Somnambulism

Somnambulism is one of the deepest stages of hypnosis. It is what sleeps walker’s experience. Generally, after the experience the person has no recollection of it. The subject appears awake, but is hypnotized and will follow directions just as if he or she was awake.

Memory Phenomena

Amnesia. Many people think that the indication of whether they were under hypnosis is whether they “blank out” and have amnesia.

Age Regression (Pseudo revivification)

Age regression is a form of hypermnesia. The subject experiences events as past, but identifies with them in the first person. Recall is improved greatly when a memory has a strong emotional component.

Revivification

Revivification is the reliving of an incident at the time at which it occurred, in the present tense. In a true revivification, the memories after the age to which the subject is regressed are eliminated. Under hypnosis a subject may even demonstrate the personality traits or handwriting of the earlier age.

Age Progression

During age progression the subject hallucinates living in the future. Interestingly, he or she still retains the present chronologic age. Age progression can be a great tool in hypnotherapy to understand how a person might react to a situation in the future.

Perception Phenomena

Bio Physio Psychology Of Hypnotic Phenomena

REM – that we all experience when we dream and how the psychology and biology of this dream state corresponds to the hypnotic state.

So, for example, when we dream, we experience realistic visual and auditory hallucinations – just as the hypnotized subject can. We experience limb catalepsy – just as people do in hypnosis. And, in fact, when we are in the REM state, we are more likely to experience numbness because of this catalepsy. This natural numbness can be utilized in hypnosis to produce hypnotic anesthesia for surgical operations.

When you dream, the body responds directly to the imagination – as when we shiver during a snow-filled dream and sweat if we are scared. Our internal environment becomes more important in determining your physical state than your actual environment. And we see exactly the same response in the hypnotized person – they respond to their imagination more than their real environment. This is the power of the mind to influence the body.

So your body can produce a physical response to what your imagination is doing regardless of external physical reality. When you elicit hypnotic phenomena in others, you are merely extending this internal influence over the body and directing it.

Signs Of Depth

Everyone’s experience of hypnosis is unique. There are some people who can experience very deep states of hypnosis, while for others; only a light state is possible. The great thing is, for the purposes of hypnosis, it really does not matter. If patients are willing to follow and relax as deeply as they can, they will experience the benefits.
So different scale exists and to date not of them is right or wrong. Just different opinions based on the trainer’s belief of what hypnosis is and isn’t. Here are just a few of the scales used today.

• Stanford Scale – 12 levels
• LeCron-Bordeaux – 50 levels
• Davis – Husband – 30 levels
• Arons Depth Scale – 6 levels

Arons Depth Scale

Stage 1: HYPNOIDAL – Very light stage of hypnosis in which most clients don’t feel hypnotized. The majority of people feel completely awake. Two types of HYPNOIDAL states are Hypnopompic and Hypnogogic. Hypnopompic is the state by before waking up in the morning and Hypnogogic is the state right before falling asleep at night. A lot can be accomplished in this 1st stage: Weight reduction, smoking withdrawal and simple muscle control such as eyelid catalepsy.
Stage 2: More relaxed state where larger muscle groups can be controlled and manipulated such as Arm Catalepsy. Your power of critical reasoning starts to become impaired.
Stage 3: You get fairly complete control of your entire muscular system. Most people won’t be able to articulate a number, stuck to a chair, can’t walk and even partial analgesia.
Stage 4: In this stage you start to produce greater phenomena and are known as the beginning of the amnesic stages. Your client will actually forget items such as their name, number, address and other items. Glove Analgesia and feeling touch, but no discomfort.
Stage 5: This is considered the start of somnambulism. You get cool stuff like complete anaesthesia and experience the ability to neither feel discomfort or touch. A lot of different pain control techniques can be used in this stage as well. You can also experience what is called Positive Hallucinations which means you can see and hear things which do not actually exist. You can also experience real Age Regression in this state and not just remembering the past.
Stage 6: This is the next level of Profound Somnambulism. You can experience Negative hallucinations which means you won’t see or hear things that actually do exist.

Arons Depth Scale

Stage 1: HYPNOIDAL – Very light stage of hypnosis in which most clients don’t feel hypnotized. The majority of people feel completely awake. Two types of HYPNOIDAL states are Hypnopompic and Hypnogogic. Hypnopompic is the state by before waking up in the morning and Hypnogogic is the state right before falling asleep at night. A lot can be accomplished in this 1st stage: Weight reduction, smoking withdrawal and simple muscle control such as eyelid catalepsy.
Stage 2: More relaxed state where larger muscle groups can be controlled and manipulated such as Arm Catalepsy. Your power of critical reasoning starts to become impaired.
Stage 3: You get fairly complete control of your entire muscular system. Most people won’t be able to articulate a number, stuck to a chair, can’t walk and even partial analgesia.
Stage 4: In this stage you start to produce greater phenomena and are known as the beginning of the amnesic stages. Your client will actually forget items such as their name, number, address and other items. Glove Analgesia and feeling touch, but no discomfort.
Stage 5: This is considered the start of somnambulism. You get cool stuff like complete anaesthesia and experience the ability to neither feel discomfort or touch. A lot of different pain control techniques can be used in this stage as well. You can also experience what is called Positive Hallucinations which means you can see and hear things which do not actually exist. You can also experience real Age Regression in this state and not just remembering the past.
Stage 6: This is the next level of Profound Somnambulism. You can experience Negative hallucinations which means you won’t see or hear things that actually do exist.

Dave Elman

Somnambulistic:
Apparent somnambulism: This state is named apparent somnambulism because, from the outside, it looks exactly the same.

True somnambulism: The truly somnambulistic state, in which the mind as well as the body is totally relaxed, is considered by some therapists to be an absolute necessity for suggestion to have any useful effect. The theory is that it achieves a state of blank ‘nothingness’. And I mean just that – the mind is totally relaxed and doing nothing, not even thinking that it is blank. It is the ultimately suggestible state; since there are no thoughts going on, the Conscious Critical Faculty simply cannot over-ride any suggestion.

In this state, it is easy to create anaesthesia strong enough for surgical work to be carried out. With some individuals it may be only sufficient for minor procedures such as tooth filling or extraction; with the most able, though, the depth can be increased so as to be great enough for vasectomy, varicose vein stripping, or even open heart surgery. Such procedures have been carried out many times now, with the clinical hypnotherapist replacing the anaesthetist in such cases. Quite often, the individual has gone even deeper, into the Coma state.

If it is possible to help somebody get to a state deep enough for surgical operations, how easy it must be to achieve a level sufficient for far more minor applications! The suggestion to quit smoking is the same thing as the suggestion for feeling anaesthesia or numbness. It is a fact that a suggestion is a suggestion, and although it is fair to say that not everybody can achieve the depth necessary for surgical procedures to be carried out, it is also fair to say that we need nothing like that depth for the work.

4. Coma state (or Esdaile state)
The so-called coma, or Esdaile, state can only be achieved easily by a relatively small proportion of the population. The individual at this depth of ‘trance’, which is beneath the level of somnambulism, experiences feelings of total bliss and euphoria. There is a lack of concern about surroundings and events, other than if they should pose any sort of threat to personal safety. It is the state in which major surgery can be carried out and during which the hypnotized individual will experience only that which he wishes to feel. Almost certainly, it was this level that was used most of the time by James Esdaile, in the mid 1800’s, at his hospital in Calcutta.

One thing is for sure though – this ultra-deep level of hypnosis is not necessary for any hypnosis to be effective.

Some people will be able to go to this depth of trance all on their own, in just a few minutes. It is usually recognisable by the fact that a deep hypnotic flush appears almost as soon as the induction is started, but is replaced after a while by a waxen pallor that is far paler than his normal complexion. Attempts at conversation with someone in this state will usually meet with failure and he is likely to be completely motionless with much reduced respiration and heart-rate – hence the name. On leaving the Coma state, the individual can often ‘bring back’ with him the feelings of supreme joy and euphoria that existed during it, though those feelings fade fairly quickly and are certainly not in any way permanent. It is the therapy which will do the bulk of the change work for you.

Purpose to elicit hypnotic phenomena

• This is an excellent test of relaxation, susceptibility and willingness to co-operate with the hypnosis process.
• For most practical purposes the hypnotherapist will be more concerned with establishing that there is sufficient trance depth for therapy, rather than the more academic pursuit of gauging the precise depth of trance attained.
• It inspires confidence in the hypnotist, which improves personal performance and is detected, however subliminally, by the subject.
  It is a hypnotic convincer and while it might not be any more therapeutic than a light trance state it is more of a contrast to normal waking consciousness and so helps to persuade the subject to persuade themselves that something ‘significant’ has taken place.

It is important to realise that the ‘depth of trance’ does not refer to an objective or quantifiable state but is characterised by the phenomena available in that state, thereby equating trance depth with suggestibility.

For example, eyelid catalepsy is quite easy to obtain and so when this phenomenon becomes available we can label the trance depth as ‘light’. Pain control becomes available as a hypnotic phenomenon only when the subject becomes more suggestible and when this phenomenon becomes accessible we can label this a medium trance depth, and so on. Full amnesia or positive / negative hallucination are among the most extreme of hypnotic phenomena and require the greatest suggestibility and so when these become available we can label this a deep trance state.

Reference source:

1. Medical and dental hypnosis and its clinical applications. By John Hartland.
2. Lecture notes of Dr.Palan and Dr.Sumit.
3. http://johnmongiovi.com/blog/2015/09/10/phenomena-of-hypnosis
4. www.uncommon-knowledge.co.uk › … › Hypnosis and hypnotherapy
5. www.keane-hypnotherapy.com/articles/hypnotic–phenomena
6. www.selfhypnosis.com/depth-of-trance-states
7. www.hypnosis101.com › Blog › Hypnosis Tips