The Key to Achieving a Greater Depth of Hypnosis

You will remember that the key to achieving a greater depth of hypnosis lies in visualizing yourself going deeper with each attempt and accomplishing progressive hypnotic tests. Keep this in mind. For a moment, let us go back to the hand tingling test–No. 3. Once you have been successful in accomplishing this test, use the visual-imagery technique to see yourself successfully responding to the foot test. When you have actually accomplished test No. 4, you see yourself accomplishing the “hand levitation” test–No. 5. In other words, you use each step to enhance a greater receptivity for the following progressive test. As you couple this approach with posthypnotic suggestions that you will go deeper and deeper into the hypnotic state at a given stimulus, you set into motion a conditioned response mechanism which must ultimately guide you into a profound state of hypnosis.

The foot test can be accomplished while sitting or lying down. The idea of this test is to imagine that your feet are stuck to the floor or that your legs are so heavy that they are impossible to raise until you reach a certain count. It is best to begin this test by trying to capture a heavy, relaxed feeling in your legs. You give yourself specific suggestions along these lines: “As I count to five, I shall notice a very heavy, relaxed, pleasant feeling in both legs. It will be a very comfortable feeling; a feeling of complete relaxation.” You then begin the count of ten, following out the idea of the other tests you have successfully accomplished. You should remember that there is no time limit and you take as much time as you need in order to get the relaxed, heavy feeling. Once you get the relaxed, heavy feeling, you use the visual-imagery technique to try to picture your legs stuck to the floor.

If you are lying down, imagine you are covered by a heavy blanket which is tightly tucked under the mattress, making it impossible for you to raise your legs. If sitting up, I tell the subject to imagine that his shoes are stuck to the floor with “iron glue,” and since his feet are in the shoes, it is impossible to lift them until the specific count which will enable him to do so.