Autogenic Trancework: Fundamentals and Basic Shapes

A new live online training in restorative, generative trance flow states for transformation and inner skill development

Welcome. If you're reading this, something about Autogenic Trancework has piqued your curiosity—and I'm glad it has.

The information on this page will give you a full overview of what this upcoming live online training is all about, what the phrase Autogenic Trancework really means, why it matters, and how it can serve you—whether for health, creative problem-solving, or what I call personal alchemy.

Let’s get into it.

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What Is Autogenic Trancework?
 

Autogenic means self-generated. So, yes—this is related to self-hypnosis—but I want to sketch a different angle.

Rather than a mechanical “technique” to control your mind or access some idealised “state,” Autogenic Trancework is about cultivating a practice: the skill of shifting from the rigidity of patterned thought into dynamic, restorative, creative trance flows.

These are not hypnotic “states” in the classic sense. They’re not passive or robotic. They’re alive. Dynamic. Rich. And they allow you to fall out of your stuck patterns and back into a more primordial, creative, adaptive self.

This is what I call trance flow: an ongoing, evolving relationship with your inner world that is both healing and generative.

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Why Is This Important?

Human beings are deeply patterned.

We walk the way we walk, talk the way we talk, think the way we think and react the way we react. For the most part, these patterned adaptations serve us— right up until the point they don’t. Maybe that's when we hit a problem they weren’t built to handle, or when we want to get something different out of our lives than what we are getting.

Autogenic Trancework is a practice of falling out of those limiting patterns, not by force or effort, but by rediscovering the dynamic, creative flow beneath them. It’s about accessing the deeper levels of intelligence within you—intelligences that are often shut out by overthinking, over-efforting, and narrow states of consciousness.

This work is about reconnecting with the deeper layers of your own being:

• Your restorative nature

• Your creative nature

• Your generative potential

It’s about developing the inner skills that help you become more fluid, more adaptive, more connected, and ultimately more free.

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Trance Isn’t a State. It’s a Flow.

Let’s clear up a common misunderstanding: trance isn’t one fixed state.

It’s not something you “get into” and “snap out of.”
It’s not a zombie mode or a passive daze.
And it’s definitely not mind control.

Trance—at least as we’ll be exploring it—is a continuum. A flow.

Sometimes it has a yin quality: calming, still, parasympathetic, restful. This kind of trance supports healing, memory consolidation, and regeneration. It’s metabolically restorative.

Sometimes it has a more yang quality: active, dynamic, interconnecting your various intelligences and helping you re-pattern outdated beliefs, shift your perspective, or find surprising new solutions to the challenges in your life.

This is why I don’t teach a “method.” I teach a skill set—a living, fluid craft that unfolds through practice.

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Fundamentals and Basic Shapes

You’ll notice this first training is titled Fundamentals and Basic Shapes. There’s a reason for that.

Let me share a personal story.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a comic book artist. But I couldn’t draw anything from my imagination—I could only copy. I eventually gave up, convinced I’d never make it.

Fast-forward a few decades: I’ve reengaged with drawing. And now, I see what was missing. I was trying to leap into complexity without understanding the fundamentals—the basic shapes that underlie all drawing. Cubes, cylinders, spheres. Once you can see and build with those, everything else becomes possible.

Autogenic Trancework is the same.

You don’t start with complexity. You start with core movements and principles—fundamentals. Things like:

• Expanding awareness into the field

• Connecting to centre and ground

• Using breath as an instrument of connection and transformation

• Tuning in to personal and archetypal resources and qualities

These are the top level “basic shapes” of trance. Once you have them, you can start to play, improvise, explore, and develop your own style—just like a jazz musician or martial artist or visual artist does.

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This Is Not Just About Formal Practice

While the focus of this training is on formal Autogenic Trancework—deliberate sessions where you enter these flows—the skills you gain tend to ingress into your daily living is many useful ways.

They will shape:

• How you meet challenges

• How you relate to your inner experience

• How you shift mood, attention, energy

• How you connect with others

• How you create in the world

This is deep inner skill development. It enriches not only your inner world, but also how you live.

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Influences & Inspirations

This approach draws from a range of disciplines, including:

• Eugene Gendlin’s Focusing

• Les Fehmi’s Open Focus

• Qigong and Daoist internal alchemy

• Milton Erickson and Stephen Gilligan’s hypnotic work

• Decades of personal practice, observation, and integration

It weaves together strands from all of these and invites you to bring your own intelligence, intuition, and curiosity to the process.

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For Practitioners Too: Inside-Out Skill Building

If you’re a change-worker, coach, or hypnotist, this training will absolutely deepen your capacity to work with others.

Because the truth is:

You can only really be an effective guide to the realms that you are familiar with yourself.

Much of changework is inner work, but people learn hypnotic facilitation from the outside-in - scripts, language patterns, inductions etc. Stuff that is meant to do things to other people! That all has its place. But Autogenic Trancework practice adds in a whole other dimension - knowing the inner realms personally. This is the inside-out approach - knowing from experience the rich, fluid realm of inner change.

When you know that realm from the inside, you become a better, more attuned, more flexible guide for others.

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A Word on Shamanic Trance (Sort Of)

I sometimes use the word shamanic here—but please don’t take this too literally.

What I don’t mean by this is any specific kind of cultural shamanism from any part of the world (I'm from North London). I mean it more symbolically: as a reference to the ancient, animistic human heritage we all come from way back in pre-history, where the inner world and outer world weren’t split apart—and trance was used for healing, vision, and connection.

In this training, we’ll be entering the edge-zones of what you might call “other realms” - the inner realms of your being, your potential, your deep connection with life.

That may sound esoteric. But this work is deeply grounded. And it’s deeply pragmatic. It helps you come back into the world differently—more whole, more creative, more attuned.

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How This Differs from My Earlier Work

If you’ve previously engaged with my Self-Hypnosis and Personal Alchemy program, you might be wondering: What’s the difference?

That program focused more on on-the-fly tools—brief shifts you could apply in daily life. It’s a good foundation.

Autogenic Trancework is much more about formal practice and explicit inner journeying.

This is about longer-form immersive practice, where you sit down, shift your state, and explore your own depths and potentials. This is about daily engagement with profound creative flow—something more akin to meditation, inner alchemy, or trance journeying.

In time, I’ll likely bring these strands together under one larger umbrella. But this training stands alone as a deep dive into the foundational practices.

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What to Expect in the Training

• We’ll explore key fundamentals—the building blocks of trance flow

• You’ll learn basic trance shapes—core inner maneuvers you can build from

• We’ll explore connection practices—what to connect into that matters for you

• We’ll focus on developing skill, not memorizing steps

• You’ll start crafting your own unique relationship with this practice

This is the beginning of a larger arc of trainings I’ll be offering. But this is where we start.

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Final Thoughts

This is a training in living from the inside out.

It’s for people who want to explore their inner worlds more deeply…
Who want to connect with their own intelligence, vitality, creativity…
Who want to fall out of patterned rigidity and back into flow.

If that speaks to you—if it stirs something in you—I’d love for you to join us.

If you have any questions, please do make use of the comments section below.

All the very best,
James Tripp