The term “Response Attentiveness” describes the collective minimal cues of trance. Pupil dilation is a good indicator of trance responsiveness. You can usually tell good hypnotic subjects by watching for their minimal cues. So inner absorption is a term used to describe the collective cues of trance. They will often demonstrate all of the above Minimal Cues. When people daydream they appear very absorbed in their inner thoughts. If they are nervous you can give suggestions that they need not go any deeper into a trance than is right for them at that moment. If the subject continues to fidget they may be nervous or the chair may be uncomfortable. They may adjust their position once or twice to get comfortable but after that they usually relax into a comfortable position. The subject will also develop a comfortable immobility in the body and limbs. If this is perceived then you should re-assure the subject without placing too much emphasis on the difficulty they are having. Sometimes very nervous subjects get quite concerned with this difficulty in swallowing. This dryness is caused by apprehension or fear and the swallowing is generally a conscious response made by the subject to prove to themselves that they can still swallow comfortably. If you see an increase in swallowing it is a sign that the subject is a little nervous.The increase in swallowing is not caused by an excess of saliva but by a dryness in the mouth. If the swallow reflex does not stop altogether there is usually at least a slowing down of the reflex. It is not unusual to find a subject not swallowing for half an hour. In hypnosis this swallowing can stop altogether. People normally swallow about once or twice every minute. It is better to associate these words with the subject’s exhalations as the body is naturally relaxing more on the out-breath. Usually they develop a nice slow comfortable breathing rate and you can associate words like comfort and deeper to this rhythm to encourage these feelings. If the breathing becomes too laboured they may have fallen asleep, in which case you should gently wake them and start the induction again. The subject’s breathing will usually slow down and may get deeper.

Sometimes subjects hold on to the tension in their jaw or shoulders and you may need to encourage them to relax these muscles with some gentle indirect suggestions. They will lose signs of tension in their face and their jaw or shoulders may drop a little. The muscles in the face will usually smooth out and the patient will appear more attractive.

If the subject is concerned about it you can utilise the flutter as a ratification of the trance by commenting on how this particular phenomena is characteristic of a good hypnotic subject. This is an automatic response in some people and does not indicate nervousness of any kind. Often you will see REM (Rapid Eye Movement) when you ask the subject to visualise something. They are visualising images associated with their dream. When people dream their eyes move rapidly back and forth from left to right. This will induce further blinking and then eye closure. By repeating the command each time they blink, even if it occurs in mid-sentence as you speak, you will be associating, unconsciously, the feelings related to the commands, to the eye blink.

You can associate a hypnotic command such as “deeper”, “heavier” or “comfort” to their eye blinks.

You can match the movement of your own eye blinks to that of the subject and then gradually slow down your blink reflex to non-verbally suggest to the subject that their eye lids will shut.

You can utilise this slowing down in two ways: This is a sign that the subject is going into trance. Often the subject’s blink reflex will start to slow down. When the subject’s eyes defocus you will see a relaxing of the muscles around the eyes and, depending on the amount of illumination in the room, pupil dilation. In these cases you will often see a lack of blink reflex and open eye catalepsy (inability to blink or close the eyes). If you are telling a compelling story or are using direct eye contact the subject will often de-focus their gaze and have their eyes fixed on either a random place in the room (maybe visualising the story you are telling) or on your eye contact. One of the main principles of hypnosis is to capture attention. The changes below do not always happen in every hypnotic subject but most will be seen at some time during the trance experience. These are the identifiers of hypnotic trance. These changes should always be noticed instantly by the observant therapist. Trainee hypnotherapists need to know when someone is going into trance or is already experiencing hypnotic trance, because when people go into hypnosis many changes occur, and the hypnotherapist needs to utilise these changes.

Hypnosis through eyes