EYE CATALEPSY: YOUR EYES ARE STUCK LIKE GLUE

Mary Elizabeth Raines

Academy for Professional Hypnosis Training
2010, M. E. Raines
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Copying in whole or in part prohibited
Contact the author: info@hypnosiscourse.com

From the Series: HYPNOSIS AND GUIDED IMAGERY

Published by the Academy for Professional Hypnosis Training

EYE CATALEPSY: YOUR EYES ARE STUCK LIKE GLUE

by MARY ELIZABETH RAINES

Try to open your eyes, and find you cannot. Your eyelids are stuck tightly together,stuck like glue.
Try as hard as you might, you cannot open your eyes.

The above language is familiar to all students of hypnosis, and similar wording canbe found in many
hypnosis scripts. Having a hypnotist tell his subject that her eyesare stuck so tightly together that
she cant open them is almost as much of a clich asthe famous dangling pocket watch, or the
phrase: You are getting very sleepy.

The name for this phenomenonthat of being unable to open ones eyes at the
command of the hypnotistis eye catalepsy. The client who tries to open her eyesand cannot is
seemingly powerless, bending to the hypnotists will.

While this was an impressive demonstration in the past, when hypnotists loved todemonstrate that
they could dominate their subjects ruthlessly (You are completelyunder my power!), today we
prefer to have our clients understand the truth, which isthat they are in control at all times when they
are hypnotized. That being the case,why would an ethical hypnotist today want to do that to a client?

1. Achieving eye catalepsy shows the hypnotist that a client is

suggestible.
Suggestible clients follow their hypnotists directions, and that is desirable.Not only will a
suggestible client enter hypnosis more readily and deeply; shewill also be more likely to
follow the positive suggestions of the hypnotist,such as: You are now a happy, comfortable
nonsmoker. If the hypnotist tellsthe client that her eyes are sealed shut and that she cannot
open them, that isexactly what a suggestible individual will experience. A client who is non-
suggestible or resistant, however, will feel compelled to prove that, contraryto the
hypnotists suggestion, she can indeed open her eyes, and that individualwill manage to do
so. Of course, the real truth is that no matter how deeply
hypnotized we are, we can open our eyes whenever we want, even though itsometimes
requires a greatdeal of effort.

2. Eye catalepsy reveals to the hypnotist that the client is in the first
stages of trance. Scientists who conduct research in hypnosis need todetermine the depth
of hypnosistheir experimental subjects have achieved.They need to be able to say, for
instance, that after beinghypnotized, bloodpressure decreased in 90 percent of subjects who
reached the first stage of a
medium-deep trance, as opposed to only 60 percent of subjects who couldonly reach the
third stage oflight trance.

These scientists have developed what are called depth or susceptibilityscales. These
scales have stepsthat are successively more difficult to
achieve, which help them determine as precisely as possible to what degree aperson is
hypnotized.These scales, then, are indicators of the depth of trance
(another word for the hypnotic state). For example, someone who has apositive
hallucinatione.g.,smells a fragrance that is not really present, butwhich has been
suggested to heris in deeper hypnosisthan someone whofinds she cannot lift her leg
because it feels so heavy (large muscle catalepsy),sinceon the depth scales, hallucinations
are indicative of a deeper state thanmuscle catalepsy is.

Depth testing is not just for scientists. It is also useful for the lay hypnotist,who wants a
reliable wayofknowing how deeply a client has gone intohypnosis, and who can then offer
suggestions or deepenaccordingly.

On many of these depth or susceptibility scales that measure hypnotizability,eye catalepsy is

at or nearthe top of the list; it is something that can beachieved readily by a person who is
only in light hypnosis.According to thesescales, it is fairly easy for a clients eyes to seal
shut so that they wont open,evenwith effort, and thus it is an indicator that the person has
enteredhypnosis.

New practitioners should be aware that these depth tests are imprecise.Human beings vary.
Each one ofus has a different response to trance. Thereare people who can pass some of
the indicators for adeeper level of trance,and yet still cannot achieve eye catalepsy, even
though that is only the firststeponthe scale.

3. Eye catalepsy is valuable as a convincer.

All hypnotists know how common it is for a client who has just emerged fromtrance to
questionwhetheror not she was really hypnotized. This is becausepeople sometimes expect
to feel different andstrangewhen they are
 hypnotized, like the voodoo folks in old movies walking about with glazedexpressions and
their arms outstretched. Hypnosis, in fact, is actually a naturalstate that we all experience
as part of our everyday lives. Because of this,sometimes clients have trouble accepting the
fact that they were indeedhypnotized.

Because of this misperception, it is important to do eye catalepsy with everynew client.

Then if she should say, I dont think I was really hypnotized, thehypnotist can remind her of
the place during the session where she was unableto open her eyes, and point out to her
that she was indeed hypnotized! Whenusing eye catalepsy as a convincer, I prefer to do it
towards the end of thesession rather than at the beginning to insure that the client will
succeed inbeing unable to open her eyes.

There is one exception to this rule: If I have a client who is extremelycontrolling or analytical
and does not appear to have gone into very deeptrance, I avoid doing an eye catalepsy
challenge. I never test a person whomight fail to respond in the desired way. It is important
to make sure thatevery client, no matter how resistant, feels as though everything she is
doing is
exactly what the hypnotist desires. This kind of compliance will make iteasier for her to
accept the suggestions she wants to receive, e.g., You arenow a happy, comfortable
nonsmoker.

4. Eye catalepsy can be used to induce and/or deepen hypnosis.

Eye catalepsy is a tool that can be woven into any hypnotic induction, or usedlater in the
session for deepening. When it is used this way, after the clientfinds she is unable to open
her eyes, the hypnotist can suggest to her that shecan now relax her entire body as
beautifully as she has just relaxed all thelittle muscles around her eyes. A very famous
hypnotic induction, called theElman induction, starts out with eye catalepsy. (A script for a
variation of theElman induction can be found at the end of this article.)

THE SCIENCE
Even today, there are many hypnotists who believe that when a client cannot open hereyes during
an eye catalepsy challenge, the resultthe eyes being seemingly stucktogetheris due solely to the
power of their suggestion. Because it is such a great convincer, we often go to great lengths to word
scripts for an eye catalepsy challengewith great care; we want to give our clients every opportunity
to be able to fail toopen their eyes! There are, however, plenty of amateur hypnotists who do not
useclever wording, and still succeed in getting the desired results. Eye catalepsy canwork even
when a hypnotist uses very simple and direct language, such as thefollowing: Your eyes are stuck
together. Try to open them and find that you
cannot.

The problem lies in believing that the client whose eyes cant open is simplycomplying with the
hypnotists commands. That is actually a misperception.

Here is the secret: when an individual goes into trance with her eyes closed, hereyes roll back in
her head. It is nearly impossible for someone to open her eyeswhen her eyes have rolled back!

Experiment with this for yourself. Close your eyes and then, keeping them shut, gazeupward at the
top of your head. Now try to open your eyes. As long as you keepgazing straight up up, it is
impossible or painful to open your eyes. Occasionallysomeone succeeds in opening their eyes while
gazing up, with the gruesome result ofshowing only the whites of their eyes! I actually mastered this
technique in seventhgrade, so that I could scare the other kids. Most stage hypnotists have seen
volunteerswho show only the whites of their eyes when they open their eyes. Ancient paintingsof
people in spiritual ecstasy, from depictions of Christian saints to drawings ofpeople in India
worshipping their gods, often show them with their eyes rolledupwards with very little pupil showing.
This is because people experiencingspiritual states are in trance, and when we are in trance, our
eyes rolls backwards!

Researchers have not been able to find out why some people are profoundsomnambulists, meaning
that they can enter hypnosis very quickly and go to a verydeep level, while others never attain more
than light trance. This ability or lack of ithas nothing to do with sex, age, race, education, occupation
or personality. I believethat we will eventually prove that there is a strong connection between
hypnotizability and the flexibility of the muscles that control the eye.

HOW TO WORD AN EYE CATALEPSY CHALLENGE

It would be more appropriate to call this condition eyelid catalepsy, since it is thespecific muscles
that control the eyelids that need to stop working so that the clientcan succeed in failing this
challenge, e.g., to be unable to open her eyes. Sincecatalepsy technically involves muscle rigidity,
catalepsy might not be the properterm for this state, as the muscles around the eye must actually
be relaxed and flaccid for the eye to roll back. Eye catalepsy is the title most hypnotists use for this
challenge, however, and it is unlikely to change.

Because the muscles need to be limp, one of the best ways to word an eye catalepsy challenge is to
instruct the individual to relax all the muscles around her eyes, puttingparticular emphasis on
relaxing the eyelids. If the client follows this suggestion, shewill not be able to open her eyes even if
they have not yet rolled back in her head,because these muscles must tense in order to function.
In this, as well as other challenges that we offer our clients in hypnosis, there aresome basic
components to the wording we use to help our clients succeed in havingthe desired result:

1. Avoid referring to eye catalepsy as a test.

The word test is loaded; it can trigger anxiety and fear in clients. Nothing makes
a client revert back to feeling like a 7th-grader faster than using the word test. Apreferable way
of putting it is to refer to eye catalepsy as an experiment. In justa moment, were going to do
an interesting experiment.

2. Have the client close her eyes.

Whenever I make this request of a client, I always accompany it with the physicalgesture of
passing my hand down in front of her face, which helps to establishmore authority. The reason a
hypnotist needs to be perceived as an authority hasnothing to do with a need for power or
dominance; it is simply that this helps theclients chances of accepting the suggestions that she
is going to be given, whichis the whole point of coming for hypnosis!

3. In giving instructions, tell her exactly what is going to happen before she
actually tries.
In just a moment, you are going to try to open your eyes and discover that youcannot.

4. Boost the physiological state that will keep her eyelids from working.

Relax the muscles around your eyes.

5. Help her eyes roll backwards with either language, or a gesture, or both.
Look up at the top of your head, as if there is a skylight there.
Some hypnotists will place a finger in the center of the clients forehead andinstruct the client
to look at their finger.

When doing eye catalepsy, I like to touch my client in the center of her foreheadwithout
saying anything just before I ask her to try to open her eyes, as thissurprise gesture tends to
pull her focus upward in curiosity, and helps the eyesroll back.

6. Always use the word try in connection with the part of the challenge you
want your client to fail.
TRY to open your eyes.

Imagine how you would feel if your hypnotist were to say to you, Now Im
 going to try to hypnotize you. (Ive actually heard that language from ahypnotist!) In hypnosis,
we only use the word try when we do not want the clientto succeed in doing something. Why?
Because try implies failure. Think aboutinstances in real life where the word try is used.

Will you clean your room?

Ill TRY.
Please be home by ten oclock.Ill
TRY.
Dont ever do that again.
Ill TRY.

One of the cardinal rules in a hypnosis session is that we deliberately only use theword try
when we want the client to fail! At all other times, especially while theclient is in hypnosis, we
avoid using the word try.

7. When asking a client to try, always make sure to follow that request by
stating what will actually happen.
Try to open your eyes and find that you cannot.

If a person tries long and hard enough, the truth is that her eyes will eventuallyopen. New
hypnotists who find that eye catalepsy doesnt seem to work for theirclients have usually failed
to include the second important part of the challenge,which is to tell the client exactly what is
going to happen after she tries to openher eyes.

8. Be precise about the exact point at which the client should try.
The new hypnotist sometimes finds himself floundering when attempting an eyecatalepsy
challenge. This is because hasnt learned the secret, which allaccomplished stage hypnotists
know, of making the client wait for a precise cueor trigger to begin.
At the count of three, and not before, try to open your eyes and find youcannot.
or
When I snap my fingers. . .
or
When you are completely sure you will be unable to open your eyes. . .

9. Use wording that is safe and comfortable to avoid frightening the client.
Your eyes are going to feel as though they are comfortably sealed shut. Thiswill be a
temporary and pleasurable sensation.
 A certain percentage of people, especially those with a degree of claustrophobia,will freak out if
they think their eyes have become sealed shut. The first timesomeone performed eye catalepsy
successfully on me and I could not open myeyes, I was terrified. I had been in a fairly deep
trance for about an hour when thehypnotist, who was not been well trained, told me that my
eyes were stuck shut. Itried really hard to open the lids. They wouldnt budge, no matter what I
did. As aresult, I went into an internal state of terror! I felt trapped inside my own body,the way
someone would feel who was paralyzed and conscious, but couldntcommunicate that to the
outside world.

Some years ago I did a fantastic smoking cessation session on a highlyhypnotizable woman that
should have been successful. Unfortunately, she rejectedall of my positive suggestions and was
not able to stop smoking. Why? She, likeme, became terrified when she couldnt open her eyes
during an eye catalepsychallenge, and that panic grew throughout the session so that it was all
she couldthink about. Her fear completely overrode the powerful smoking-cessationsuggestions
she was being given.

As a result of these negative experiences, I developed an easy solution. In anysituation during

hypnosis when there is a chance that a suggestion might disturb aclient, use adjectives like
safe, comfortable, temporary, and pleasant.This will usually alleviate any unwanted
responses.

10. End the challenge part of the eye catalepsy quickly.

A mistake made by many new hypnotists is that they let the challenge go on toolong. Given
enough time, anyone can pull herself out of hypnosis and open hereyes. Thus, it is important
to keep the eye catalepsy challenge short and sweet.After just two or three seconds of
effort, have the client stop trying.
Excellent. Stop trying now, relax, and go deeper.

1. Regardless o howf the cl enti does or does not respond, avo d showi ng i
dissatisfaction or disappointment, or suggesting that the client is resistingyou.
Instead, always allow the client to feel successful.

It is important to make sure that your clients believe that their responsewhatever it
wasis exactly what you desired.

SAMPLE EYE CATALEPSY SCRIPT

Now squeeze your eyes tightly togetherand let up. Relax all the little tiny musclesaround your eyes.
Loosen the squinting muscles, the sides and edges of your eyes, andespecially the muscles that
work your eyelids. Soften and ease all these muscles liketight strings that are letting go and
uncoiling down to the floor. Relax them sothoroughly, so completely, that they simply dont want to
work.
When you are absolutely convinced that your muscles are so relaxed they will refuseto work, give it
a little test at the count of three, and you will find that try as hard asyou might, you cannot open your
eyes.
OneLoosening, easing, letting go;
TwoDoubling the relaxation in those tiny muscles;
Three(Speak quickly and emphatically) Try to open your eyes and find youcannot. Try and
find you cannot. Good. Stop trying.

(See the end of this article for an example of an Elman Induction)

WHEN A CLIENT FAILS AN EYELID CATALEPSY CHALLENGE

Although eye catalepsy is one of the easiest states to achieve in hypnosis, noteveryone will succeed
in failing the challengethat is, in being unable to open theireyes. Until I learned about the physical
component involved, with the one terrifyingexception mentioned above, eye catalepsy never worked
on me. I am not particularlysuggestible, and needed to show that I was still in control; the idea that
my eyes couldbecome sealed shut was ludicrous and unreal to me. If one of my early hypnotists had
worded the challenge differently, and suggested that because I was in control, I couldrelax my eye
muscles until they refused to work, I would have had more success.

A certain percentage of people will open their eyes during an eye catalepsy
challenge. After a few years experience in hypnosis, I got to the point where I couldtell fairly well
who would and who would not succeed with eye catalepsy. As statedearlier, I never give an eye
catalepsy challenge to someone who will probably openher eyes. I also usually offer it towards the
end of the session, rather than at thebeginning, as this obviously insures more success.

The new hypnotist should not be shy of using this important tool, but must expectsome failures.
Working with such failures is actually easy. There are several ways ofdealing with a failed eye
catalepsy challenge, e.g., when the clients eyes open.

1. The first, (and to my mind unsatisfactory) way is to handle it the way Dave Elmandid. Elman was
a ground-breaking hypnotist in the mid-1900s. He would invitepeople to relax their eyes until they
were positive their eyes couldnt open, much likethe preceding Eye Catalepsy Script; he instructed
the client that she should only try toopen her eyes when she was absolutely sure she wouldnt be
able to. Then, if aclient opened her eyes, he would say something like, No, I said relax them and
testthem only when you are sure you cant open them. Lets try it again, and this time
really relax the eyes.

Although this authoritarian way of dealing with a clients failure may have worked
wonders in the 1950s, it is a little too heavy-handed for todays client. I want myclients to feel
successful, no matter what they do or dont do. My students are taughtthat they should never show
dissatisfaction or disappointment, or suggest that theclient is resisting them.

2. If the client opens her eyes in an eye catalepsy challenge, always say, Very
good, as if this is the desired result. Immediately reach up with your hand and drawit down over the
clients face so that she closes her eyes again. You see now that nomatter how deep you go or
how very relaxed you become, you are always incomplete control at all times and I cant make you
do anything you dont want todo... and because you want to relax now, you can allow yourself feel
even morecomfortable and relax very deeply

[You could even add the following, which is full of delightful embedded commands,compound
suggestions and double binds.]
. . .and it feels so good to let go, and because youd like to feel even better, you canchoose to
allow yourself to drift and float peacefully or to sink further down,whichever youd like, wa-a-ay
down, to help you relax more deeply, or perhaps youwould find it more pleasant simply to feel
comfortably drowsy now. . .

If the client succeeds in opening her eyes, but shows even a small amount ofhesitation or struggle
before doing so, add the following: Perfect. Notice howdifficult it was to open your eyeshow much
effort it took. This shows that yourerelaxing very well. Now you see what I told you earlierthat I
cant make you do
anything you dont want to do, and because its your choice to relax, you can go evendeeper now
and let go absolutely.

BUT I COULD HAVE OPENED MY EYES IF I WANTED

Eye catalepsy occurs, when a person is in trance, because her eyes have rolledbackwards. It can
also occur because the client, who is otherwise not in a physicaltrance state, is simply being
compliant and is cooperating with the suggestion thatwas given by the hypnotist. In the latter case,
sometimes such a person will say in ourconversation at the end of the session, Well, I could have
opened my eyes if Iwanted to.

In such an instance, I point out that this is absolutely true; anyone can open their eyesat any time in
hypnosis if they really want to. (I dont get into the physiology of theeyes rolling backwards with such
clients.) I remind them that the client is always theone in control. The reason their eyes remained
closed was that they were cooperatingwith the suggestion. If such a client has come to me to stop
lose weight or stopsmoking, I point out to them that they could also overeat or smoke a cigarette any
time
they wanted to, regardless of how successfully they had been hypnotized. They,however, are
choosing not to overeat or to stop smoking because this is theirpreference.

With such clients, I add that they were probably so relaxed during the session thatthey probably
didnt feel like opening their eyes, and they usually agree. Then I pointout that this kind of deep
relaxation is what being hypnotized feels like.

VARIATION OF ELMAN INDUCTION

The Elman induction has three parts:
1. Eye catalepsy
2. Deepening, usually via a hand drop
3. Relaxing the thoughts

Please close your eyes. Let your shoulders sink a few inches. Thats right. Your armsmight feel
pleasantly heavy and warm. Loosen all the muscles under your face. Letyour chewing muscles go
and rest your tongue in the bottom of your mouth.

Now squeeze your eyes tightly togetherand let up. Relax all the little tiny musclesaround your eyes.
Loosen the squinting muscles, the sides and edges of your eyes, andespecially the muscles that
work your eyelids, and even behind the eyes. Soften andease all these muscles like tight strings that
are letting go and uncoiling down to thefloor. Relax them so thoroughly, so completely, that they
simply dont want to work.Perfect.

When you are absolutely convinced that your muscles are so relaxed they will refuseto work, give it
a little test at the count of three, and you will find that try as hard asyou might, you cannot open your
eyes.
One. . .Loosening, easing, letting go;
Two. . .Doubling the relaxation in those tiny muscles;
Three. . .(Speak quickly and emphatically) Try to open your eyes and find youcannot. Try and
find you cannot. Good. Stop trying.

Im now going to pick up your hand by the wrist. I know that you can help me, but justlet me do all
the work. Let your hand be like a rag doll or a warm, wet washcloth,totally limp. [Pick up the hand by
the wrist] In a moment, Im going to drop your arm,and when it falls down to your leg, let that same
relaxation that is in your eyes nowflow down through all your muscles, flowing from your head to your
toes. [Drop thehand] Pleasantly loose, easy, dreamy, drifting, drowsy, from head to toe.

Im now going to pick up your other hand by the wrist, and when it falls, go twice asdeep. [Pick up
the other hand and let it drop] Twice as deep, increasing comfort
flowing to every part of your being with every breath in, and with every breath out.

Now its time to relax your thoughts as perfectly as you have relaxed your body.Bring to mind the
number 100. Hold that number as if its in 3-D. You might picture itin your mind as though its carved
out of rock or like a solid birthday candle, or youmight feel it, or perhaps you simply have a sense
that its there in the forefront of yourmind. And in a moment Im going to invite you to relax your
thoughts so completelythat it becomes impossible to hold onto the number 100just too much effort.
And soyou will allow that image or impression to slide away, and when you do, the nextlower
number, 99, will take its place. And after you relax the 99 out of your mind, thenext lower number
will appear, and the numbers will continue like that in descendingorder. And in a very short timea
very short timeit will become too difficult tohold onto any thoughts, and no more numbers will
appear. . .

So starting now with 100, bring the number 100 to your mind. When you see it, feel
it, or simply know that it is there, say 100 out loud. [After client says, Onehundred.] Very good.
And now just loosen your thoughts, like shaking crumbs off asilk tablecloth, and let the number 100
go away, and when it goes away, the 99 mightpop in. And when you see or are aware of the number
99, say it out loud. [Afterclient says 99, continue in the same vein for a few more numbers. If client
continuescounting:] And very soon you will discover that its just too much work to try to keepthe
numbers from disappearing; they just want to fade away and your thoughts want tobe lazy and drift,
so when the numbers disappear away completely, stop counting. . .
[When clients stops counting] Good. [Begin the session at this point]

If the client doesnt stop counting, either instruct her to stop when her voice becomesconfused or
sounds weaker, or allow her to continue counting and interspersesuggestions while she does so.

At this point, I need to point out a fallacy about the Elman Induction, and it is this: inthe past, some
hypnotists claimed that because people lost or forgot theirnumbers in an Elman Induction, a state
of amnesia was successfully induced, andsince amnesia is one of the key signs that a person has
entered somnambulism, theybelieved that the client had reached a somnambulistic state. For such
people, anElman Induction equaled somnambulism. This was faulty, wishful logic.

Informed hypnotists today recognize that success with the Elman Induction does notmean a client is
in an authentic somnambulistic state. The 10-20% of the populationwho are somnambulists will go to
that state; the remainder will not. The clients mindmight become too relaxed and lazy to concentrate
further on the boring task offocusing on numbers, but this does not mean that the person has
forgotten or lost hernumbers!

The good news is that, while not necessarily in somnambulism, the client is still in anice state of
hypnosis, and the Elman Induction remains a very efficient and fairly fast way of inducing trance.