Article by PeaceTied Hypnosis
Human minds remember places better than we do random other things. If you need to remember something important, associate it in your mind with a location. That’s partly why if you forgot something when you walk out of a room, returning to the room where you were can help.
A 7±2 induction involves overloading the subject with too many things to keep track of at once, and then finally removing them all so they can relax. The average human can think of 7 things at once (plus or minus 2). In other words, nearly everyone can remember a shopping list with 4 items, as long as they spend some mental effort at trying to keep track of them. You can probably also think of 5 things as long as there’s nothing distracting going on (7 minus 2). Some people can keep track of 9 things at once, but that’s the limit for nearly everyone, and it’s not easy.
So for the induction, if you give them 10 or more things to keep track of, they will fail. That’s an overload induction. If you also tell them how many things they’re current trying to keep track of, that’s even more info. Keep track of which number you’re on using your fingers, so you as the hypnotist don’t lose count. That’s the first trick of this article. If you count on your fingers, you don’t need a script or an outline to keep track of how many items you’ve given them to think about.
Now let’s look at how to keep track of just what those items are.
Here are 10 things to remember:
- Your breathing
- The weight of your body on the furniture
- The sound of my voice
- Other noises in the room
- How relaxed you must look
- The temperature of the air
- The memory of your favorite food
- What your last trance felt like
- The feel of your clothes on your skin
- How heavy and relaxed your arms and legs feel
They can’t remember and keep track of all of them at once, so they get overwhelmed, and eventually drop when you take away the stress of having to try. The problem is that YOU can’t keep track of all of them either… unless you cheat.
Here’s another list that should be easier to remember. Think about arriving at your house one evening:
- The steering wheel of your car
- The driveway
- Closing the car door
- Walking to the house
- Opening the house door
- Closing the door behind you
- Turning on the light
- Setting your keys on the dining table
- Taking a shower
- Toweling off
These are steps you can remember. It’s easy to remember them because they’re based on locations that are really familiar. (Your own routine may vary slightly of course, but you get the idea)
Now combine your two lists, starting with item 1 from each – this is the trick:
- Steering wheel and breathing (maybe you can imagine holding onto the wheel and taking deep breaths)
- Driveway and the weight of your body (that’s a heavy car on the pavement)
- Closing the car door and the sound of my voice (think of the noise of the door)
- Walking to the house and other noises around the room (do you hear anything as you walk?)
- Opening the house door and how relaxed you look (opening the door is your first look into the house, maybe you see them)
- Closing the house door and the temp of the air (now you’re inside, you can feel it)
- Turning on the light and a memory of food (maybe you see food when the light is on)
- Setting down your keys and a memory of trance (do the keys unlock the memory?)
- Take a shower and the feel of your clothes (you don’t want clothes while showering)
- Toweling off and how heavy your arms and legs feel (so relaxed after a shower)
You have 10 hypnotic things to focus on, and an after work routine. One is easy to remember. One is hard, but we’ve combined the ideas to make it easier.
Now you can start your induction. You as the hypnotist are thinking about sitting in your car holding your steering wheel and breathing. So you tell your subject to focus on their breathing. That’s how the induction starts.
That’s one thing, so they’re probably doing fine. Tell them this. They don’t know it, but by telling them how many things they’re keeping track of, you’re adding to the overload. When they struggle to keep track, and you’re not struggling, it tricks them into feeling like they’re deeper than they actually are (which sends them deeper).
Moving on to the next item on the list, You’re in the driveway in a heavy car. Tell them to think about the weight of their body resting on the furniture… but to also listen to the sound of your voice.
They’re thinking of 2 things at once. You, the hypnotist, are keeping track on your fingers.
Next, you imagine getting out of the car and closing the door. You remember the sound of the door closing, so you tell them to focus on their breathing but don’t forget about the sound of your voice or about the weight of their body on the furniture.
3 things, still good. Easy.
You imagine yourself walking towards the front door, noticing the sounds around you. Tell them to also focus on the background noises they can hear… while still focusing on their body on the furniture, on their breathing, on your voice…
That’s 4
Open the front door and see the inside of your house. Ask them to imagine how relaxed they must look
5 is 7 minus 2, so maybe they’ve hit their max. Talk about this. Throwing in a math problem adds to the confusion.
Close the door and feel the temperature of the air.
6. Review all of the items each time to make sure they’re not forgetting any.
Turn on the light and ask them to think of the memory of a food they enjoy… but don’t forget your breathing, the sound of my voice, your body on the furniture, the background noises, and how relaxed you look.
7. Point just that that’s the average maximum, but most people trying this aren’t being hypnotized, so if they’re having trouble keeping track of all of these things at once, maybe they’re already in trance.
Set down your keys and ask them to think about their last trance: what it felt like, how they knew they were hypnotized (alternatively, have them imagine what it might feel like to be more deeply hypnotized)
8, can they keep up? List all the items a couple of times to make sure they can really feel how much they’re struggling.
Now you think of taking a shower, but you ask them to notice the feel of their clothes on their body
9, you’re at the limits of the human mind (remind them of all the elements again)
Towel off and have them notice how relaxed their arms and legs are.
That’s 10, they’re overwhelmed, both by the things to keep track of, and by your numbers that are somehow important.
Let’s remind them of everything on the list:
(And you as the hypnotist can think of the journey as we go through it step by step, now…)
Focus on your breathing
On the sound of my voice
On your body resting on the furniture
On background noises around us
How relaxed you must look
The temperature of the air
The taste of your favorite food
A memory of trance
The feeling of your clothes on your skin
How heavy your arms and legs are
The human mind can’t keep track of 10 things at once, but you can remember the route from the car to the shower. Use that to your advantage and you’ll appear superhuman to your subjects, which aids in overwhelming them.
After reminding them of all the things they’re forgetting to think about, let them know that soon, they’ll only have to keep track of one thing, and here it is:
“How nice it feels to only think about one thing.”
(Then quickly move on to a deepener as they drop.)
The end.
Surprise! Pop quiz! How much do you remember?
- Think of holding the steering wheel of your car (what are you doing there?)
- In the driveway (what do you notice?)
- Closing the car door (?)
- Walking to the house (?)
- Opening the house door and looking inside (?)
- Closing the door behind you. You’re inside now. (?)
- Turning on the light (what do you see?)
- Setting your keys on the dining table (what do they unlock?)
- Taking a shower (?)
- Toweling off (?)
You don’t have to always present them in the same order. Scramble them up to keep your subject off balance while you’re reminding them of everything they’re forgetting to keep track of. Keep reminding them of what they’re forgetting then let it all fade away suddenly.
And that’s the seven plus or minus two WITHOUT keeping a note card handy.
