Hypnosis Inductions

Calling All Writers – It's Party Time!

"Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes." – Walt Whitman, Song of Myself

The dedicated writing student must constantly search for tools to explore the key balance plot, character, and poetics, more ways to climb around on big, misty mountain called history. But the big difference between Lifewriting ™ and other systems is that we concentrate on the tools from writing that also help us understand our lives … or tools from psychology or spiritual disciplines that help us understand our craft.

With that in mind, the Parts Party Ericksonian hypnosis is worth exploring. The "Parts Party" is a powerful tool created by Carol Erickson, daughter of Milton Erickson, master hypnotist largely responsible for legitimizing hypnosis in the therapeutic community. The Basic Parts party technique is used with a client who not have access to its own internal resources, or deal values conflicts. Located in a trance, the customer is invited to imagine a cocktail party. Each "guest" is a personification of a second aspect – or "parts" – of her personality. In other words, "Ambition"? Meet "Compassion". "Passion"? Meet the "self-respect." The therapist can then be fed into the "Zero Content Therapy" where a client is placed to heal itself without a special intervention.

An example would be a client of mine who was afraid to perform in a singing competition, despite months of practice. Competition would begin in just hours and I was brought in as a last-ditch emergency effort. I put her in a trance, and established a communication signal-raising right finger a "yes" and left a "no". So I invited her to imagine a party where among the guests she would find Ambition, Fear, The Artist, her younger Self, and her future Self. I'm impressed with her that the nausea and shaking she saw when considering her performance was just her own inner guardians try to protect her. And yet there was another part of her that really, deeply wanted to prepare for a singing career. I suggested that if there was a way for her to meet the need for security and also have to perform, it would be a desirable outcome. So I asked her future self that was a professional singer (her goal) the hostess party, introducing the different aspects to each other, and then let them speak out.

After ten minutes, she signaled that the interview was over, I brought her out of trance, and she jumped up and said "let's do it!" with a verve I had never seen from her. She blew the roof of at recital! I have never asked her what the conversation had gone on … in fact it was none of my business.

A story is basically the same. As a famous writing technique says: "A story is an argument in a history of mind." In other words, each secondary character exists as a shadow aspect of the protagonist's personality. If conflicts between them, can be solved, nature is allowed to move to the next level of her life. Viewed this way in The Godfather, representing various characters Michael Corleone's ambition, love of family, spirituality, venality, passion, murderous nature, and so on. Watching these various aspects of "coach" their differences are a fascinating process, which ultimately Michael's total defeat and destruction at the end of the third movie.

As you develop a movie, book, or a history, look at it as a "Parts Party" can be an extremely useful tool. It also allows you to enter the realm of the most primitive and powerful story, Therapeutic Metaphor, where a story is structured to create a change in the reader or viewer. Here is the proposal: write your first draft without concern for anything but history and character.

Then, in the process of rewriting, the search for meaning. Try to get a sense of what your unconscious mind was up to, what you trying to say. What is your specialty, and counter-thesis? Once this has been set, look at your grades again. Who is the protagonist? What aspects of her personality can the other characters represent? Now conflicts between them can be seen as external versions of the internal struggles we all endure as we try to change, grow and heal. These actions and words can give lessons necessary to grow (remember gathering allies and Powers of the Hero's Journey?)

Your character can succeed, or perhaps fail. Or maybe not getting what they want, and instead getting what they need. These are your choices based on your beliefs about human nature and the ethical structure of the universe. Checking the secret meaning of your subsidiary characters can be an incredibly effective way to create meaning and emotional depth to your work … and talk to your reader's deeper consciousness without being polemical.

When you do this, there is another wonderful result. You are also talking to yourself your own inner wisdom. And you develop sensitivity to the multitudes of us all. During quiet moments of meditation, or "hypnogogic" state between awake and asleep you will hear voices in you. How powerful it can be to identify the voices as aspects of our personalities, positive and negative numbers from our past! This approach Perfect for Lifewriting ™ because it allows an author to strengthen the connection between inner and outer worlds. When you look at your craft in this way, everything what you do to improve and heal yourself automatically makes you a better writer … and everything you write automatically increases your inclusion as a human being.

And it is a worthy goal. AT is Lifewriting ™.

About the Author

NY Times Bestselling Writer Steven Barnes is a dual black belt as well as a Tai Chi instructor. He was trained in Ericksonian model Hypnosis. He is creator of Lifewriting™, the high-performance success system for writers and readers. Learn more at www.lifewriting.biz and www.lifewrite.com

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