Dave Elman Induction

Dave Elman Induction

The Dave Elman Induction is easy.  The advantage of the Elman Induction is simplicity - you just read the script aloud. Then apply Elman's tests and deepeners. It is guaranteed to hypnotize almost anyone.

The Dave Elman script is popular because it follows the same fixed steps every time. You don't have to worry about what kind of listener you have. You use the same instructions on everyone.

Dave Elman was a stage hypnotist. He was impressed by the power of hypnosis and wanted to see hypnosis used more widely. He started teaching hypnosis to health professionals. Doctors and dentists began to ask him to teach them how to hypnotize their patients.  Elman needed a simple technique for doctors to use that would always work. He refined and refined this technique with each training session.

Eventually he developed a full proof method that anyone could use. Every hypnotist since then has adapted and changed it. There are now hundreds of variants of the basic Dave Elman induction.

Hypnosis Induction Script Dave Elman
The Elman induction is a good script to practice with. Just follow the instruction in each step exactly, and you will get a result.
Each stage has its own tests for depth of trance and hypnotic deepeners.
If one stage doesn't work, the next one will.
At any stage, as soon as you have confirmed that the client is in trance, you can leave the script and move straight to the hypnotic suggestions.

It is easy to understand why the Dave Elman induction works.

The Dave Elman induction uses the essential parts from four other hypnotic inductions:
1) Progressive muscle relaxation
2) Fractionation from Dr Flowers
3) Instant hypnosis inductions
4) Hypnotic Countdown

and at each stage it applies some form of deepener, and then does a test for hypnosis.

Using the Dave Elman Induction

There are many silly claims made about Dave Elman and his script. By today's standards, the Dave Elman Induction is actually slow and fairly cumbersome. There is nothing great about taking ten minutes to put someone into trance. The Elman induction is not a good way to hypnotize someone who is analytical.

The Elman induction only became popular because when it was developed, in the 1930s, it was much faster than the progressive relaxation induction, the main induction method at that time. Modern hypnotic induction scripts are much faster and more reliable, and can successfully hypnotize anyone.

Although the Elman induction is slow and doesn't work for everyone, it has the advantage of being easy to learn. Every hypnotist should learn the Dave Elman Induction because it is the basis for many other hypnosis scripts. Using the Dave Elman technique will teach you recognize when someone is in trace, and how people behave when they are hypnotized.