one thing he might do is bore you to tears. So you'd all drift off into daydreams and then he has you. .

"We have, during these days [in this seminar) together, succeeded brilliantly in completely overwhelming your conscious resources. This was a deliberate move on our part, understanding as we do that most learning and change takes place at the unconscious level. . so that, in the days and weeks and months to come, you can discover yourself doing things that you didn't know you learned about here."-Frogs into Princes, pp. 134-135.

According to this, training in Ericksonian hypnosis is based on being hypnotically captured by the master trainers (who in turn, in our view, have earlier been hypnotically captured by supernatural powers). Behind the scenes, a super-mind is controlling all these hypnotists, who, in turn, spend their time trying to control still others.

"When you were with Erickson did you have the experience of being slightly disoriented, fascinated and entranced by the man's language? . . [He] uses boredom. " The boredom opens to the operator a door, since the mind is switched out of thinking gear.

"Did you have the experience of being slightly disoriented, fascinated and entranced by the man's language?" That, and the boredom, may be a key to help identify the presence of an Ericksonian story-telling situation.

A second, more advanced Ericksonian book is entitled Trance-formations: Neuro-Linguistic Programming and the Structure of Hypnosis, and was written by the authors of Frogs Into Princes.

"Hypnosis should not be difficult or unnatural. It should be the most natural thing in the world."-John Grinder and Richard Bandler, Trance-formations: Neuro-Linguistic Programming and the Structure of Hypnosis, p. 19.

If an Ericksonian interview appears to be underway, get out of there! Do not dally around. Do not linger because of curiosity. Do not have smug confidence that you are safe in lingering near such a danger. Never dare anyone to hypnotize you! The operator will then begin by keeping you doing something, which you know you dare not stop doing. Then, because you obeyed him, he switches subject matter, and catches you!

"They sit down and say 'Go ahead and try to hypnotize me.' And I say, 'I can't hypnotize you.' They say, 'Well, go ahead and try.' I say, 'I can't do it. There's nothing I can do; if I decided to force you to keep your eyes open, that would make you keep your eyes open. I'll try. Keep your eyes wide open! Stay totally alert! Everything you do will make you stay right here and right now!'

"Then they resist me right into a trance! The principle I was using was simply noticing the response of the person in front of me, and providing him with a context that he could respond to appropriately in a way that was natural for him."-Trance-formations, pp. 13-14.

So he begins by authoritatively commanding him to do what he is already doing!

Pray for help. If you need to remain for a moment, meet them with the Word of God,-but then get out! The operator's objective is to put you into a trance, and then change your thinking and your behavior.

Yet, normally, more subtle methods are used to do it without one's realizing it. "Natural transitions lead people into an altered [trance] state without jarring them." - Trance-formations, p. 11.

"NLP is an explicit and powerful model of human experience and communication. Using the principles of NLP, it is possible to describe any human activity in a detailed way that allows you to make many deep and lasting changes quickly and easily."-Trance-formations, pp i-ii.

The technique is based on hooking a person while he is relaxed and not expecting what is taking place.

"We're going to study what's called Ericksonian hypnosis, after Milton H. Erickson. Ericksonian hypnosis means developing the skills of a hypnotist so well that you can put someone into a trance in a conversation in which the word hypnosis is never mentioned."-Trance-formations, p. 13.

It is not the subject but the Ericksonian operator who decides the changes to be made. (In reality, it is the super-mind controlling the operator that makes the final decision.)

"Finding things that are universal in people's experience is the key to both inducing hypnosis and using it for whatever you want to accomplish." -Trance-formations, p. 11.

He begins where the other person already is, and then leads him somewhere else.

"You can provide people with communications that match what's going on, just like a biofeedback machine. You can then start adding other things step by step that lead them to somewhere else, and they will be able to go along naturally and comfortably. You can create a situation in which all they have to do is respond, the one thing people do all the time, and they do best." Trance-formations, p. 30.

"Your job in doing hypnosis is to notice what people respond to naturally."-Trance-formations, p. 13.

First, he mimics you: your breathing, your posture, your tones, or your words, in order to emotionally catch you.

"One thing I've noticed is that people are more apt to respond easily when they're in a state that hypnotists call rapport. Rapport seems to be built on matching behaviors. Disagreeing with people won't establish rapport . . If you gauge the tempo of your voice to the rate of their breathing, if you blink at the same rate that they're nodding, if you rock at the same rate that they're rocking, and if you say things which must in fact be the case, or things that you notice are the case, you will build rapport. . We call this kind of matching 'pacing.' " Trance-formations, p.14.

He then verbalizes (repeats in somewhat different words) what the other one is saying, describing. He interprets, or explains, why those things happened back in the past. In doing this, he is reorienting, reeducating the person in regard to his values foundations.

She could immediately verify that my verbalization was in fact an accurate representation of her experience. I come to gain credibility. . I'm feeding back things that are a part of her experience, but are normally outside of awareness for her. So I'm building rapport, and at the same time I'm already altering her consciousness by that maneuver." Trance-formations, p. 15.

Leading on from one point to another, transitions are used to take the person on into a trance. This is done by gradually, suggestively telling him what the operator wants him to do, going from one thing to another, and then into a trance.

"In addition to matching people's experience with your statements to get rapport, you need to be able to do something with the rapport you'll have.

"The key to this is being able to make transitions. You need to have a graceful way of guiding someone from his present state into a trance state-going from describing his present state to describing the state you want him to go into. Using transitional words such as 'as [you do this . . ]' or 'when [this happens, you should. .]' are words which imply that there is some meaningful relationship between two utterances [when actually there may be none at all]." Trance-formations, p. 15.

When necessary, he distracts the listener's attention, and then confuses him.

"When you use the confusion technique, you do not build in meaningful transitions. You indicate a sort of mild confusion in people, and then you begin natural transitions [to a hypnotic state more receptive to suggestions] from that point."-Trance-formations, p. 11.

"You can use any complicated task to occupy a person and distract his consciousness while you disorient him."-Trance-formations, p. 82. .

The simplest way to do that is for the operator to get him to shut his eyes and think about something elsewhere or in the past, and visualize it. That puts him in a different frame of mind, a partially "altered state." (He is actually in rapt thought on something else.) Then, while he is doing it the operator overloads his mind with suggestions and requests. That disorients him, and he slips more easily into a trance and is susceptible to the changed behaviors suggested to him.

"If you can interrupt somebody else's altered state, the one that they need to perform well, then they will play poorly, and you may be able to beat them." Trance-formations, p. 79.

In a sermon situation, you can ignore it all and read something else. But in a direct face-to-face conversation with an Ericksonian operator, you cannot simply try to ignore him or just think about something else. While you are deep in thought on one topic, he can prod you with suggestions and ideas and carry you into a trance.

"Whenever a person's conscious processing is overloaded, you can pass information directly to the unconscious, and the person will respond to that information. The easiest way to overload someone's attention is by having her pay attention to a complex internal experience. "Trance-formations. p. 81.

"When your timing and your sensory experience are refined enough that you know when a person's attention is inwardly oriented and when it's not, you can introduce anything you want [while it is focused inwardly]. When someone is oriented inward, she will respond appropriately to your suggestions because you bypass her conscious mind. There's no way for her to filter or defend against such suggestions."  Trance-formations, p. 81.

"You can use any complicated task to occupy a person and distract his consciousness while you disorient him . . Soon he would be overwhelmed by the complexity, and in defense, he would go into a deep trance. . I would continue to overload, and go on to introduce additional suggestions about the specific kinds of overt responses I want."-Trance-formations. pp. 82. 83.

"Specific kinds of overt responses." The operator asks for certain information, he asks for data, impressions, something to be done, suggests a different "history" of earlier events, or predicts events that will occur later. By  placing himself in willing casual conversation with the hypnotist, a person opens a door whereby supernatural forces can dull his mind, and render it more susceptible to suggestion and takeover by the operator.

A related technique occurs when the Ericksonian technician has a helper with him. Both together work on the person until he becomes confused by the jumble of words. "Double induction is . . where you use two people to overload one person. It works really quickly. You get a lot of overload; you get it quickly, and you get a very powerful response. - Trance-formations, p. 83.

Still another way is through story-telling. A powerful technique used here is to start a story, then have a character in that story start another story, and then have someone in that story start yet another. By now the listener is so confused that the Ericksonian operator catches him. "What I've done is to embed story inside of story inside of story until I overload your conscious capacity to keep track of which statement refers to which thing. . If I were to go on with the story now, and deliver induction [hidden] messages inside of the story, it would be difficult for you to know which of the realities I was referring to . . While your conscious mind is trying to figure that out, your unconscious will be responding." Trance-Formations. p. 85.

The objective is to change behavior and change beliefs. The goal is to make him into an image of the operator in feelings and behavior (which is the best the operator could imagine for him).

"I want to teach you to see how someone is responding so that you can vary your behavior to provide a context in which he can respond appropriately. If you can do that, anyone can go into an altered state in which you can teach him whatever you want him to learn."-Trance-formations, p. 14.

"The major positive attribute of an altered state of consciousness is that you don't have to fight with a person's belief system. The unconscious mind is willing to try anything, as far as I can tell, if it is organized and instructed in an appropriate way." - Trance-formations, p. 99.

Beliefs and normative values are dangerous to NLP. They interfere with being reached and overcome. They keep people from submitting their minds to NLP molding. Those learning Ericksonian hypnosis are asked to set aside their own belief systems while they learn it; then take them up again afterward to the extent they feel they still need them. Testing NLP will accomplish the purpose; it will so overwhelm the trainee that he will not have the same outlook thereafter.

"You will only be asked to suspend your beliefs long enough to test the concepts and procedures of NLP in your own sensory experience." Frogs into Princes, p. i.

It is clear that if you are in someone else's home and this kind of thing begins, get out of there! If the mind-manipulators are in your home, tell them to leave. If they are slow about doing it, you may need to telephone the police.

How can you avoid being hypnotized? Surely, that is a question that should be considered in a study of this type. Here are some suggestions.

First, let us consider a quotation by one of the firms, which is a master of that, most subtle of hypnotic forms: the Ericksonian:

"Everyone has had the experience of driving in a car and having been so deep in thought that you missed the street or exit you were looking at.

"During that time of concentration, you were actually experiencing a light trance. Actually, anytime you start to concentrate internally or focus inwards, you change your level of consciousness. So, very naturally you go in and out of various levels of consciousness throughout every day. Hypnosis is the skilled and directed use of this naturally occurring state.

"The person most responsible for advancing the field of hypnosis was Dr. Milton H. Erickson. This extraordinary person showed us how to use hypnosis to better meet therapeutic goals. He taught us that we can communicate with the whole person by utilizing conscious and unconscious levels. Dr. Erickson also taught us how to utilize and bypass client resistance by embedding therapeutic interventions in seemingly casual conversation.

"Perhaps most importantly he taught us that each person is an individual and psychotherapy should be more compatible with the way each person structures his or her own experience." NEINLP brochure.

We will not here bother with "conscious," "unconscious," "subconscious," "libido" (the latter two terms are in the Freudian, rather than NLP jargon), and other psychiatric "multiple-mind" concepts. Instead let us say that sometimes the mind is in high gear, sometimes in a lower gear, and sometimes more narrowly focused.

When your mind is in high gear, you are at highest alert.

You are thinking fast, observing with extreme care, and your eye movements are rapid. You are at command center. When you are really aroused, your judgmental centers are concerned about making wise decisions. The thinking mind and the power of will is at the forefront of action.

But your mind can slip into lower gear, and this is good. Doing so protects the physical functioning of the mind. To have your mind going full speed through all your waking hours would wear out your brain prematurely. Not to get enough rest at night would produce a similar result. The result would be a tired mind that eventually works at a lower gear most of the time, and has a harder time arousing itself to powerful, quick-thinking levels.

We tend to let our minds rest at lower levels from time to time. But there is also work to do in life, and there are times when quick, crucial decisions must be made. But another aspect is what we might call "focus." You can select one thing and concentrate your attention on it, or only one aspect of it. While doing this, you may be giving little attention to other things. In other words, you are in an upper gear in regard to one thing, and lower on others. That is also good. It helps rest your mind in the midst of your work.

In order to make it more socially acceptable, the NLP advocates (as indicated in the above quotation) want to "normalize" Ericksonian hypnosis as something that happens to people all the time. But that is not true. When your mind slips into lower gear, it is just in a partial resting stage; it is NOT in a trance! When you are concentrating on one thing, and not thinking about other things, you are also not in a trance; you are just focusing your thoughts. That is good; it makes for better thinking.

When you recall an event of, say, many years ago, and think about some of the ramifications of it, other things about you fade out. You are not in a trance; you are just focusing your thoughts.

Hypnotists want us to believe that trances are normal conditions; if we buy their idea, we have agreed that, since it is something we all do anyway, we can be certain that they will also be able to do it to us. That is not true! No one can hypnotize you if, in the strength of God, you refuse to permit it to occur. Others may want to make you an open door to their manipulations, but you can choose to make it a shut door.

Trust yourself to Christ's care, believing that as long as you remain by His side and do not place yourself presumptuously in the wrong place, He will guard you with His angels. Get that settled in your mind. Reject instantly the idea of fear that you can be hypnotized. It is said that those that fear hypnotism are the easiest ones to hypnotize. It is not true because you say it is not true, and you know that if you hide your life in Christ, you are in a rock of Gibraltar that will remain unshaken to all the blasts of the enemy. Therefore you are safe. But you must still take precautions.

The three safest places in the world to be is alone with God in prayer, alone and reading and thinking about His Word, or alone with Him while walking out-of-doors. The safest attitude to take is one of conscious trust in God, reliance upon Him for everything, and thankfulness to Him. Each of those three is powerful!

Make sure that the above two paragraphs are settled and ongoing in your life. In addition, try to obtain adequate rest, exercise, fresh air, enough pure water, and a good, moderate diet.

Satan can only reach you through the avenues of the soul: hearing, sight, touch, taste. Among these, reading, talking, and listening are special. Throughout this study, we have noted that the hypnotists work by talking to you, conversing with you, or touching you. That can include listening to audio- or videocassettes, or television.

If, for example, you are willing to listen to error or read it, then you are opening a door to possible deception. That is why I urge people NOT to investigate every new wind of doctrine that comes along! Stay away from all the latest speculation! You are more likely to be harmed, than helped. We have an oceanful of truth in the Bible and Spirit of prophecy on our shelves, and we do not need to explore every little creek that others tell us that we need to explore.

If, for the remainder of your life, you never again consider one new theory that others advance, but only give your attention to the Bible, Spirit of Prophecy, time alone with God, an awareness of world events, fulfilling your daily duties, and caring for the needs of those around you, will you be lost? No, in fact you are more likely to be saved.