Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A "Mechanics" Manual For Trance, October 2, 2005
Trance: from magic to technology outlines a new model for Trance, as developed by Dennis Wier, through his many years experience with meditation and hypnosis. Combining these experiences with his background in systems analysis and insights on addiction (with computers) he has formulated an in-depth model for analysing and creating trance states.
From the outset I was engrossed in reading the book, and listening to the TV in background I could recognise various points and concepts raised by Dennis with regards to embedded commands in advertising. I had already been aware of such things, however reading Dennis comments and modelling of trance phenomena it became clearer just how this works.
It is outside the scope of this review to go into detail about the actual model that Dennis has proposed. You really need to read the book to get the overview.
While the actual model is somewhat complex to grasp, it is easy to understand the background concepts that Dennis is actually getting at. The book isn't a driver's manual, rather it is a mechanics manual, as it looks at the background and underlying processes of Trance, rather than details of how to put all these things into practice. It does give instructions for inducing trance, however that is not the primary function of the book - and many people will already have some understanding and experience with trances (meditation, hypnosis, addiction, watching TV, etc).
The understanding of trance, awareness, and states of consciousness is important in any Self-development or therapeutic endeavour. While this book is more technical than experiential it will certainly add another level of understanding to some of the principles, techniques and concepts relating to trance.
The model outlined in the book offers a good focal point for examining trance states, and ensuring that the trances we enter into are by choice, rather than surreptitious trances we are lead into by others. Ultimately, knowing how the trance process operates allows us more freedom and choice to act for our own best interest, and to work towards our life potential.
Towards the end of the book are several points which I would like to quote:
"Trance - for a yogi or magician - is merely a tool consciously chosen and made efficient over years of consistent practice to produce specific psychic results. Trance - for most other people - is an unconscious choice made to relieve pain or to void uncomfortable feelings or situations."
Also: "The strength of the trance force depends on being able to create and to skilfully manipulate simultaneously two or more dissociated trance plains, to sustain them for long periods of time, to change their forms, and to modulate them. This must be done without the practitioners destroying his ego structure and creating psychotic delusions or addictions."
And finally: "A model such as this one, only has value so far as it is useful and practical."
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Trance is a Special Type of Dissociation, August 12, 2007
Dennis R. Wier presents a model of trance that is at times quite abstract, but also rich in suggestion. He became interested in the subject after practicing (and enjoying) meditation so much that he realized he was addicted to it. From this recognition, he sensed that "addiction must share some commonality with meditative states. This observation was intriguing to me, because I felt that a state of deep meditation was a desirable condition, and, on the contrary, an addiction was a condition to be avoided" (p. 17). He then concluded that both might be forms of trance, and sought to clarify the nature of trance.
Wier's conceptualization of trance includes, but is not limited to, classical hypnotic phenomena. Thus, nationalism, advertising, concentrated attention, meditation, religion, politics, and the process of socialization itself are all types of trance for good or ill: ". .. trance exists in all areas of life" (p. 24) "Trance is the mental condition which makes it reasonable to accept limited choices. Trance restricts primitive chaos . . . and helps us to harness our energy . . . In restraining the chaos, energy may be focused into the creation. Trance, therefore, has something to do with energy utilization and the potentiation of creation . . . Trance is a two-edged sword: it allows us to focus our awareness, enabling us to accomplish many wonderful things, and on the other hand it inhibits broad awareness, disabling choices. It is important to understand that trances in life are as common as grains of sand and more numerous" (p. 23). Also: "Most people slip in and out of various kinds of trance states hundreds of times during what is called the normal waking state. Trance is a special type of dissociation that helps us to organize and process information automatically" (p. 29). On page 130 he identifies three types of dissociation: abstraction, autonomous multiprocessing, and trance.
He identifies and discusses "two major schools of thought on the nature of hypnosis" (p. 43): the neo-dissociative and social-psychological models. His cognitive-behavioral model has more sympathy with the former but has the potential to unify both theories while especially transcending the limitations of the latter. He is critical of proponents of the social-psychological model who adopt a skeptical, reductionist attitude toward hypnosis as if it were only belief, compliance, and expectation: "The question is not whether hypnosis exists. Hypnotic trance is a cognitive condition which has measurable physiological consequences. . ." (p. 132).
Wier devotes an entire chapter as well as passages scattered throughout the remainder of the book to his concept of addiction as a pathological form of trance. This was the aspect of the book that for me had the most immediate practical application. I work as a therapist in an addiction treatment center, and I now quote Wier's book to patients who are struggling to understand the "pull" of their addictive thinking. When I first worked in this field but had not yet become a certified hypnotherapist, I was struck by the trance-like quality many patients exhibited when recounting their relapses and/or glorifying past or anticipated drug use. It was not uncommon for these same patients to invoke the Alcoholics Anonymous "Big Book" maxim that characterizes alcohol as "cunning, baffling, powerful" and to label their own relapse behavior as "tunnel vision." Wondering what, if any, relationship their thinking bore to hypnotic states was one of the things that prompted me to become more deeply interested in hypnosis in the first place. When I "discovered" Coué's "Laws of Suggestion," I was impressed by their relevance to conceptualizing and challenging addictive thinking. Wier's writing makes that application even more specific and explicit: "I believe addictions of all sorts are forms of pathological trances, a central purpose of which is pain control" (p. 39). "Addiction can be better understood if we think of it not merely as `substance abuse,' or performance addiction, but as a form of impoverished reality that is maintained by a trance" (p. 92). "Addictive trances reward an impoverished thought-set. You can help reduce the effects of any trance by rewarding the enrichment of your thoughts. This means to expand the variety of your thoughts without trying to remove the thoughts you think are the problem" (p. 170). "When we stick to our choices at all costs we are in a pathological trance" (p. 39).
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3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book is very good, for the beginer through advanced., July 4, 1999
By A Customer
I found this book very informative, with lots of cross references. The technical information married to the Historical, and Folklore aspects was very refreshing. It is suggested reading to any of my students, clients or friends. I suggest many books, but this one is a favorite.
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by Marc Salem
