your conscious mind as a lead system will get you into a lot of trouble. Einstein said that we cannot solve a problem from the same level at which it was created; we must generate a new level that "transcends yet includes" the previous level (to borrow Ken Wilber's phrase.) That's where trance is needed, when you need to create new realities.
Interestingly, this is precisely where a person is most likely to develop symptoms. If you give a person something called a "life changes check list" that lists these sorts of major life events - marriage, birth, death, divorce, illness, job change, residence change, etc. - and ask them to check any that they have experienced within their family in the past six months or a year, you find out that the number of checks is an excellent predictor of who's most likely to develop a medical or psychological symptom. Does that make sense? The more major identity changes, the more at risk you are for developing a symptom. Interestingly, it doesn't matter if the changes are positive or negative; it is the fact that it is an identity change that makes the difference.
In the utilization approach, we see these symptoms as natural trances that have been triggered by a pattern break in the conscious mind. That is, anytime you break the box of conscious identity, a trance naturally occurs. The conscious mind can't handle the new challenge so it falls apart; the unconscious activates in response, ready to create a new identity. But whether this new identity is created or not depends on a person's capacity to positively utilize the naturally occurring trance state. That is, if you disconnect or curse or otherwise negatively relate to the natural trance, it will show up as a negative trance. That's how we see stuff like anxieties, depressions, addictions, etc.; as attempts by the unconscious to transform identity that are not being positively accepted and utilized by the person's conscious self. Trance can be negative or positive, depending on the relationship to it. And you are the relationship!! Let me repeat that: YOU are the relationship. It's what YOU do in relation to your unconscious that determines whether it's a resource or a problem. This is great news, isn't it? That means that if you find a problem state, it means that it's an unconscious process that's trying to wake up into the world...but for whatever reason, the previous relationships with it have been negative. No problem. By setting up a generative trance, you can find a new, positive relationship with it, and in doing so change a problem into a solution.
I hope you're getting a sense of the difference between traditional hypnosis and Ericksonian hypnosis. Traditional hypnosis sees trance as an artificial state where you do programming; Ericksonian hypnosis sees trance
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