Richard Bandler - Trance–formations. Neuro–Linguistic Programming™ and the Structure of Hypnosis

Example 3; Let's play a little more. Ann, let me ask you to do something. Close your eyes. First, I want you to make a clear, rich, focused, visual image of a wall, and on the wall I want you to have doors. Do the doors look different to you, or do they look the same?

Ann: Yes, there's a difference.

i here's a difference. OK.. Now, the door that's farthest to the right will take you someplace that will be very familiar. Just keep looking at those doors. And the door that's farthest to the left will take you somewhere that will seem totally different, but when you get to the end, you will discover you've already been there before. Now, there's another door there, is there not? Now, feel yourself walk up to that third door and put your hand on the door knob, but do not open that door.

Ann: I'm just really … not feeling a door knob. It's a swinging door.

You haven't looked around. Search it very carefully. It may open in a way that you've never had a door open before. … Do you discover anything unusual about this door? …

Ann: Yes.

Go ahead and try in vain to push it open… . Search the door more … until you find some unusual characteristic … which has meaning for you as a person … to allow you to really get the door open … in a way that it's never opened before… .

Ann: Well, I did it.

Now, very slowly … I want you to step through, but before you push the door all the way open, I want you to realize … that you are going to enter an experience … which will have the following characteristics: There will be elements … that will make no sense whatsoever … and you will have no words for those elements. But they will be the most important of all … and they will have the most meaningful relationship to changing you … as a human being … in ways that you don't fully understand. And as you notice those elements, pay close attention to them. There will be certain other elements which will surprise you delightfully … like when you turn around, there's no door there anymore… .

Now I want you to observe your environment … with clarity … and with depth … because there's something … there … that you haven't seen yet. Something that will have personal significance for you. And as your eyes drift up and down … around your environment, you won't know what it is until after you pass it. … That's right. Now, when you go back, however, it's not quite the same. But when you do go back, you can use that as an opportunity … and as a reminder … of something that you've needed to know for quite some time.

Now, while you're doing this consciously, I know … at the unconscious level you are doing something else … and that something else is much more important than what your conscious mind is engaged in … because at the unconscious level … you're beginning to build a foundation …on that one object. A foundation which will be a solid structure … on which to build new … and more satisfying future behaviors.

And while your conscious mind continues to explore your environment … and to wonder, really wonder … what the unconscious mind is going to do … that structure is being built all the while … as you continue to engage in this process. That solid foundation … will serve as the same basis …as the foundation you built … the very first time you stood on your own two feet … because before that you'd only had the experience of crawling … until someone lifted you up … and for only an instant … you balanced on your own two feet … with their support… . But even then … you were building an unconscious foundation … which would later serve … as the basis … for your own walking … and running … standing and sitting.

And that object … is the beginning of a foundation … for a whole new set of experiences … and I know … that your unconscious mind can build that foundation quickly … or it could build it slowly, but in cither case it must build it thoroughly … so that it doesn't collapse at a later time… . Because the choices that you want in your future behavior … must have all the necessary ingredients available … at the unconscious level… . And in order to be available, they will have to have a solid structure of understanding … and the necessary elements …to make that behavior available …to you as a human being.

Now you're faced with a dilemma … at this moment in time, that you hadn't consciously realized … but you're beginning to realize it now… . Either … you go back and find the door and walk out … leaving something unfinished … or you allow your own unconscious processes to finish it for you. Or you stay where you are … and leave the world … outside you … to itself … and take all the time that's necessary …to build a structure … which will have all the ingredients … that will be necessary for you to have the future development … that you have been informed … would be beneficial to you … as a human being… .

And that decision … has got to come from you … and your own unconscious processes… . There's no need for it to come from anywhere else… . While you sit there … your unconscious processes … have kept your heart beating … have kept you breathing … have kept the blood flowing through your veins, and have done a hundred thousand other things that your conscious mind is not even remotely aware of. … The importance of this … is realizing that you can trust your own unconscious processes … to take care of you. When you walk down a busy street … and your mind is lost in thought, you automatically … stop at a red light … and even though you arc engaged in internal activity, when the light changes you know that it's time to proceed ahead… ,

And you can always trust those unconscious processes … to do something … which is beneficial … and useful … if given the proper impetus to do so. And it's not really important why it didn't happen in the past. It's only important to know … that it's possible in the future.

Once a long time ago, before I had ever done any therapy, 1 sat observing a man in a restaurant. One of the interesting things about this man …is that he was completely drunk … and yet … each time a fly landed on his hand, he involuntarily twitched … and the fly would move off his hand. He repeated this process … again … and again … and again … and even though his conscious mind … did not know what was going on, his unconscious activity was organized … and methodical … and protective… .

When you're driving down a highway, sometimes the roads are icy; sometimes they're not. Sometimes you are concentrating on what you're doing … and other times your mind is elsewhere. And when your mind goes somewhere else, one of the most important things you can learn from that experience … is that if something suddenly needs your conscious attention, you're suddenly there… .

Now I want you, Ann, to take all the time that you need … to solidify all those learnings and understandings … for yourself … in a way which will be most useful for you as a human being. And it isn't really very important … whether your conscious mind knows that occurs. It's only important that your unconscious mind … begins Immediately to demonstrate to you … in new behaviors … its vast potential to make changes in your ongoing behavior … now and in the future.

Now, in a moment I'm going to come back and talk to you. And I'm going to ask you questions … and some of them you will answer willingly … and some of them you may not want to answer. There will be no need to answer them. Before I do that I am going to speak to other people … and you will always know when I am speaking to them … because I will direct my voice elsewhere. So you can take your own time and do what you know you need to do … and what you don't understand that you need to do. That's right. And be as conscious as you need to be in that process… .