Learn to create a light, momentary trance in people for various uses. When your conscious awareness is focused entirely on internal experience, NLP refers to this as downtime. The Downtime state is a subset type of trance phenomenon, and can help initiate or deepen trance. It can help you manage an interaction as a brief, light trance as occurs in a transderivational search. Many techniques are used to stimulate downtime, and they are used not only to produce trance, but also patience, introspection, and receptiveness.

Uptime, on the other hand, refers to a more worldly state of awareness that emphasizes external awareness that is effectively informed by internal awareness.

Step #1. Restrict your  environment

Arrange a distraction-free environment, because this pattern requires concentration.

Step #2. Internalize Focus with Rep Systems

Direct your attention inward, attending to each of your internal representational systems (the sub-steps below will help you). Attend to each of the modes as fully and as separately as possible.

  1. Notice your audio sense, including your inner voice, the sound of any memories or fantasies that Remember something, and focus totally on the sounds involved.
  2. Direct your mental focus to the visual mode. Include memories and fantasies that arise. Choose a memory and focus all your awareness on the visual aspect.
  3. Attend to emotional and physical senses as they arise for a while. Now think of a memory, and direct your attention to your emotional and physical feelings as they occur in the memory. Notice the difference between those feelings compared to what you feel ABOUT the memory, and what you body physically feels right now as you recall the memory. For example, how hard is the surface you are on right now?
  4. Become aware of tastes. Come up with a memory of eating something tasty. Notice that you have various senses involved in the memory. Focus your mind entirely on remembering the taste. Notice how taste is more than one sensation, since much of what we associate with food has to do with its consistency, such as chewiness.
  5. Shift your awareness of this memory to smell. Notice how you can separate taste and smell.

Additional Advice

You can anchor the experience of downtime. A good way to do this is to fold your hands and, as you experience all rep systems more fully, gradually increase the pressure of your palms pressing together. Once you have established palm pressure as an anchor, try using it for patterns requiring internal awareness, or with creating a basic trance or awareness meditation.

You can get better with internal sensory awareness by doing the above tip, and focusing on rep systems in a sequence. For example, imagine running through an imaginary sequence of behavior, rotating through the above rep systems. You could first try this on a simple task, such as walking. Notice what rep system is your weakest one, and do this exercise additional times with your focus on that system.

To enhance your ability to integrate your senses, go through this exercise while practicing attending to all systems at once. You might start with rotating through very rapidly, or explore blending them much as you would adjust sub-modalities.