d out" and doesn't remember what happened.
Trying to convince him otherwise proves fatal. He just refuses to accept
whatever explanation you give him. My own method is not to insist that
the subject is wrong, but somehow to use his misconception in a
constructive manner. After getting him into a cataleptic state, I
suggest that I am going to stop talking for five minutes, during which
time he is to mentally repeat "sleep" as he slowly and deeply inhales
and "deep sleep" as he slowly exhales. At the end of this time, he'll be
in a very deep hypnotic state. Instead of remaining quiet for five
minutes, I take ten minutes. I then begin to whisper suggestions to the
subject to determine if he is still under hypnosis or asleep. If he is
asleep, I let him remain asleep for a still longer period of time, after
which interval I awaken him. I ask him if he remembers what I said to
him during the time he was deeply hypnotized. If he says, "No," I
remark, "Very good." I further point out to him that he has now
experienced amnesia and will now make rapid strides. The subject, on the
other hand, is pleased to see that I now agree with him, and, in fact,
the interesting result is that he does make excellent progress because
his preconceived requirements have been met. It should be pointed out
that I keep working with the subject until such time that he falls
asleep. The transition from hypnosis to sleep is normal. It is easy for
the subject to fall asleep because he is so relaxed.

Let me tell you of a similar experience. Before telling you of this
psychological technique, it is only fair to point out that the
professional hypnotist varies his approach from subject to subject, not
only to suit the needs of the subject but to break the monotony of using
only a few successful procedures. His experimentation helps develop not
only new procedures, but new concepts relative to the general nature of
hypnosis and its many ramifications. I was interested to see what would
happen to a subject if he thought he was deeply hypnotized without ever
giving him verbal suggestions or reassurance that he would feel better
or overcome his problem. Of course, if the technique did not work
quickly, I would drop the procedure for a more orthodox approach.
Instead of trying to really hypnotize the subject, my aim is to get him
to sleep. Once he is asleep, I let him remain so for about 30 minutes.
Without having ever given him a therapeutic suggestion, I awak