Dr. Wolinsky is an exciting writer and a powerful teacher. He shares insights into the trances we all experience and that prevent us from being present. This book changed my therapy practice and my life.

This book was my first by this author. I had read a review that recommended this as a good initiation to Wolinsky's writing. I thought it was very interesting, but it seemed to me it was a bit difficult to digest. I ordered another book by this author called "Quantum Conciousness" and found it to be a better introductory work. After reading that book, I am on my second read of this writing and have a better handle on the material. It's very interesting and I don't regret the purchase.

A must for the searcher. Refraiming the current beliefs of "normal" and "reality".
Read it and re-live

This book gives you techniques to heal inside out.I recommend everyone who has internal issues but want to free themselves from chaos...this is the book to read.

This is an amazing approach to further my understanding of emotion and behavior.It is written with a clarity and thought provoking intensity that motivates the reader to cognitively explore their actions and reactions to everday situations.It provides a magnificent opportunity to identify our unique 'maps of our worlds' and encourages the layperson to challenge the view
I am what I am ?

Yes, you're in a trance right now. That's the essence of Stephen Wolinksy's exceptional 'Trances People Live'. Most people associate the idea of trance with some movie Svengali swinging a pocket watch in your face and moaning, "You're getting sleepy." Nothing could be further from the truth.

Trance states are everyday, habitual states of mind that have an incredible range of structure and depth. For example, trances while driving your car: Ever blown past your exit? Ever pulled into work and suddenly realized you don't really remember the whole trip of driving there? Ever forgot to go when the light turned green because you were daydreaming? Ever "zone out" driving down the interstate at night as the road dashes in the headlights are coming at you clip, clip, clip? Of course you have, and all are examples of trance.

Trances while driving are one thing but trances about who we are and what we believe about the world are another thing altogether, and they can cause us a tremendous amount of suffering. Basically, a trance is focusing your attention on something to the exclusion of all else. We do this ALL the time, which is another reason we we don't see our trances, because we're in trances more often than not. The fact is we don't recognize our trances during daily life, and that's also part of how trances stay in place. Are there areas in your life where you feel stuck? Chances are there's a trance holding you in that "stuck" place.

Wolinsky has a wonderfully direct way of describing trance in all it's forms and manifestations. He studied under both Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and Milton Erickson, and as a result, has a fascinating view of trance. Essentially, the client walks in the door with their trance already "on". The therapist observes the client's trance (or trances) and assists them in the process of dismantling them. The therapist's job isn't to change someone's trance so much as it is to assit the client in eliminating their trances, to dehypnotize them. From an Eastern perspective, this process of dehypnosis is at the core of Awakening or Enlightenment.

'Trances People Live' is filled with tools and techniques for the therapist as well as those interested in working with their own trances. As an Integral Consultant, Speaker, and Trainer and certified clinical hypnotherapist, I can attest to the effectiveness of Wolinsky's model. Trances exist not only within individuals but organzations, too, and at all levels.

After reading the book, it becomes a lot of fun to engage in "trancespotting". You'll be amazed as you start seeing and hearing them EVERYWHERE.

Wolinsky explores these and other ideas in detail in later books such as Quantum Psychology, The Dark Side Of The Inner Child, and The Way Of The Human Trilogy, but start with this one first. It's a great read.

This book is geared toward practicing hypnotherapists. Dr. Wolsinsky is a student of the Milton Erickson school of hypnotherapy but has brought his work much further. Wolsinksy gives us his idea that all disorders can be thought of as "Deep Trance Phenomenon" and there is no need to induce a secondary trance. Instead you can/should work with the orignal trance that is causing the disorder. Most of this book discusses the therapy process and specific 'trances' and how to deal with them.

If you are a normal Person who reads self-help books to go beyond your blockages or "Trances" then you will get more confused reading this one. It's an excellent book for the practising Psychotherapist or Healer but I would rate it one star for understanding and practising what this book entails for the ordinary person.I had to go for a 3 star for the excellent contexts for the professional.This is not an ordinary Self-Help book for the ordinary person.

Wolinsky offers the compelling argument that, unless we are enlightened, we are always in a state of trance. As an example, he speaks of a day in the life of someone flowing through various trance states: the "playing with the kitty trance," the "walking on the beach trance," the "fighting with the spouse" trance, the "making up with the spouse" trance, etc. In each of these states, the narrowed focus of attention induces a trance state in which only that particular reality is experienced.

I trained in clinical hypnotherapy, but it was not until I read this book that I got an important and powerful piece: our attention/intention and every word we say to ourselves and others serve as post-hypnotic suggestions that alter our perceptions of reality--and thereby reality itself--for good or ill. Because most of us are not conscious that we are in trance, we have less say in what happens to us; the inputs from the world around us operate on us unconsciously and largely negatively. It was exciting to me to realize that much of the world is out of touch with the power we all have to create the kinds of realities we desire, but that this does not have to be so. Armed with the ideas and tools in this book, we CAN change reality, each and every one of us, and shift the consciousness of the whole planet to a higher level.

In summary, this book has had a profound influence on the way I live and work in this world, on my understanding of human behavior, and on my ability to help marshal in the kind of world we hoped would come with the dawning of the new millennium. Yes, I would go so far as to say this is an extremely important work. I am now reading Wolinsky's other titles on quantum psychology with great interest and relish.