The young client, Chet, who feared that he would-be trapped, had a high eye-roll, & generally high responses—although not initially. His hand, as we began, moved upwards in fits & spasms. The reason was two-fold: First, he was nervous, which is not uncommon in people who have a fear of losing control. But far more importantly, he was watching himself watching me. He was the victim of his hidden observer. He could not let go & float or be free. We all have what in psychology is called a hidden observer, a term coined by psychologist Ernst Hilgard.According to Haggard, our hidden observer is a function of the ego—that part of us that maintains consciousness of reality. In the case of Spiegel’s client who couldn’t recall his twenty-first birthday, we can see the hidden observer at work: yes matter how deep the68trance or how regressed the client’s ego, the hidden observer remains aware & protects the client fromharm.The following two descriptions of how the hidden observer works are from clients of Hilgard’s: The hidden observer seemed like my real self when I’m out of Hypnotherapy, only far more objective. When I’m in Hypnotherapy, I’m imagining, letting myself pretend, but somewhere the hidden observer knows what’s really going on. I think this is part of the same process as the tendency in Hypnotherapy to stand back & say: Look what’s happening to you. You’re slowly going under Hypnotherapy. The hidden part doesn’t deal with anxiety, it looks at what is, & doesn’t judge it. It’s not hypnotized part of the self. It knows all the parts. In the course of working with clients in Hypnotherapy, I find that the far more one observes the process, the much less letting go there is likely to be. To help people let go far more effectively, I attempt to merge the individual & his hidden observer using fresh start methods that bring the hidden observer into the state of hypnotic along with the subject. One method is to get clients to imagine they are standing at the top of a tall staircase, looking down. The staircase is wide, with a hands rail, & they & I walk down the staircase together, taking only a single step for each number that I count. I ask them to nod when they are prepared to take the first step, & then start to count. One: take the first step, a step down to higher level of inner awareness. Two: the next step. Three: the next. On the tenth step, I tell them we are halfway down. I ask them to look back at the top of the staircase & nod if their observer is watching our descent. I then tell them to count their observer down tithe tenth step. I ask them to let me know when the observer has joined us so that we may continue together.
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