Backing up Blog Post Part 6 from DrakeG's blog

Six parts in and going strong. Today we are discussing inductions. Induction is the process of leading someone into a trance. This is what people most likely think of when you say hypnosis, the image of someone swinging a pocket watch saying you are getting very sleepy. While that exact method is not actually common, it is possible. As I said before, this is all based on my opinions and experience. 
So let’s discuss some possible methods of inducing a trance. When learning hypnosis, the most common method discussed is relaxation. Specifically, the progressive relaxation method is the most common. This has the hypnotist walking the subject through relaxing each part of their body. Depending on who you ask, this method works by relaxing the subject till they just slip into a trance or it just bores the person until they almost pass out. Personally I am not a fan of this method not only because I find there are easier ways to relax people with hypnosis but also this method does not work well on everyone. Especially people with ADD, ADHD, or are highly analytical. These types of people have trouble stopping their mind, which is the goal in this kind of induction.
So on the other side of the coin is confusion or overload inductions. These inductions focus on distracting or overwhelming the conscious mind so that you can then get to the subject’s subconscious. One of the most common in this group is called 7 plus or minus 2. The idea is that human short term memory can only hold 5-9 items at a time, so if you keep pushing it to remember more than that, you can shut it down just long enough to get to the subconscious.
Next up is PGO spikes and pattern interrupts. These work under the concept of catching the person off guard. Have you ever leaned back in a chair and then all of the sudden you thought you were going to fall? At that peak right as you are about to fall, there is a sudden jolt that runs through your body. That is a PGO spike. In that moment, your conscious mind is hyper focused, and the hypnotist can get around it. A pattern interrupt works similarly by catching the subject off guard. For example, in the western world, if someone holds their hand out to offer a handshake we are trained to try to shake their hand. If the hypnotist then does something to break the expected process, like grabbing the outside of your hand, it will confuse and distract your conscious mind.
The last big group is focus based. These inductions work by drawing the subject’s attention somewhere the hypnotist chooses. This is where the swinging pocket watch example at the start comes in. The hypnotist guides the person to focus on something. Then, like with confusion, once the conscious mind is out of the way, the subconscious can be accessed.
Now these are not the only ways to induce a trance. There are any number of ways to induce a trance. To wrap up, lets talk about one of the less intuitive ways to cause a trance. There is a quote from Clark Hull, “Anything that assumes trance, causes trance.” What this means is under normal circumstances we would look to put someone into a trance and then create effects. One of the common effects is called catalepsy. This is commonly displayed by making the subjects arm or leg unable to move, even if it is free floating in the air. In a trance, this is an easy thing to accomplish. Now if on the other hand, you can cause catalepsy, you can use that to induce a trance. 
With that, I hope you enjoyed and next time we will discuss the change work.