By: Shlomo Vaknin, C.Ht

Even the most resistant subject will fall deep into hypnosis with this method. Perhaps you saw a version or two of the Trust Fall Hypnotic Induction on TV or in a hypnosis show. However, in most cases, for entertainment purposes they use the more moderate version.

I will show you the most severe version of the Trust-Fall Hypnotic Induction. It is by far one of the most outrageous, extreme and powerful techniques of Hypnosis out there. I don’t know many techniques that can cause a more impressive effect such as this one.

And since it is so powerful and extreme, I would have to ask you to use it very carefully and if you can avoid it - it’s better to use other methods. I used it several times in my private practice, all of those times were with highly resisting clients. If you choose to use this technique on a friend, be very cautious when you give suggestions and go through a waking procedure at least twice if not more.

About The Induction

The Trust-Fall Hypnotic Induction is so powerful for a very simple reason: it works on the most basic survival mechanism of a person, and at the same time ignites one of the basic human fears - falling down. In general, we are born with two basic fears: the fear of loud noise and the fear of falling down. As we grow up, of course, we acquire and learn other new fears. But these two are the ones that every single person on earth posses since birth.

I call it the “Trust-Fall” technique, since you cause your subject (or client) to question the trust he gives you, after you work very hard to establish that trust.

The technique is derived from the social game of “trust fall”: it is when you express your trust to your friend by your willingness to fall backward, knowing that he is right there catching you before you hit the ground. If you think it sounds simple and emotional-free, try it out yourself. Even if your father is right there behind you, expressing in words that he will definitely catch you as you fall - you’d have that fear-rush of a second or two when you actually let yourself lean back and fall…

Because it is not just about the trust you give, it is also about the trust others give you.

The hypnotic induction works the same way, just with a different intention. With the Trust-Fall Hypnotic Induction, you actually abuse the trust that your subject is giving you, in order to send them deeper into hypnosis.

Yes, you read right: “deeper”, and not necessarily “deep”. The hypnosis session is NOT initiated with a technique - it is starting much before it. We spoke about these ideas already in many articles in the past, so we won’t get into details here. Just to remind you (or to make you curious if you haven’t read other articles yet): you can implant and suggest plenty of vague hypnosis suggestions much before you physically start an induction. In this case, the induction you do will depend on your subject (person you hypnotize), their level of resistance to your authority and on your own mood. I tend to choose inductions by the way I feel that day…

The Procedure Of The Trust Fall Hypnotic Induction

The Trust Fall Hypnotic Induction is more complicated than others, since it requires quite a lot of preparation and at least some level of skill in hypnotizing others. Since it is complicated, it might not work in the first few times you try it - or it can go wrong.

It would be better and safer for you to learn the technique, but not use it unless you consider yourself a good hypnotist. My definition of a good hypnotist, is one that can hypnotize a person, make them feel really good about themselves and wake them up safely with no future consequences. All the rest is therapy.

The procedure of the Trust Fall Induction starts in the initial conversation. That’s when you just speak “normally” with your client. You ask them questions about themselves, you learn about their eye accessing cues (search NLPWeekly for “eye accessing” and you’ll find plenty of articles and related techniques), and you implant the few pre-hypnosis suggestions.

If your client is a “hard” one, you would probably know right from the beginning. Either they’ll start with their stories on other times, when no hypnotist could hypnotize them, or they would have sleeping disorder of some sort - or, in a more extreme case, they will say that they don’t trust others quickly.

If you have chosen to use the Trust-Fall Induction on a client, make sure you say more or less the following before you end the initial conversation. For this example, I used the virtual client “John”:

“John, I have a very personal question to ask you, which is very important for our session here. Is it ok if I ask that question now?”

John would normally say “yes”, and most likely lean forward to make sure he doesn’t miss the question (curiosity factor).

“Good, so here goes: have you ever trusted a stranger for no good reason?”

His eyes will definitely go in some direction - make sure you notice.

“You don’t have to answer right away, take your time to think about it deeply. Soon we’ll get you into hypnosis but before that I would like you to understand my point here: you are about to trust me, and I am a stranger to you, aren’t I? Yes, that is right. Nothing bad can happen to you as you go deeper in hypnosis, later but not right now (emphasize “right now”), and I will not be able to control your mind or anything like that, just like I explained a few minutes ago. But you see, I would like to make sure that you trust me just in this matter of sending you deeper to hypnosis.”

While saying the last sentence, nod your head slightly as you look at John’s eyes. If he starts to nod his head too, you can definitely say that he’s certainly in a light stage of hypnosis already. By the way, that’s a gimmick you can use to make others agree with you: just slightly nod your head while looking at their eyes and saying something that they cannot negate right away… it works for salesmen, it works for us too.

“Now John, I would like us to stand right there in that spot”. Do not suggest a closure of eyes, since we need John to experience the rocking motion with his vision associated.