Hypnosis (AKA trance) in a conversation or the therapy room is a relationship between humans. The hypnotist is acting as a human feedback machine for the subject.

In other words, the hypnotist is observing their subject’s behavior and utilizing the information they gather. The behavior could include (but is certainly not limited to)... the rate of breathing, blinking, muscle tension, facial expressions (or lack of expression), and unconscious movements.

For example... Suppose you observe a grimace on your subject’s face when you’ve asked them to think of a pleasant time in their childhood. It is safe to assume that your subject associated with a negative time instead. In this case, you feed what you observe back to them by saying something like, “I have the feeling that you decided to choose a negative moment in your life. Learn what you need to from that moment and then allow your unconscious to remember an enjoyable time that your conscious mind remembered to forget.”

To pick up on these minute details, you must learn to create uptime within yourself. This means that you must detach from your self-awareness.

Allow me to explain what I mean... I have performed my stage show tens of thousands of times. When I step upon the stage, my self-awareness falls to the back of my mind. I have just enough self-awareness to keep from falling off the stage. I’m not thinking about what happened an hour ago or what I have to do after my performance, or that my car blew up 30 minutes before showtime. (The car thing really happened.)

My show is not about me; it’s about letting the audience forget their problems for a while. My entire focus is on my audience... every one of them. In a 2,500 seat theater, I notice when someone in the back row stands up to visit the bathroom. (If you attend a performance, you’ll see that I talk to them as they leave the room.) Nothing gets past me when I enter uptime.

Uptime is a state of being hyperaware (extremely aware; much more alert to stimuli than usual). If you’ve ever felt afraid or highly anxious, you’ve likely experienced uptime.

Why is this important in an everyday conversation or the therapy room?

In everyday conversations, uptime conveys that you care about your conversation partner. You’re not looking at your phone, checking your watch, or getting distracted by the activities going on around you. All that matters is the human sitting in front of you and what they are saying.

Uptime in the therapy room is similar to being in an everyday conversation, but you are also watching for quick facial expressions, picking up on keywords that give you more insight into their challenge, noticing their body language, and a multitude of other subtle information that is being presented to you.

To train your mind to enter uptime on demand, practice by sitting in a room and noticing everything you can about the environment. You could find a public place, like a park, and focus on the environment and the humans walking past. Notice all you can.

You don’t have to schedule a particular time to train your mind. You can practice in any and every situation. I have become very good at picking up mistakes in films and television shows. For example, there may be a boom mic slightly shown in the frame, or something is added or missing between cuts.

Make learning uptime fun. When you master this skill, you will know how your conversation partner or client feels before they do.