Title: Blueprint of the Dave Elman Induction
Author: H. Larry Elman
Format: Book
Price: $13.95 (I
received a review copy.)
Rating: Excellent
Well, I've been very busy with my studies at the Hypnosis Practitioner Training Institute, which means that even though I've been reading
quite a bit, I haven't had time to post many reviews. Today, I decided to take
a little break from studying and jot down my thoughts about a few of the books
that have crossed my desk in the last eight months.
Last week, I attended a hypnosis practice meetup where the
topic was the Dave Elman Induction, a piece of hypnotic work that may be, after
progressive muscle relaxation, the most popular specific induction in modern
hypnosis. I know many hypnotists who swear by it, using it with the majority of
their clients. So before I went to the meetup, I took Larry Elman's Blueprint
of the Dave Elman Induction off my shelf to review the process.
Please note—I said "process." The main reason
Larry Elman wrote a book about his father's famous induction is that it is too
often presented as a script rather than a process. Even when instructors
explain that you may have to alter the wording or repeat steps, they still,
almost universally, present it as a series of arbitrary actions with no
discussion of why the induction calls for these actions. Indeed, some
instructors I admire greatly refuse to teach the Elman Induction because they
object to certain details in it—the touching or the eye catalepsy, for instance.
The Blueprint does an amazing job of addressing these
misconceptions held by advocates and critics alike. Though brief, this work
thoroughly explains the hows and the whys of every step in the process, even
suggesting alternate details to use when necessary. (So that Elman Inductions without eye catalepsy, touching, or even "losing the numbers" can be invented.) In short, this work is for
anyone who wants to understand what they are doing rather than merely parrot
back steps an instructor has taught.
The historian in me loves the insight into the creation and
development of the Elman Induction provided in this work—straight from someone
who was there as it happened. Reading Larry Elman's writing is perhaps the
closest we'll get to stepping back in time and getting to hear Dave Elman
himself provide further wisdom.
Though the book itself is small—a pamphlet really, unlikely
to look impressive when other hypnotists glance at your shelf—the content is
huge and the value incalculable. Anyone who learns and uses the Dave Elman
Induction really ought to take the time to read this book and review it from
time-to-time. After all, being a hypnotist is not about repeating the right
magical incantations; it is about understanding the processes that have worked
in the past so that we can develop and adapt in the future.
