Trance and the trickster: Hypnosis as a liminal phenomenon

American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis,  Jul 2005  by Wickramsekera, Ian II

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Krippner, S. (2005). Trance and the trickster: Hypnosis as a liminal phenomenon. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 53 (2), 97-118. Dr. Krippner presents a very thought provoking theory which asserts that hypnotic phenomena have a liminal nature that can confound dualistic and dichotomous attempts to describe the essence of hypnosis.

He discusses how native healers and shamans often appear to enter the domain of hypnosis using their hypnotic-like healing rituals and other procedures which call upon the healer to take on the role of the trickster archetype. He also advances a rather playful and stimulating idea that we can find elements of the trickster role in our own approach as hypnotists that are similar to the strategies that traditional healers and shamans employ. The author makes an interesting and convincing illustration of the trickster/shaman aspects of the tradition of hypnosis using Milton Erickson's life history as well as his paradoxical/individualistic methods of utilizing trance. His paper contains many interesting insights and unique perspectives from anthropology, hypnosis, parapsychology, shamanism, and transpersonal psychology which are integrated with an analysis of the history of hypnosis including some of the recent scientific psychophysiological findings. The paper also touches upon several current pressing debates in hypnosis while giving recommendations that are equally useful to clinicians and researchers. Address for reprints: Stanley Krippner Ph.D., Alan Watts Professor of Psychology, Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center, 747 Front St., 3rd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94111 Email: skrippner@saybrook.edu

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