Some people hold the expectation that trance will make them oblivious to their external environment and that their experience while in hypnotic trance will be visual, much like looking at a movie. Depending upon the individual, these expectations may lead to confusion or disappointment.

While in trance, consciousness is capable of operating at several levels simultaneously. For example, you will be able to respond to questions about your experience(s) while under hypnosis. Likewise, especially in the early stages of trance, you may be able to hear other sounds such as a car honking outside the office window or a telephone ringing in the background. Our mind is a "multi-tasking" tool and such experiences are normal. Rather than allowing external sounds to become a distraction, use them as a cue to focus more inwardly. With the exception of your therapist's voice, these other sounds typically become "background" the longer you remain in trance with your attention remaining fixed upon your own personal experience. In short order, they will no longer enter your consciousness.

Often there is an inclination to analyze our experience while having it. Our "left brain" is used to standing back, observing, and critiquing our experience...and ultimately this can distance you from a full immersion. As with outer distractions, if you become aware of an "inner dialogue" about your perceptions, use this as a cue to go deeper. Especially if your session is being tape recorded, you will have a lifetime to analyze what happened during your session. But create a mindset not to begin doing so until after your hypnosis session is complete.

Our culture places great emphasis upon sight and vision, and many people expect that their trance experience will start off visually, and will begin much like turning on a movie projector. Please discard this expectation. For most, entry into trance begins subtly as the linear mind yields its control only gradually. Your experience during trance, especially in the early stages, may be predominantly through an "inner voice", an "inner knowing", through a sense of touch, or some combination or subset of all of your senses. There is no "right way" to be in trance except your own way. In many, perhaps most, cases initial entry into trance is not a visual process but often the visual sense will "kick in" as your trance becomes deeper and you become more familiar and comfortable with this altered state of consciousness.

Trance awareness does not operate in linear time. When in trance your mind will be able to draw upon the wisdom and knowledge of this present life, even while your consciousness is thoroughly immersed in Past Life or Between Life imagery in the world of spirit. For example, based upon the style of clothing worn by characters that appear in consciousness or the architectural forms that predominate it may be possible to deduce a date or location in which the witnessed events of past lives unfolded. This determination may be based upon the accessibility of facts that are known in this life.