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What is trance?

Now that is a good question!

According to the Maybepedia trance “is from Latin ‘transpire’: to cross, pass over…”

According to dictionary.com, trance is “a half-conscious state, seemingly between sleeping and waking, in which ability to function voluntarily may be suspended.”

According to Milton Erickson, the famous psychiatrist and psychotherapist/ hypnotherapist, trance is simply an everyday state where a person becomes fixated on something that captures their attention.

So – what does this all actually mean?

For those of you who drive, I’m sure you have had the experience of arriving at your destination and thinking “Oh, right – I’m here!” (this happens often when driving along a route you are familiar with). Arriving home or at work, you kind of snap out of it, and then go about the rest of your day. That is a kind of trance!

(Interesting to think that you’ve been in control of half-a-ton of moving metal in that state; even more interesting to realise that most of the other users of the road are in the same state. This is why, when traffic lights turn from red to green, people often just sit there… oblivious… in a deep form of trance).

Another example. In the evenings, when watching the TV, it can kind of suck you in so you forget about the rest of the room – it’s just you and the screen. Time flies by, you might even get pins-and-needles or cramp from sitting in the same place for too long. That fixation of attention is a kind of trance.

Day-dreaming, playing with a family pet, being with somebody you love (and the time just flies by), reading a good book, waiting for the train and just wandering in your own thoughts… All of these are forms of trance. Your attention has become fixated on something, and other stimuli fade into the background.

So that is trance! Nothing scary or mystical. As you have read these words, it is likely that you will have accessed a memory or thought of driving, or watching TV or whatever, and at those points you’ve slipped into a brief trance. When somebody will be talking to you later today, and as they’re talking you’re more aware of your own internal thoughts, then you’ll be in a trance again. The point is:

Trance is an everyday state that we slip in and out of many, many times per day.

Allow me to ask you this: when driving in a relaxed way, when reading or watching TV, when day-dreaming or relaxing in a bath or shower – are any of these states of mind unpleasant or scary? No, of course not. So if you’re thinking “Hypnosis – that seems a bit scary!” or “I could never go into a trance” realise that you are already going into trances every single day

That’s all for now. In my next post I hope to discuss how, when it comes to problem behaviours like comfort eating, feeling unconfident, smoking etc, trance always forms part of the problem and, therefore, part of the solution.

Warm regards,

Adrian
www.lastingchange.co.uk