Can YOU give me a list of hypnotic skills please?

A list of hypnotic "skills"?

There is really just one: Communication.

It sounds like it may be completely unrelated, but actually it is the exact opposite. Nothing works with hypnotism if you neglect to properly communicate with your subject.

Then again, I suppose you were interested in a list of suggestions you could try? That would again in large parts depend on your subject. As a general idea, stay away from anything that goes beyond harmless "party tricks", if you are still only learning about it. And even here make sure they are fine with it.

Examples of what I mean would be, amongst others, stuff like partial catalepsy, or simply put making them stiffen, decrease their sensivity to touch or pain. Or the opposite, enhance sensivity. Remember I said partial catalepsy, not a complete one. That would come next, but only if your subject is comfortable with it.

Presuming you can establish a basic level of trust with your subject, things like playing around with sensory perception beyond touch, for example hearing or vision may be possible. Make sure that you always check what your subject expects from it. For example don't suggest something if it seems too likely to be unlpeasant for the other person.

And be seriously careful with approaching anything that even just touches sensitive areas beyond that. Even if you may have heard of hypnotically induced amnesia or maybe using hypnosis as a way to stop smoking, overeating, and similar phenomenons, those are best left to people who other than hypnosis have also the neccessary medical knowledge. Hypnotism is a tool, but like any other tool if handled too carelessly and impatiently it can cause damage.

So, again, I may sound like I'm obsessing over nothing, but as far as hypnotic skills are concerned, regardless of what you want to use hypnosis for, the most important skill you need is proper, attentive communication.

Maybe it would be helpful to mention what you want from hypnosis? Why are you learning it, what do you want to use it for? Where would you like to improve specifically?

Hi, what I’m really looking for is a long list of techniques like this,

Post suggestion
Confusional techniques
Confusional hypnosis
Amnesia
Dissociation
Etc

As I’m sure there are hundreds more would like to look up and study each one...

Now that is more specific.

Since you asked for it to be in form of a "ranking" or list, let's see. First I'd go with the post-hypnotic suggestions. Simply put, suggestions to be acted upon after the actual trance. They can veritably be considered a fundamental part of hypnosis. If you are only learning about them, don't try anything too complex at first. Many subjects, especially those new to hypnosis, struggle with it a bit, easily responding when in trance but not following suggestions for after.

As the next goal to aim for, from the ones you'd mentioned I'd suggest dissociation. Some of what I'd mentioned earlier would already count as a variation of that, yet it should be mentioned that dissociation can be rather tricky.

Next in line by that logic would likely be confusional hypnosis. Erickson was among the most famous hypnotists to appreciate this thechnique, and rightfully so. It is a great way to get someone into a trance, sometimes even allowing to give them suggestions without spendinglong time on conventional inductions by simply weaving it all into an ongoing discussion. By that same token, that does make it a technique for the experienced hypnotist. By now, however, if following this list you should have developed a good feeling for how your subject will respond and can adapt your methods accordingly.

Last in this list would be amnesia. I've been using hypnosis for years now and most of my subjects struggle with experiencing amnesia. Thinking about it, if someone told you they can manipulate and "erase" your memories that would be likely to evoke negative reactions and obstruct the process. It does take as much skill as patience to make it work.

Also, this can only be a rather short summary, lacking detail. There should be a couple rather thorough articles up, however, so I'd suggest you read those along with my posts? They can simply offer better and more detailed explanations on each individual point on this list.

This is of course only my own opinion. Others may perhaps offer a different point of view. But I do think it should be an idea to start with?

There would also be the question of how you go about learning hypnosis? As in, do you maybe have a teacher and were just asking here for reference and comparison? Or are you mostly teaching yourself? Since that might make a diference in how you go about each step along the way.

I was looking for a list of techniques so I could see what hypnosis is and so that I can look each technique up online or wherever.

Although helpful you don’t seem to want to give me that list...

Gell wrote:I was looking for a list of techniques so I could see what hypnosis is and so that I can look each technique up online or wherever.

Although helpful you don’t seem to want to give me that list...

Google search : many results

I had my own website, if I wanted to google it and sieve through pages of results-I would have.

Saw nothing of what (only) I have listed.

Thanks for the help.

Oh, sorry, that was a misunderstanding of your question on my part.

It's not that I don't want to give you the list you were asking for. I got thrown off by how you mentioned to be learning about it for - in your words - a few years. As in, I thought you had already maybe taken some classes on the subject or made a few experiments with friends or volunteers. As such I presumed you had already more or less an understanding of the basic mechanisms and now were thinking of how to structure them.

Just to make sure if I understood it correctly this time around: You are asking not for how to organize what you know about it already, but rather about what there is to know about hypnosis in the first place. Right? I hope I got it this time. If not, feel free to ignore me before I cause more confusion than help.

See, in that case it is a similar approach as asking someone for a list on "medicine" and what one can do with it. They would tell you: A lot. Because it is a wide field.

Hypnosis by itself is nothing more than a specific form of communication with another person (I feel like I'm repeating myself...). That means, if you can talk and listen to someone you're all set. What sounds overly simplified couldn't be more difficult. So, how to take it from there?

The techniques you mentioned aren't neccessarily something you should go and study all in advance. Even though Google would not really be my go-to-option (at first, later on when you really know what you're dealing with and can sort the useless or even harmful from the good it's fine), it may be the better place to look for key words for further research. as recommended by quietvoice.

For example, are you looking into induction-techniques? Or do you have those down already? The confusional hypnosis you mentioned can be mostly a good way to induce a trance. But learning that is on the difficult side, so you may want to concentrate on simple, and much more direct verbal inductions. Or are you the type to prefer using props in the classic eye-fixation-method (to get really old-school, just think of watches and spirals and similar prejudices)

In my personal opinion what could be a great thing to work towards are Ericksonian methods. One may argue they are too indirect and subtle, I found they work great especially because of that. The human mind has a tendency to rebel against strict orders, but jump at gentle suggestions and ideas.

Even going back to the seemingly simple field of post-hypnotic suggestions there are heaps of variations of how to go about it that mostly depend on what they are supposed to do. Do you simply want your subject to feel happy and refreshed after the session, for example? In that case just telling them will mostly suffice (note I'm saying mostly, exceptions do pop up every now and then). Or do you aim to implant a trigger for a specific reaction? That can require lots of slow building up and more often than not lots of repetition.

...Well, I'm stopping here. I really don't seem to get to the point where I give you the simple list you wanted to then go off and google all the key words. Sorry I'm not helpful.

Advice is great, a list would be better...

Gell wrote:a list would be better...

One reason that I simply posted a search result link was that to me, your original question sounds like you are asking others to do your homework for you. If you want a list of techniques/skills to study, then make one.

I was an entrepreneur so asking people to do work for me is normal, although they already have the answer so they have to do no reasearch or work-just list what’s on their mind.

I could spend the next week looking at hundreds of websites just to find some techniques but that’s why I come to a forum, to talk to an expert who can cut out the sh*t and give me what I ask for.

I’ve got books but rather than write a half assed list from my limited books...

I thought I’d get an answer online after ten minutes....

I’ll post my own list if no one else is willing to and answer my own qouestion if no one else is helpful enough to give me what I asked for....

It seems stupid to spend hours or days searching for a list that someone can do so easily off the top of their head.

Here is one important skill to learn about hypnosis

success = confidence and how does that help?

If someone for example is afraid of dogs:
You ask to fantasy oneself having good times with a dog ( playing )

This can help one change how he feels about the dog at some level:

If someone has fear of dating: you ask to fantasy onesef having good times with a lady: (food, chat, walking around, playing, kissing, hugging)

How does that help?
Success = confidence
If you see oneself doing good you be doing good

Gell wrote:It seems stupid to spend hours or days searching for a list that someone can do so easily off the top of their head.

Perhaps, you're making an assumption that that person who has that top-of-the-head list is necessarily at this forum, and is seeing this post, and is willing to help you, if even such a person exists.

If you do your own homework, you'll learn better.