Erickson thought that trance, “a sleep like state (as of deep hypnosis) usually characterized by partly suspended animation with diminished or absent sensory or motor activity”1, is an ordinary everyday happening. For instance; when driving home and not remembering part of the trip, while reading a book or listening to music, or in the act of challenging physical exercise, it is quite common to become fully engaged with the activity and enter a trance state. In such a trance one is isolated from all stimuli that are unimportant. These states are so normal and frequent that the majority of people don’t consciously regard them as hypnotic states.
When an individual’s awareness is very focussed due to a specific interest or an extraordinary event it is normal for them to look awestruck. In these cases they often seem to have a blank expression or appear distant. Their eyes may be shut or staring and their bodies may become as if paralysed. Some unconscious reflexes, such as breathing, may slow dramatically and the individual may appear completely unaware of their environment. They may remain in this state until the event has finished, their inner quest has been reached, or they have gained their new insight. Erickson maintained that in everyday life consciousness is in a constant state of dynamic interaction between the basic reality configuration and trance states.
Due to the fact that Erickson knew trance states happened quite naturally and often, he was always ready to make the most of them in a therapeutic context. He found lots of techniques for how to ameliorate the chance that a trance state would emerge. The techniques he created were both verbal and non-verbal, and Erickson developed the concept that natural experiences of amazement, being captivated and confusion are, in essence, just types of trance.
Obviously, there are a lot of different types of trance and most people are familiar with the concept of a "deep" trance. Early in his career Erickson was a trailblazer in researching the unique and wondrous phenomena that emerge in that state. He spent hour upon hour with each experimental subject, progressively deepening the trance.
That a trance could be considered "light" or "deep" implies a one dimensional continuum of trance depth, but Erickson would frequently work with numerous trances in the same client; for example suggesting that the “hypnotized” client act a certain way in the “awake" state, thus blurring the line between the hypnotic and awake state.
Erickson believed there are many states that can be worked with. This goes hand in hand with the idea that every state of consciousness is a trance, and that which we label "normal" waking consciousness is actually just a "consensus trance".
1 Merriam – Webster online dictionary
