Written by Eugene Morgan
Milton Erickson often uses surprise and shock to break up the barriers of the conscious mind. Surprises are meant to be delivered unexpectedly to the person. In life when we’re presented with something unexpectedly, our conscious mind is temporarily off-balance. This unbalance of the conscious mind awakens the unconscious mind. This creates an unconscious search to make sense out of what just happened.
Erickson capitalizes on this by giving his subjects positive suggestions to their unconscious mind, this is after telling them shocking statements. The suggestions are then appraised, evaluated, and reviewed by subject’s unconscious mind before accepting or rejecting it. If the suggestions are useful for the subject, then the unconscious mind will accepted it. Hopefully, a seed is planted and we wait and see what grows.