Filling in the Blanks: Using Gestalt Psychology to Deepen Trance

Gestalt Psychology, also sometimes called "That Section in Your Psych 101 Textbook About Optical Illusions", is a lot more than just that.

But, before I go on, let Me explain what I meant by that for those readers who did not take a Psych 101 class, as this blog is meant to be all-inclusive, from newbie tists to experienced listeners.

So what is Gestalt Psychology, then?

To answer that, we're going to quote Aristotle's Metaphysics: “In the case of all things that have several parts and in which the whole is not like a heap, but is a particular something besides the parts, there must be some such uniting factor.” Aristotle puts forth that everything that has a form beyond the parts that make it up, as long as the form is something that's not a jumbled mess of discord, there is some something there that makes it into a whole. Drawing that into the more modern age, Gestalt Psychology says that the human mind perceives things as wholes rather than just the parts that make them up.

Take, for example, this image, an example of the Law of Closure:

This - I'm sure you'll agree - is a triangle, is it not?

That's the Gestalt element in your mind perking up, looking at these three acute angles and grouping them into a "whole" that makes sense.

Then there's the Law of Continuity, with this picture:

This one looks like a curved line - and is a curved line, and it is made up of eleven small dots.

Your mind, because of Gestalt thinking, sees the line, instead of just giving you a message that you're looking at eleven dots.

I could go on with more examples, but that's not why you're here.

Now that you understand the basic premise of Gestalt thinking - that the mind takes parts and makes sense of them in a whole - we can apply Gestalt thinking to hypnosis.

How, you ask?

Well, it's not an optical illusion we're using Gestalt thinking to close, but a pattern.

For example...

In a hypnotic session, the hypnotist might say, "You are going deeper and deeper and deeper."

And all of a sudden, a whole slew of elements are pulled together. Decreasing vocal tone, held pauses, and repetition, all bundle together into one beautiful "push" of information that the brain likes.

The brain likes to complete patterns; it's a huge pattern completing machine, to a certain extent.

So the brain likes it when you give it a pattern to complete, and then validate that it got it right. As another example, someone might create a line or phrase that is often repeated through the hypnosis session. At a certain point, the mind wants to fill it in.

If there is a pause before the end, and then the phrase is finished, the human mind is just so happy about getting it right, and knowing that you are right, leading to even more heightened suggestibility.

So - while the Gestalt school of thinking is usually applied to visual stimuli, such as optical illusions, it is also heavily applicable to audio experiences, particlarly hypnotic ones.

Remember: the human mind is a pattern-completing machine. It wants to fill in the blank.

Let it.