We slip into trance constantly—doomscrolling, zoning out in meetings, losing track of time in the feed. Most of the trances we enter are engineered to harness our attention for someone else’s profit. But what if we learned to enter trance on purpose, to redirect that same faculty toward our own transformation?
This seminar treats hypnosis as a practice of attentional sovereignty: the deliberate use of focused awareness to create a state change in consciousness. Drawing from Daniel Siegel’s interpersonal neurobiology, Lisa Feldman-Barrett’s work on the brain, and Jonathan Gottschall’s concept of the "storytelling mind," we’ll consider critical perspectives on trance as a bodily, mystical, and relational phenomenon—a mode of perception through which the self becomes porous and new potentials more accessible.
Through guided exercises, demonstrations, and group practice, participants will critically situate hypnosis traditions within a broader cultural context, experience trance phenomena firsthand, and explore their uses for creativity and self-direction. Together we’ll ask: how might reclaiming our attention become an act of resistance—one that brings us closer to a world we choose?
Led by hypnosis educator Désirée Eckert.