Different people have different starting points for what they are able to achieve as a person. Some naturally can hallucinate incredibly realistically and will describe this as their experience, on a spectrum from that, to those who have no hallucinations. Many people can improve on their natural abilities with practice. Like any other abilities, different people are good at different things, so one person who is highly responsive to presented ideas, who perhaps could be deemed as entering a 'somnambulistic trance' may have very low ability to hallucinate, but may be very good at disassociating, or at time distortion etc., and the person who is very good at hallucinating may struggle with disassociating or time distortion. And among those who look like they are having a specific experience, that experience internally can be very different. You may tell a group of people to hallucinate something and they all act like they have hallucinated that thing, yet one or two may say they genuinely saw what was suggested as if it was real, most will say they had a vague representation of what was suggested and just felt compelled to go along with it, but knew it wasn't real, all the way to those who say they felt compelled to act as if they were having the experience but they were unaware of anything present. At a Derren Brown event (a short-list for a show) he whittled down people until he had the ten most responsive people to what he was doing and how he was doing it, sat at the front. He then told them he would be invisible apart from his eyeballs. They all responded as if they saw eyeballs floating in front of them. He then asked each of them to honestly share their experience and only one claimed to have seen his eyeballs floating as if that was all there was. Most said they were aware he was there but felt like they were only aware of his eyeballs, even though they could see him too. All of them were highly responsive to what he was doing and how he was doing it (the thing with anything like this is that the hypnotist is looking for people responsive to exactly what they are doing, so someone may respond poorly to one hypnotist and the way they did things, but then respond very well to another hypnotist who does things very differently or engages differently), all would have been described in this language as being in somnambulistic trances and if unquestioned, the hypnotist (in this case Derren) could easily assume they all had the same experience, as they all recoiled and reacted to his 'floating eyes' as would be expected.

Mirroring, pacing and leading so often get mentioned in NLP books and courses, but obviously are also taught on most other psychological therapy and counselling training courses and hypnosis courses dating back decades before the development of NLP in the 1970's. This video is based on Milton Erickson's paper on Subliminal Auditory Stimulation. NLP is about modelling excellence, so when Bandler and Grinder were looking for excellent therapists to model to learn how to do effective therapy Milton Erickson was one of those people they modelled, so inevitably, if you learn how to work therapeutically with people NLP books and courses will usually teach skills people like Milton Erickson used.

Yes. I am autistic and most of my professional life has been spent supporting children and families. I have written over 35 books, including books of therapeutic sleep stories for children (based on my sleep storytelling technique I honed during my time working in children's homes in the early 2000's helping troubled children and teens to sleep), books on autism, books on hypnotherapy, and a couple of short novels, most recently my illustrated novel Dragon's Fire, based on my most successful sleep stories series from my Dan Jones Sleep Stories KZbin channel.

I've not removed any videos, is this the one you are on about? kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z4DHkHiLadOfobM

@@DanTheTortoise yes. That’s the theory explained. But you had a video of actually taking us through that induction - and it was amazing :) I just can’t find it anymore. It was a video of you talking and guiding doing that method you describe in that link you sent. 🙏✨

I think I know the video you mean. It was about 15 minutes long and posted on my other channel perhaps 7-8 years ago back when it was an educational channel rather than a sleep stories channel. I removed my old content when I realised I had no choice but to turn that channel into a sleep stories channel. Searching this channel, it seems I've never shared it on this channel.

@@DanTheTortoise yes. That’s the one. I’ve been searching for it. It was great. Perhaps one day you’ll post something like it again :) I had saved it using KZbin Premium - but it got removed automatically when you removed it - I used to it a lot. It works like a charm! So good. Keep up the good work. 🫶

Yes, people always have a choice and part of making videos like this is so that people can be aware of communication they previously were unaware of, giving them even more choice. Like when I, as an autistic person first discovered that people had nonverbal behaviours and that these communicated something about what was going on internally for the person. Before this I always had a choice in how I communicated but was missing a lot of information. Following this I was aware of nonverbal communication I could now mimic to communicate better, and nonverbal communication others would do that would help me better understand them. The extra information gave me more freedom and choice. That is the hope here, that viewers learn ways we naturally and instinctively influence each other, gently nudging each others behaviours and that this is just normal everyday communication, but also understanding that there are times this natural thing we do can be misused and additional techniques can be used, like adding in authority, compliance, conformity and confusion or strong emotions etc, to make it even more likely we are going to do as we are told and if we are unaware of what is happening, we can end up doing this and retrospectively wonder why we behaved as we did, because we feel it was out of character. Also, as I teach therapists and many hypnotherapy colleagues state using hypnosis is harmless and risk free, I find it important to mention about times presented ideas can be interpreted with unintended meaning, or there can be negative or unintended consequences to the presented ideas which could be a negative change in a client where they see it as a positive change (like I helped someone years ago who was crippled with anxiety at the thought of public speaking, but ended up labelling himself as a Guru who was the expert on all things spiritual and healing etc, despite no training or experience who promoted himself as the world's greatest and amassed many followers who would do as he teaches. He believed the changes were positive. I definitely don't), or negative where the client sees it as negative (A hypnotherapy trainer I know worked with a woman in front of an audience of students and accidentally triggered an abreaction in the woman, she felt terror and was panicking. Unfortunately, he chose to get helpers to remove her from the venue and lock the door as 'she obviously had something wrong with her and was a distraction to the other students' and he continued teaching that you cannot cause harm using hypnosis with clients).

@@DanTheTortoise To be clear, I was just commenting on that one part. I suspect timing is very important. I suspect the threshold change would be a key point where it could be more hypnotic suggestion. Of course, ultimately, the line between a hypnotic suggestion and just a suggestion is rather blurry, as you showed in other parts of your video. I definitely appreciate you putting this video out there. I just thought that one example could have been slightly better. The general purpose of this video is good! Help people know when they could be being influenced by suggestions in a natural trance state.

Which sleep induction videos? Nothing has been removed from this channel and my sleep stories channel still has weekly sleep stories with the most recent posted 2 hours ago

Today. But had to dash off to a haircut, so didn't do an announcement yet of why... Obviously it is a familiar name to most and an updated logo...

@DanTheTortoise ick haircut!

@DanTheTortoise this is untreated but I wanted to ask you if you've heard of the jumping Frenxhmen of Maine? I'm assuming the answer is yes 😄. I don't remember you bringing it up-wbich doesn't mean you've not. But just heard a podcast episode about it. The following of commands obviously reminded me of how you can get same reaction in hypnosis and hosts even brought that up. An example they gave was a boy who had it was startled by his brother on a playground who then told him to pull down his pants and he did. It's interesting too that exholalia and exhopraxia can also occur

I hadn't heard of it (at least not to my knowledge), but have just looked it up...

@DanTheTortoise 👍 I didn't want to explain the whole thing in case you knew about it already or would look it up on own regardless of it I gave more detail you'd look it up because I'm sure what I learned on podcast is pretty basic as it's only about 15-20 min segment.

Hypnosis can work for non-English speaking people. There are some very specific techniques or ways techniques are done which don't work due to not translating, but there are equivalents in other languages which work fine. What I mean by this is for example, in English the word run can have dozens of different meanings, so if someone wanted help with weightloss a hypnotherapist could include in the treatment the use of the word run, but used in multiple contexts and the listener would hear that word repeatedly and then be more likely to be active. So a therapist could start saying "we'll just run through the paperwork", then a few minutes later "I've just got to run this out to the secretary", then coming back to the room and saying "always seem to be running around" and then asking the client "could you just run through the problem as you see it" and then "so running through that bit again" and then later in the session talking about someone "running a bath", "running a tap for a cup of tea", "running through what we've discussed so far", "running over the notes for the session", etc. So they have used this term a lot, but not once using it in the context of exercising, so the person don't consciously necessarily make that connection. In other languages the word run doesn't have the ability to be used in this way. So it just means that you wouldn't do this in those languages. There may be words which could work in this way, but if not, then you just wouldn't use this specific hypnotic technique. It doesn't impact hypnosis working, but it just means certain techniques or ideas just don't translate, but hypnosis can be done just fine in any language or even with no language.

As mentioned in the video, there isn't technically high or low functioning in the sense people think of it, there is autistic and not autistic and those autistic people will struggle to function in some contexts but could be fine in others and the number or type of contexts can vary from person to person. Hypnosis is just the process of focusing attention, so hypnotherapy is hypnosis being used with some form of therapy, so the therapy part could be CBT or counselling or psychodynamic therapy or solution focused therapy, etc., or an eclectic mix of therapies a specific therapist is trained in where maybe they use different skills from different therapies depending on the client, and work in a more client-centred way. Ideally I would say a client-centred approach is best regardless of model of therapy used. The important thing is that it is tailored to the individual. In my talk at this years UK Hypnosis Convention in November I'll be discussing this topic in more detail. In terms of hypnosis itself, again, the approach used should really be guided by the client. For example, I likely have aphantasia. I almost never see anything other than black in my imagination, but I also assume when people say 'imagine this' they just mean to have a sense of it, like I 'know' the colour of my front door, but I don't perceive a representation of it in my mind's eye, so I can get on with a therapist presenting ideas like this and follow them because I assume they don't mean for me to actually have a conscious inner experience, just to have a sense this is happening. But another autistic person may struggle and assume the person literally means they want you to imagine something in your mind and then because they can't, they get disheartened and perhaps stop engaging or they think it isn't working for them etc. Then obviously, the other side is those who do have vivid imaginations who assume they are being told to have an inner sensory experience, and this is what they have. For these people, perhaps they would like inductions and processes which involve guided sensory experiences, like using mental rehearsal and inductions like four seasons inductions or country garden induction - although you would want to still tailor the induction to the client, so if they don't like country gardens but prefer a beach, then have the person describe the beach they want and use that. If they want a busy football stadium, use that, etc. For someone like me who doesn't really have conscious inner sensory experiences, then maybe it would be preferable to practically act out rehearsal in a therapy room, or actively talking through the rehearsal to stimulate unconscious mental rehearsal, and using inductions like focusing on a spot or on counting down and focusing on the words. So, every autistic person would respond differently and prefer different approaches. The same with the therapy part of hypnotherapy. I generally prefer engaging in a more CBT style approach fitted within a solution focused framework, where I can address a challenge, find the pattern of the challenge, identify the solution and the pattern of this, find the steps between the two and what I practically have to do next to move through the steps. I really don't respond well to someone 'interpreting' my behaviours etc, as they are nearly always wrong about their opinion and nearly always place greater value on their opinion than on my opinion, even though I lived my life and experiences and it then invalidates me if they tell me I am wrong because they are the expert and so they are right. I also struggle to label my emotional experiences, so if a therapist spends session after session asking how I felt about this and that, because they are placing value on this information, rather than on what fits my autistic neurotype and working with that, then I am just going to get frustrated with the therapist as the therapy will be just going round in circles rather than forward. But another autistic person may find therapy based around patterns and processes and routines etc too rigid, especially if it is being poorly presented and so they have things they want to say or do but can't because it never comes up in conversation. For example, I know someone who was off sick from work during Covid due to a fear of getting ill. They sought therapy for this, but the therapist only focused on it being workplace stress and anxiety and never gave the client the chance to speak freely and to give answers which would reveal the real issue. It wasn't until the final allotted session during the questionnaire looking at how they (the therapist) did, that the client had the chance to say they never addressed the problem they actually had, instead they kept focusing down a blind alley trying to address a problem that didn't exist, not once touching on or helping with health anxiety. The therapist said they didn't realise this was the issue, but all the sessions had finished now. So when it comes to what therapy can help a specific autistic person, it is more about what is the best treatment options for the issues the autistic person is seeking help for. That would be the first question. So if they are struggling with anxiety or depression or OCD etc., then you would seek support for this, probably something CBT-based. If they were seeking support for an addiction then it could be something Motivational Interviewing and CBT-based, etc. If they need help with social skills then you would want someone trained to teach social skills (which could be more generic, or a work-based social skills person for interview skills or in-work social skills, or an education-based social skills person if the social interactions are mainly in an education setting, or a relationship expert if the social skills interactions were relating to partners, family or close friendships, etc), if they needed support with confidence etc., then you would want someone trained around this, like in body language skills, specifically around something like confidence. So at this stage being autistic is secondary, you are first of all identifying what therapy is best suited to treat the presenting problem. Then you try to find someone who does that therapy who has a set up which is autism friendly for the individual, or who is willing to adjust things and do things to suit the client, and is a therapist who the autistic person feels they could work with.

That's not how hypnotherapy works. Hypnotherapy is some form of therapy done using hypnosis with the therapy to help it be more effective. So for quitting smoking for example the treatment is likely to be that the client has to clear their home and car etc of any signs a smoker lives there before they attend the first session and so has to be putting in the work and commitment and demonstrating this to the therapist that they are prepared to be taking action. If this step is premature for a client then maybe the step is to support the client in addressing whatever is behind the smoking first. Hypnotherapy is about the therapy being used to support the client. Hypnosis is just the process of focusing attention to help increase responsiveness so that the client is able to engage better in the therapy. Like parking a car, if it is a difficult space and there are distractions, people in the car, radio on, people watching impatiently etc, feelings of self consciousness and frustration etc, then it is going to be more difficult to park. If the person can be alone absorbing all of their attention just in the process of parking then they will do better at parking. This is what hypnosis is used for, so the client who wants to quit smoking can be helped to make sure all of their focus is just on the therapy involved in quitting smoking, but it is the therapy that they are engaging with that is the important thing (and done therapies have more success than others with smoking and different addictions). Obviously, if hypnosis did have some power to be able to be used by those with addictions who wish they didn't have the addiction to easily quit because they were perhaps lazy or found attempts to quit previously too difficult, what would make this a bad thing? Addictions often ruin the lives of the addict and their close friends and family and for some addictions perhaps others through drink or drug driving, crime to fund the addiction, costs to the health service etc. If those who are too lazy but want to quit could easily quit and live the rest of their life without the addiction to the benefit of themselves, their friends, family, community and services etc, what would be wrong with this? Those around them would likely be frustrated with them for not quitting and wishing they would quit, why would they want the person not to quit because they are lazy? Wouldn't they be more likely to be frustrated with the person for not quitting because they are lazy and pleased if they were able to be helped to quit despite their laziness? I wish hypnosis worked like that. You would still need the person to be agreeing to engage with the hypnosis, but it would mean you could better help even the unmotivated clients who want to change but find it daunting, scary, overwhelming etc and perhaps come across as lazy. Unmotivated clients often need so much support and care to help because you need to support them around the cycle of change to where they feel they want to make a change, are ready to change and prepared to take action, make those changes and stick to them.

@@DanTheTortoise In the South if you have drugs on your person or in your home you get arrested and a judge is going to force you into a treatment facility and these facilities have the legal right to keep you there for over a year. However long it takes to get through to you. That is what happened to me. The last time I used was over 20 years ago. If all states did things The Southern Way there would be no addicts. In that facility that I was in they did not believe in any hypnosis nonsense. It was a rehab facility. It was a mental institute. It was a bootcamp. It was a place where you got tough love. No coddling.

It is probably one of the most commonly taught and used hypnotic inductions and probably the one most people think of when they think of being hypnotised. It is also the induction that within the community gets the most grief from people as it may help focus attention through focusing on relaxation, and if the client could benefit from relaxation then it can be helpful, but it is unnecessarily drawn out, most experienced hypnotherapists move beyond this induction to spending perhaps seconds or just a minute or two on an 'induction', if they even decide to use one. I personally normally say "just take a moment to close your eyes" and then get on with whatever we are doing. I might add, similar to what I do for an induction in my sleep stories, that "I don't know whether they will become more absorbed in the experience with the sound of my voice, or the spaces between my words" just so that I've presented the idea that they can be absorbed in this experience, it is just a question of how that will happen.