A lot of people are curious how hypnosis works and when I explained how it can occur every single day, it shocks them!
I wrote a couple of articles on how hypnosis works already and you can read them here and here if you like
So today I will share the 6 Signs of Hypnosis and trance so maybe you can spot them in the people around you
(Or in yourself!)
1. Pupil Dilation
When you look at the eye, you see the white of the eye, the iris, and in the centre of the iris is the pupil
Think of it as like the camera aperture
Both serve the similar function of letting light into something
Pupil dilation is when the hole in the eye gets bigger, and this is one of the signs hypnosis or trance is happening
Admittedly, it’s much easier to see this when there is a color contrast between the iris and the pupil
So someone with blue eyes or green eyes will be easier to notice when their pupils dilate, whereas someone with brown eyes might be harder to detect the pupil dilation
Unless you are very experienced in spotting it 😉
2. Catalepsy
Waaa McKing what is this weird word?
Catalepsy is one of the signs of hypnosis trance as well
And what it means is that a certain area of the body or certain muscles may become stiff or rigid, or stuck in place
So for example, eye catalepsy can be your eyelids and shut tight and you cannot open them, or its reverse, your eyelids and stuck open and you cannot blink
Similarly, arm catalepsy could be that your arm or hand is stuck to wherever it is and you cannot move it even if you tried
The funny thing is that since we tend to go into trance (whether it is a mild hypnotic trance or a deeper one) day to day, we may actually experience catalepsy but we don’t know it!
Obviously you may not know you have pupil dilation since you need to see it for yourself
But it’s easier if you realize certain muscles are experiencing catalepsy
For example, you might be working on your computer or laptop and you didn’t realize that your legs were completely still
Unless you take a video of yourself and notice when you fidget and when you stop fidgeting hahaha
3. Relaxation
If you think of catalepsy as a form of tension, it’s opposite is relaxation and it is also a sign of hypnosis
Which a lot of you probably already guessed as much
The only thing is how noticable is the relaxation
Technically if you are hypnotising someone, you might be able to see their muscles relax
And especially the facial muscles!
So the cheeks, the mouth might open a bit as well, the head might droop a bit etc
For the rest of the body, such as the arms or the hands might relax too
Although this is more so when you are doing hypnotherapy or if you are performing a type of stage hypnotism
Where such deep relaxation is more of a requirement
By the way, I do not usually do such deep relaxation methods for my hypnosis with my clients, so I may see this sometimes, but more often than not, it doesn’t happen as much for my clients
Because I use a modern conversational method for helping my clients to resolve their issues with hypnosis
4. Eye flickering
This is fascinating!
Essentially when someone is in hypnosis, their eyelids might flicker and some may notice it, some do not
It feels like there is a twitch in the eyes or the eyes are trying to open but they do not
Kinda bizarre but that is one of the signs of hypnosis too!
If you want to notice it for yourself, you might try meditation and you may notice your eyelids flickering
If you are watching someone else do it, you can see it much more easily
After all, when we close our eyes usually, it is more like a “calm close and that’s it” kind of thing ain’t it?
So when you are in a hypnotic trance, some might feel their eyes flickering and it feels like it want to open!
When you experience this, you will know what I mean 😉
5. Involuntary movements
This is both normal and bizarre, depending on what is having the involuntary movements
Let’s break it down
What are the normal involuntary movements?
These are the pretty standard or normal everyday twitching, finger or hand movements, legs or feet movement, heading nodding etc
All pretty normal you know, the usual stuff you already see every day in other people
So what are the bizarre ones?
Well they can also be fingers, hands, feet, etc movements, however they are not moving in an unusual manner
For example, one of my clients, when we do hypnosis, his right foot toes will curl up, and when they uncurl, I know he is ready for the next task
Another client had his hand open palm facing up, and when he is doing something, the thumb will move over the palm
Bizarre right?
6. You are in the zone~
The zone, the flow state, a lot of people have different names for this
Where you are extremely focused on a task or project and your mind is firing thoughts, ideas, process on how to complete this task or project
If you ever saw someone so focused in their work, and maybe even fell in love with that person, that person was in a trance, in that flow state
In such a state, the person has brought their conscious awareness into their unconscious mind
And this connection or integration allows the person access to a world of infinite possibilities~
Although most people just use it to solve a problem, complete a task etc
Leonardo da Vinci knew and understood the power of the unconscious mind in generating new creative ideas
He regularly used this too!
What he did was to hold a giant metal object like a key, loosely in his hand, and fell asleep, perhaps he went in blank, or perhaps he went with a question or an idea
He will enter into a trance, into his unconscious mind to generate new ideas, solve problems, essentially the flow state
And before he falls deep asleep (thereby potentially losing the state of flow), his hand will open and the metal object will fall and make a loud noise and he wakes up
And promptly records his visions, ideas, etc
Einstein supposedly did this too, and many other famous people in history
Maybe I can blog about famous people in history who employs the use of hypnosis in one way or another XD
I shall stop here for now because these are the more external noticeable signs where you can spot someone is in a trance
There are of course, many other signs of hypnosis, but it gets a bit trickier to spot them, for example when one is having visual or auditory hallucinations
Anyway, do share this with your friends who are curious about hypnosis and maybe let’s chat again soon 😀
