How to Coach Yourself and Others Beware of Manipulation | Page 249

without resistance. Confusion might be created by ambiguous words, complex or endless sentences,
pattern interruption or a myriad of other techniques to incite transderivational searches.
Scottish surgeon James Braid, who coined the term "hypnotism", claimed that focused attention was
essential for creating hypnotic trances; indeed, his thesis was that hypnosis was in essence a state of
extreme focus. But it can be difficult for people racked by pain, fear or suspicion to focus on anything
at all. Thus other techniques for inducing trance become important, or as Erickson explained:
... long and frequent use of the confusion technique has many times effected exceedingly rapid
hypnotic inductions under unfavourable conditions such as acute pain of terminal malignant disease
and in persons interested but hostile, aggressive, and resistant...
Handshake induction
Among Erickson's best-known innovations is the hypnotic handshake induction, which is a type of
confusion technique. The induction is done by the hypnotist going to shake hands with the subject, then
interrupting the flow of the handshake in some way, such as by grabbing the subject's wrist instead. If
the handshake continues to develop in a way which is out-of-keeping with expectations, a simple, nonverbal trance is created, which may then be reinforced or utilized by the hypnotist. All these responses
happen naturally and automatically without telling the subject to consciously focus on an idea.
Although it is believed this technique originated from Erickson, it actually did not. Richard Bandler
told people Milton taught him this technique. But he imbedded some parts that in fact were impossible
for Milton to have done. Such as "gradually lessening the pressure with his right hand" which of course
was impossible for Erickson to have done since he was almost completely paralysed in his right hand.
Bandler talks about this in one of his videos Creating Therapeutic Change.
This induction works because shaking hands is one of the actions learned and operated as a single
"chunk" of behavior; tying shoelaces is another classic example. If the behavior is diverted or frozen
midway, the person literally has no mental space for this - he is stopped in the middle of unconsciously
executing a behavior that hasn't got a "middle". The mind responds by suspending itself in trance until
either something happens to give a new direction, or it "snaps out". A skilled hypnotist can often use
that momentary confusion and suspension of normal processes to induce trance quickly and easily.
The various descriptions of Erickson's hypnotic handshake, including his own very d