John Cerbone is The Trance Master. An innovator of speed trance. He is the author of Hypnotic Scripts That Work: The Breakthrough Book. Has published numerous training DVDs on Hypnosis. He is a true Hypnosis Guru. This is part one of his interview.
YH: Hi John and thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to take part.
JC: In advance, I would like to thank everyone here for some really amazing questions. I have been told that I eat, breathe, and sleep this stuff, the last one I think is only appropriate as I am a hypnotist.
YH: How do you design a new induction?
JC: When I invented the Cerbone Butterfly Induction, an earlier version of my book was already in circulation. It wasn't enough for me to have invented numerous clinical session suggestion scripts. I wanted some Inductions of my own.
During a hypnosis conference, I'd been watching some of the old timers, using rapid and instant induction techniques, and kept thinking to myself, "how can I do this faster, better, and more intensely, with higher impact and better results."
On the way home, driving south on the US Interstate 95, like most people driving for several hours, I was daydreaming. While I daydreamed, or should I say, experienced highway hypnosis, my imagination wandered onto a technique, a movement of my hands and fingertips, which I thought would work dramatically. This occurred to me as I approached, believe it or not, an exit for a town called Mystic, Connecticut. So perhaps it was a mystical inspiration! I've stopped off at the exit, pulled into the parking lot of the convenience store and wrote my idea down on the back of a fast food napkin.
I tried this technique which I had visualised two days prior to a private session. The client, instantly went into trance, keeling over on to her right side on to the couch, with a big grin on her face. She was out in less than two seconds, in a REM state. I thought I might be onto something. Some months then passed before I came up with the next one.
Nowadays, when I'm in an inventive frame of mind, I pay attention to the body movements of people around me and see what might work as an induction.
Each and every induction has three steps. Future tense, present tense, and control phase. Even in Speed-Trance Inductions, this is the case. It just happens very quickly. When my imagination wanders to the next induction pattern I invent, maybe I’ll try it and it works very well.
With any induction, it's a matter of seeing what the person in front of you needs and getting it done. Working from one's own intuition and imagination can never be underestimated.
I wrote an induction script for a highly resistant former head nurse of a psychiatric hospital. That script appears in my book, the Bedtime / Days End Induction. The only time this woman seemed to be able to relax, was in bed, while in her pajamas and turning the pages of a book. As she had strongly resisted me on a more standard induction approach, and told me that she only gets things right the third time. On the second attempt I asked her to take a few deep breaths and she started laughing. I found out that the only time she allowed herself to relax, was in bed reading a book, I quickly turned that into an induction which she should feel comfortable with, and which she would go immediately in to trance.
YH: What makes an ideal script to use in an hypnotherapy session?
JC: An honest answer would be any script that is effective and to the point.
A script that is generally free of negative words and negative suggestions.
That continues to deepen the hypnotic trance and gets results. Perhaps, offering seemingly variant options, which will both lead to success. Seems like they have a choice, but success is the only viable option.
Sometimes I use language patterns, where the words in the sentence are reversed. In some sessions I bring them back to a time before the situation existed, bridging that into now, almost like it never happened at all.
I am big on the idea of forgiving, healing, releasing, any thoughts, feelings, action, emotion, or experience. Leading them to where they currently are, letting it go and ushering in a brand new chapter of their life. It's almost as if someone has reset a switch, a dial, a computer, or thermostat in some way, liberating them into and unstoppably successful future.
Personally, I like what I write because I know most of the time it's going to work dramatically.
YH: What do you look for to know someone is entering hypnosis?
JC: To start with, a willing person and good rapport. If someone is glassy eyed and has a slightly fixated stare, you’re partially on the road to success. Quite often it's also a matter of intent. In my mind before I walk up to anyone, in my mind they are already hypnotised.
I merely step into the future moment, where they are tranced already and take them there into that next moment. It's important that the induction is smooth flowing and quick.
YH: Why did you become a hypnotist?
JC: I was sort of born this way, LOL
I was practicing a form of Self-Hypnosis at the age of three and a half years old. I remember lying in bed and deep breathing, slow and steady breathes, to relax myself.
Somewhere along the line in grammar school I had classmates approaching me who were troubled. Many of them seemed to be unhappy and wanting to run away from home. Let me say here, that I barely even knew most of these kids. They we're just kids ‘off to the side’, someplace in the school that I attended class with, somehow they were drawn to me and felt I could help them. I took the technique I was familiar with, the one I used on myself, and externalised it towards them. I would ask them to close their eyes and deep breathe. I would speak to them in a calm and slow voice and eventually asked them to open their eyes. They felt better and had no desire to run away.
Later on in high school and college I was also approached by people, whom I knew peripherally with other troubling issues and I used the same techniques. So technically I have been doing this sort of work most of my life.
When leaving college, I was using these techniques to inspire and empower people in the corporate world to go out and sell, whilst reducing stress. Eventually I wound up leading empowerment meditation classes in various places outside of the work related situations. It was not uncommon for several hundred people to turn out.
After one such event, an individual approached me and said, "You’re one heck of a hypnotist." I jokingly responded, "a Hypno-what?" It turned out he was running a training school for hypnotists, and that was the first of several dozen certifications that I have. He went on to tell me if I get certified as a hypnotist, I'd be able to help more people. I found that personally very appealing. I then took other classes and obtained more certifications. I now hold through various hypnosis groups and organisations something like 36 or 37 certifications. It's getting hard to keep track of them all. Five are teaching certifications, two are entertainment / stage show hypnosis certifications and the rest are for clinical work.
YH: In the world of hypnotism, who inspires you?
JC: Many of the old time master's that have gone before us. Breakthrough leaders in this profession who had the courage and wisdom to go forward with this stuff and keep it going. Keeping it alive and making it viable. Each of us is standing upon the shoulders of giants.
My late friend, Ormond McGill, was an inspiration to me and encouraged me to go forward. There were many old time stage hypnotists like Pat Collins, and others I've seen on TV as a kid.
As for people who are alive, anyone who is inventive, clever, inspired, thinking outside the box and putting the people they work first. Bold enough and mighty enough to step forward and allow our profession to evolve to the next level. Anyone who loves this profession in all of its forms, as much as I do.
YH: What is your definition of hypnosis?
JC: Hypnosis is a naturally occurring brain wave pattern energy shift, which occurs in the average individual about seven times a day. Somewhere between awake and asleep. A place that is stress-free, relaxing and opens the mind to inspiration and suggestion. It allows the hypnotist to speak to an individual's subconscious mind, a place where 94% of human behavior comes from, inculcate improvement, inspiration, and in some cases to entertain.
I have also noticed coincidentally, in the Aron's scale of hypnotic depth, there are six levels of hypnosis. Complementary to this, the REM states exhibited by an individual also have six levels. In the first three stages of hypnotic depth, it is common to notice the flutter occurring. In the latter three stages of hypnotic depth, eyeball movement from left to right tends to occur. Once an individual is in a hypnotically induced REM state, the hypnotist’s suggestions are in direct communication with their subconscious mind.
A question for many newer hypnotists becomes, how do I know I have induced someone into a trance, or in other words, guided them into their own naturally occurring trance state? I would say keep an eye on their eyes!
YH: Can you remember your first hypnosis show?
JC: My first hypnosis show? Well, first I jumped on my trusty old dinosaur and rode in to town. LOL
I remember at first being nervous about doing everything I had planned. On the morning of the show that all changed. My inner entertainer kicked in and all the energy that activated those feelings of nerves were converted to becoming the necessary energy to bring in a good performance.
I remembered thinking, "a lot more was going on during the course of your show on that stage and in my mind, than almost anyone can describe". For example, even today, it's easy for me not to hear the audience laughing or responding to the routines, unless I stop and listen. I am so absorbed in the entertainment aspect of the show, the safety of the people on stage, and taking their reactions up to the highest response pitch possible. I do hear it when I play back the video of my show.
I do remember being warm and the audience loving the show. I cannot tell you where it was, or much about it. It feels like I've been doing this my entire life. If you're starting out at this, learn as much as you can from everyone and get out there and start enjoying yourself.
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