Having completed the induction process and testing the subject, you are ready to take the next step. You are going to bring the conscious mind the realization of the trance state and you do that by giving three tests. An arm levitation, up to the chest, the chin or the head, and as the arm is lifting, you compound it with the second test, saying, "As your arm is lifting, your eyes are locking closed and when you hand touches your body, your eyelids will be locked so tightly closed, the more you try to open them the tighter they are locking closed."
At the same time, as the right arm is coming up, use the second suggestion: "As your right arm is lifting your left arm feels as though it is made of marble or stone or lead". Don't say that it IS made of stone, because it is not and you have to deal with what remains of a rational mind and you don't know how much that rational mind is active. Use the subjunctive mood to state a condition contrary to fact which says, "your arm feels as if it is too heavy to lift."
Use this wording: "Your eyes have locked so tightly closed, the more you try to open them, the tighter they are locking closed and at the same time, you arm feels as though it is made of marble, lead or stone, it feels as if it is far too heavy to lift." This "rule of reversed mental effort" will generate a successful result in virtually every case. By contrast, in his book New Master Course in Hypnosis, (The New Master Course in Hypnosis, Harry Arons, Power Publishers, 1961), Harry Arons gives the wording for the arm catalepsy as follows:
Your arm is outstretched before you, stiff and rigid like a bar of steel. You are completely powerless to bend or lower it. In fact the harder you try the more impossible it is, because you are in hypnosis, you see, and implicitly obedient to my every command. You simply cannot lower your arm until I SAY that you can! "What you are doing here is impressing forcibly upon the subject's consciousness that he is indeed under you "hypnotic control" -else why can he not do something so simple as lowering his arm?
A suggestion may be made that a few minutes after awakening he would become aware of a terrible itching sensation in his back just between the shoulder blades, where it would be difficult to scratch.
"You will be very annoyed with this itching," you continue, "and will go into all sorts of contortions to scratch this spot, even rubbing your back against the wall and against articles of furniture. But nothing will help. Finally, you will appeal for my help in the matter, because ONLY I will be able to relieve this itching. I will simply snap my fingers twice and the itching will disappear instantly. This will convince you beyond the shadow of a doubt that you are indeed under hypnosis.
This wording is guaranteed to produce a high percentage of failures because:A. it openly challenges the subjects
autonomy,
B. it tells the subject that he is "completely powerless", "implicitly obedient to my every command",
C. it mobilizes the subject's "fear of losing control",D. it erodes the subject's dignity: "You will go into all sorts of contortions to scratch this spot, even rubbing your back against the wall and on articles of furniture."
E. the overwhelming authoritarian style and conflict structured wording generates feelings of defiance from the subject.
I urge you to avoid making these mistakes.Now let's return to the correct wording of these tests:
"Your left arm feels so heavy it feels AS IF it were far too heavy to lift, in fact even the very thought of trying to lift it seems to be more than you wish to deal with, at this time. You may, if you wish to, make an effort to lift your left arm. Now stop trying, relax and go deeper."
Now we have done the arm levitation, the eye catalepsy and the heavy left arm tests. It is important to utilize all these tests so that you will get a response on at least one of them. Any response to a single test is 100% success. You have now finished the tests and you must explain their response. You say, "The feeling that you felt, as your arm was lifting, that is the feeling of hypnosis. The feeling that you felt, as your eyelids seemed stuck, that is the feeling of hypnosis. The feeling that you felt as your left arm seemed so heavy, that is the feeling of hypnosis. I call these responses the feelings of hypnosis because you and I know that there is no rational reason for your right arm to feel lighter than your left. There is no rational reason for your eyelids not to open instantly on the mere thought. There is no rational reason for your left arm to feel heavier than your right.
"In the hypnotic trance, the critical factor of the conscious mind is temporarily relaxed. This is the part of your mind which examines incoming ideas for their rational content. Since that part of your mind is relaxed because of trance, you don't have any inhibitions about responding to
irrational ideas; such as your right arm is lighter than your left; or your left arm is heavier than your right; or that your eyelids are stuck. Your mind is not asking a question, or making a statement such as, 'That's silly, my right arm feels the same as my left arm because that is the way it should be. I could open my eyelids any Lime I choose.' Because of this single change you are able to accept ideas that are different from your previous experience.
"You might consider your mind to be like a stereo system with speakers on either side. When I turn the balance control knob all the way to the left, the music will pour out of the left speaker and the right speaker will become silent. The speaker has not disappeared nor has the circuitry to the speaker disappeared, it is just temporarily passive or inactive. When I turn the balance control knob the other way, the left speaker becomes passive and quiet, and the right speaker is activated once again.
"In the same way, one circuit, or one part of your mind, 'the critical factor,' is now temporarily relaxed, and this is the major change that occurs in the hypnotic state. This is what enables you to accept good, positive, beneficial and creative ideas that help you to do the very things that you have set out to do. in a moment, I am going to bring you up from this trance and when I do, you are going to have a much clearer understanding of your trance state when you open your eyes."