Trance Tops Drugs, Sex, Rock & Roll

When Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen’s Ottawa summer concert was sold out, a few summers ago, an aspect of mySelf reminded me that Stephen Gilligan once said the right of passage into adulthood would be easier, if we taught adolescents about trance. What we seek in drugs, sex and rock & roll is available through trance – the connection with ourselves and others, the going inside, the focus or heightened awareness and the relaxation or relief from our daily rhythms.

And as trance is a naturally occurring state, when we consciously induce it, we are merely utilising something we already do, easily and effortlessly. We all know the driving trance – the “how did I get here” moment at the end of the drive to work. Or how about the TV trance, the gardening trance, the yoga trance or, perhaps, the golf trance. When I recently heard a former British Open Champion describe “this eerie calmness” that he felt during the final round, I knew what he was really talking about was the uptime trance state which world class athletes are in when they are at their peak performance.

Those of us who were, or saw or read about the “flower children” of the 60s and 70s know the drugs, sex and/or rock and roll trances. “We all have a deep need to get away, to go into far out states” says Stephen Gilligan, an internationally renown psychologist and trance trainer, mentored by Dr. Milton Erickson, an even more renown psychiatrist who, in the 1950s, was influential in having hypnosis recognised by the American Medical Association as a therapeutic technique.

What Is Hypnosis?

“Trance, relaxation or comfortable self awareness” is what Dr. Erickson called hypnosis. In trance there is a focused awareness, a paying attention in the foreground, to what is really important. And when you wish, you can pull the background information back into conscious awareness. In this way, trance is a tool to facilitate learning and skill development, with the desired results or changes occurring naturally.

All hypnosis is actually self hypnosis. I do not do it to you, you do it to yourself. The subject is always in charge, deciding if, when or how deeply to go into trance. Whether I guide myself, or am guided by another, it is always about me choosing to hypnotise myself and invite the unconscious mind to access resources, share insights, undertake learning or make changes. Whatever you want to do, however you want to be, is available and accessible through the unconscious mind. And your unconscious is absolutely willing and delighted to connect and to play. Using a pendulum and practising self-hypnosis are very direct ways to experience this connection.