Name: Trance-formations
ISBN: 9780911226232

What Hacker News says

carapaceJun 2022

I see from your homepage that this may not be an idle request. Cheers!

Let me reply to your questions in reverse order.

> What convinced you that it is rigorous?

I originally stumbled across some books on (the other) NLP and they just made sense, and the "algorithms" they described worked. I had some emotional issues and used the techniques to overcome them to some degree. I also carried out informal experiments, mostly on myself but occasionally with friends, to double check that I wasn't fooling myself. I suffered from pretty severe depression that interfered with living a normal life (I was homeless for a few years after high school) Eventually, I managed to go see one of the co-founders of NLP, Richard Bandler, and he cured my depression in a single ten-minute intervention. (I know how that sounds, but it's true. I've written about it once or twice before in comments here on HN if you want more details, or just ask.)

So that pretty much clinched it for me. After my depression was cured I went on to have a fairly successful career as a programmer, and I am more-or-less a functioning adult thanks to Bandler. But I also lost interest in NLP personally (I mean, I still use what I've learned, but I don't feel called to be a therapist or anything like that.) I mention it from time to time because what kind of a monster would I be if I didn't? But I often get flak for it. (One fellow on here has called me a liar, fool, and scammer for talking about getting cured of depression.)

When I say that the material "made sense" I don't mean merely that it sounded plausible, I mean that it was similar to electronics or mathematics: there are formal patterns in the structure of subjective experience, and we can learn to notice and deliberately manipulate those patterns in repeatable codified algorithms. (E.g. the "Five-Minute Phobia Cure" pattern, which eliminates phobic responses quickly and durably (the phobia never comes back.))

The original work grew out of linguistic analysis of particularly effective therapists (Satir, Perls, Erikson), they were literally transcribing therapy sessions and started applying ideas from Chomsky's Transformational Grammar.

> What resources could you provide on this for a skeptical cognitive scientist?

First of all, I'm sorry to say that most of the stuff on the Internet about (the other) NLP seems to be fluffy and nonscientific (to put it politely). If I'm being frank, I don't think most people practicing NLP understand it very well from a scientific viewpoint.

I would recommend going to the source. Find and read "The Structure of Magic" (both volumes but especially the first, which explores linguistic patterns, the second volume then generalizes to the sensory channels.) You're probably going to be interested in what they call the "Meta Model" which is a set of questions designed to elicit elided information in a therapeutic setting.

Beyond that I don't really have any recommendations. It really depends on what you want to do. You might enjoy "Trance-FORMATIONS" which is IMO one of the best books on hypnosis ever written, it's all about how language affects and guides the mind. I suppose you could also go take a class or course?

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0x0203Apr 2022

In the magic and stage mentalism worlds, this one is a bit of a classic: Trance-Formations: Neuro-Linguistic Programming and the Structure of Hypnosis - 1981. When I was doing magic, I found quite a bit of it to be useful in helping structure routines, patter, or improve non-mentalist effects.

https://www.amazon.com/Trance-Formations-Neuro-Linguistic-Pr...

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carapaceDec 2019

There's a school of therapy/psychology that has a rigourous epistemological basis and gets repeatable results. (I.e. an algorithm for eliminating phobias that works quickly and reliably with durable change.) This school gets panned for not being scientific, and I have to admit that that's not undeserved, however, as I said, the underlying conceptual structure is solid and the results are repeatable. I myself was cured of a deep and lifelong depression in a single session of hypnosis by one of the co-founders of this school. So not only can I vouch for its conceptual integrity, I can also vouch for its dramatic efficacy. (This isn't "my cousin", or "some guy I heard about", it was me. I lived the anecdote.)

FWIW, some books. "Structure of Magic" I & II are the first two books and are a good place to start from to see the origins of the latter work. TRANCE-Formations is a rich text on theraputic hypnosis. And then there's the Core Transformation Process, an algorithm for profound spiritual growth.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/964154.The_Structure_of_...

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/821993.The_Structure_of_...

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/956297.Trance_Formations

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/369813.Core_Transformati...

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carapaceNov 2019

In re: hypnosis in general the books I recommend are: "TRANCE-formations" by Bandler and Grinder, and "Monsters and Magical Sticks: There's No Such Thing as Hypnosis?" by Heller. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/956297.Trance_Formations https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/447454.Monsters_and_Magi...

As for self-hypnosis, you can learn it from a book or a website, but you might also want to check out the people locally who are into hypnosis and self-improvement.

Personally, I get really good results from a very simple induction. It has a lot of names, "Betty Erickson’s Induction", "See, Hear, Feel Induction", "5-4-3-2-1 Induction", and so on. It's easy to remember and reliable. This is a good write-up of the process: https://www.practicalhappiness.co.uk/media/download_gallery/...

That should be enough to get you started.

FWIW, although I'm not a hypnotist I know a lot about it, AMA.

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carapaceSep 2019

In re: effective therapy I can recommend what's called Neurolinguistic Programming. It's pretty much an OS for the mind. Specifically, I can recommend two books on hypnosis: "TRANCE-Formations" by Bandler and Grinder, and "Monsters and Magical Sticks" by Steven Heller.

For "higher" states of consciousness there is actually a simple and effective algorithm called "Core Transformation Process" It's taught by these folks: https://www.coretransformation.org/

For the deeper spiritual aspects of psychological healing I can recommend the works of Sir David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D., who was a very successful therapist who underwent enlightenment and has been able to describe it in terms accessible to the modern mind. https://veritaspub.com/dr-hawkins/#Biography%20Summary

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carapaceSep 2019

In re: hypnosis in general the books I recommend are: "TRANCE-formations" by Bandler and Grinder, and "Monsters and Magical Sticks: There's No Such Thing as Hypnosis?" by Heller.

For specifically improving "cognitive enhancement" the easiest, safest, and most far-reaching technique involves modifying your self-image. You can reprogram yourself to believe that you're smarter and your mind will modify your behaviour to meet your belief. For better or worse one's intelligence level is generally tied into one's self-image, and the only barrier to being smarter is your natural reluctance to become a different person.

For self-image engineering the best books I've found are "Psycho Cybernetics" by Maltz and "With Winning in Mind" by Bassham.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/447454.Monsters_and_Magi...

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/956297.Trance_Formations

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/155981.Psycho_Cybernetic...

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/208926.With_Winning_in_M...

(But really, read "Prometheus Rising" by R. A. Wilson and do the exercises.)

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