As with last month this meet was in a nice quiet pub near Leicester Square. The turnout was really good and Andy, who had pointed us to this pub last time, had been so kind as to book the whole upstairs for us. This was complete with signs saying "Uncommon Meet Upstairs", from which I assume the public in general drew their own conclusions.
Invariably I end up having dinner at the meets, having jumped straight on the first train to London after work. So once I had arrived I sat there with my dinner listening to the general conversation. The turnout was very good, with a lot of familiar faces, but several newbies too, which is always good. In lieu of the hypnosis kicking off Glen, one of these first timers, showed me a couple of fun card tricks. I need to learn more of those.
One familiar face was Will, who was quite insistent that he would like to have his dinner before anybody did any hypnosis with him. This meant that no sooner had his plate been taken away Ben started, in a conversational tone, that it was "easy to go into hypnosis" etc. A conversational induction based on anticipation and persistence on Ben's part.
I helped it along by passing the occasional comment about how Will "didn't have to trance now" into his other ear.
Before Will had completely slumped over in his seat I was called over by Javier (aka Skeitel), who had been at the meet in Bristol I went to a few months back. He asked me if I'd like to try an induction on Kerry, his girlfriend, who had come along to the meet with him.
As always with my first induction of an evening I was a bit nervous and reluctant at first. I was also a bit uncertain about exactly what I should start with. Fortunately Kerry was really enthusiastic, so I simply took her hand in a handshake and performed an Ericksonian handshake.
Recently I have found a lot of people responding to this induction by just flopping eyes closed into trance, as opposed to stiffening up and zoning out with their eyes wide open. I think a lot of it is in the hand action and the suggestions I give, and perhaps I should practice this routine a bit more.
Either way it's yet to fail to induce some sort of trance, so I can't complain.
I deepened Kerry's trance and performed a similar routine to the one I performed to Ali last month. Sticking her hand to things, and so forth. It's definitely a fun game to play, and especially if it's the first time someone has experienced it.
Whilst absolute confidence will carry an induction a long way, I have found it is possible to be overconfident, although I have only achieved this by being far too cocky for my own good. The example in this case was what I tried next, which was with Darren. Basically I found myself trying to go too fast, too quickly, and the response I got from Darren was very lukewarm.
The response I got from my next subject wasn't much of an improvement. Will was just going under when he suddenly jumped up and declared he needed to go to the loo. He should have gone before he left full conscious awareness!
After this I found myself playing cameraman to a routine Darren was performing on Ben. Ben has written about this in his blog.
Darren was obviously on a roll, so next he went on to zap Kerry.
Suffice to say Darren is an absolute legend!
(Read as: Limelight stealing git)
With time fast running out, I was presented with another opportunity to do some hypnosis with Kerry myself. She responds well as a subject, so I decided to deepen the trance as much as I could before trying something a bit more advanced, like a hallucination.
What I used was a guided imagery deepener I learned from Liz a few months ago. It starts out with the subject imagining lying on a beach and then swimming out into sea toward an island. I like it because it produces potentially beautiful imagery which most people can relate to, and the analogy of swimming is something that most people can relate to experiencing full body fatigue; that all-over feeling of tiredness.
Afterward Kerry commented to me that she really did feel like she was swimming, and I realised that the way her breathing had deepened as I'd taken her through it had indeed been like that of someone who was swimming. I felt a small pang of jealousy, as I always do when I come across someone who is able to feel such profound effects from hypnosis so easily. It makes me realise just how far I have yet to go as a subject.
Still, I always thoroughly enjoy sharing hypnosis with someone who is as open to and as enthusiastic about trying it as Kerry was that evening.
In true HypnoMeet style the time flew past and I had to make my departure in order to catch the train home. Sadly next month I shall be away on holiday and won't be able to go to the meet, but there's always the month after. Far too long to wait if you ask me!
