Ideomotor responses

Ideomotor responses are simply physical responses. The importance for hypnotherapy is such responses arise from unconscious thought processes. It is therefore possible to utilize ideomotor responses to tap into the workings of the unconscious mind. Most people are not familiar with ideomotor responses and so we begin our discussion with Chevreul’s pendulum as a way to become familiar with this important and useful technique.

Chevreul's pendulum

There are many uses of Chevreul’s pendulum that include a test of hypnotizability and as a method of ‘communicating’ with the unconscious mind. In this latter respect it is an alternative to the finger ideomotor response, which we discuss below, or the method of automatic writing. The principle on which it is based is very straightforward. Individuals respond to suggestion, and included in the suggestion can be given specific instructions about how to respond at the unconscious level. These unconscious responses manifest themselves in very small muscle movements – small enough to direct a pendulum to move in a certain manner. There is, then, two parts to this technique. Constructing a pendulum and accompanying circle; and, second, giving suggestions appropriate to a response with the pendulum.

Pendulum and circle

The pendulum comprises a thread about eight to ten inches long at the end of which is any small light object. The object should be heavy enough to keep the thread taught when hanging freely; while the thread should be long enough (including the light object) to hang freely from the fingers while the elbow is resting on the table. The object can be a small ball, a ring, or a crystal. It does not matter what it is, what matters is that you can direct your attention quite easily to it. In this respect a bright object may be better, but it is purely a matter of taste. It is even possible to purchase pendulums of this type from stores specializing in alternative therapies and goods for the Aquarian Age. Such purchases have the advantage that the thread is very thin and is attached to a crystal such that the crystal hangs suitably.

The next step is to construct a circle. Although this is not essential, it facilitates the technique. Draw a circle in the centre of a piece of paper or on a card that you can reuse. A typical A4 sheet is quite suitable. The circle should be clear. Inside the circle are drawn two lines at right angles and which cross at the centre of the circle. It may even be useful to identify the lines crossing with a heavy dot, since it is over this spot that the pendulum will rest.

There are at least four directions that the pendulum can move:

1. vertically
2. horizontally
3. clockwise
4. anti-clockwise

More directions can be used but a simple approach, with just these four directions, is likely to give better results and lead to less confusion.

Using the pendulum

Rest gently on your elbow with the pendulum held between the thumb and forefinger. The pendulum when resting should be positioned over the centre of the circle. The whole arrangement must be comfortable and free from stress. The seating and the height of the table may be significant here. For instance, too high a table will place you in a strained position, and also may make it difficult for you to focus on the object at the end of the thread.

The purpose is to use the four directions indicated above to specify four responses. The four responses are:

1. Yes
2. No
3. I don’t know
4. I don’t want to answer that question

There is no intension here of assuming the responses are to be assigned in the same order as in the first list. On the contrary, the technique should be used to establish the correspondence, as we shall explain shortly. The responses should not be anything other than those indicated. You must narrow down the questions if you wish to obtain any clarification. The last two responses are quite important. You may simply not know the answer to a particular question and no matter how the question is worded this will still be true. The last response is most important in therapy in establishing some form of unconscious resistance.

The instructions for using the pendulum go something like this.

Exercise: Using the pendulum

Hold the pendulum over the centre of the circle. Now move it gently up and down … Now move it from right to left … Now swing the pendulum gently clockwise … Now do the same anti-clockwise. (This is only required on the first occasion and its aim is to give you a sense of what the different swings feel like. (It also sends a signal to the unconscious mind!)

Now return the pendulum to the centre of the circle and rest gently. From now on don't move the pendulum by any voluntary movements. Any movement that is to take place must be involuntary. You are first going to establish which direction your unconscious mind wants to use to indicate the four responses. The four responses are: yes, no, I don't know, and I don't want to answer that question. You will take each one in turn, and you will find the pendulum swinging in the direction indicating that response. You should also repeat to yourself the indicated response, while looking at the object at the end of the thread. Begin with the response, ‘yes’. Just think of ‘yes’ and say the word ‘yes’ to yourself while you concentrate on the pendulum. The pendulum will soon begin to swing in one of the four directions. From now on this direction of the swing will always indicate the answer ‘yes’ to any question you ask yourself.

You then do the same for each of the other three responses. Once the direction for each response has been established, a question and answer session can begin. How useful this will be depends on a number of factors.

1. How clear you are at giving questions that can be answered by means of the four responses.

2. What the problem is that you are investigating.

3. The degree of your suggestibility.

4. Whether you have any unconscious resistances.

5. How you take to this particular method of inquiry.

Why is ideomotor signalling important?

Not everyone is a good subject and not everyone will follow suggestions immediately. A client needs time to assimilate a suggestion and time to decide whether and/or when they wish to respond. This is as true in self-hypnosis as it is with heterohypnosis.

In heterohypnosis how can the hypnotist know when their client is responding as they want them to respond when asked to think about something? If the hypnotherapist says something like, “Your arm is getting lighter and lighter and soon it will begin to rise.” Then it is quite clear if and when this suggestion is being followed. On the other hand, if the therapist says something like, “I want you to recall the last time you had such-and-such a feeling”. How will the therapist know that they have recalled such a feeling? How much time should a therapist give their client to recall such a feeling? The problem, of course, is that the therapist has no idea what is going on in the head of their client. Even more difficult is when the therapist suggests something along the lines, “Your unconscious will know if you are prepared to do such-and-such even if your conscious mind does not know.” Now if this were truly the case, then how will the therapist know (not to mention the client) that the unconscious does know such-and-such and is prepared to do it? It is here where ideomotor signals are useful.

Typical ideomotor signals are:

            Saying yes or no

            Nodding or shaking the head

            Raising the hand (or finger) to indicate yes (Not doing so implying no.)

But these should not be haphazardly used. The therapist can quite readily create these ideomotor responses very early in a session and then use them repeatedly. We shall describe some of these in a moment. Once the ideomotor response is established, then the art is asking the right questions and seeing the response.

But there is another important reason for using ideomotor signals. A person may not consciously know the answer to a specific question but the unconscious does, especially where the problem resides with the unconscious in the first place. Or the individual may not be able to consciously recall when a problem first began, but the unconscious does. The unconscious has access to everything the person has thought, felt and experienced throughout their life. Ideomotor signalling, then, can be used to pinpoint when something occurred, or pinpoint the stimulus that first led to the problem under investigation.

Ideomotor signally is important because it can be used to illicit answers to a whole variety of questions. Some simply ones are the following.

            When you are ready to do something

            If you are prepared to do something

            When a problem first arose

            What the cause of a problem might be

            The person contributing to your problem

            Whether your unconscious is will to contribute to a solution to your problem

            Whether you are prepared to give up something

            Whether your problem is serving a purpose and what that purpose is

Finger signalling

The pendulum is just one particular ideomotor signally device. Another, which is particularly useful for the self-hypnotist is that of finger signals. This technique can be used in both heterohypnosis and self-hypnosis. It is useful to consider it in heterohypnosis first because a therapist will introduce the procedure with a preamble about the unconscious mind. The therapist may begin explaining that there is an inner mind, the unconscious mind that contains knowledge on everything that the individual has done and feels: knowledge of all past experiences from the time the person was born. (Notice here the implied engram theory of memory.) More important the therapist may continue that such knowledge may not be known by the conscious mind or that the conscious mind may have forgotten about the events. The therapist then says that the unconscious mind can take control of the index finger on each hand. Although it is possible for the therapist to choose whether the right or left index finger will represent the answer ‘yes’, it is better to let the client do this. So the therapist continues by saying that the unconscious mind will now take control of the index finger on each hand and raising one index finger will indicate that the unconscious mind wants to answer ‘yes’ to a question it is given and the other to answer ‘no’. The therapist then asks the client to think about ‘yes’ and as they think about ‘yes’ their unconscious mind will raise either their right index finger or their left index finger. The therapist says just keep thinking about ‘yes’ and soon one of your index fingers will rise. Let us suppose this is the right index finger. The therapist may say, “That’s fine, we now know that your unconscious mind can answer ‘yes’ to any question I give by raising your right index finger.”

Although it is obvious that raising the left index finger is going to indicate the answer ‘no’, the whole process is gone through just as for the right index finger. Now the pendulum allowed the answer, ‘I don’t know’ and ‘I don’t want to answer that’. These can still be utilized with finger signalling. The therapist may say that if the unconscious mind does not know the answer to a question, then it can raise both index fingers – it can signal the answer is both ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Finally, the therapist can indicate to the client that if the unconscious mind does not want to answer a particular question then it can do so by not allowing either index finger to rise. Be careful here. It may be that at this particular moment of time the unconscious mind does not want to answer the question, but that it still may do so in the future. In fact, this can be elicited by asking, ‘Will the unconscious mind be prepared to answer this question in the future?’

Having explained the way the procedure works in heterohypnosis we now present a script for the self-hypnotist. You are assumed to be in a trance, which does not even need to be a deep trance state.

Script #1 Ideomotor signalling

In a moment I will think of the word ‘yes’ and as I think of the word ‘yes’ one of my index finger will rise. It may be the right index finger or the left index finger, but whichever finger my unconscious wants to use to answer ‘yes’ to any question I give, it will raise that index finger. [Repeat this a few times and wait for a response.]

Now think of the word ‘yes’, say the word in your mind’s eye and wait for the index finger to respond. You may find your mind keeps switching between your right and left index finger, as if the unconscious mind is attempting to make a decision as which index finger to rise. On the first occasion you may have to repeat the instructions again. Under no circumstances should you voluntarily raise your right index finger. The response must be involuntary. One way to establish the difference is to voluntarily raise your right index finger before you start this instruction. The response while in hypnosis is quite different. You may find your index finger twitches and then begins to rise rather slowly. It may just shoot up, or it may take some time.

Now do the same with your left index finger and the word ‘no’. You can now definitely indicate the left index finger indicates the answer ‘no’ because the unconscious mind has already decided that the right index finger will indicate the answer ‘yes’. After having established a ‘yes’ response, you may find the ‘no’ response is much quicker. You also continue to establish responses for ‘I don’t know’ and ‘I don’t want to answer that’ in the following manner.

In a moment my unconscious mind will lift my left index finger indicating the answer ‘no’ to any question I will give it. [Keep thinking of the word ‘no’ and wait for the left index finger to rise.]

When my unconscious mind does not know the answer to any question I give it then it will raise both index fingers, my unconscious will indicate that the answer is both ‘yes’ and ‘no’ because it simply does not know. And when my unconscious does not want to answer a question I give it, then it will not raise either my right or my left index finger.

After establishing ‘yes’, ‘no’, etc responses you need to verify the signalling. You need to ask yourself a question to which the answer is obviously ‘yes’. E.g., suppose you are at home in your living room, then you may ask, “Am I sitting at home in my living room?” Next ask yourself a question to which the answer is obviously ‘no’. E.g., “Am I 55?” when you are say 25. Do the same with a question you clearly do not know the answer to. The final response cannot be so obviously verified and arises during an investigation into a problem in which you may be reluctant to answer at the unconscious level some question directly.

You are now ready to utilize the finger ideomotor signalling. You begin by recalling which finger indicates which response.

In a moment, I will ask myself a series of questions. I will direct these questions to my unconscious mind. When my unconscious mind wants to indicate the answer ‘yes’ it will raise my right index finger. If my unconscious wants to indicate the answer ‘no’ to my question, then it will raise my left index finger. If the answer to my question is both ‘yes’ and ‘no’, then my unconscious mind will raise both index fingers. And if my unconscious does not want to answer the question at this moment of time then it will raise neither my right nor my left index finger.

Some comments on this procedure are worth noting.

1. All responses must be involuntary. At no time should you attempt any voluntary movement. If nothing happens, then this is an appropriate response.

2. On the first few trials make the questions simple.

3. All questions must be unambiguous otherwise you will receive a constant ‘yes/no’ response or no response at all.

4. Avoid the use of a double negative.

5. Do not make up multiple questions. Break these down into a series of simple questions. E.g., Do not ask, “Should I take up a new job and move to London ?” This involves two questions: (1) “Should I take up a new job?” and (2) “Should I move to London ?” Even more, the answer to the second question is conditional on the answer to the first!

6. You need to give your questions some serious thought before you engage in self-hypnosis. It is useful to write them out and eliminate ambiguities, etc.

7. It is possible to elaborate on the technique in order to either
       (a) indicate the degree of emotional involvement
       (b) indicate that the unconscious is still processing a suggestion.

8. If you are getting no response to a particular question (and assuming you are generally responding), then you may begin a subsidiary set of questions. E.g.,
               “Is no response indicating that the unconscious does not know?”
   This almost certainly will elicit either a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ response. If ‘yes’ then that’s the end of the matter. If ‘no’, then further questions are called for. E.g.,
               ”Does the unconscious mind not want to answer this question at this time?”
   Suppose the answer to this question is ‘yes’. Then you can go further.
               “Is the unconscious mind prepared to answer the question in the future?”
   This line of questioning is more important when you are trying to establish something that is emotionally upsetting.

9. When trying to get an answer about the age when something happened, then you can go in stages. Assumed possible responses are in square brackets.
               “Did this happen before I was 20?” [Yes]
               “Did this happen before I was 10? [No]
   You may then proceed as follows.

I am going to count down from 20 to 10 and when the incident occurred my ‘yes’ finger will rise.

This does, of course, presuppose the event is unique. We shall discuss this further below.

Emotional involvement and processing the question

You may want to know how concerned you are with a problem. Most of us are aware that we think we are not consciously concerned about a problem but we are unconsciously so. We know this because our sleep is disturbed, temper is short, etc. But we often do not know why. The technique is approached in two stages. The first is to find out exactly what the unconscious mind is concerned about: what we are worried about unconsciously. In formulating the question you must make it clear that you are directing it to the unconscious mind.

Script #2 Ideomotor signalling for an unconscious worry

In a moment I am going to ask my unconscious what it is worried about. If the unconscious is at all worried about what I am asking then it will raise my ‘yes’ finger.
     “Am I unconsciously worried about …?”
     “Am I unconsciously worried about …?”

Care needs to be exercised in this question/answer session. You may be unconsciously worried about more than one thing. So keep going through the list. The list is best thought of before you engage in self-hypnosis.

Suppose three things are worrying your unconscious mind. Let us simply call them A, B and C. What you next want to do is rank them. So continue as follows, where again possible responses are shown in square brackets.

“Is A of most concern to my unconscious mind?” [No]

“Is B of most concern to my unconscious mind?” [Yes]

You now do not need to go to C. Having established that B is of the most concern, then you want to find out the next issue of most concern to your unconscious mind. One question is sufficient.

“Is A more of a concern to my unconscious than C?”

If ‘yes’ is the response, then the ranking is B, A, C. If ‘no’ is the response, then the ranking is B, C, A. (We rule out equal concerns.)

Next you want to know how concerned your unconscious mind is. You can do the following with each concern in turn. Here we shall just consider concern B, the most serious one that the unconscious mind is worried about.

My unconscious mind has indicated that it is worried or concerned about B. In a moment, I will ask how much concerned. The more my unconscious mind is concerned about B, the higher my ‘yes’ index finger will rise. [Emphasise the word higher.]
How concerned is my unconscious about B?

If you are very unconsciously concerned about B, then the finger can shoot up; it may rise a lot pointing upward. It may even pull up your whole arm if the unconscious is very concerned!

Processing a question

What about processing a question. Even the unconscious mind needs time to process a question. Time to process, time to search, time to consider alternatives. Suppose you want to give up smoking. Suppose contrary to popular belief that you consider this helps you handle stressful situation. It does not matter whether this is actually true; what matters is that you believe it to be so for you. You may then want your unconscious mind to find an alternative way of handling stress. It is necessary to ensure that it is a better way of handling stress than smoking. Second, there may be many alternative better ways to handle stress. The finger ideomotor response can help in this. The instructions go as follows.

Script #3 Ideomotor signally for processing a question

I want my unconscious mind to consider alternative and better ways to hand my stress other than by smoking. When it has considered as many alternatives as it wants to, my ‘yes’ index finger will rise. [Now wait until this happens.]

I would like my unconscious mind to consider the best of these alternatives. When it has done so, my ‘yes’ index finger will rise. I would like my unconscious mind to consider using this alternative for the next week. “Is the unconscious mind prepared to do this?”

The question/answers can progress. What matters is to give the unconscious mind time to do whatever it has to do; whatever you want it to do.

Establishing when something happened

The following instructions apply whether the event is unique or happened on more than one occasion. Suppose it is some event that you are trying to find that may have created a problem that you are now concerned about. Unfortunately, the event may not be unique. At this stage you are not trying to find out what the event is – you leave that for another session – what you are trying to establish is when some even happened. You are attempting to find out the event that is contributing to your present problem and not simply any old event. Your suggestions might go along the following lines.

Script #4 Ideomotor responses for establishing when something happened

In a moment I am going to count down from my present age of ___ and if in any year something happened that contributed to my present problem, then I will raise my ‘yes’ finger. [Now count down and make a mental note of the age. Then count up and see/feel if the same age or other ages are indicated.]

Of course, once you have found the year you can progress in the same way to find the month if that is useful. Then you can progress as above to establish exactly what the event was, unless it is obvious.

On the negative side, all this can take quite some time to establish, and sometimes the unconscious will indicate that it simply does not know. But this is more likely to be a result of poorly formulated questions. So long as the experience has happened, and so long as it is not a major trauma, then some indication of the problem can be obtained by this procedure.

Should I trust my responses

In response to this question the first aspect you must be absolutely clear about is whether your responses were purely involuntary. There must be no voluntary contribution to the response. The less sure you are that your response was involuntary the more careful you must be about accepting the response at face value. The more serious or important your question the more careful you must be. One way forward is to ask different aspects of the question. This will establish whether they support the initial response.

Let us suppose you wanted to know whether you should take up a new job that has been offered to you. You might under self-hypnosis and using ideomotor signalling ask yourself, “Should I accept the new job?” There are, of course, four possible responses

1.  yes

2.  no

3.  yes and no

4.  no response

What we are concerned about here is a ‘yes’ response about which you are not sure you gave an involuntary response. The same would apply to a ‘no’ response. There are two ways forward.

1.  You can ask the unconscious mind a whole series of subsidiary questions. E.g.,

(a) “Will I be happier if I take up the new job?”
(b) “Will my partner agree with me taking up the new job?”
(c) “Will the extra travelling become a burden to me?”
(d) “Will I find the change in lifestyle acceptable?”

            All this should help in clarifying the initial response.

2. Alternative is to go totally away from ideomotor responses and use visualization. The gist of the script is that you walk along a path and come on a fork. Going down one path sees you continuing in the present job. Seeing what you will be like over (say) the next five years. Going down the other path is to take up the new job. To see how you might be like over the next five years if you took up the new job. 

Of course, there is nothing preventing you from doing both. What is being emphasized here is a method of establishing how far you can accept the ideomotor response as the ‘right’ response – an involuntary response.

Another safeguard is worth considering. It may be that you will be happier with a new job but it is not a practical solution at the present time. This may be because of financial commitments or family commitments. Your new job may mean moving, which means your children going to a new school. You may be happier but will your children or your partner? No one can answer these questions other than you. But in self-hypnosis you have a better chance of seeing the issues in perspective and consider alternatives in a relaxed and dispassionate manner.

Nodding and shaking the head is another ideomotor signally used more in heterohypnosis than in self-hypnosis. Finger signalling, however, is far more flexible both for heterohypnosis and self-hypnosis.