Nesting means that an idea is contained within another. That can happen in the form of a story that occurs within another story. The purpose is to enhance trance and open-mindedness. It makes the metaphors or teaching elements of the story more powerful.

“When I was learning hypnosis, one of my teachers told us about when he was in Italy, and he was seeing so much art and architecture and learning so much, that he had a dream where he was in a big Catholic church, and Mother Mary came down into the church on this sunbeam that glistened and radiated through the huge, beautiful, and colorful stained glass window. She told him about giving birth, and the exquisite joy that she felt being part of history and a new movement that promised to make a better world; that the pain of childbirth and the humbleness of her surroundings could not compare with the kindness of her people.”

This is about the memories as told by someone in a dream, as told by someone in another country in a story about my training. That is four levels deep. My story (recalling training), the trainers’ story (being in Italy), the dream (of the big church) and another story (Mother Mary’s recollections). The story served as a container for metaphors about making changes in one’s life despite the discomfort that can be part of that. The metaphor was that of childbirth.