The last time I saw Dave Dobson was in the nursing home in Friday Harbor located on his beloved San Juan Island.
Dave had retired to the San Juan Islands but I pulled him out of retirement to begin doing Fun Shops again.
He was one of the most amazing and incongruent teachers I ever met. Amazing because of the keen insights he had on human nature and helping people evolve. And incongruent because of his fear that someone was going to rip him off and steal his life’s work.
At times Dave would roar “Rip me off dammit. Just use my stuff.” And at other times, he would accuse people of stealing his teachings.
And after a lifetime of teaching, he made sure no one else would be able to do his work.
He left behind no writings other than a book I had transcribed for him as a birthday present.
His Fun Shops recordings aren’t very useful to people who can’t see the non-verbals Dave was using.
And the video recordings Dave hoarded will probably never see the light of day and even if they did – Dave forbade anyone from ever explaining his work.
That’s why 20 years from now, no one will have heard of Dave Dobson – one of the greatest hypnotists who ever lived.
On the other hand, there is a legacy of teachings of Milton Erickson.
Maybe some of the people teaching Ericksonian hypnosis got it wrong.
Maybe they are mis-teaching what Milton tried to give over.
But Milton spent a life time making sure his techniques and content got out there.
He cooperated with the researchers. Made abundant videos available.
Today, there are conferences all over the world teaching Ericksonian hypnosis.
Today, there are many excellent practitioners of Erickson’s techniques all around the world.
But there are no Dobsonian practitioners.
And I’m sure the Ghost of Dave Dobson is not happy.
How To Simply And Effectively Induce Hypnotic Trance
I own every book on Ericksonian hypnosis except one. It’s deliberate.
It’s called Hypnotic Realities by Erickson and Rossi. The book begins with a hypnotic induction that Erickson demonstrates.
Rossi the faithful scribe is going to jot down the words and explain them.
And 30 seconds into the induction, Rossi notes – at this point Erickson stopped his induction and started telling a story. It’s like Igor in the Young Frankenstein clip above. They misread the signs and make a critical mistake.
How that made me upset. The man was literally sitting next to Milton Erickson and was completely clueless about what his teacher was doing.
The story was part of the induction!
Instead, generations of people who refer to that book will learn incorrectly.
Learning how to induce trance is the single biggest mystery that faces new students of NLP and hypnosis.
You have to learn the indicators of trance. What happens to the clients eyes? Their facial muscles? Their head position? Their breathing?
How did you get their eyes to close? People sometimes spend 20 or 30 minutes just to get eye closure.
What do you say to the person so you match their internal experience?
Finally, how can you make a hypnotic experience so pleasant, people want to savor every minute. I’m about to reveal this right now.
A number of years ago, I created a recording of a hypnotic induction of a young woman. It was a combination of work I learned from Erickson and Dobson.
I demonstrate a classic NLP version of the 5-4-3-2-1 induction. This step-by-step induction makes it simple to learn. Let’s put it this way, if you had just one hypnosis technique to have under your belt, this would be the one.
It’s nearly impossible to learn hypnosis from a book alone because you don’t know what to look for. But if you have a good teaching DVD, it makes it simple.
YES – you can learn an Ericksonian induction from this DVD.
YES – you will be able to hypnotize someone after watching this DVD and going over the explanation.
YES – you can learn the exact words to say that will rapidly induce trance.
YES – you get to watch the subject as she goes into trance. And you get to see the effect of my words on her.
YES – you’ll learn the language patterns used by Milton Erickson and the founders of NLP.
NO – you won’t be left guessing what to do because you get a complete transcript.
NO – you don’t have to figure out what I’m doing because you also get a complete commentary.
I put this recording away until I listened to a number of examples of really bad hypnosis. So I dug out the old recording and did something I’ve never done before.
I had my work transcribed and I annotated what I was doing during the induction and trancework.
You’ll see a real good clean Erickson induction. You’ll see some sophisticated anchoring and working with the clients weakest systems. (I’ll also explain why.)
[This induction is the number one induction I teach that is directly transferable to copywriting.]
I am now letting people who want to learn more about hypnosis and would like to see and study a live induction to get a copy of the DVD.
You’ll get the DVD of the Hypnotic Induction. You’ll also get a CD containing both a clean transcript of the induction and the induction with my commentary.
Here’s how I recommend you get the most out of the DVD.
Watch it once and do what Dr Dobson called “tail gate.” Jump aboard the hypnosis experience and go inside. Experience the hypnosis. There’s some powerful self-esteem boosting work at the end.
The second time, watch it and pay attention to the client. Focus only on the client.
The third time, watch the DVD and pay attention to the interaction between myself and the client.
Finally, pull out the commentary and watch it again.
Many years ago, Gary Halbert wrote a very short sales letter for his “Coat of Arms” project. That short sales letter made millions and millions of dollars. It may just be the shortest yet most successful sales letters of all time.
This DVD will show you the essentials of an Ericksonian hypnotic induction.
You can get your copy now for just $67 plus shipping and handling.
Of course, you can return it up to a year after purchase for a refund.
If they turned out doctors the way they turned out hypnotists, people would die like flies.
Most hypnotists don’t know that they don’t know.
It goes back to a classic debate on the style of hypnosis.
There is the direct authoritarian style hypnosis. “You will go deeply into a trance.”
Or there is the Ericksonian permissive style, “I’m curious if you are comfortable enough to allow your eyes to close.”
Well, which gets better results?
At best, 20% of the population responds to direct suggestion. That means if you use direct hypnosis, 80% of the population is going to show no results – other than getting annoyed.
The Ericksonian permissive style allows you – as Erickson said – to do something new with every patient you meet.
My teacher Dave Dobson used to say when you are doing hypnosis, there is an amazing feedback device in front of you. It’s called a client.
Yet most people who do direct hypnosis don’t pay any attention to the client.
What do they pay attention to? Their script!
When I opening my hypnosis office, I interviewed a lot of hypnotists. My interview was to put them in the room with a volunteer client and watch them on closed-circuit camera.
One lady came into the room, found out the client wanted to lose weight, didn’t bother to ask any questions, went out of the room to her car to get her script, and read it to the patient.
When I asked, why didn’t you look at the patient she answered, “I didn’t need to. I had the script in front of me.”
Other people play the deeper deeper game.
In this game, they are concerned about how deep the patient goes.
Depth of trance has nothing to do with the EFFECTIVENESS of trance.
In an Erickson video featuring “Monde” Erickson has her age-regreess with her eyes wide open. She also demonstrates positive hallucinations.
Good hypnosis has nothing to do with “deeper deeper.” It has to do with matching the suggestion to the client.
