Methods of indirect suggestion. Induction of clinical hypnosis and forms of indirect suggestion An example of indirect suggestion is a joke

For a long time, there were many superstitions and prejudices in the concept of hypnosis. Science has revealed the essence of hypnotism. I.P. Pavlov considered hypnosis in the light of the theory of inhibition. Just as in shallow sleep, individual "watch points" of the cortex are preserved, so in hypnosis, contact is established through non-inhibited areas, or, as they say, a report from the hypnotized person to the hypnotizing person. Scientists have established that hypnosis is a specially induced partial sleep. During hypnosis, the process of inhibition of brain cells is uneven and not deep. The nature of sleep and hypnosis are one. So, a hypnotic sleep can turn into a normal sleep, and then an independent awakening occurs under the influence of noise, light, etc. It is possible, and vice versa, to translate an ordinary dream into a hypnotic one. Conditioned reflexes formed during hypnosis are "torn out", isolated from others. They are durable and hard to fade. In 98% of adults, hypnosis can be induced, but not in every person it comes easily; it depends on the characteristics of the nervous system. It is known, for example, that different people respond differently to the same stimuli. In a hypnotic state, through suggestion, the functions of many organs can be changed. To inspire a hypnotized person with a variety of actions and he performs them, while the work of internal organs changes. There are so-called post-hypnotic suggestions. The suggested action is accurately performed after several days, months and even years. It is impossible for a person to inspire what he cannot do due to natural data; for example - make him sing if he has no voice. Hypnosis and suggestion are closely related phenomena. Hypnosis is possible without suggestion, and vice versa. Unlike hypnosis, suggestion is dominated by excitation of a certain area of ​​the cerebral cortex.

I.P. Pavlov considered suggestion as a simplified typical human conditioned reflex. After all, one description of a lemon is enough to cause the separation of saliva in almost every person. The outstanding Russian scientist V.M. Bekhterev believed that suggestibility is a normal property of every healthy person, although it manifests itself in different people to varying degrees. Suggestion, mutual suggestion and self-hypnosis are very common in everyday life. The power of suggestion is great, it heals or disturbs the normal functions of the organs. Modern medicine uses the natural healing power of sleep as one of the methods of treatment. Prolonged inhibition of the cerebral cortex in combination with sedatives gives a favorable outcome in case of nervous shocks, severe fatigue, peptic ulcer. Recently, electric sleep has been used.

They also treat with suggestion. The influence of the word on the human condition is great. Through the word, you can influence the activity of internal organs. Under the influence of dreams, a person may turn pale or blush. He may change the rhythm of breathing and heartbeat. A doctor with only one soothing conversation with a patient often lowers blood pressure, moderates the patient's pulse. Based on the influence of the word, psychotherapy and hypnosis treatment have been developed. Suggestion is now being used more and more widely in hypnotic sleep for medicinal purposes.

direct suggestion

For influencing persons with a weak intellect, direct suggestion in combination with enhanced negative emotions (shouting, gesticulation) achieves the greatest effect. Moreover, the inspiring person must pronounce the "key" words clearly, sharply, tensely, emotionally rich and always in an imperative tone.

For deliberately suggestible persons, as well as persons with a developed intellect, it is possible to use positive emotions. In the case when the object of influence is suppressed or too unsure of himself, the proper direct suggestion is performed in an emotional imperative tone, involving facial expressions and gestures, using repeatedly repeated sharp, loud, short, as if hammered phrases.

If the object of influence is overly agitated and significantly disturbed, then they inspire in a soothing tone, using repeatedly repeated soft, lulling long phrases.

One of the additional methods of direct suggestion is the special "uncertainty" of phrase construction. Phrases are constructed in such a way that it seems to a person that his thoughts are spoken aloud.

Types of indirect suggestion

information suggestion- closely related to the manipulative principle of authority, this type of suggestion relies on the media (newspapers, magazines, television, etc.) to influence the inner world of the individual. This method allows you to almost completely eliminate the criticism of the information provided. Outwardly, everything looks like a normal conversation: the information, as it were, helps the object to remember the idea hovering in his head and leads to the need to perform the suggested action. Carefully selected rumors serve as an excellent channel for transmitting the desired suggestion. At work here is the fact that overheard or casually caught ideas are often stronger than those that are directly imposed (the effect of suppressing alertness).

affective suggestion

When a person is in a state of passion under the influence of emergency situations (fear of the threat of danger, difficulty in choosing in a difficult situation, severe physical fatigue, lack of experience in behavior in a complex and unfamiliar environment), he naturally develops increased suggestibility.
People in a state of emotional shock intuitively look for an "empathizer" in their interlocutor. In such a person, conscious volitional processes decrease, the degree of suggestibility increases, his behavior becomes imitative. Suggestion in a conversation with an agitated person looks like an attempt to calm him down, which automatically wins attention and trust, and then, after a short pause, imperative or "comradely" advice is given, indirectly related to the state of the person. This "advice" in this case has the greatest force, since under the influence of affect the vigilance of the object is lulled.

Complimentary suggestion

This type of suggestion is closely related to manipulation through praise and flattery. Most people under the influence of compliments lose the ability to be critical of the person who praises them assertively ...
In the language of the special services, this technique of processing a person is called "love bombing." Excessive praise lulls vigilance (critical assessment), and allows you to indirectly inspire pre-planned actions.

Figurative-emotional suggestion

The object of suggestion is invited to strain his imagination and present in detail all the delights of the object of suggestion (feel, listen, see). The main thing in such a suggestion is not to cause the slightest alertness of the object of influence.
This technique of suggestion reveals itself in Ericksonian hypnosis and neurolinguistic programming.
If attention is riveted to any one idea, then nothing penetrates the consciousness from the outside, except for what is associated with this idea.
This suggestion can cause special states of consciousness or certain changes in the body of the object. Since effective suggestion operates through the subconscious, attempts to excite a person's fantasy are very promising.
The psyche in such a case becomes malleable to any changes and to the perception of any information.

Suggestion with denial

The term "suggestion with denial" means the presentation of information using the particle "not". This type of suggestion is also used in neuro-linguistic programming techniques. The human brain is arranged in such a way that our mental automatisms, as it were, discard the “not” particle. The method of suggestion using this particle is based on the fact that in order to imagine what not to do, a person first needs to imagine the situation that he is doing it.
Negatives with the particle "not" exist in speech, but they are not in the subconscious. Not infrequently, with the help of the “not” particle, people themselves create obstacles for themselves in achieving something.

Suggestion by calling "polar reaction"

This suggestion is made by a call or suggestion to hypothetically bring an undesirable possible situation to its logical limit or even to the point of absurdity...

allegorical suggestion

Suggestions without introducing into a trance are also indirect directives in the form of figurative examples. This method of influencing the subconscious was used by the ancient sages. At the same time, the necessary thought is stated allegorically - in the form of an aphorism, analogy, joke, anecdote, a short story from personal life or the life of acquaintances, an incident from professional practice, a parable, an example from books, the press, television - what is commonly called metaphors.
The association arising at the same time in the listener is the thought introduced into his subconscious.
Such suggestion easily bypasses the criticism of reason.
Complex metaphors are stories containing several levels of meaning. This way of influencing a person is often called "entrance to the brain not through the front door, but from the back porch."
The main purpose of using metaphors is not just to evoke emotions, but to translate them into motives. To carry out any idea, prepare in advance a metaphor, an anecdote, a parable, a tale, a story with a "parallel action" corresponding to a typical situation.
But there is a very common mistake:
after the story, a conclusion is made for the interlocutor. The main power of metaphors lies in the associations they evoke in listeners. The advantages of metaphors include the fact that, while conveying the necessary ideas, they do not arouse offense: after all, this is an abstract narrative in the third person or the opinion of a third party.

Some of the benefits of using metaphors include:

• overly direct and realistic metaphors can cause too obvious an association, and therefore offend and give rise to contradictions;
• the thought being carried out should be understandable to the listener, not be too vague for him;
• the use of banal turns of speech will nullify all efforts;
• the metaphors used must match the personality of the listener: techniques successfully used with strangers may be completely useless in a conversation with old friends, and allegories that "work" in communicating with an intellectual can fail in a conversation with a simple worker ...

Video: Non-verbal control and indirect suggestion through NOT.



The power of the gaze

American tourists John Gelfreich and Otto Buteshude traveled through the jungles of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. Having spent the night somehow on the bank of the Xingu River, in the morning they began to prepare breakfast. Buteshude went for water. He did not appear for a long time, and Gelfreich went to look for a comrade. He found him near the water. Otto walked slowly towards the thick bushes, his movements were like those of a robot, his head motionlessly directed towards the thickets. Following the direction of his gaze, Gelfreich saw the head of a snake sticking out of the bush. John's reaction was lightning fast: with a shot from a pistol, he killed a reptile. Otto suddenly started and laughed nervously. Later he said: by the water he felt someone’s eyes on him, but he doesn’t remember what happened next.

One picture comes to mind, seen by the author in childhood: in the zoo, a boa constrictor is feeding. A mouse was released into the terrarium. The boa constrictor stared at her without blinking. The mouse became numb, and then slowly began to move straight into the mouth of the boa constrictor. At the same time, the hind legs pushed it forward, and the front legs rested. Unforgettable in its drama spectacle!

Both cases described show that one's own gaze can subjugate both a person and an animal, impose certain actions on them.

Gaze

In the business world, a closer look has practical applications. The president of McDonald's fast food chain said: “Our restaurants in Moscow feed fifty thousand people every day. And we give individual attention to each visitor. We tell him, looking into his eyes: "Come to us again."

The story told earlier about how Senator Robert Kennedy greeted shows that politicians also skillfully use gaze to suggest attraction to oneself.

Magic look

Around direct gaze a mystical halo has long been formed. It is even called the "magic look". Naturally, there are learning recipes. Igor Vostokov tells about one of them in his book "Secrets of Healers of the East".

“Take a typewritten sheet and in the center of it draw in ink or black ink a circle the size of a two-kopeck coin (1.5 cm).

Hang this sheet at a distance of 2-2.5 m from you and for 15 minutes continuously and without blinking look at this black circle (the circle must be shaded in black).

By doing this daily, you will develop a "magic eye" in yourself. If a woman, for example, looks at a man with such a look in order to bewitch him to herself, then he will forever become hers.

Another way is with a mirror. Slightly relaxing the muscles of the face, look at your reflection. Look into your eyes or the bridge of your nose. Avoiding frequent mania, look at the point for 20-25 seconds.

In everyday life, a gaze should not be abused, because people under it begin to get nervous. Usually, during a conversation, it is customary to periodically look away so as not to embarrass.

If you want to unbalance the interlocutor, choose a weak spot on his body or clothes (for example, crooked legs, bad teeth, dirty nails, uncleaned shoes, a stain, fly, etc.) and stare intently there. Your interlocutor will immediately become nervous. Well, if you, in addition, portray a barely noticeable caustic smile and arrogantly throw your head back, then only a very reserved person will be able to maintain composure. A distracted or directed past the eyes of the interlocutor (at the ear, forehead, chin, lips) will do the same, but in a more delicate and gentle form.

word suggestion

Words are the main tool of suggestion. Visual techniques are auxiliary, facilitating the achievement of the goal. The crushing power of the tongue is reflected in the Epistle of James (3:5, 6, 8):

So the tongue is a small member, but it does a lot ...

Language is fire, embellishment of untruth...

It is an unstoppable evil: it is full of deadly poison.

Since ancient times, it has been known that the treatment of the body and soul of a person rests on three foundations: a knife, grass and a word. The knife is used in surgery; the use of herbs led to the emergence of medicines; the word is the main "tool of labor" of the psychologist and psychotherapist. But not only them. A good doctor is one whose one visit already alleviates the patient's condition.

Elderly people complain that doctors now have no time even to listen to the patient properly. Doctors, who find the opportunity to patiently listen to complaints, encourage, inspire hope for improvement, enjoy the greatest respect among this contingent.

"The word kills" - quite rightly stated in the proverb. This is exactly what often happened when a sorcerer cast a spell on a particular person, piercing his image with a sharp object, and by the appointed time the person really fell ill and died. Some mothers still believe that the evil eye can harm their child. In such cases, we are dealing with mechanisms of direct or indirect suggestion.

direct suggestion

It is directly related to the speech of the influencing person. As an example of direct suggestion, let us recall the case of the patient's death, which we described earlier, immediately after the death of the specialist who treated her, who "calmed" her with the words: "You will die after me."

indirect suggestion

With indirect suggestion, some intermediate action or stimulus is used to enhance its effect (for example, pierce with a nail or burn the image of a person on whom a spell has been cast). Often, indirect suggestion is more effective than direct one, because it does not act "on the forehead" and therefore does not cause internal resistance in the suggested.

Let us illustrate the power of indirect suggestion with the data of three experiments. In one of them, conducted in a psychiatric clinic in the United States, patients were divided into two groups: the first underwent psychotherapy for six months, while the second was awaiting treatment at that time. When the results were compared, it turned out that the percentage of improvement was the same in both groups. The hope of a cure was equal to the cure itself.

In another experiment, patients with neurosis were given sugar pills (completely useless in terms of treatment) instead of drugs, with the assurance that they would "help in the same way as other drugs." A group of fourteen people took sugar pills three times a day for a week, after which thirteen patients improved on all criteria ...

A similar effect is widely known in medicine under the name "placebo effect" (that is, pacifiers).

In the third experiment, two groups of students with psychological problems were formed. Professional psychologists and psychiatrists worked on one, and on the other, college professors who were popular with students. These teachers had to say everything that came to mind in the process of work, with the aim of "helping". Similar sessions were held 2-3 times a week for three months. The percentage of improvement was the same in both groups.

Suggestibility

It is purely individual for each person. To determine the level of suggestibility, you can use special tests, they are called "samples". These tests are necessarily carried out by hypnotists, selecting for themselves the appropriate "material" for the session.

But before giving a description of these trials, let us express some information about suggestibility as such. When suggesting, they appeal mainly to the feelings of the listener and count on an uncritical perception of information. Therefore, children are the most suggestible. Since women tend to be much more emotional than men, it is they who are more amenable to suggestion.

Less educated people are easier to suggest, as well as those who are accustomed to do what the boss orders in the service.

In general, activities related to the fulfillment of orders and requirements (soldiers, athletes, party functionaries) develop suggestibility.

Fatigue and stress also increase it.

Alcoholics and drug addicts are even more suggestible. Easily suggestible crowd. She has "many heads, but few brains."

The more massive the audience of listeners, the more weak-willed and suggestible it is. It is difficult to say to the first: "But the king is naked!" And, since everyone is silent, the illusion is created that everyone is in favor. The ideologists of totalitarian political systems used this phenomenon to simulate "support" for their decisions. So it turned out: each individually - "against", and all together - "for".

"Fight fire with fire"

One poorly educated woman inspired herself that a real toad settled in her stomach: as if, after drinking water from a pond, she swallowed its embryo, which grew and now does not allow the poor woman to breathe.

No arguments could convince her of the absurdity of these statements. And she went to a well-known doctor, who practiced privately, with a request to “drive out” the toad: after talking with her, he understood what was the matter, and did not argue, but appointed the next day an “operation to extract” the damned creature. He told the woman to eat more all this time. He himself asked the neighbor boys to catch a toad for him for a decent reward. Soon the captured creature was already languishing in the bank.

The “operation” consisted in the fact that the doctor gave the patient a strong emetic and sat her down over the large pelvis. A long exhausting vomiting dulled the sufferer's vigilance, and a toad was placed in her pelvis, unnoticed by her.

Seeing her, the patient exclaimed: “Here! I told you! Doctor, you saved me. I feel so relieved now!”

suggestion mechanism

When suggesting, the effect on a person is built in such a way that first a strong excitation is caused in a limited area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe brain with simultaneous inhibition in the rest of it, and then a purposeful discharge is performed, which fixes the suggestible thought in the mind.

Tests for suggestibility

Braid's welcome. The subject focuses his gaze on a shiny object presented to him (a metal ball, the tip of a medical hammer, etc.), fixed opposite and slightly above his bridge of the nose (for stronger eye muscle tension). After a long concentration of attention, fatigue of the visual analyzer and sleep may occur.

Receptions of Coué and Baudouin.

First experience: a standing person is offered to stay straight so that his heels are his main support; you can also ask to throw back your head. This is a position of unstable equilibrium in which any push will lead to a fall. At the same time, it is calmly but firmly suggested: “You are falling back, you are being pulled back, you are already falling, falling ...” Most people do fall, so the hypnotist must stand behind the person in order to catch him in time. To enhance the effect of the test with the palm located opposite the forehead, you can slightly push the patient or, touching the back of his head with the palm of your hand, gradually move your hand back, which also causes an imbalance in the body. If the test worked, then the person begins to experience much more "respect" and trust in relation to the hypnotist, which will subsequently have a positive effect on the results of the session itself.

Second experience: the subject is placed in front of the hypnotist; the center of gravity of the body this time is shifted to the toes. Both look at each other, into the eyes (experienced specialists, in order to less tire their eyesight, look at the bridge of the nose). Then the person conducting the test stretches his palms forward so as to reach the temples of the ward, and says: “You are already falling, falling ...” When performing this technique, you can touch the temples of the subject (the fingers should be cold).

Carrying out such techniques requires compliance with certain rules that ensure the physical safety of the subject: he must be without glasses; you need to remove nearby objects with sharp corners; the hypnotist must have sufficient strength to hold the person in the event of a fall.

Third experience: the subject is given a thread with a heavy object at the end, they are offered to close their eyes and persistently think about the circle. Very soon the pendulum begins to describe circular motions. If the patient is told to think about an oval, then the pendulum begins to rotate along an oval trajectory. So the “device” by which “negative energy” is determined has its predecessor, but in a completely different field of application.

"Healing" accessories

Belief in the healing properties of magnetic (and other) bracelets, plates, earrings, amulets, and talismans is widely spread. Remember "Keep me, my talisman"?

Impressive results in the 18th century were achieved by the Viennese doctor F. Mesmer. At first, he was sure that the magnet helped to cure various ailments, and achieved excellent results by applying a horseshoe-shaped magnet to the diseased organ of the patient. In the future, Mesmer magnetized various objects with which the patients subsequently came into contact. He "charged" the water in which the patients bathed, the dishes they used, the beds in which they slept. "Magnetic energy" was even collected in special batteries, from which sufferers subsequently "scooped" it during wellness procedures.

Subsequently, F. Mesmer came to the conclusion about the absence of a certain healing force in the magnet - "fluid". Frankly admitting his delusions, he focused his attention on the study of "nerve currents" in the human body itself, which can be strengthened through suggestion.

The doctor repented of his past delusions, which cannot be said about many modern "magicians" who continue to supposedly "charge" creams, ointments, newspapers, magazines and mislead millions of people (this issue will be discussed in more detail below). There seems to be an outward resemblance to some psychotherapeutic procedures (recall the “placebo effect”), however, the mass character, lack of spirituality and pronounced commercial background of all these procedures do not allow treating the authors with respect.

traditional healers

Believing in something better really leads to something better happening. Experienced healers are characterized by skillful observance and subtle use of these psychological patterns. Well-written folk conspiracies for various diseases have much in common with the suggestions adopted in modern psychotherapy. They begin, as a rule, with the psychological setting of the patient to "receive" the impact, then the main part follows - the actual suggestion with the requirement to "drive the disease out" from the human body. The use of various figurative representations in this part of the conspiracy (“I drive out the disease of such and such into a rotten swamp, into loose sands ...”) allows you to more fully involve various perception systems (visual, kinesthetic, etc.), strengthen and consolidate suggestion. In the final part, phrases can be pronounced with the aim of prolonging the conspiracy in the future, thereby contributing to the deployment of healing processes in the patient's body.

Religious beliefs

The positive influence that faith in God has on people is based on similar principles. Believers see in the image of God an inexhaustible source of love and kindness and, as it were, draw energy from this well. In fact, energy is replenished by each of its own reserves. Simply with the help of faith in God, it is easier to get “access keys”, since God, in the view of believers, is an ideal, omnipotent and “energetically inexhaustible” being (in contrast to religious ideas about a person as a being often sinful and weak).

This is the ingenious find of the founding fathers of the doctrines of God (Christ, Mohammed, Buddha) - to create the opportunity to draw from one's own source, thinking that they are taking from the divine. How not to remember: God is within us.

Another find - the suggestion about the insignificance of man - allows the holy fathers to lead the flock on behalf of God.

Suggestibility natural and situational

We have seen that suggestibility is an individual trait and varies widely. It is given to each by nature, upbringing, education, life experience. Let's call it natural suggestibility for brevity.

Suggestibility is not a constant. It is influenced by the environment and the momentary state of the person.
It is known that in a crowd a person is more suggestible. The same is true of stress. Panic (that is, hypertrophied feelings of fear) often flares up precisely in the crowd: firstly, due to the effect of mental infection, and secondly, under the influence of stress, which often occurs due to minor danger. Under the pressure of group opinion, participants are more likely to agree with the judgment suggested to them.

Thus, it is possible to create an environment in which suggestibility as a reaction to the situation (that is, situational suggestibility) will increase dramatically.

Suggestion (and any other control action) largely depends on "background support", that is, from the psychological state of the interlocutors and the surrounding background. In this regard, a number of background states can be distinguished.

Relaxation

The simplest and most reliable background for a conversation is muscular relaxation(relaxation). Its essence lies in the fact that during relaxation, the human cerebral cortex is to a certain extent freed from side effects and prepared for speech perception. This happens best when the interviewers are in a comfortable environment and sit in a relaxed position facing each other (on the couch, at the coffee table). This is facilitated by soft and dim light, comfortable furniture, the absence of strong sounds and the availability of sufficient time. The poses of the interlocutors should be natural. A special case of relaxation is a state of trance in the addressee of the impact.

suspense

The figure bent over the table, bent legs, wandering eyes, wrinkles on the forehead and vertical wrinkles on the bridge of the nose indicate tense state. Emotional tension also enhances the perception of the speaker's ideas. In this case, of course, the methods of suggestion for these two states will be different.

An outstanding master of creating tense expectation among the audience was the American film director A. Hitchcock. He proceeded from the rule: it is not the shot itself that is terrible, but the expectation of it. In the "horror films" staged by this master, there are very few crimes (compared especially with current action films), but the director kept the audience in a state of intense expectation for so long that it shocked them more than bloody murders.

"Explosion"

In psychology, this technique is known as an instant personality restructuring under the influence of strong emotional experiences. The phenomenon of "explosion" is described in detail in fiction (the re-education of Jean Valjean, the hero of V. Hugo's novel "Les Misérables"). The scientific substantiation of the “explosion” technique was given by the outstanding teacher A. S. Makarenko.

The use of an "explosion" requires the creation of a special environment in which feelings would arise that could amaze a person with their unexpectedness and unusualness. In such an environment, a collision of nervous processes occurs in a person. An unexpected stimulus (spectacle, information, etc.) causes confusion in him. This leads to a radical change in views on events, individuals and even the world as a whole. For example, information about the infidelity of one of the spouses in "prosperous" families can lead the other to the brink of disaster. In families where infidelity is regarded as a prank, this does not happen.

Says the master of vocational school. He had a student in his group who, with his antics, exhausted the soul of the teachers.

Of course, the master was especially hard hit - both from the administration, and from fellow teachers, and from the parents of the affected students.

There was no control over this fool. And then one day, after some especially vile trick of his, the master found him in the boiler room. Blood rushed to his head, his rage was so great that, having lost all self-control, the master grabbed the teenager and dragged him to the firebox, shouting: “That's it, bastard, say goodbye to life. I have no more strength! I’ll go to court, but I’ll save everyone from such a reptile!!”

The teenager turned white, broke out in a cold sweat and screamed: “Don't! No need! I won't do it again! Sorry! A-ah-ah!"

Throwing him to the ground, the master ran out.

Since the teenager was replaced, he no longer did dirty tricks.

"Scene"

In contrast to the spontaneous "explosion" "scene" can be produced intentionally. André Maurois stated: "The best scenes come about deliberately and with great skill." As an example, let us cite one story from the time of the Napoleonic campaigns. Lyonne, one of the marshals of Napoleon's army, had a certain "strangeness". Being a very even and self-possessed man, he sometimes lost his temper in front of his subordinates, tore off his cocked hat, threw it on the ground and trampled it in a rage.

These outbursts of anger always happened at moments when it was necessary to move subordinates to a difficult decision.

And only the batman noticed such a pattern - every time the day before, the marshal said to him: "Jacques, bring my old cocked hat." The marshal was from the common people and could not trample on an expensive headdress. No wonder they say: "The best impromptu is the one that is well prepared."

These plots demonstrate the effectiveness of persuasive actions that combine the techniques of "suspense" and "explosion".

Identification

If the interlocutor does not show any obvious signs of relaxation or tension, then mutual understanding with him can be achieved against the background of identification, that is, on the idea of ​​mutual experience of some circumstances.

It is known that people who have a certain commonality among themselves are more likely to like each other. Thus, a doctor with a doctor, a merchant with a merchant, an engineer with an engineer, and so on. find common ground faster. And if they also have a certain common destiny, then the achievement of attraction will be even more accelerated. For most people, a fellow sufferer (the same illness, common grief, etc.) becomes closer. One of the reasons for the resounding success of Anatoly Kashpirovsky's television shows was the identification of those who wanted to get rid of their illnesses with those lucky ones who were already lucky: "If they are, then why not me"?

Telesessions of A. M. Kashpirovsky

The name of Anatoly Mikhailovich Kashpirovsky in the recent past was on the lips of many. And almost everyone watched his TV shows.

The success of this talented psychotherapist, which caused controversy in medical circles, was the result of a combination of several factors.

The main role was played by his chosen method of influencing the audience, which is very similar to the one that in psychotherapy is named after two scientists - Kretschmer and Erickson. The technology of the method lies in the absence of "direct" pressure on the participants in the session. The therapist "knits a mesh of words" and only intermittently inserts a phrase whose content is a direct suggestion. Against the background of “indifferent” stimuli, such a phrase works with particular force, since the listeners get the impression of being involved in the treatment process together with the psychotherapist. Here is a good example of one of the variants of hypnotic influence according to this method (sentences representing direct suggestion are in bold in the text).

“You can do what you want: sit or move, you can listen to me or not, you can keep your eyes closed or open. Sit comfortably in a chair and relax. You can think about something pleasant, remember pleasant events from your life. You can ignore me at all. Treatment has already begun. you can sleep; if you don't want to, don't sleep but your eyelids are heavy. The reserves of your body are endless. It is not the doctor's power that works, but your own abilities. You are now relaxed, your breathing is even, your heart is beating evenly and calmly. I do not impose anything on you, I do not inspire anything. You yourself will choose from my words everything that you need. But the environment does not bother you anymore; it faded into the background, dissolved. You can take a break from my words for a while, imagine yourself on the seashore. The sun pleasantly warms you, your body is warm and heavy. You don't have to sleep, but it's so nice. You just want to relax and sleep."

This method, suitable external data and competent construction of the session helped many viewers to activate the internal reserves of the body, which we have already talked about. First of all, easily suggestible and emotional people were able to do this. The bulk of the "healing" falls on their share.

During the televised sessions, high numbers of cures for various diseases were cited. Although in relation to the total number of possible viewers, this percentage is small, but the figure strengthened faith in Anatoly Mikhailovich. First, he confidently held himself in front of the TV cameras, while managing to retain the external accessories of the hypnotist: the appropriate look, posture, gestures, voice timbre, intonation. Secondly, the vast majority of the population did not know anything at all about the work of psychotherapists, so many telesessions were perceived as a "magical action", which, of course, increased their effect. Thirdly, the unusual behavior of some people in the hall had a considerable indirect effect on the perception of the audience. As the cameramen showed, some turned their heads, others waved their arms, others slowly, as if dancing, moved around the hall. Such actions of easily suggestible spectators due to their boundless faith in the possibilities of A. Kashpirovsky caused the so-called induction among those present, infecting them with the same feelings.

Sessions by A. Chumak

In the light of the foregoing, the effects that A. Chumak achieved by “charging” water, cream, ointments, newspapers and magazines are easily explained. Of course, it was not the objects that were "charged" but the minds of the viewers were "charged". Those who had increased suggestibility and ardently believed in A. Chumak received positive changes in their state of health, since “charged” objects brought a pronounced “placebo effect”.

Those who had a sharply negative attitude to the “recharging” procedure (or to A. Chumak himself), received evidence of the harm of such sessions through self-hypnosis. In both cases, the mechanism of influence was the same and was inside the people themselves, and their fierce disputes only created good publicity for A. Chumak.

Psychics

The influx of sorcerers, magicians and psychics that followed the speeches of A. Kashpirovsky was, in fact, a perversion of the foundations of scientific psychology and psychotherapy, since it was based on the elementary illiteracy of people and their habit of creating another idol.

Minsk psychologist Leonid Levit gives the following advice to overly gullible people: “When meeting with another psychic, ask him a specific question (for example, what tooth do you have a crown on or what did you hurt in childhood) and carefully observe the reaction of the interlocutor. Much will become clear to you in the first few seconds. If you are embarrassed by the situation of exposing such a “healer” more than he himself, then at least do not trust him with your personality and your health - the most precious thing you have.

About the dangers and benefits of swearing

From time to time one has to come across statements that plants “feel” when they are going to “do something bad”, “understand” the words that portend danger for them.

Does the word have a similar physical force? Linguists from the Moscow Research Institute of Linguistics, together with biologists, finally decided to answer this question and conducted an experiment on plants. Arabidopsis, which acts as a guinea pig in botany, was cursed. The Evil Fury was replaced by a wave generator, which increased the emotional intensity of ordinary words to the stage of white heat. It turned out that in terms of the strength of the impact, swearing was compared with powerful radiation: DNA chains broke, chromosomes broke up and genes got mixed up. Most of the seeds died, and those that survived mutated. The most interesting thing is that the result did not depend on the sound volume at all. I immediately remembered the sorcerers who whisper their conspiracies.

There has long been a belief among the people: an envious, evil person with a bad word can cause harm. For such, they even composed a saying: “Pip on your tongue!”.

If swearing has such a power that even unconscious plants can catch it, then the question arises: what role do swearing have on human health?

The fact that they bring harm to the one they fall upon is clear. It is no coincidence that we react painfully to abuse addressed to us. And for the health of the cursing themselves?

Not so long ago, linguists found an “ideal” society - these are the Himalayan Sherpas: they have forbidden fights, murders, violence, swearing. However, as it turned out, this seemingly prosperous people is the most uncomfortable in the world. Sherpas are like a bomb ready to explode. Once a year, they are allowed to cross the line of what is permitted in the language in competitions in rhetoric, and this turns into many days of bloody brawls.

It turns out that swear words are a valve through which the body gets rid of destructive energy.

We need obscene and swear words like milk to a growing organism. Without profanity, our energy would burn us from the inside. The Institute of Linguistics advised: if you want to swear, then it’s better not to hold back, but to bury yourself in a corner or fence so as not to spray harmful waves, and swear hard. And for the offenders, you need to keep the formula at the ready: "I wish you the same." Harmless to others, but in fact - "tit for tat". But we must remember that curses also have a reverse connection: the one who pronounces them brings trouble on his own head.

Coding

It represents nothing more than a kind of directive suggestion, a command. If a person does not want to stop drinking, and his will resists the doctor's will, then there will be no effect from coding. Such a procedure helps, first of all, those people who really decide to “tie up”. In order to increase the level of suggestibility of patients before and during coding, various frightening "rituals" can be used. (Recall that in a state of nervous stress, a person's criticality to incoming information decreases and, accordingly, suggestibility increases.)

So, one resourceful psychotherapist put two hefty guys dressed in white coats at the door of the office in which coding took place. "Protection" drilled with the eyes of each visitor entering the office, creating a stressful state in him. At the end of the coding, the doctor "for medical purposes" irrigated the patient's mouth with a solution that formed blisters. When such a person with "foam at the mouth" left the office, it made a strong impression on those who were still waiting for their turn. Needless to say, the effect of coding was very great!

In developed countries, such directive methods in psychology and psychotherapy are now fading into the background, giving way to group psychotherapy and NLP (neuro-linguistic programming; read about it below). The reason is that in democratic states human freedom is one of the main values. In our country, entire generations have been brought up in such a way that they are ready (and even willing) to obey orders.

Suggestion via computer

In 1998, Japan was rocked by a scandal over showing cartoons for children. The alternation of bright red flashes led to the fact that the children lost their appetite, became withdrawn, irritable, some even ended up in the hospital with a diagnosis of "nervous exhaustion". This cartoon was made on a computer.

"Bewitching" programs on computers appeared in the late 80s, when the first color monitors went on sale. One of the most popular programs of the time was written in the US, called "Dazzle" and was installed on tens of thousands of computers. It is doubtful that its creators pursued any malicious goals. It was a beautiful screensaver that could decorate the interior while the computer was not working. Colored streaks ran across the screen, forming intricate patterns that never repeat. However, Dazzle's specialists in psychophysical influence rather quickly improved it, streamlining the change of pictures, choosing the right color scheme for them and special music. The program began to hypnotize the viewer, put him into a trance.

“A friend gave me a floppy disk with this program, he only warned me not to turn it on at full capacity,” said Igor Serov, one of those who study the “side” effects of new computer programs. - I remember well my state when I sat down in a chair in front of the monitor and clicked on the "mouse". At first, I didn’t seem to notice anything, and then it began to seem to me that a funnel appeared in the middle of the screen, the walls in the room began to bend, the floor began to sway, and there was a wild pain in my eyes. I found the strength in myself to reach the “Power” button with the toe of my boot and cut off the current.

Such programs achieve the desired result by combining video and audio effects, causing resonance at the alpha frequency of the brain. Such screensavers are called psionic. However, there is no evidence that such programs have caused anything more than temporary health problems.

How do psionic programs get into a computer? You can buy it on a tray that sells "left", that is, pirated discs. Now there are a lot of programs offering to turn them on and relax, rest, "know yourself." What is really written on them and what effect can be when running these programs is unknown. But most likely, such programs can get onto your computer along with a virus. And it is this technology of transferring destructive software that will develop at a fantastic pace in the near future.

“I have not yet come across viruses that affect the psyche of someone who sits at a computer,” said Kirill Zhuchkov, manager of Kaspersky Lab. “However, lately, in the new generation of viruses, there has been a noticeable tendency not to destroy your programs, but to take control of what you do on your computer. For example, one of the most common viruses over the past month, Back Orifice, is engaged in removing passwords, addresses, and technical parameters from your machine without your knowledge. And then those who sent the virus to you get full access to your computer and are able to immediately monitor what commands you are executing, what texts you are typing.

Quite naturally, following the desire to control your computer, secret programmers may also want to control you. The development of technology provides truly unlimited possibilities for this. Already in the first years of the new millennium, computers should appear that are not inferior to humans in terms of data processing speed and intelligence. Further building up of such abilities will go exponentially.

There are great prospects for zombifying those who work on a computer, especially those connected to the Internet.

G hypnosis and crime detection

One of the first Russian criminologists who used hypnosis to solve crimes was the famous detective Nikolai Petrovich Arkharov, who headed the Moscow police at the end of the 18th century. As contemporaries recalled, “It was enough for Arkharov to look into the eyes of the person convicted of the crime for him to admit his guilt or swear innocence.” In a calm conversation, Arkharov even managed to talk to the prisoner Emelyan Pugachev, who until now had been silent in the dungeons of the secret political police.

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, the metropolitan police often turned to the famous Russian psychiatrist Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev for advice. Using hypnosis and other techniques, Bekhterev gave conclusions about the sanity and character of the most dangerous murderers, rapists, swindlers and other criminals. Bekhterev collaborated with the "organs" under the Soviet regime.

One of the best students of Bekhterev and part-time employee of the Special Department at the OGPU, engaged in secret developments in the field of secret sciences, was Alexander Vasilyevich Barchenko. In the 1920s, he made several secret trips to Siberia and Altai to get acquainted with the psychic abilities of shamans and Buddhist monks. Bit by bit, Barchenko also collected the secret knowledge of the Russian sects eunuchs, runners, whips, etc., who widely practiced hypnosis. He developed for the OGPU methods of psychological influence on the arrested, which were then used to prepare the trials of "enemies of the people" - with their public repentance. In 1937, Barchenko was arrested and shot, along with the head of the Special Department, Gleb Bokiy. And his archive was confiscated by the secret services and, according to information leaked to the press, was used for practical purposes until the 1990s.

Hypnosis crimes

There are many legends about hypnotist criminals. But few people know that all these stories are not just stories. A few years ago, the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation created a unit at its research institute, which one would like to call "the department for combating hypnotism." It includes several major hypnotist specialists who help operatives solve crimes related to the use of suggestion. Professor, Colonel of the Medical Service, Doctor of Medical Sciences Leonid Grimak works in this department as the chief researcher. And based on the materials of criminal cases, he wrote the book "Hypnosis and Crime."

— Leonid Pavlovich, where did the idea of ​​creating your department come from?

- In the early 90s, many psychics appeared who claimed that they could find missing people, cars, solve murders. The Ministry of Internal Affairs instructed us to deal with them in order to understand whether it is possible to work with them seriously. And we gradually noticed amazing things. For example, in February 1993, one of the psychics (by the way, a senior police sergeant) managed to solve 16 crimes in a row. He came to the Yekaterinburg pre-trial detention center, and people under investigation were called to him. He looked at everyone and almost immediately began to describe in detail the circumstances of the crime. These were mostly burglaries - and he described in detail the situation and the interior of the robbed houses. This case is documented, there is even filming. But when, three months later, we brought the psychic to Moscow to involve him in solving more complicated crimes, he could no longer do anything. Apparently, from time to time he fell into some borderline states. It was no longer possible to repeat the success, moreover, he went crazy ... Then a couple of times we came across similar phenomena, but it turned out to be impossible to streamline the process of solving crimes with the help of psychics, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs stopped working with them.

- Have you encountered criminal psychics?

“We have seen crimes committed with the help of hypnosis, but not only psychics have used it. These were school teachers, pop hypnotists, doctors. And most often they committed rape. For example, several years ago, not without our help, we managed to successfully complete the criminal case of a district doctor who practiced in a city in Central Russia. He hypnotized two schoolgirls who came to see him. He inspired them with complete obedience, ordered them to come to the clinic. And raped them on every visit. Now serving time.

In our production, there were several cases when pop hypnotists fished out especially suggestible girls from the hall where they performed and then simply sculpted from them, like their clay, whatever they wanted. Everything was revealed when one of the girls suddenly became pregnant. In general, it is very difficult to prove such a crime, since the victim does not remember anything. For example, there is a case when one boy, who accidentally noticed hypnotic abilities in himself, put his cousin into a trance for several years and seduced him. And everything was discovered by chance: someone caught him doing this.

Therefore, when Kashpirovsky's television bacchanalia took place in our country, I was very afraid that schoolchildren would massively use hypnosis to seduce classmates.

Fortunately, this did not happen. Although, perhaps, some cases are simply unknown to us.

“And banks weren’t robbed with the help of hypnosis?”

- I don’t remember, although such cases are described in special literature. The criminals put the cashier into a trance, he himself gave them the money, and then he could not remember anything. We saw other crimes, for example, how some kind of camp urka subjugates inmates with the help of hypnosis.

- And how do criminals know hypnosis?

- They do not use scientific hypnosis, but the so-called "folk", which has long been used in magic, divination. When some village old woman "removes damage" from a neighbor, she tries to neutralize one hypnotic suggestion with another. Thieves in law operate in similar ways. But they give other installations - for complete submission. By the way, I noticed that modern political image makers use similar techniques.

- Can a hypnotist completely establish power over another person?

- Usually, even in a deep trance, a person will not carry out the suggestion of a hypnotist if it goes against his moral principles. But there are groups of people who are ready to succumb to any foreign influence - criminals, homeless people, drug addicts.

- There is an opinion that neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), a newfangled psychotechnology, allows you to do something similar with a person.

- This is a very serious technique, I use it to treat patients. A competent NLP master can put a person into hypnosis in any situation.

- Have you met with crimes committed with the help of NLP?

- I think no one can solve such crimes yet. They won't even notice. So I meet you, greet you, and while shaking hands, squeezing it in a special way, I put you into a trance. Then I clean your pockets. Then I give the command to you to forget all this and wake up. And you only remember that you said hello to someone, went on and suddenly found that the wallet had disappeared ...

- Do investigators use hypnosis to force a criminal to confess?

- From the point of view of the Criminal Code, this is illegal. However, there is an order from the Minister of the Interior that allows the use of hypnosis when interrogating witnesses or victims. Very often, the victims forget the signs of the offender, and we help them remember them. The accused can also fall under hypnosis, but only at a personal request. And testimony made under hypnosis has no legal force.

- Is it possible to turn a criminal into a normal person with the help of hypnosis?

- I think that a person commits crimes in a state of self-hypnosis. It is authentically known that it was with the help of hypnosis that primitive people were controlled. There is an element of hypnosis in any mass action - remember the Nazi marches or parades on Red Square. There are more hypnotic programs in human society than is commonly thought.

Have you practiced hypnosis yourself?

This is how I started my medical career. Before working at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, I used hypnosis to conduct research with astronauts and test pilots.

- I heard that you treated Shchelokov, the former head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

- He had neuritis of the brachial nerve, I relieved his pain by suggestion. And look at this portrait - it was my most important patient.

— Kozhedub?!
- Fifteen years treated - a severe disease of the cerebral vessels. Until the end of his life from time to time spent with him sessions of hypnotherapy.

Hypnosis and memory

In 1993, like thunder, America was rocked by the case of a certain Meryl A. The unfortunate old maid, who spent her young years caring for her adored father, suddenly went to court demanding that he be found guilty of violence against her while she was a child and pay a multi-million dollar lawsuit. . A few days earlier, in a psychiatric center, under hypnosis, they helped her to bring to light the memories of her childhood. And Meryl remembered how, in the summer, in a clearing near the old garage, her father had committed indecent acts with her.

“Do you really have a villa in that place?” Mr. A. was asked in the courtroom.

- She was until Meryl was 4 years old.

“Is there a garage in the clearing?”

- Probably, yes, it was.

The court found the father guilty.

An avalanche of such lawsuits swept over not only America, but also the countries of Western Europe. “Modern psychoanalysts can lift the deepest layers of memory,” the newspapers wrote. And as a result, claims against parents from children offended in childhood began to grow like a snowball. It was enough for the courts to have one confirmation of the doctors in order to initiate criminal cases on the claims of those who went through hypnosis. On the resurrection of memories, tens of thousands of psychoanalysts have made their careers. Sobering up came only after a book called “Victims of Memory” was published, in which the accused father wrote: “I was found guilty of something that never happened. I have never hurt my daughters." Hundreds of stories about slandered parents were also collected there ... The society immediately asked the question: how could this happen?

Canadian neurosurgeon Walter Penfield was the first to notice that if a scalpel touches certain areas in the temporal part of the brain during an operation, patients suddenly begin to remember the smallest details of long-standing events. As soon as the scalpel was removed, the visions stopped from the same moment. “We don’t forget anything at all!” - this sensation in the late 80s blew up the scientific community.

The case of a 62-year-old man was the first to thunder. The former bricklayer recalled that as a boy, helping to restore a church in one town, he laid the sixth brick with a crack in the fifth row. A meticulous psychiatrist went to this church and made sure that this brick is still split in two today. The next sensational report was that a certain Sibyl N., under hypnosis, remembered that her father, when she was a child, had killed an unfamiliar woman in front of her eyes. The police brigade that went to the indicated place found a buried corpse under an apple tree. Sibylla's father was condemned.

“Sometimes children manage to instruct the brain to forget information,” comments Konstantin Anokhin, head of the joint Russian-British laboratory for the neuroscience of memory. - This can happen when the opposite concepts of "father" and "rapist" or "father" and "murderer" do not fit in the children's imagination. This is a defense mechanism that takes information to the subconscious so that the child can become a normal person. But the reverse process can also occur: the brain, as a result of an unknown failure, produces pseudo-memories.

... The idea of ​​the experiment, the results of which again turned all ideas about memory, was born on a day when all of America was in shock from the Challenger disaster. A group of American psychologists asked university students to describe in detail the moment they heard about the catastrophe. Four years later, the same group was given the task of repeating their memories. And it turned out that each of the students confidently described ... a completely different situation.

Suggestion is a method of psychological influence on the consciousness of an individual or a group of people, based on non-critical (and often unconscious) perception of information.

During suggestion, information containing ready-made conclusions is first perceived, and then motives and attitudes of a certain behavior are formed on its basis. In the process of suggestion, the intellectual (analytical-synthesizing) activity of consciousness is either absent or significantly weakened, and the perception of information, moods, feelings, behavior patterns is based on the mechanisms of infection and imitation.

Suggestion must have the following characteristics:

1. Purposefulness and planning.

The inspiring influence is carried out on the basis of specific goals and objectives, corresponding to the plans of psychological operations and the conditions in which they are carried out.

2. The specificity of the object of suggestion.

The inspiring influence is effective in relation to strictly defined groups of the population and military personnel of the enemy, with the obligatory consideration of their most important socio-psychological, national and other characteristics.

3. Uncritical perception of information by the object of suggestion.

The inspiring influence implies a very low level of criticality and consciousness of the object. Unlike persuasion, suggestion is not based on the logic and reason of a person, but on his ability to take the words of another person for granted, as an instruction for action. Therefore, it does not need either a system of logical proofs or active mental activity.

4. Definiteness of initiated behavior.

The ultimate goal of suggestion is to provoke certain reactions, certain actions of the object of influence, corresponding to the goals of the psychological operation.

The effectiveness of an inspiring influence usually depends on:

• a) the subject's ability to suggest, associated with such qualities as:
  • intelligence and resourcefulness;
  • · will and self-confidence;
  • · outlook and competence;
  • goodwill towards the object;
  • own belief in what is being suggested.
• b) the content of the suggestion, depending on:
  • The nature of the suggested information;
  • Its place in the information flow (if the suggestible information is located at its beginning, then the susceptibility to suggestion can be conditionally estimated at 50%, in the middle - at 30%, at the end - at 70%).
• c) the suggestibility of the object of influence associated with the relationship of the object to the subject. The object of suggestion always studies the subject (mostly unconsciously), and in the following sequence:
  • First, there is an assessment of those qualities of the subject that determine his ability to inspire (i.e. his intellect, competence, resourcefulness, will, benevolence, conviction), on the basis of which a measure of “trust-distrust” is established for him;
  • Then the object, as it were, finds out for itself whether the subject has a psychological superiority over him (it has been established that with a general positive attitude towards the subject, the object can even attribute to him such psychological qualities that he does not actually possess, and with a general negative attitude, the object “deprives "of the subject and those qualities that are really inherent in him).

Suggestion can be classified on various grounds:

• By way of inspiring influence;
• by means of influence;
• by the time interval between exposure and response;
• by the duration of the effect of exposure;
• by the content of the impact.
• 1. According to the method of influence, suggestion is open or closed.

Open (direct) suggestion is a suggestion with a specific, clearly defined goal. For example, people are encouraged to take certain actions. Open suggestion is characterized by a direct focus on a specific object of influence.

Closed (indirect) suggestion is characterized by the disguise of the goal, or it does not have a direct focus on the one who is the true object of influence.

2. According to the means of influence, suggestion can be contact or remote.

Contact action is carried out in conditions of direct communication with the object.

Remote influence is carried out with the help of mass media. In this case, the feedback between the subject and the object of inspiring influence is excluded.

3. According to the time interval between the suggestive influence and the response of the object, direct and delayed suggestion are distinguished.

With "direct" suggestion, the response of the object occurs immediately after the perception of the suggestive influence.

With a "delayed" suggestion, there is a certain time gap between the impact and the response of the object (a setting is created for the suggestion to work in the future).

4. In terms of duration, the inspiring effect can be short-term and long-term.

Short-term suggestion is characterized by a short period of effectiveness of the impact.

Long-term suggestion is characterized by the preservation of the impact for a sufficiently long time period.

Specific - this is the suggestion to the object of certain, very specific ideas, attitudes, motives in order to replace existing ones and provoke a certain behavioral reaction in him.

Nonspecific suggestion is understood as the provocation of certain mental states in the object.

Methods of persuasion and suggestion do not exhaust the entire arsenal of methods and techniques of psychological influence, but there is no doubt about their effectiveness.

This term has been used many times above. We need to talk about it in more detail.

Suggestion is an impact on a person, or rather, on his thought processes and behavior, which allows you to get a response to a stimulus directed to the subconscious of a person.

The success of suggestion is influenced by the mood of the suggested person, the nature of the impact, the conditions in which it was produced, and other factors.

In addition, two large groups of suggestion are distinguished: verbal, that is, with the participation of words, and non-verbal, that is, not containing a verbal component. Let's take a closer look at both groups.

Verbal Suggestions

In a large group of verbal suggestions, three more types are distinguished: direct, indirect and open suggestions.

direct suggestion

With direct suggestions, the therapist's intentions are clear and cannot be interpreted in any other way.

Explicit direct suggestion

The clear intentions of the psychotherapist are especially evident in explicit direct suggestion, when the therapist explains in detail what is to happen and what he sets a goal.

Most often, explicit direct suggestion is used in operations for pain relief.

Camouflaged direct suggestion

In this case, the doctor does not say directly what is expected in the process of suggestion, but still makes it clear that to some extent the result will depend on the patient himself.

Post-hypnotic direct suggestion

This kind of suggestion is used to provoke self-hypnosis and to encourage the patient to forget about any negative events.

Through post-hypnotic direct suggestion, the psychotherapist programs the patient's mind to perform some action after a hypnosis session.

indirect suggestion

Indirect suggestions differ from direct ones in that the patient has a choice: he has the right not to accept what is suggested to him. The goals of the psychotherapist with indirect suggestion are incomprehensible to the patient. This kind of suggestion is used to direct the patient in a direction he is avoiding.

Indirect are also divided into several types.

Acceptance sequence

The doctor lists the statements with which the patient agrees, and at the end sets out the statement that the patient must accept.

implication

The doctor states what can happen, and the patient is programmed in advance for the inevitability of this situation.

double bind

This is the most commonly used technique. The patient must choose one of the two options, which are actually the same.

The double bind technique includes, for example, the following question: “Do you feel light in your right or left hand?”

Suggestion by lack of mention

If an important, significant element is omitted when listing possible situations, its absence focuses special attention on it. As a result, the patient can be focused on an important aspect.

There are many more methods of indirect suggestion; only the most common and best known are listed here.

open suggestions

The third group of verbal suggestions. Their common feature is to provide the patient with a wide choice of actions.

Mobilizing Suggestion

The psychotherapist offers the patient a vague framework that the latter can fill in at his own discretion.

The statement "You can work in many ways" invites the patient to choose one of the ways. This saying refers to a mobilizing suggestion.

Limited open suggestion

The patient is presented with many possible answers.

Therapeutic metaphor

Metaphor is the replacement of the name of one thing by the name of another. This technique is used quite often both in literature and in everyday life. Metaphor is used to connect disparate aspects of reality.

Through metaphor, people convey some information to each other.

Metaphor is widely used in psychotherapy. It forms a system of such basic concepts as "self", "shadow", "person", "muscle shell" and many others. The metaphor used in a suggestion session is always multi-level. In other words, each phrase, gesture, idea is not unambiguous, but has two or more meanings. The explicit is intended for the patient's consciousness, and the hidden is addressed to his unconscious. At the same time, the suggested person has the right to choose, that is, he himself decides whether or not to accept the second meaning of this statement.

Nonverbal Suggestions

Non-verbal, that is, suggestions carried out not by words, but by gestures, intonation, tone of voice, are very important in hypnotic manipulations. It must be said that they can be used not only for a specific purpose, but also completely unconsciously. Non-verbal suggestions, in turn, are divided into several types.

Catalepsy

The first type of non-verbal suggestions. This is a phenomenon in which the patient takes such a forced position that the doctor suggested to him. There are catalepsy of the whole body and some one part of it (for example, catalepsy of the hand). Frequent use of this type of suggestion is not recommended.

pauses

Another common form of nonverbal suggestion. Through pauses, you can change the meaning of statements that take on the form of an open suggestion. That is, the patient independently fills the void in the phrase with his decision.

A pause can highlight the main idea of ​​the statement.

Levitation

Another type of non-verbal suggestion. During levitation, the physical influence of the hypnotist is not necessary: ​​the suggested one independently carries it out with the help of imagination. The start time of levitation is also determined by the patient. The advantages of this method also include the fact that levitation greatly facilitates the process of immersion in a trance state, since, having experienced this suggestion at least once, the patient can independently repeat it. Therefore, levitation is often used in self-hypnosis; during this state, the patient experiences comfort, making levitation one of the most common types of non-verbal suggestion.

In the twentieth century, the dangers of suggestion, or side effects, were repeatedly discussed. For example, a large proportion of patients developed a skin rash and redness. But this can be explained rather by the peculiarities of the psyche of the subjects: a rash appeared in those who experienced strong excitement or fear.

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3.12. Trans Therapist

In order to do a good job, the therapist himself must go into the trance of the therapist. The therapist's trance is very different from the client's trance. Previously, trance was defined as an internal focus of attention, but the therapist's attention is focused on the client, he must carefully observe what is happening to him, note and ratify the minimum signs of trance, note emotional reactions.

The therapist cannot afford to relax and completely “float” into his trance, this is work for him, and he must do his job well, be active in this work,

And, finally, the therapist cannot completely "turn off" consciousness, he must think, analyze, control what he says and what he does.

Thus, the trance therapist is
- externally oriented
- active,
- controlled trance.

This type of trance is desirable to work out with the help of special exercises.

Chapter 4

André Weizenhoffer defines suggestion as follows: "Suggestion is an appeal that causes involuntary and often unconscious reactions." It is the involuntariness of the reaction that distinguishes suggestion from other appeals - orders, demands, requests, instructions - the fulfillment of which presupposes conscious cooperation. An involuntary reaction can be realized, but at the same time remain involuntary. So, the hand can move by itself (finger ideomotor signaling, hand levitation), and the person is aware of this movement without controlling it.

It must be well understood that any suggestion may or may not be accepted. When the suggestion is not accepted, it does not work. When the suggestion is accepted, the effect is the same as if the person were making it to himself. Therefore, Daniel Araos believes that any accepted suggestion can ultimately be considered as auto-suggestion.

A person tends to accept meaningful and pleasant suggestions and reject meaningless and unpleasant ones. Therefore, one should try to formulate suggestions in such a way that they are pleasant and meaningful for the client.

All suggestions are divided into three types:
- straight,
- indirect and
- open.

Direct suggestions are divided into three subgroups:
- obvious straight lines,
- straight camouflaged and
- posthypnotic.

Explicit direct suggestions are commonly used in traditional hypnosis. In explicit direct suggestion, it is directly stated what should happen. For example:

"I will count from one to five and you will go into a deep trance."

“From now on, you will be able to enter tight enclosed spaces with ease.”

“You will forget everything that was said in hypnosis,” etc.

This is how they worked at the beginning of the last century. There are people who still work this way. But Erickson's work has had a huge impact on modern hypnosis. Even hypnotherapists who do not consider themselves Ericksonians, for the most part, practice the so-called semi-traditional hypnosis - quite mild, with a large number of indirect suggestions.

There are a number of problems associated with explicit direct suggestion.

First, if explicit direct suggestion is not implemented, the client is left with a sense of failure and frustration. Hypnosis is often resorted to as a last resort, and if the suggestion is not realized, there may be a feeling: “Well, hypnosis did not help either.”

Secondly, explicit direct suggestion may require a change for which the person is not yet ready. “From now on, you will no longer be afraid of public speaking” And he is still afraid. Everyone changes when and to the extent that he is ready to change.

Third, explicit direct suggestion assumes that the therapist knows exactly what is good for the other person ( "I'll count from one to five and it'll be like this"). However, this is a rather dubious claim.

This is not least due to the cultural and historical context. In an authoritarian society, authoritarian hypnosis is quite effective. The more democratic the society, the more human rights are respected in it, the more resistance is caused by authoritarian hypnosis.

The famous Ericksonian hypnotherapist, student of Milton Erickson Jeffrey Zeig says: "I start working directly, and only when it does not work, I turn to indirect methods."

On the one hand, if the therapist started working directly and it worked, there really is no need for indirect techniques.

On the other hand, if the therapist started working directly and it didn't work, he created a problem for himself; caused resistance, with which now something will have to be done. It is better to start working indirectly, and only when the type of reactions of a person to the therapist in general and to his suggestions in particular is known, one can sometimes afford to use direct methods.

Milton Erickson has said that he uses direct suggestions, and even in an authoritarian manner, with insecure patients who seem to request such treatment.

Jean Gaudin defines direct camouflaged suggestion as follows: "To the extent that the patient is not directly told that he will not suffer any more, one can speak of direct camouflaged suggestion."

J. Becchio and C. Jouslin define it as follows: “Something is offered openly, but at the same time it is camouflaged, since part of it comes from the patient himself. This is a direct suggestion that addresses the sensations experienced by the patient. It creates less resistance, makes it easier to learn trance and trigger unconscious processes."

In this type of suggestion, "directness" is camouflaged, that is, disguised. "Now the pain will disappear" This is a clear direct suggestion. It says exactly what needs to happen. If, however, you accompany a person in a pleasant memory, offer to find pleasant sensations and say: “After a while, these pleasant sensations will replace other sensations” - this is a direct camouflaged suggestion. It's still straight- it says exactly what should happen.

But if in the case of an explicit direct suggestion, the pain must disappear precisely by virtue of the therapist's suggestion, that is, in order for it to disappear, you actually need to obey the suggestion, then the direct camouflaged suggestion is addressed to the person's own feelings, which he himself produced. In this form, the suggestion is easier to accept and causes less resistance.

Post-hypnotic suggestion is a suggestion that is given in hypnosis and then performed after hypnosis. Milton Erickson has shown that in order to carry out a post-hypnotic suggestion, a person spontaneously goes into a trance; thus, it is still performed in trance.

Traditional hypnosis used post-hypnotic suggestions of the following type: "When you wake up after hypnosis, you will do this and that."

In Ericksonian hypnosis, post-hypnotic suggestions of the following types are commonly used:

“In the near future, your unconscious will find and activate the resources you need to solve your problem.”

The instruction for self-hypnosis is a post-hypnotic suggestion: “It will be easy for you to enter this pleasant and comfortable state on your own. To do this, it will be enough to sit down, close your eyes, remember how you were sitting next to me, remember the words with which I addressed you, remember the images and sensations that came, and you will easily and quickly enter this pleasant state. This instruction is given in hypnosis and carried out after hypnosis.

The suggestion with which we usually end our sessions is a typical post-hypnotic suggestion:

"This work can continue beyond this session... at night when you sleep... during the day when you are busy with your daily activities... hours, days, perhaps longer... as long as necessary..."

The prescriptions that Milton Erickson gave to his patients were sometimes out of the ordinary. Suffice it to recall that the book after which Erickson "woke up famous" was called Extraordinary Psychotherapy. When Erickson's kids asked him, "Daddy, why do your patients follow your stupid prescriptions? We would never have,” Erickson replied, “Because I speak confidently, I look confident, I act confidently, and it doesn’t occur to them that they can not be performed.” To this it would be worth adding that he gave them as post-hypnotic suggestions.

You can give the so-called post-hypnotic suggestion for reinduction. After the therapist has given the client a hand catalepsy once (see "Hand catalepsy"), it can be used for reinduction, that is, the re-induction of trance. It works even better if, while doing catalepsy, at the same time give a post-hypnotic suggestion: “Every time I raise your hand like this, you will go into a trance easily and quickly.”

However, there are nuances here. Ericksonian hypnosis teaches you to carefully control your speech, to track the meanings that are broadcast at different levels. It was said above that a person is inclined to accept meaningful and pleasant suggestions for himself. Let's add also: and safe. In this formulation, the suggestion may not be accepted because it may be perceived as potentially dangerous. If the therapist raises his hand somewhere in an inappropriate situation - for example, at a party, in the theater, on the street - will it be necessary to enter a trance? In order for a suggestion to be accepted with certainty, it is better to define the context in which it will operate, for example:

“Every time I raise your hand like this, you will go into a trance easily and quickly, and it will only work when it is necessary for you.”

Or: "Every time I raise your hand like this, you will go into a trance easily and quickly, and this will only work during our sessions."

Or: “Every time I raise your hand like this, you will go into a trance easily and quickly, and it will only work in this office.”

But with this wording, if the session takes place in another place, it will not work.

For post-hypnotic suggestion for reinduction, any signal that is convenient to use is suitable, for example: "Every time I touch your wrist like this, you will go into a trance."

In order for the post-hypnotic suggestion to be accepted and work for sure, you can get the consent of the client, for example:

“Every time I raise your hand like this, you will go into a trance easily and quickly, and it will only work when it is necessary for you. Does this suit you?"

"Will you do it?"

An affirmative nod of the head or a gesture of the finger is “yes.”

The suggestion is accepted by the client and will be carried out.

Post-hypnotic suggestion is often neglected by practitioners of Ericksonian hypnosis because it is, by definition, direct. When used adequately, post-hypnotic suggestion is a very effective tool.

Indirect suggestions as such were not invented by Erickson. Even the classic of hypnosis Berngenm wrote about indirect suggestions. However, Erickson developed and perfected many types of indirect suggestions.

Due to the limitations imposed by consciousness (“I can’t do this”, “I can’t do this”), a person sometimes does not accept those ideas that can help him solve his problem. Indirect suggestion allows you to offer a person a certain idea, bypassing conscious control, to captivate him in the direction that he usually avoids. As a result, ideodynamic mechanisms are launched, and when a person catches on, something has already happened "by itself", he has already taken a step or two in the direction that he considered impossible for himself. Well, then, as Erickson said, the change works according to the snowball mechanism.

It must be remembered that no suggestion gives a 100% guarantee that it will be accepted. Any suggestion can be rejected. Direct suggestion is easy to reject on a conscious level because it is obvious. Indirect suggestion is carried out bypassing conscious control, but it can also be rejected at an unconscious level.

Consider the types of indirect suggestions.

This type of indirect suggestion consists in the fact that a person is informed of several true statements that cannot be rejected, interconnected by unions, and then they are told what they want to inspire.

In English, this type of suggestion is called "yes set", which can be translated as "a set of "yes"", and can also be translated as "setting to "yes"". The second option indicates the psychological mechanism by which this suggestion works. When a person is offered several statements, to which he will inevitably answer “yes”, he develops an internal attitude towards consent. The installation has a certain inertia, it cannot be changed instantly. Therefore, the chances are high that the suggestion will be accepted, that the person will also internally answer “yes” to it.

Consider an example of trance induction:

“You can hear the sounds that surround us... and you can feel the contact of your body with the chair... the seat that supports you... with the back... and you can feel the clothes close to the body... and you can feel your breath... And in a few moments I will ask you to go in search of a pleasant memory...”

This induction uses an accept sequence. The client internally monitors the therapist's words and cannot disagree with them:

"You can hear the sounds that surround us..."

"Yes I can".

"You can feel the contact of your body with the chair.."

"Yes I can".

"You can feel how the clothes are close to the body..."

"Yes I can".

"And you can feel your breath..."

"Yes I can".

"And in a few moments, I'll ask you to go in search of a pleasant memory..."

The next type of indirect suggestion is implication. Translated into Russian - "implying".

The essence of the implication lies in the fact that what they want to inspire is mentioned as something taken for granted, not subject to any doubt or discussion.

“When you understand how the implication works, it will be much easier for you to work.”

This phrase contains an implication - an indirect suggestion. Attention is shifted to the second part - "it will be easier to work", and the message "You will understand how the implication works" is easier to pass through. Notice what is said Not « If you'll understand..." and " When you will understand”, that is, what you will understand is not subject to any doubt.

"During our meeting next week, you will see..." There will be a meeting next week.

"Don't try to relax... now"(that is, relax when the "now" passes).

How deep would you like to go into a trance? It doesn't matter what the person says. Whatever he answers, he accepts the fact that he will go into a trance. (The answer “Yes, I don’t want to go into any trance at all!” means that the suggestion is not accepted. Any suggestion, both direct and indirect, may or may not be accepted).

The most famous implication belongs to Carlson, who lives on the roof. He asks the housekeeper Fra Freckenbock: “Answer honestly, quickly, without hesitation. Have you already stopped drinking cognac in the morning, yes or no? No matter how she answers, the fact that she drank cognac in the morning is beyond doubt.

An excerpt from Erickson's guidance:

Erickson: When do you think your eyes will close?
Client: I don't know.
Erickson: Before or after your hand touches your face?

There are two whole implications here: the eyes will close, the hand will touch the face.

When Erickson's daughter went to the orthodontist, Erickson exclaimed, "It's terrible, what a terrible thing you have in your mouth, it will even take you some time to get used to it."

Technically, Erickson did two things. First, joined, adjusted. When Erickson says, "What a terrible thing you have in your mouth," he shows the child that he understands how she feels, shares her feelings.

Second, implication. "It will even take you some time to get used to it" means "You will get used to it."

Erickson holds the record for the shortest psychotherapy session in the world. A teenager with deviant behavior was brought to him, he looked at him and said: “I don’t know how your behavior will change.” This is an implication - behavior will change. And it has changed.

Implications can be used to elicit hypnotic responses. For example:

“I don’t know in which hand a feeling of lightness can begin to arise - in the left or in the right ...”(Implied - in the hand there will be a feeling of lightness; a hypnotic phenomenon is called - levitation of the hand).

M. Erickson and E. Rossi single out the so-called implied indication.

An implied directive has three standard parts:

1) an introduction related to time;
2) an implied reference to something that happens inside the client;
3) a behavioral response signaling that the implied instruction has been carried out.

The general form of an implied indication is:

“When such and such happens, such and such will happen.”

“When your unconscious finds and activates the resources necessary to solve the problem, the index finger of your right hand will let you know”, where the first part is an introduction related to time - "When".

The second part, an implied reference to something going on inside the client, is "your unconscious will find and activate the resources needed to solve the problem."

The third part, the behavioral response that signals that the implied instruction has been carried out, is "the index finger of the right hand will let you know about it."

Behavioral response is needed because the therapist cannot know whether what he is suggesting actually happened. This is an outwardly observable signal that tells him that it really happened. Anything can be used as a behavioral response: moving a finger, raising a hand, lowering a hand, closing eyes, opening eyes, etc.

An implied directive was used in the termination of the session above (see "Recovering from a Trance"); there are all three parts here:

“I am some part of this work that has to be done right here and now... and when this part of the work is done, the unconscious will allow you to take a deep breath, stretch a little and open your eyes, and return to normal ... »

A question is rarely recognized as a suggestion - people are used to asking each other a huge number of questions. E. Rossi considers the question a form of suggestion, "guaranteed against failure." Indeed, if the therapist offers some kind of phenomenon ( “Now a feeling of lightness will begin to arise in one of your hands ...”) and the phenomenon does not occur, the therapist puts himself in a difficult position from which he must extricate himself. If this suggestion is made in the form of a question ( “Will one of your hands start to feel lighter?”), then if the phenomenon has come - well, the therapist said about it. If it didn’t come, it’s okay, the therapist just asked ...

Stephen Gilligan proposes the following classification of questions (mainly S. Gilligan's examples are preserved).

Focusing Questions

Used to fix attention during naturalistic (conversational) guidance. S. Gilligan recommends starting with generally accepted social issues:

How is the weather?
Is it easy to get here?
Are you comfortable?

and then move on to questions about neutral external stimuli (attention fixation itself):

How do you like this watch?
What do you think of my bookcase?
Where did you buy this lovely suit?

Questions that open access to memory

“Questions that open access to memory” in the classification of S. Gilligen are actually questions that launch an internal search.

This group of questions is divided into subgroups:

A. Questions Regarding Trance Experiences

How do you feel when you really relax? Can you remember such a moment?
Can you remember a moment when you felt completely safe?
Can you remember how you feel when you take a warm shower or bath after a tiring day?

B. Questions Relating to Daily Manifestations of Trance Phenomena

For example, when a therapist is about to induce age regression, they might ask the following questions:

Did you have any nickname as a child?
Where did you grow up?
How many rooms did your apartment have?
Can you remember how your mother's voice sounded when she praised you?

C. Questions Related to Previous Trance Experiences

When did you experience the deepest trance of your life?
How do you know when you start to go into a trance?
Can you remember the last time you went into a trance?

D. Questions related to the alleged trance experience (if there was no such experience):

What do you think it would be like if you went into a light trance?
Can you describe any changes you might experience when you go into a light trance?

Rhetorical questions

These questions are used to deepen the trance; they are given when the client's eyes are already closed and he is no longer talking.

I wonder how deep you go into a trance?
I wonder how much you allow yourself to relax?
I wonder how your unconscious will manifest itself?
Is it true you're going to dive, you can dive, you want to dive, are you already diving deeper?
Will it happen, and why not, why doesn't it happen right now?
And what natural pair does wakefulness have? They say the dream...
And what natural pair does a rigid rational state have?
They say trans...

Dual questions

These questions allow you to adjust to both sides of the personality - and to the one that wants to plunge into a trance ("cooperation"), and to the one that does not want it ("resistance"). These questions are built using the expressions “isn't it?”, “Really?”, “True?”, “Isn't it?”.

And you would really like to go into a trance, wouldn't you?
And you probably can't feel comfortable enough, or can you?
And it's really nice to relax, isn't it?

Hidden questions

These are statements that implicitly contain a question. There is no question mark at the end, but the person perceives them as a question.

And I'm interested to know how easy it is for you to go into a trance.
And I'm curious to know what you'd like to do now.

motivating questions

These questions are actually directions. But due to the fact that they are given in the form of a question, they are accepted much more easily and do not cause resistance.

Can you put your hands on your knees and put your feet on the floor with your whole foot?
Would you like to sit more comfortably?
Can you sit like this? (show how).

With the help of questions, you can do almost everything, for example, you can induce a trance only with questions. As an example, consider the guidance given by M. Erickson and E. Rossi.

Guidance by fixing the gaze with the help of questions (M. Erickson, E. Rossi)

1. Can you find a point that is comfortable to look at?
2. When you keep looking at this point, do your eyelids want to blink?
3. Will the eyes blink together or separately?
4. Slow or fast?
5. Will they close immediately or after a while?
6. Will your eyes close more and more as you become more comfortable?
7. Now can your eyes remain closed as your comfort increases, as if you were falling asleep?
8. Can this comfort build up more and more so that you don't even want to try to open your eyes?
9. Or will you try and find that you can't?
10. And how soon will you forget about them, because your unconscious wants to dream?

In this guidance, the same principle is used as in the setting of digital ideomotor signaling.

When signaling, an arbitrary reaction is first requested. Then the therapist gradually “slides” to the request for an involuntary response, introducing and increasing the moment of involuntary and dissociative (the finger dissociates) and ends with a request for an involuntary response (“the finger will let you know about it”). The same is done here.

"Can you find a point that is comfortable for you to look at?" An arbitrary response is requested from an active, awake subject.

“When you keep looking at that point, do your eyelids want to blink?” A moment of involuntariness is introduced - "the eyelids want to blink."

"Will the eyes blink together or separately?" The moment of involuntariness is intensified, in addition, confusion is added (see "Confusion"),

A person is told something, asking him not to do it.

"Right now, don't think about the white monkey."
"You don't need to relax."

To make the suggestion even stronger, you can add an implication:
"You don't need to relax... now."

This type of suggestion is increasingly being used in advertising: "You don't want to taste this piece of herring... You don't have the slightest desire to put it in your mouth and enjoy its taste..."

A distinction should be made between a simple "bond" and a "double bind".

"Bundle" is a suggestion of an illusory choice; it is a choice without a choice, both parts of which are addressed to conscious behavior.

“Will you fix the socket now or after you clean the carpet”? This is a link, both parts of it are addressed to conscious behavior.

A "double bind" (full name "conscious-unconscious double bind") is a message that the client consciously receives, but which initiates unconscious processes. A "double bind" is a no-choice choice addressed to unconscious behavior.

"I don't know if the feeling of lightness will appear in the right hand or in the left hand." The emergence of lightness is a trance phenomenon, involuntary behavior.

We often hear that the double bind does not work. The fact is that this kind of indirect suggestion is easily "read" at the level of consciousness. Erickson says that in this case, the therapeutic metaframe, the general therapeutic context, comes to the rescue. A therapeutic situation is a situation in which one asks for help and the other provides this help - and both know it. In this situation, the suggestion is accepted because the person knows that what is happening is being done for his benefit.

The French call this type of suggestion "intercontextual" (Intercontextuel). In English, it is called "built-in suggestion" (Embedded suggestion). To avoid confusion with the “built-in metaphor” (see “Amnesia”), we preferred to use the term “contextual suggestion” in the Russian version, which adequately reflects the psychological mechanism used in this type of suggestion. In translations from English, the expression "scattering technique" or "powdering technique" may also occur.

The technique is to turn the word into a suggestion by taking it out of context by slightly changing the tone of voice or the direction of the voice. Need to highlight
without attracting attention, highlight it so that consciousness does not notice it. In written texts, the contextual suggestion is usually shown in bold type.

For example: "And in a few moments I will ask you to go in search of pleasant memories ... That is, a moment in your life when you felt good... calm... comfortable... And when is it pleasant the memory will come... you will nod your head to let me know...”

This is a typical example of a so-called two-level language. At one level, there is an accompaniment in a pleasant memory, and at another level, the unconscious systematically receives messages: “good”, “calm”, “pleasant”, “comfortable” ... ideodynamic mechanisms are triggered, and the internal state begins to gradually change.

Let's take a few more examples.

“Many animals are remarkably good at relax».
“A person often does not notice that he plunges into a trance».
“It's nice to know that there is a part of you that can work on its own, and let her work for you».
“There are places where sensations come by themselves relaxation and comfort».

A wonderful example of M. Erickson's use of this technique is the story about the tomato, which has long become a classic and wanders from book to book and from article to article. Nevertheless, we present it for the sake of completeness.

In the city where Milton Erickson lived, there was a man named Joe. He was a flower grower, grew flowers for sale and was a famous person in the city. And then he got cancer. The disease was fatal, he was in the hospital and received large doses of morphine - to relieve pain. Therefore, he was in a semi-conscious narcotic state. And since this was the city where Erickson lived, there wasn't a single doctor or trainee left in the hospital who hadn't tried hypnosis on poor Joe, to no avail. Joe could no longer hear the word "hypnosis" without a shudder. And so he was discharged from the hospital and sent home to die. His wife decided to call Dr. Erickson. Erickson arrived, sat next to Joe, and began to talk. Here is what he told him:

“Joe, I would like to talk to you. I know that you are a florist, you grow flowers, and I myself grew up on a farm in Wisconsin and have always loved growing flowers. I still love it. So I would like you to sit down in this comfortable chair and let's talk. I want to tell you a lot of things, only it will not be about flowers, because you know more about flowers than I do. This is not what you need. Now I will speak, speak calmly and i want you too calmly listened to me. I will talk about a plant - about a tomato. Pretty strange topic to talk about. You became curious. Why about a tomato? That's why. You plant a tomato seed in the ground. You looking forward to that it will grow into a whole plant, the fruits of which will give you pleasure. The seed absorbs water, this is for him easily'cause it's raining that they carry peace and quiet and help flowers and tomatoes grow. This little seed, Joe, swells a little, then pushes out a little root covered with root hairs. You may not know what root hairs are, but this something that helps a seed of a tomato grows, breaks out of the ground and turns into a sprout, and you can just listen to me, Joe, I will continue to talk, and you can just listen further, and you will be wondering, just wondering what you can actually find out. .. »

At that moment, Joe's wife came up with a note: "Dr. Erickson, when will you finally start hypnotizing my husband"? and saw that her husband was sitting motionless, that he did not see her, his eyes were defocused and he was looking into the distance, that is, he was in a deep trance.

If you read separately those words that are highlighted contextually, that is, the message that the unconscious receives, then the following is obtained: “This is not what you need, calm, calm, curious, looking forward to, give you pleasure, peace and quiet, the kind of thing that helps, and you can just listen to me, Joe, and you can just listen further, and you'll be wondering, just wondering what you can actually learn..."

As a result, it was possible to significantly reduce the dose of morphine that Joe received, and he spent the last two months of his life in a clear mind with his family, and then, of course, died. The fact that a person was able to spend his last days worthily is considered a therapeutic success, and it is also important to know that successes are different.

Two sentences (or more) are connected by unions and mutually reinforce each other; in this case, there may be no logical connection between them.

“You sit next to me and you hear my voice and various thoughts and images may come as you go deeper and deeper into a trance…”

Erickson and Rossi give the following classification of compound suggestions:
a) sequence of acceptance and reinforcement;
b) contingent (continuous);
c) the imposition of opposites;
d) denial;
e) shock, surprise, creative moments.

A. Acceptance Sequence and Reinforcement

The acceptance sequence is a separate type of indirect suggestion, but it is also a type of compound suggestion.

The sequence of acceptance and reinforcement, according to M. Erickson and E. Rossi, are the “everyday forms” of compound suggestion.

Acceptance sequence is a statement of something good and obvious, followed by a suggestion of a possibility:

"Today is such a good day, let's go for a swim."
"Today is the day off, why don't I do what I want."
"You did a good job and you can continue."

Reinforcement is the opposite: first there is a sentence, and then a statement of something good and obvious:

"Let's go for a swim, today is such a good day."
"Why don't I do what I want, because today is the day off."
"You can go on, you did a good job."

B. Contingent Suggestions

Contingent suggestion is when the therapist takes something that is already happening or will definitely happen and adds suggestion to it. For example:

The person sits next to the therapist - and will continue to sit for some time. Compound contingent suggestion: "As you continue to sit here, you will find yourself feeling increasingly relaxed and comfortable." Suggestion can be reinforced contextually: “As you continue to sit here, you will find yourself feeling more and more relaxation and comfort».

A person breathes and, naturally, will continue to breathe. Compound contingent suggestion: "With every breath you take, you go deeper and deeper into trance."

It is extremely convenient to attach suggestions to the movement of the hand from catalepsy (see "Catalepsy of the hand") and in levitation (see "Levitation of the hand"). The hand from catalepsy begins to descend - and almost any suggestion can be attached to this movement:

"As the hand goes down, the trance deepens."
"While the hand goes down, you come out of the trance."
“While the hand goes down, you are quietly going back in time to the source of this problem.”
"While the hand goes down, the unconscious is searching and finding all the resources you need to solve this problem."

The same with levitation. The difference lies in the fact that in catalepsy the therapist has one movement of the hand - down, with levitation, two movements can be used - up and down.

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