Using questions as suggestions is one of the most elegant and unobtrusive ways of guiding a client’s experience in trance.

On the face of it, a question appears open, permissive, and non-directive. Yet, when used skilfully, it can focus attention, stimulate internal searching, and gently invite the unconscious mind to respond in very specific ways.

In other words, a question can be both a spotlight and a doorway.

Why Questions Work

Suggestions in the form of questions may be used to:

• Focus attention and awareness
• Stimulate associations and internal exploration
• Encourage responsiveness
• Induce and deepen trance

Questions are particularly effective when they invite an answer that the conscious mind cannot easily provide. The conscious mind, unable to answer directly, is prompted to “hand over” to deeper processes. This is where trance work naturally begins to occur.

For example, asking:

“Do you notice that numbness beginning now?”

does not demand that the client “make” something happen. Instead, it invites them to check their experience and discover what is already starting to occur.

Using Questions Flexibly

Questions should not be used in a rigid, scripted way. They work best when they:

• Flow from the client’s ongoing behaviour
• Follow what is happening in the moment
• Imply specific, observable responses

Each question can gently point the client toward a possible next step, while still allowing their unconscious mind to choose how that step unfolds.

Questions are also a very useful “fail-safe” option when:

• You are not yet certain about the client’s level of hypnotic responsiveness
• You are working with a new client and are still calibrating their trance signals
• You anticipate some degree of conscious resistance or scepticism

The less you push, the easier it is for the client to follow.

A Caution About Questioning

Not all questions are equal.

Some questions can unintentionally communicate doubt, uncertainty, or a lack of confidence on the part of the therapist. These will typically weaken the suggestion rather than strengthen it.

For example, asking:

“Is your hand getting numb?”

implies that it might not be. It subtly introduces the possibility of failure and invites the client to “check” for something that may not yet be in their awareness.

In contrast, a well-formed question:

• Presupposes the desired response is already happening or about to happen
• Focuses attention on how it is happening, rather than if it is happening

Compare:

“Is your hand getting numb?”

with

“And the numbness, do you notice that beginning?”

The second question assumes that numbness is already present or emerging, and simply directs the client to discover how they are noticing it.

Examples of Question-Based Suggestions

The following examples show how questions can be used to gently shape experience without overtly “telling” the client what to do.

You might invite:

• “And the numbness, do you notice that beginning?”
• “And will that hand remain floating right there, or does it float up toward your face?”
• “Can you enjoy relaxing and not having to remember?”
• “Do you begin to experience the numbness in the fingers, or on the back of the hand first, or does it spread out from your palm?”

In each case, the question:

• Assumes something is already in motion
• Offers options, all of which are acceptable
• Encourages the client to explore their internal experience

Using Questions Across Hypnotic Work

This style of suggestion can be applied in:

• Inductions (helping a client enter trance)
• Deepening (enhancing the depth and quality of trance)
• The production of specific hypnotic phenomena (e.g., numbness, levitation, amnesia)
• Almost any clinical application (e.g., pain management, anxiety reduction, habit change)

Question-based suggestions are versatile. They can stand alone, or be woven into other methods of induction and treatment.

Below are two extended examples, one using eye fixation and one using hand levitation, demonstrating how an induction can be structured almost entirely from questions.

Eye Fixation Induction Using Questions

You might begin by inviting the client to focus visually:

“Would you like to find a spot you can look at comfortably?”

This immediately:

• Gives them choice
• Focuses attention externally
• Begins to narrow their awareness

You can then start to guide the natural responses that occur when someone stares at a fixed point:

“As you continue looking at that spot for a while, do your eyelids want to blink?
Will those lids begin to blink together or separately? Slowly or quickly?”

Notice what is happening here:

• Blinking is normal; you simply draw their awareness to it.
• You offer alternatives (together/separately, slowly/quickly) where any outcome supports trance.

You can then begin to link their natural responses to growing comfort:

“Will they close all at once or flutter all by themselves first?
Will those eyes close more and more as you get more and more comfortable?”

The client’s blinking and eventual eye closure are treated as signs and facilitators of increasing comfort and trance.

Once the eyes are closing or closed, you can deepen and stabilise the experience:

“That’s fine. Can those eyes remain closed as your comfort deepens like when you go to sleep?
Can that comfort continue more and more so that you’d rather not even try to open your eyes?
Or would you rather try and find you cannot?”

Here, the questions:

• Normalise the experience (like going to sleep)
• Introduce the idea of effortless inability (not opening the eyes)
• Offer a choice in how they discover that experience

You can then shift their focus fully inward:

“And how soon will you forget about them altogether because your unconscious wants to dream?”

Now attention is no longer on the eyes, but on the unfolding inner experience.

Hand Levitation Induction Using Questions

In a levitation induction, you combine physical positioning with carefully paced questions.

You might start by positioning the hands:

“Can you feel comfortable resting your hands gently on your thighs?”
[You demonstrate the position.]

You refine the posture:

“That’s right, without letting them touch each other.
Can you let those hands rest ever so lightly so that the fingertips just barely touch your thighs?”

You then begin to direct attention to subtle sensations that can later evolve into levitation:

“That’s right. As they rest ever so lightly, do you notice how they tend to lift up a bit all by themselves with each breath you take?”

This question invites the client to imagine or notice a tiny upward movement linked to breathing.

You develop the phenomenon gradually:

“Do they begin to lift even more lightly and easily by themselves as the rest of your body relaxes more and more?”

Here, relaxation and levitation are linked. As one increases, so does the other.

You can then introduce differentiation and natural variation:

“As that goes on, does one hand or the other or maybe both continue lifting even more?
And does that hand stay up and continue lifting higher and higher, bit by bit, all by itself?”

The questions assume lifting is occurring and simply invite the unconscious to decide which hand, how far, and how easily.

You may then introduce an option for the second hand:

“Does the other hand want to catch up with it, or will the other hand relax in your lap? That’s right.”

Either outcome is acceptable, and both keep the client engaged in inner exploration.

You continue to refine the quality of movement:

“And does that hand continue lifting with these slight little jerking movements,
or does the lifting get smoother and smoother as the hand continues upward toward your face?
Does it move more quickly or slowly as it approaches your face with deepening comfort?”

Here you acknowledge both jerky and smooth movements as valid, integrating any natural twitching into the hypnotic process.

You can then set a clear unconscious signal for deeper trance:

“Does it need to pause a bit before it finally touches your face so you’ll know you are going into a trance?
And it won’t touch until your unconscious is really ready to let you go deeper, will it?”

Now, the moment of touch becomes a meaningful marker of deeper trance, controlled by the unconscious.

You then deepen further and link the hand’s movement to internal change:

“And will your body automatically take a deeper breath when that hand touches your face as you really relax and experience yourself going deeper? That’s right.”

The deeper breath is both a sign and a facilitator of deepening trance.

Finally, you allow the experience to complete itself:

“And will you even bother to notice the deepening comfortable feeling when that hand slowly returns to your lap all by itself?
And will your unconscious be in a dream by the time that hand comes to rest.”

The entire sequence:

• Begins with simple positioning
• Develops subtle sensations into clear hypnotic phenomena
• Links external movements with internal states
• Ends with a natural, self-completing return of the hand

A Simple Format for Creating Your Own Questions

As you begin to experiment with question-based suggestions, you may find it useful to adopt a simple mental template. For example:

1. Notice and utilise what is already happening
   “As you sit there, do you notice…?”
2. Link it to comfort or trance
   “…does that comfort begin to spread…?”
3. Offer options, all of which support your intention
   “Does it grow stronger first in your hands or your shoulders…?”
4. Invite the unconscious to choose timing and manner
   “And how soon will you notice that deepening…?”

Over time, this becomes a natural way of speaking. Questions stop being mere requests for information and become one of your most powerful tools for guiding experience gently and respectfully, while allowing the client’s unconscious to do the real work.