I want you to sleep what seems to be a very, very long time, and you'll feel rested and comfortable, as if you had slept for eight hours, then I'm going to awaken you. I can count backward, from 20 to 1, and then you'll be awake. At 15 you'll be one-quarter awake; at 10, you'll be one-half awake; at 5 you'll be three-quarters awake, and at 1 you'll be fully awake. All right now, I'm going to count backward. 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15 - one-quarter awake - 13, 12, 11, 10, and 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 - and half asleep - 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. Take a deep breath and go way deep asleep. You are, are you not? You can nod your head. You are, are you not? (Subject nods.)

Now I'm going to awaken you. And at ten, you'll be half awake, and at five, almost awake. I'm going to have you stand up to do that. Just stand up, Doctor, just stand up while you're still asleep. 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15 - one-quarter of the way awake - 14, 13, 12, 11, 10 - and half awake You're beginning to get more and more awake. 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Wide awake! How are you? I can count by fours. That's one of the things children like to learn. They start out 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 - and deep asleep. Then you can count backward by lives - 15, 10, 5, 1 - wide awake. Tell me, how did you feel, Doctor?

SUBJECT
Very relaxed, very good.

ERICKSON
What happened when I started counting backward, then started suddenly forward?

SUBJECT
You get more and more conscious of what's going on around you, of people and sounds. Then all of a sudden, bam, everything goes back and you start sagging all over again.

ERICKSON
All right, thanks very much. (Subject starts back to his seat.) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. Take a deep breath and deep asleep. You may think all of this a bit dramatic. But sometimes you have to do this in order to get people to understand that you can attract a person's attention, even when he is doing something, such as walking across the floor. You can secure his attention and get his response very readily, no matter what other activity is going on. It ought to give you a confidence in your own office. Regardless of the disturbance created by patients in the waiting room, your nurse rattling things, or whatever does happen, you can expect your patient to do his particular task. It is not an