Trance Inductions
In fine, from a careful analysis of the whole of my experiments, which have been very numerous, I have been led to the following conclusion :- That it is a law in the animal economy, that by a continued fixation of the mental and visual eye, on any object which is not of itself of an exciting nature, with absolute repose of body, and general quietude, they become wearied; and, provided the patients rather favour than resist the feeling of stupor of which they will soon experience the tendency to creep upon them, during such experiments, a state of somnolency is induced, accompanied with that condition of the brain and nervous system generally, which renders the patient liable to be affected, according to the mode of manipulating, so as to exhibit the hypnotic phenomena. As the experiment succeeds with the blind, I consider it not so much the optic, as the sentient, motor, and sympathetic nerves, and the mind through which the impression is made.
Neurypnology
Trance inductions are centered on the idea of the hypnotee entering a hypnotic trance, typically by inducing relaxation with and associating trance with physical and psychological signs of relaxation. Good examples of relaxation inductions are the progressive relaxation induction and the Elman induction.
These inductions are by far the most common, and have an obvious appeal; most people enjoy relaxing, and would like to relax more. It is possible to produce actual sleep or unresponsiveness, but this can be useful if your partner has insomnia or anxiety and really needs to take a break.
Muscle Fatigue
Trance inductions often use muscle fatigue in inductions. For example, the modified Wicks induction has the hypnotee hold a hand in the air and only let that arm come down as they sink into a trance. Holding an arm straight out for an extended period of time will naturally cause the arm to tire, especially when given suggestions to relax.
Eye Fixation
A variant of muscle fatigue is eye fixation, which has the hypnotee focus on a fixed object or spot above eye level for an extended period of time. This will cause the eye muscles to strain and eventually feel tired.
Kinesthetic Confusion
Relaxation is commonly associated with feeling heavy or falling. Inductions with activities that produce a feeling of heaviness or sudden drops produce an automatic reaction of "letting go" that can be useful in relaxation.
Esdaile State
There’s one induction in particular that goes above and beyond in the relaxation department: the Esdaile State, also known as plenary hypnosis or hypnotic coma. The Esdaile State is typically used as a deepener to the Elman induction. Once you have gone through the induction, start with the following.
You’re very relaxed now, but you know that there’s a way you can be even more relaxed. Just the same way you can tighten a fist until it can’t get any tighter, you can relax a hand until it just can’t relax any more. We’re going to do the same thing here, taking you all the way down to the deepest level, the basement of relaxation.
Imagine three floors below you. To reach floor A, you’re going to relax twice as much as you have already. Now, you’re going to move down to floor A, and when you’ve reached that floor you’re going to say the letter A out loud.
[Wait for your partner’s response.] Now, in order to get down to floor B, you will need to relax twice as much as you did for floor A. When you get to floor B, you may find difficulty in saying the letter B out loud, but do your best to say it.
[Wait for your partner’s response.] Now, in order to get down to floor C, you will need to relax twice as much as you did for floor B. When you get to floor C, you may be so relaxed that you cannot say that letter C at all, but do your best to make a sound.
Here’s a demonstration video.
There are variants on Esdaile State such as Ultra-Depth and Sichort, but they are copyrighted and not significantly different from Esdaile.