MORE THOUGHTSABOUT STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND TRANCE

After I went to Phoenix to learn from Milton Erickson,MD, in 1979, I wrote a book called "Trance State in America". Of course it was unpolished and I was surprised at myself (and a little embarrassed) that I would presume to tackle such a momentous subject. Didn't do any research. Just wrote. Put it away. It is still in the file cabinet where it languishes.

One of Erickson's many mind-blowing observations is that we shift states of consciousness all the time AND most of the time we are unaware as we move from one state to another. A second observation: that when we are in a special trance which he called "highly-focused attention" or absorption, we hear and process language differently than when our conscious mind prioritizes and screens out incoming information. Some people call that state "the willing suspension of disbelief." We shift from our rational mind to an all-receiving mind. Some people call this state "the zone". In this state we can hear, integrate, and use therapeutic suggestions effectively, sometimes consciously unaware until we notice we are changing our behavior easily, without struggling with the old obstacles that kept us stuck.

We can also be "imprinted by negative suggestions. It happened all the time when we were kids and we received in the absorptive state of unconscious learning all the subtexts of family myths, rules and messages. They often stay on unconscious levels until something in later life triggers their emergence into conscious behavior.

A characteristic of being in trance is that we can hold two opposite ideas simultaneously. In therapy people can learn that they can love someone deeply and at the same time hate something that they do or say. We usually have more than one feeling. There is always the other side of the coin. Within ourselves there is a constant interplay of parts of ourselves with each other. Acceptance of this interplay alchemizes the process. Like most music, as it moves through time, the disharmonies and staccatoes relax and dip into harmony with each other.


I think the core of wisdom is that we know we don't know and still have faith in the experience of knowing. Life can't be pigeonholed. It washes over us and when we surrender to the not knowing we are renewed by some deep inner spring that can bubble up and surprise and delight us. It is a paradox. When we let go of the need to control, to be masterful, is when we become masters. Like a great river, there is a current underneath us as we are carried along our life's journey.We can let it carry us and enjoy the ride. I think that is what Erickson meant by his utilization strategies. The therapist creates the context of safety so that the patient finds his own inner current and learns to enjoy trusting that process and letting himself be carried by it. By allowing that to happen he becomes master of it; he becomes an artist of his own life.