Notes on the animations

Historically the human eye has often been seen to be a focus for attention. Hypnotists took advantage of this. They would often come very close to the subject to emphasize this. (Though I never do, myself.) In this animation I have taken that basic eye motif. I have added my image for those who respond to the human face. If you catch the glint in my eye at the closest you will, I hope, take it that I do not take the acronym you can form from the floating words too seriously.

Many years ago I happened to work in a small office which had wallpaper with a repetitive small pattern on dots on it. I discovered that asking a client to focus on the dots often created, after a few minutes, a strange detached feeling in them. A form of trance in fact. In this animation I have taken that idea and compensated for the fact that there are fewer spots by making them rotating spirals. The two central ones are blue to help you slightly to re-focus on them so that the two blend into one. You should then see one blue spiral rotating clockwise against a background of black ones rotating counterclockwise. This tends to hold the eyes in focus as they try to work out this unfamiliar situation.

The spinning spiral has long been a popular icon of hypnosis. It is more commonly in black and white. But any two complementary colours can, I think, have the similar effect. Each colour is that of the afterimage of the other. Why is the spiral effective? Well it creates the illusion of forward motion. If we are moving forward then our focus of attention is drawn to where we are going. So we focus more on the the picture and on its centre.

Here the attention of the eye is captured by the slowly oscillating opposites in colour. Is the central colour yellow with a purple afterimage or a purple image with a yellow afterimage? Is the shape a hexagon or a cube? The eye tries to get the mind to resolve these questions. But they have no final answer. This can be compared to the Buddhist practice of contemplating Koans such as the question, "Two hands clap and there is a sound; what is the sound of one hand?" The impossibility of answering the question eventually takes the mind into a trance.

This employs a psychological principle used by the famous Milton H Erickon in informal hypnosis. It someone is presented with contradictory directions it is very hard to resolve them at a conscious level. The most natural reaction is to give up the attempt and to go for the easier alternative. In this case the harsh order "try to concentrate", which is seemingly askin the conscious mind to focus hard, is difficult to reconcile with the relaxed and fluidly morphing "trance". After a while the mind will slip into the more pleasant alternative. Why the bright colours? They are eye-catching. I find they remind me, at least, of childhood and the bright shiny magic of christmas tree decorations. Any association with childhood is likely to bring back modes of thought which are less rational and controlled.

This animation is a stand-alone suggestion. Think Shaman. Think Big Chief Silver Birch. Think of the head-dress that confers the power of nature represented. Think of the many summers and the many winters that the tree has been growing roots deeper into Mother Earth and branches higher towards the winds of heaven. Feel the power. Feel the wisdom. Let his words enter.

As people enter trance-like states they often say "I was deeper into it that time." Traditionally hypnotists have used the word "deeper" to encourage that process. This animation straightforwardly creates the illusion of moving forward - deeper - into the scene. The word itself appears repetitively. Repetition is one of the simple common tools of hypnosis. The scene is simple. Simplicity is also a characteristic tool. We want to eliminate all the many, varied and irrelevant thoughts in the mind. The whole animation is designed to give the mind an idea of what is required. A kind of simple deepening focus.

This one is tongue in cheek. It takes the movie version of eye fixation to the limit. Here we have an alien fungus in my local Adel Woods, using the power of its eyes to make any passerby fall under its power. So if I ever seem strange... now you know why!!
On some platforms I find that the sound track seems to go quietly mad after many repetitions. That, I suppose, is the fate of anyone who buys into the idea that hypnosis is all about trying to take control of another person's mind.

This takes the many spirals background theme (see above), though this time they rotate to and fro, more like the balance wheel of a clock and adds to it a repetitive combining and separation of opposite colours. It has something of the rhythmic movement of the once-fashionable induction procedure of swinging a watch in front of the eyes.

Another stand alone animation. Here the motive is to speak to the depressed. The stone seems cold and lifeless and dead. And yet... and yet... perhaps even when all around seems lifeless and empty of all promise then there may be a surprise in store. Perhaps if you look around you, you will see something in someone's eye that will alert you again.