"Every breath you take, you will go deeper into trance for me.
"I know. It doesn't sound like much of an induction, does it? You were probably expecting something to do with hypnotic spirals, or glittering crystals, or an endless recitation of your body parts and how they were relaxing one by one. But really, I don't need all that. You don't need all that. Your own mind does most of the work when you go into trance. All I really need to do is show you the way.
"And now that I've shown you the way, it's easy to slide into deeper trance for me. Because you know that I can hypnotize you. You believe that, deep down in your unconscious mind. You've accepted the idea that my words have hypnotic power. And every time you take a breath, it reminds you of that suggestion I made, and your subconscious reminds you to go a little deeper into hypnotic trance for me. I don't need to do anything. You don't need to do anything. It just happens with every relaxing, easy breath.
"And the more you notice it happening, the easier you go into trance and the deeper you go. Once you start to think about how relaxing it is to take another deep breath for me, you find that you pay more attention to the sound of your own breathing, the feeling of your chest rising in and out. You focus on your own breaths, just like you might focus on a spiral or a pendant. You might even find yourself comfortably watching your own chest moving with each breath, focused intently on that motion as well. Hypnosis is a state of focus. Trance is a state of relaxation and concentration. And with every breath, you become more focused and more relaxed. You go deeper.
"And perhaps there are times when your breathing speeds up a little, just from the anticipation of trance. You breathe a little faster, wondering if you can really go as deep as I suggest, if you can really relax when you're so excited about the idea of going into a deep hypnotic trance for me...but every single one of those breaths sends you deeper, relaxes you more and more, until you find that your breathing just slows right back down into that slow, gentle, lazy, easy rhythm that feels most relaxing. And then you just go deeper still.
"It's so inexorable, so inevitable. You just keep going deeper with every breath you take. Maybe you start to surface just a little, but then you take another deep breath, and it sends you right back down again for me. You might try to hold your breath, just for a moment or two, just to see if you can stop yourself from going deeper into trance for me...but all that does is make your lungs ache with tension. You fight to hold that breath, fight to stop the trance, but it just gets harder and harder until the air flows out from you in a whoosh. And it feels so good to relax that tension and take another deep breath that you go ten times as deep as before.
"So you see, you can't fight it. Every time you try to fight, you just go ten times deeper. It's easier just to relax into the trance, relax into the warm, lazy feel of those slow, even breaths and listen to my words. The only reason you ever wanted to fight it in the first place was to feel the relaxation of giving in. The only reason to hold your breath is to feel that rush of relaxation when you let it all out and go even deeper.
"But soon, even that feels too much like effort. Too much like work. It's so hard to think about your breathing now, because you're so relaxed that it just happens all on its own. Just like your descent into deep hypnosis; that happens all on its own, too. You're letting it happen, and it feels so good now just to let things happen. All you need to do is relax. All you need to do is breathe. All you need to do is go deeper. Your chest finds its own rhythm of ascent and descent, the perfect rhythm to send you into trance. You can let that happen, too, as you relax and listen to my words.
