On Becoming a Skilled Subject

An article written by sleepingirl in 2020.

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Question: Do you think hypnosis requires skill on the part of the subject as well as the hypnotist? If so, how have you developed those skills?

Answer: Definitely. I've thought a lot about this question so strap in for this answer.

What Is a Skill? 

Part of this question makes us talk about the idea of "skill." What does it mean to be skillful at something? If someone is good at a sport, like volleyball, they're not just good at the "skill" of volleyball. They're good at an enormous amount of things -- they're skilled at jumping precisely, they're skilled at diving on the ground without hurting themselves, they're skilled at aiming the ball in a certain way using their entire bodies, they're skilled at making snap judgments and analyzing various particular situations quickly, they're skilled at communicating briefly and loudly and effectively, they’re skilled at having a particular awareness of others. Much more, too, and you could even further break down these skills into minutia. We sort of know what makes someone "good" at volleyball, in a physical and mental sense. There are drills that get practiced to make those things easier, more comfortable, and performed unconsciously, to a degree.

So, what does it mean to be skillful at being a subject? On the surface, it might be easy to say things like “responding easily to phenomena” and “being able to achieve amnesia”. And those are worthwhile goals, but maybe they are sort of missing the point, and we need to dig deeper.

Let’s look again at that last idea in volleyball. Practices are held and drills are done so that all of the variety of skills involved become more effortless, in a sense. When folks talk about subject skills, sometimes they are thinking about things the subject can do consciously, like to be active and “help” when they are in trance. In reality, the goal of becoming “skilled” at something implies a level of what’s called “unconscious competence,” based on a theoretical model of four stages of becoming proficient at something. At first, we are unskilled at the act, and we do not necessarily understand why. Then, we learn what we are doing wrong, but lack the experience to fully fix it. Eventually, we grow competence in the area, but have to do so with concentration and effort. Finally, when we become an expert in something, we can perform effortlessly, without thinking about it. Unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, and unconscious competence.

In hypnosis, it is not just part of the goal that we become able to do an enormous variety of things without exerting effort -- that in and of itself IS a goal. As hypnotic subjects, we very much want to feel like we aren’t “doing things” consciously. So perhaps on some level, the idea of becoming a skilled subject is about becoming unconsciously competent at an enormous variety of things, including the very skill of being able to detach oneself from a feeling of “effort.” This can be described in a lot of different ways -- for some folks, that is the quintessential or idealistic feeling of trance, or others may describe it as being in flow or “in the zone,” or a variety of other ways that we may discuss it.

We talked about how in volleyball, coaches and players over time have come up with different methods and techniques to train all sorts of skills. The interesting thing is that there are some commonalities between how some teams practice and teach these actions, but also quite a bit of variety. “Setting” is a key component of a volleyball match -- one player has a job of “setting up” an attack or spike, usually in a particular way that involves that player using both hands outstretched above their head to essentially catch and throw the ball in a very fast, precise way that doesn’t break the rule of holding the ball for too long. This simple task is quite difficult, and has an enormous amount involved in it: Planting one’s body, keeping knees slightly bent, training eyes on the ball, tilting the hands back at the right angle so that all fingers come into contact at approximately the same time, having give in the wrists to allow it to spring up.

Different coaches may approach all of these skills using many different methods. Some coaches may use metaphor/analogy to teach -- “The hands are like a little trampoline, not stiff but taut and bouncy.” Maybe other coaches use different comparisons, like a cradle, or a basket. Many practices focus on repetition as a way to train to be able to control the ball, but the form that those drills take differs, perhaps between setting against a spot on the wall, setting to a player, setting as high or low as possible, setting while in different positions. There is such a large variety of drills, and each drill trains unique skills for unique scenarios. Players may benefit distinctly from each other; one player may need to work on how they plant their feet while another’s wrists are too stiff. Good coaches adapt to fit the needs of the player, cycling through methods and metaphors to find the ones that click and allow the player to progress through the stages of learning.

Skill in Hypnosis

This is all relevant when it comes to hypnosis. Different hypnotic “skills” are required, and it’s all about finding something that works for the individual subject. Let’s look at the idea of trance in general. The skill of “going into trance” is immensely complex, and not as easily broken down as a more physical act like in a sport. To some degree, as a subject, one of the most helpful things we can do is learn more about the nature of hypnotic response and figure out the ways that we process it and break that down a little bit, find what might be tripping us up, find what patterns work for us. It should be noted that it is complicated to discuss specific patterns in a format like this; it is essentially being suggestive about what can be helpful, and there is no real way to avoid that, so we’ll proceed by just simply being aware of that.

So what does it mean to go into trance? One way of looking at this might be the idea of a subject experiencing some sort of change in perception or cognition, and the act of noticing that. Newer subjects often struggle with knowing whether or not they are in trance, not because they aren’t, but because just like an athlete, they don’t have the muscle memory down of what it feels like to be in an altered “state.” While on one level you can approach this as being about the little, individualized things that happen (for example, eye fluttering, changes in muscle form in different parts of the body, cognitive changes, etc), on another, it’s about the ability to recognize them. So one model of working on the skill of going into trance is about training oneself to look for those signs, being able to do a body scan and see physical changes, being able to recognize shifts of internal perspectives and cognitive response.

Another element to this is that effective hypnosis has a large component of being convincing; that is, it is about “selling” the response to the subject. If we, the subjects are questioning, “Am I in trance?” we want the answer to be yes. There’s a few ways that this can play out if we dig into our responses. A subject who is struggling with feeling trance may be questioning reflexively, over and over, and finding that they are unsure, or feeling like the answer is simply “no.” Recognizing that this is what is happening allows us tools to be able to change that. Just like in volleyball, there are plenty of approaches you can take to train all of the different aspects associated with this. Perhaps you want to practice increasing awareness on your questioning, and very actively tell yourself, “Yes, I am in trance” whenever you feel it happen. Perhaps you want to go a step further by training yourself to repeatedly think an affirmatively-trancey mantra, like “I am deep in trance.” Perhaps you want to distract yourself from questioning by giving yourself other focal points, like training yourself to recenter on the way your eyes feel whenever you feel wandering. Perhaps you want to try to drown out your own internal monologue by “replacing” it with the hypnotist’s voice.

There are many different tricks you can use, and all of these become individual skills that will eventually build muscle memory. To recap this model (which is one of many): Identify which goals and skills you desire to build as a subject, attempt to break that down into a variety of components and approaches based on your personal process and any roadblocks you find, try to find some specific tricks and ways to teach yourself lasting, effortless patterns.

Let’s look at another example: Hallucinations. First, let’s make this manageable and talk about kinesthetic hallucinations specifically. Perhaps it’s helpful to identify a specific scenario where you feel like you needed more work; a hypnotist was suggesting sexual feelings to you, and you felt like you failed in some way. That feeling of “failure” can be a frustrating one, and common, so one way you might approach this is attempting to reframe that failure as a success to yourself. Look at the situation from another perspective: Did you really feel absolutely no change, or just not the exact sensations? Did you have sexual thoughts, or did you feel excited by the suggestion? Was there an ebb and flow of response instead of something consistent? Did your focus shift to a specific part of your body to “check?” These are all responses or shifts, and should be acknowledged.

This skill of reframing is very useful to us as subjects, and can be applied in almost any scenario. Again, it’s the action of noticing and then accepting that act as valid that is valuable, and especially as a process that becomes unconscious. Become skilled at “noticing,” and then translate that act of noticing to recognition that something is happening, therefore success. By practicing this, you will develop a muscle memory, and you can even further it by accepting a growing feeling of amazement at your own responses. “How will I respond next? What interesting thing will I notice next? I can’t wait! Hypnosis is crazy!”

But how can we more specifically train physiological responses? Well, there might be something to be said for the idea that becoming more familiar with a sensation allows us to more easily recreate it. Let’s narrow our focus down to a suggestion of arousal. Perhaps learning how to become aroused upon suggestion makes us curious about what makes us aroused in other scenarios. Are there specific thoughts that pop up, either precipitating that feeling or following it? Is there something your body does? Does that change based on your situation? As a subject, learning how you experience arousal in many different scenarios allows you to key into aspects of it that you can use while in a trance situation. If you know about how to pair responses à la conditioning, great! Maybe that’s an approach you take, where you look at how you respond and begin to associate it with easily accessible things, like listening in a certain way or shifting focus. This gives you the ability to make that reflexive over time.

“It’s Happening TO Me”

It’s important we acknowledge something about the desire to respond hypnotically -- oftentimes, as subjects, we don’t want to feel like we’re the one leading or controlling our actions. So how does this coalesce with actively training our own skills?

One trick you can use is latching onto experiences, tips, or suggestions that you’ve seen elsewhere or experienced. If you’re able to create a feeling that what you’re doing is because of someone else, it can lighten that feeling of responsibility or even effort. For example, you can reframe your practice as a service to your hypnotist, current or next. For another, you could remember something particularly potent that someone said once -- like, “That feeling of depth is just like floating weightlessly, and yet your body is so heavy, pulled down at the same time…” Recalling trances and utilizing spaces and thought patterns you’ve already been in can be effective practice, and allows you to associate your skill with a force outside of yourself, if that’s something you need. Even using ideas you find elsewhere, for example in this essay or others, can be called upon as a way to distance yourself from the action of the process.

Warming Up and Attention

One last thing worth talking about for now is the idea of “warming up.” We know that learning skills takes time and practice. But we also know that our ability at something is dependent on a lot of factors -- how we’re feeling that day, how long it’s been since we last did it, etc. It’s normal to go through cycles with skills, and the model leading to unconscious competence shouldn’t be seen as a static one; we will shift through it in many ways over time.

We can even see this in specific scenes. Oftentimes, we’re familiar with the need to warm up in a scene, and that can take a lot of forms. Sometimes that’s about the feeling of connection or rapport. Sometimes it’s about achieving a particular feeling of depth. This can easily be discussed as a skill in and of itself, but it also speaks to an aspect of subjects’ skills that places the focus on another person.

Feeling “warmed up” is something that can happen as an individual act, but it also relies heavily on the synthesis of both partners. When one partner gets “in the zone,” it usually creates a space that is welcoming for the other to get there, too. Attentiveness itself, feeling it and expressing it in different ways, is a universal skill in hypnosis, applicable to both hypnotists and subjects. This is so much about communication in all forms, verbal and nonverbal. Being able to show attentiveness is a very hypnotic thing. As subjects, it’s one of the best things we can do to become an active participant in our scenes.

This has much to do with learning the language and grammar that you share with your partner. Not necessarily parroting their speech, but more generally about how they respond and how they communicate to you, and your awareness on that. It may have to do with a change in your body language or tone, eye contact, or specific language use. A little bit of self-awareness at times when you feel very much “in the right space” with your partner (or even a script or file) can be very telling. Becoming skilled at giving attention in different ways can be a method for you as the subject to warm up -- it precedes and facilitates a connective experience -- and can be very inviting for the hypnotist, which is something that we desire.

In Closing

There are many, many skills that go into being a hypnotic subject, and they are things we can work on and practice. But some of that comes down to how we process our own experiences and frame them, as well as how we learn little tricks to help us along our journeys. It is a constant process of growth and learning, and paying attention to our own responses and the responses of our partners.

This is a very brief look into what might be helpful in becoming skillful at being hypnotized. It also hopefully highlights the need to have these conversations openly when we can -- to understand what others do to “practice” and how trance works and is experienced. Be cognitive about your process as a subject and enjoy the rewards of progressing; the simple feeling of being “good” at something is one of the best things there is, and so much of our skills as humans apply in how we interact in trance.