Generative & Systemic Trance

Trance is a naturally occurring state of consciousness that we each experience momentarily, though often unoticed many times each day,

Both Generative and Systemic modes of trance use the modality of hypnosis to awaken and utilize this powerful, natural function of human conciousness with skill and focused intention.

Trance has many expressions, but they will largely fall into one of two categories. One is dissociative — where we unconsciously, and sometimes chronically, live removed from our somatic centre, separate from the direct experience of life’s rich sense of connection and creative flow.

The other is generative, where we naturally remain present to ourselves, yet open and curious about life as it unfolds through us, and around us, in touch with our capacities to participate and shape our world with mindful care and attention.

Generative Trance differs significantly from the first generation of hypnosis (akin to “clinical” hypnosis) which presupposes the client’s conscious (rational intellect) and unconscious mind as flawed entities requiring external input from an expert. In this approach, the hypnotherapist dictates what is needed to “fix” the client.

The second generation of hypnosis (Ericksonian), while more elegant, can still become a subtly manipulative encounter, distracting the rational mind to deliver alternative suggestions to the unconscious. Ideally, these suggestions reference and utilise the client’s unconscious motivations, but the prevailing influence remains external.

Both Generative and Systemic Trance are considered third-generation forms of hypnosis. While an untrained eye or ear might miss the distinction, these approaches are radically different from the first-generation authoritarian methods of classical hypnosis and represent a quantum leap beyond Ericksonian practice.

First- and second-generation modalities do not merely neglect the deep, wise field of consciousness we might call the creative unconscious; they actively shun it and deny its authentic participation.

The primary difference in Generative and Systemic Trance is that they presuppose and convey agency to the client’s deepest wisdom as the source of the presenting issues. These modalities first seek creative ways to connect with the causal agenda behind the presenting symptoms, then skillfully and respectfully invite the client’s deep imagination to explore the realm of the creative unconscious, returning with whatever psychological resources it deems most appropriate in relation to the client’s stated intentions. Integrating these newly awakened resources into a person’s sense of self, and having them embody this new awareness, is an essential part of the ongoing conversation.

The creative unconscious is the deep field of all psychic potentials, where the patterns we call archetypes reside. These archetypes — collective patterns of social thought and behaviour that have fallen through the cracks of conscious awareness — are laid down like leaf litter, becoming coal and carbon. They form the realm of the psyche Jung called the collective unconscious. We do not access it directly, but through symbols, stories, dreams, and similar expressions. Its ancient themes are present in formal religions, trends and fashions, mythologies, films, art, and culture.

From here, mythologies rise, offering potent symbols back “up” to those who care to pay attention, presenting to the conscious, sensate layers of human awareness. From this surface, we ascribe personal meanings to the collective experience, weave them into personal and tribal narratives, and derive values from which to live.

Yet this resonant realm is not merely a one-way conversation. It is malleable, awaiting our conscious invitation to give it form and meaning, participating in the creation of personal mythologies that seek to be born beyond notions of past influence and experience.

This is the task of the hero’s and heroine’s journey: to leave the collective field of experience — metaphorically, the “village of childhood” with its agreed and often rigid social norms — and venture into strange new lands, returning with gifts to offer those who might benefit while also nourishing oneself.

Like astronomers who skillfully and diligently focus outwardly upon small sections of the dark skies, revealing the birth and death cycles of countless galaxies beyond our rational minds, the psyche, with similar care, can observe its interior galaxies, nebulae, and black holes. With appropriate attention, it can also intend the birth and death of its interior galaxies — analogous to our beliefs, values, ideas, and shapeshifting sense of identity.

By utilising trance both generatively and systemically, we can invoke new and meaningful galaxies into existence, bringing clusters of authentic and complementary ideas, values, and motivations forward in alignment with our deepest, most sincere intentions and longings — those that rise from the unique field of personal experience and our individual filters of perception — to flow through us and find agency in our unique expressions, being born fresh into the worlds we create and inhabit.

The applications of such powerful, trance-formative approaches — harnessing the psyche’s natural capacities to enter extraordinary states of consciousness for the purposes of healing, growth, and development — are many. Each demands respect, skill, and diligent attention.

However, it is not always appropriate to engage them to their fullest potential.

As appropriate, I apply the principles and practices of generative trance to my coaching and psychotherapy sessions — perhaps to help clients become fully present, clarify their intentions, prepare the ground, integrate learnings, or future-pace insights as a session concludes.