The induction is the step that precedes and allows entry into an altered state of consciousness.

Trance is this altered state of consciousness, a state in which your attention lets go, in which your conscious mind “takes a pause.” Trance then allows your conscious brain activity to decrease, making room for your unconscious, your Young Me.

There are different ways to connect to this altered state of consciousness that lies between waking and sleep. The length of the techniques varies, from a few minutes to more than an hour.

Induction by dissociation is one of them. It allows access to the trance state by distracting the Rational Me. The Méthode Dolfino® invites it to relax so that it stops interfering with the Young Me. It then becomes possible to work with the unconscious to activate its inner resources. The induction steps of the Méthode Dolfino® can be adapted to any situation and any individual, and last between 3 and 20 minutes, depending on the depth of trance sought.

The following elements are essential for a proper induction into trance during a guided or self-guided session:

• Carefully observing your partner to perceive the signs of their trance state (guided session)
• Establishing stable and reassuring physical contact (guided session)
• Creating and maintaining synchronization (during trance induction and throughout the rest of the guided session)

Induction by dissociation has five steps. It is often necessary to repeat them in a loop a few times before doing the deepening, which increases dissociation — especially during the first sessions with a new person.

This step consists of fixing the guided person’s attention on a specific point located just above the eyebrow line. This focus can be achieved in different ways, that is, by fixing on:

This step consists of paying attention to and naming everything happening in the other person. In doing so, you let their Young Me know that it is seen and that you are accompanying it every moment. Ratification means saying out loud everything you observe as signs of trance and cooperation in the guided person (or in yourself, during a self-guided session):

It’s enough to observe and name. For example: “Ah! The eyes are blinking, the hand is moving... very good... the arm is trembling... swallowing, etc.”

During this step, the goal is to encourage the dissociation of the Rational Me from the Young Me. So you must adapt your language when speaking about the guided person’s body. To do this, use definite articles (the) rather than possessive determiners (your, my...). For example, say: “the nose breathes in, the fingers move,” instead of “your nose breathes in, your fingers move.”

During a flight between Timbuktu and Paris, Edgard Copilot says to William Thepilot:

Look! Your wing is all dirty. Thepilot quickly looks at his own two arms and retorts: “What are you talking about?”

Copilot clarifies: “I mean the plane’s wing is dirty...”

The Young Me needs frequent encouragement to feel safe and to make the most of its full capacity for change and transformation. So use plenty of phrases like: “That’s it...”, “Exactly...”, “Perfect...”, “wonderful”, etc.

Some individuals have well-established rational mechanisms. Their mind stays constantly in the foreground with constant control. This makes dissociation between the Rational Me and the Young Me a bit more complex. With this type of person, it’s essential to deepen the trance further by using a three-stage induction: pre-induction, induction and deepening.

Pre-induction aims to promote relaxation and tire the mind so as to make it more receptive to the induction. Indeed, deliberately creating confusion reduces intellectual clarity and control. On the other hand, using mental saturation by overloading the Rational Me with information also weakens its resistance.

The following tools and methods are recommended for pre-induction:

• Purple or green chromotherapy glasses promote mental and physical relaxation as well as imagination (duration of 5 to 10 minutes).
• A tuning fork (50Hz) whose sound and vibrations predispose to trance
• Deep breathing encouraging relaxation and awareness of bodily sensations
• Drum or rattle rhythms promoting disconnection from the Rational Me and awakening of the Young Me
• Focusing on a pendulum, an object or a specific point in the room to increase eye fatigue and slow the flow of thoughts.
• Ratification of everything you observe on the Verbal, Auditory, Kinesthetic, and even Olfactory and Gustatory levels. This is what is called VAKOG.

When it comes to ratification in relation to the senses, carefully observe which VAKOG representational system seems to predominate in the person you’re guiding. Then adjust your language accordingly to ask your questions based on their preferred system.

To a visual person, you’ll ask: “What images do you see in your head? What do you see around you?”

If the person is more auditory: “What are you telling yourself right now? What do you hear?”

And if they’re more kinesthetic: “Take the time to connect with what’s there... Feel what my words suggest to you.”

The guided person counts aloud from 300 to 0, alternating jumps of “-3” and “+2” while the guide talks to them about anything at all, alternating their speech from one ear to the other.

The guided person names a different color each time the guide touches their shoulder, following an irregular rhythm.

The guided person taps a specific rhythm on their thighs while the guide creates confusion by telling them a chaotic story or singing, alternating from one ear to the other.

The guide asks the guided individual to close their eyes while exhaling and then open their eyes while inhaling, following their breathing rhythm, then desynchronizes the instructions incoherently.

The guide uses a metaphor with games in time, for example: “Today, I got up thinking about tomorrow, but yesterday I believed tomorrow would be today, when in fact it’s right now that I’m thinking about yesterday, while tomorrow has already passed and the present is already passing.”

Hypnotic induction triggers the dissociation of the Rational Me and leaves the field open to the young me. The induction will follow the same five steps you learned previously:

Using the bubble and the anchor is a nice transition before the deepening.

Using the bubble consists of inviting the guided person to create a protective bubble that lets everything good reach them, while acting as a barrier to keep away anything useless or harmful.

The anchor aims to encourage the guided individual to center on themselves, to settle well into the present moment and align with their goal. To do this, ask them to root themselves by visualizing spirals of light or roots reaching deep into the Earth. Then, encourage them to do the same with a spiral rising from the top of their head that will attach to a source of light of their choosing. Next come one or more deepening tools such as descending a staircase, the slide, the elevator, walking in the forest, the glass skull, etc.

Jean Filiatre “Hypnose et magnétisme, somnambulisme, suggestion, télépathie, influence personnelle : cours pratique” - 1905

To deepen the trance, you can use these techniques depending on what suits the guided person best.

Descending several levels by elevator with arm gestures

Using a direct suggestion by mentioning, for example, that the trance will get deeper and deeper each time you say a color

Using feedback, meaning you again use the power of the double bind by specifying, for example, that each new inhale will double the depth of the trance state.

Using any other method based on the principle of creating eye fatigue, such as the glass skull method.

The altered state of consciousness must of course be preserved throughout the Méthode Dolfino® session. To do this, ratify what you observe in the other person (or in yourself) as the session unfolds and share it with them frequently out loud. Frequent encouragement and the use of language that promotes dissociation whenever you refer to a part of the body should also be maintained.

7 The term “descent” is used here, but it is also possible to deepen a trance state by evoking sensations of lightness such as rising into the air or floating on water.

• Placing your index finger on their forehead, between the eyebrows, suggesting that this finger is glowing like a little sun or a diamond
• Then suggesting that they imagine that the skull is transparent like glass so they can see through it
• Move your finger up to the top of their skull while telling them to keep staring at the light they see through the transparency from the inside.
• Encourage the guided person to stare at it more and more intensely.
• Suggest that the longer the staring continues, the deeper the trance becomes.
• Suggest that the moment you press on the skull, the light will enter the head through a small trapdoor at the top of the skull and travel down through the body to relax every muscle along the way, going even deeper into trance.
• Press on the skull (as if letting the light in). At this point, you can make a meaningful sound.