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The above examples bring our attention to that part of our subject which may be called detailed
technique. Every trade or profession has its particular techniques, which its members pick up with
experience, reading and contact with others in the same field. We have here seen "future pacing" and the
use of an imaginary TV screen to convey information from one subsystem of the mind to another without
evoking strong emotion. But there are countless more.
It is not the purpose or intention of this book to list all such detailed techniques. Remember that this
is not a training manual. Neither am I introducing any "Holy Grail" type innovation in technique. All I
am attempting is to make clear the principles involved in what we are doing, in order that we may think
more clearly about it and do it better.
I am therefore going to take as read (in other books) all such detailed techniques which can be used to
implement changes in the field of Hypnotherapy and focus attention on one principle of overwhelming
importance. The fact that there is little conscious awareness of this principle makes it all the more
important.
This principle that should be emphasised as being central to effecting effortless interventions is the value
of establishing positive feedback loops to power the change. We have seen such loops being used in
inducing simple Hypnotic phenomena. We will now be looking at their typical forms in therapy.
Let us begin by looking at an elementary example. It is a fact that many people pay disproportionately
greater attention to things that are getting worse, and too little to things that are getting better.
Consequently, even if their mood is lifting as a result of some form of therapy, they scarcely notice it, but
notice instead only the times when there is no improvement. This naturally limits any improvement and
will usually occasion a relapse.
One possible Hypnotic intervention is to remedy this by changing the balance and instituting the habit of
consciously noticing any improvement. But an awareness of improvement will generally lead to an actual
lifting of mood, which will again be noted and thus a positive feedback loop is instituted.
If we let M be the actual mood, and A an awareness of an improvement in mood, then we will have
instituted the increasing positive feedback loop:
/A > /M > /A > /M >...
Consequently if we can only change the balance of paying attention from "worse" to "better", there can
be steady improvement in all things. And things will go on getting better and better, without our needing
to intervene in detail in all ways.
This principle was involved in the success earlier this century of Émile Coué, who went around the world
promoting his ideas on the value of positive thought: ideas which he encapsulated in the saying, "Every
day and in every way, I am getting better and better and better." He encouraged people to repeat this
saying over and over again until it became a part of their philosophy of life.
In many people it had a lot of success. The expectation of improvement will often lead to actual
improvement. The fact that this idea has NOT transformed the world shows that things are not quite as
simple as that. In particular, I wonder if you can spot the inevitable negative feedback loop which will act
on the practitioner of Couéism? Let us suppose that it works to begin with, and the use of the maxim
leads to improvement. That will, of course, encourage the person to continue, and so improvement will
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Principles of Hypnosis (15). Using life factors to reinforce changes made in hypnosis
increase. But continuous growth is simply not possible for anything or anybody. Sooner or later the
growth will slow or stop. There will be problems that resist the maxim, such as toothache, or a wife
leaving to marry a man who is less self-confident but needs her more as a result (in fact more like the
man she married before Coué took a hand!). In any case there will come a time when a man relying
entirely on the maxim will find that it no longer has any effect. If anything, since things are deteriorating,
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