Or “I don’t believe in hypnosis… but I’m afraid of it”
When you hear about hypnosis, you might immediately think “It’s not real though is it?” or “I don’t think I could be hypnotized”.
This is absolutely normal – predictable even, but don’t worry because I’m here to demystify things and help with that.
Firstly, around 10-20% of the population are highly responsive to hypnotic suggestion right off the bat – being able to enjoy all kinds of phenomena without much preparation or training. No one really knows why – there aren’t any clear predictors or correlations. Even those who you think wouldn’t be responsive, for whatever reason, can be.
Most people still see hypnosis as either something silly (just role-play, acting out etc) or something more sinister, a kind of mind control thing – using someone as a puppet, a zombie, a slave of sorts to be humiliated and made a fool of.
That’s all they’ve been exposed to.
Anecdotes of stage hypnosis, movies and stories, all those ideas of people staring into spirals and becoming automatons. The Manchurian Candidate, with assassins being triggered by the sight of a playing card. Heck, even The Naked Gun with “I must kill… the Queen” from a beeping watch – people literally do use examples like that as their go-to of what hypnosis is. But they’re just movies – it’s like thinking that someone flying through a window from a pistol shot is an accurate portrayal of physics.
Another reason that hypnosis has developed such a murky, misunderstood reputation stems from the power of expectation being such an important aspect of the ‘ritual’ of ‘hypnotising’ someone. To bolster this, hypnotists typically present themselves as these exagerated characters with a degree of mystery, darkness and authority. They might pretend to master and harness some secret, ancient power as if they could control you like an automaton. This can work (e.g. for stage hypnotists), because the suggested prestige suggests the expectation. But it also makes people anxious.
Yet another reason for the murky misunderstanding around hypnosis is all the unhelpful language that has developed around it. Terms like ‘going under’, or ‘going into trance’, or even being ‘hypnotised’ – hypnosis isn’t a state that you go into or under. “You are getting sleepy…” or “wide awake, back in the room!” – you’re also not asleep or ‘out of it’. The majority of hypnosis books still talk about ‘bypassing the critical faculty’, as if suggestions are somehow slipped into a deeper mind like programming. This can be a useful model to explain unconscious learning, but as with all models it’s also hugely limiting in terms of understanding the bigger picture.
So you can understand why it’s easy to feel suspicious about hypnosis.
Could you experience hypnosis?
Let’s just address that common belief of “I don’t think I could be hypnotised…”
Everyone with imagination and the ability to learn can experience hypnosis, it has nothing to do with gullibility, naivety, seeking attention or anything like that. It does have a lot to do with whether you can follow instructions and imagine, and not be held back by underlying fears, misunderstandings, resistances or distrust.
In a very real way though, these kinds of automatic reality-shaping beliefs about hypnosis would be a result of the same kind of imagination dynamics that hypnosis taps into. You become exposed to repeated suggestions about something, absorb fixed-ideas, then allow them to automatically influence how you see something. It’s the most natural, implicit process of a brain evolved to learn and absorb.
This is because people tend to cling to their subjective realities – it sure feels safer than dealing with uncertainty or the idea of being wrong. Even if those same ideas about reality lead to limitations or… problems. Because it’s also the same mental stubbornness that gets people into all kinds of mental ruts, anxiety and trouble with their minds, which keeps the therapy industry thriving!
So even with examples or evidence, many people still tend to twist and explain everything to fit their worldview. Again, it’s the exact same stuff that’s utilised with hypnotic processes – suggestions are absorbed, then conscious narratives are conjured to rationalise the unconscious responses. It’s happening all the time.
For example, I remember once telling someone about some an experience someone had with hypnosis (seeing something as invisible), and the response was “well, they must have been crazy”.
But it’s understandable because there are so many limiting misconceptions about what the mind is capable of.
Again, this human tendency to rationalise is part of hypnotic dynamics – a compulsive response to some kind of learning event. It’s also exactly why people benefit from hypnosis, because it allows you to step above all the conscious clutter. As you’re hopefully seeing by now, a huge benefit especially where therapy is concerned, is in breaking down illusions rather than installing more.
Another time, I remember seeing a therapist giving simple instructions to start utilising someone’s imagination as part of a hypnotic process, and they kept doing the opposite. The therapist asked “why do you keep doing that?” and the person said “I thought I’m supposed to resist?” They’d framed it as some kind of competition of will power. Of course they would win! They were following their own suggestions rather than those given. The therapist hadn’t reassured and prepared them enough. You can’t ‘hypnotise’ someone against their will, and if there’s any underlying resistance, fear or negative attitude then of course nothing useful can really happen.
These have been shown to be the main barriers which prevent people from enjoying hypnotic phenomena. Positive expectations, a willing attitude, and good understanding of what hypnosis is, is hugely beneficial to being open to the experience.
So let me help with that! Let’s break down some false ideas.
Is a person like a zombie whilst hypnotized?
Not at all!
You might have thought that the person is unaware, or behaving like a zombie, or in some kind of sleep. That someone hypnotizing you would be like someone putting you under general anaesthetic.
Which would be bonkers.
It’s one of the biggest misconceptions, which without explanation and correction becomes the single biggest barrier to clients of hypnotherapists being able to relax. “I could hear what you were saying… ” (not that it means they were hypnotised, because more often than not they’re just relaxed, which is a slightly different thing – we’ll learn about that later).
When the conscious mind is relaxed to the extent that the unconscious mind becomes receptive to suggestions, the person is still aware of what is being said.
Relaxing the conscious mind is like relaxing a muscle – you can still choose to flex it if you wish, but once you realize how relaxing it feels, you don’t really want to.
Have you ever had that experience where someone is moving one of your limbs about, maybe at the doctors or as part of a massage? You can feel muscles auomatically kicking in, trying to anticipate where they’re moving your arm (for example). It’s actually really hard to let go of conscious control, to just allow the arm to be moved freely. You’re still aware of the arm moving, but you just don’t care and aren’t applying any conscious effort.
Or lying on a bed and letting go of all your muscles. Even when you think you’re relaxing and just lying there, you’ll be surprised at how many muscle groups are actually still tense, believing that they’re supporting you when they don’t really need to. If you try to relax every muscle, and absolutely give in to the support of the bed, you might feel that strange little moment of vulnerability, the “letting go of control” moment where you give yourself completely to trusting the bed’s support. Try it tonight as you lay there in bed. You have to try and relax everything. It feels like you might be about to start falling. Trust has a lot to do with it.
Something that can affect how aware a person seemed to be while responsive to hypnosis, is if they can’t remember it very well afterwards – which can easily happen, whether a result of suggestion or not.
Not having a memory for the experience can really make it look as if they weren’t aware – because the effect is the same as a person waking up from sleep, or waking up from general anaesthetic. But it’s an illusion, because while responsive to hypnosis they were aware of what was being said.
Trust is Vitally Important to Hypnosis
A skilled hypnotic process builds trust, so that the relationship between the hypnotist and subject is one that is trusting, open and with positive expectancy. Trust isn’t an analytical process, it’s more a ‘feeling’ process, so a person’s trust can vary. This is why if a hypnotist said something to a subject that they didn’t want to do, or felt was harmful to them in some way, they might lose trust for the hypnotist and stop responding.
Some relationships, e.g. loving relationships, doctor-patient relationships, and therapeutic relationships already have trust cultivated within them. They’re ideal situations for hypnotic suggestions. The famous Stanley Milgram ‘shock’ experiment carried a lot of suggestive power because of the presence of authority.
Sometimes the process can be used accidentally because the trust is so powerful – which I’ve already touched on with doctors and the placebo effect.
In loving relationships both sides can have a huge influence on each other – especially to each other’s self-worth for better or worse depending on the suggestions given (again though I’d argue this isn’t hypnosis as such, it’s the same process and mechanism but used in a non-directive way. In the same way that someone who accidentally spills paint on the floor isn’t necessarily an artist).
Building trust in a hypnotic process can take time.
In hypnotherapy, the trust is already there to an extent. Some pre-talk to explain things, and reassurance for any anxieties etc is always necessary, which serves two purposes. One is to reduce any fears, misunderstandings and anxieties (much like I’m attempting to do here), the second is to build a positive expectancy, which helps the mind to relax more because it wants to. Without resistance, it’s simply a lot easier, faster, and more enjoyable.
With stage hypnosis, there is a lot suggestion already taking place which builds trust. The fact that the person appears professional, has been hired, is in a credible environment that the person already trusts. The perception that the rest of the group trusts the hypnotist also creates a kind of group psychology of influence. If someone just stood up in a busy bar and said “hey everyone, fancy some stage hypnosis?” they’d be less likely to be trusted (although depending on their skill and charisma, they could still be successful with it). Also, as mentioned in the previous section, re-inductions are usually very successful, fast and deep – and this is also because trust has already been established with the first induction.
When a person is unable to enter into even a light responsiveness (this is where some light suggestions would be accepted, which eventually could be compounded upon leading towards more powerful suggestions), it’s usually because there is a trust issue.
Deep down, they might still have the belief that something bad will happen, that they will feel foolish, or more likely, that they might start revealing something that would make them feel deeply embarrassed or ashamed.
This is why its a poor idea to try showing off hypnosis as some kind of a party trick, especially to people who are resistant, anxious or misinformed about it some way.
In hypnotherapy, it can sometimes take a long time to train someone to be hypnotically responsive. By this, I mean it takes a long time to build the trust, to build the responsiveness, to get to a state where they can actually unconsciously absorb suggestions. The most prolifically published and practiced hypnotherapist ever was a man called Milton Erickson. He could hypnotize people very quickly and powerfully – yet even he would sometimes take around 30 hours to train someone into hypnotic responsiveness.
This variance between people creates a lot of misunderstanding in itself. It creates the idea that not everyone can be ‘hypnotized’, and introduces the idea of some people being ‘very suggestible’ whilst others aren’t. In trying to understand why this could be, assumptions are made like “they must be naïve and gullible”, which isn’t fair or accurate at all. Responsiveness to suggestion in a hypnotic context requires motivation, trust and active imagination.
If trust is so important, couldn’t it just be role-play? Wanting to play along?
If you’ve seen the effects of stage shows, you might think that the person is just playing along, acting, loving the attention and feeling liberated because there’s a good excuse to be. Sometimes, this may indeed be the case, but most of the time the hypnotist is skilled in first choosing the most automatically responsive people from the audience. A simple suggestion test would be given, such as suggesting that the hands are coming together and locking tight. The people in the audience who respond most favorably are then ‘cherry picked’ for the show. It may then be that some of the chosen few don’t respond well on stage – they are usually asked to go and sit down again by the hypnotist. Those left are typically highly responsive.
The stage hypnotist doesn’t actually want people to play along or act – and it’s easy to spot when this is happening. There’s a huge difference between conscious acting, and automatic unconscious response. Conscious acting is actually a lot harder, and relies on constant motivation on the part of the actor – which when you think about it, would be hard to maintain. They would get self-conscious, get distracted by the audience, laugh at themselves or suddenly choose to not keep playing along and embarrass the hypnotist – there’s no need for this kind of ‘help’ when there are plenty of people who will be genuinely responsive to suggestion.
Isn’t hypnosis losing control? I don’t like the idea of losing control.
Control is a strange concept when it comes to responsiveness.
Allowing yourself to lose conscious control is actually a form of having more control – which is a hard thing to explain. It’s mainly because by allowing yourself to lose control (with hypnosis at least), you’re not actually losing control – you’re just giving it over to your unconscious instead. The reason this gives you more control is that your unconscious is the one in control anyway.
Think about sporting performance, where the more you let go of conscious control, the better and more precise your performance. In golf for example, if you try too hard (i.e. think too much), you might mess up your swing. So conscious control doesn’t always mean control, because the results can be worse. Unconscious control is the more powerful force, and that isn’t lost with hypnosis – if anything it’s enhanced.
If you have full conscious control, then why not make yourself happy all the time? Why not choose to stop being anxious when you are? Why don’t you choose to have great self-worth, so you can accomplish anything and not care what people think? If people had conscious control over themselves, why would they get addicted to things, and have weight control issues? Surely they could just ‘control’ their eating habits and addictions more. If at this point you’re thinking “oh, that’s just weak-minded people, I don’t have any issues like that!” then you might be in denial – in my experience people who think they’re in control in that way usually have the least control, and are influenced more by anxiety and fear of losing control than most (hence the protective narrative).
Here’s an example to try that might illustrate all this a little better.
Rest your hand on a table, and try to ‘let go of it’. Imagine it becoming so heavy that it’s stuck to the table, and that the more you tried to lift it, the heavier and more stuck it becomes.
At the back of your mind, you will always be aware that you could move it, if you really had to, if the room caught on fire for example.
But for now, just imagine that it’s so heavy and stuck to the table that you couldn’t lift it. Then imagine that you’re not imagining it – that it’s happening all by itself.
This challenge is about ‘letting go’ of conscious control.
When you get it right, you’ll feel a genuine funny sensation of heaviness in your hand, and the more you try to lift it, the heavier and more stuck it feels. It’s a funny feeling of conflict – imagining wanting to lift it, and imagining it sticking, with both forces happening at once and cancelling each other out.
Getting people to do this in person, who seem unconsciously opposed to hypnosis, can be very difficult, but the process (which is sometimes involved in hypnotic training) explains a lot about the underlying barriers.
After having explained the process, I might ask the person to try to lift their hand, whilst imagining it being stuck the more they try to lift it. If they’re listening and wanting to experience the effects of the experiment, they might feel the strange sensation and understand it. What happens with people who are against the idea of hypnosis though is that they just lift their hand, then look at me with a kind of “Ta da! What did you expect?” face.
I think there are two separate causes for this.
The first is that they’re really saying “You can’t control me! I am in control!” which is a misunderstanding on their part, I’m not trying to control them (I’ll discuss this in more detail shortly), I’m trying to show to them the idea of how it feels to have a conscious/unconscious conflict, controlling the process of letting go of control.
This barrier actually strongly supports the idea that successfully doing this experiment is having more control. Because what’s happening instead is that they are being unconsciously controlled anyway, by their will to not let me control them.
Essentially, their anxiety about control issues (and wanting to say “hey look, I’m in control, not you!”) is preventing them from one vital instruction – to imagine that their hand is stuck to the table.
Instead, they’re imagining that they can lift their hand and ‘prove me wrong’. The result is essentially the same – they’re seeing the results of their own imagination, just not in the way that I’m trying to direct them to.
The second cause is a sheer belief that of course their hand can’t be stuck to the table. What’s happening here is similar to the last cause, that they aren’t actually imagining their hand being stuck to the table because the whole concept of such a thing is completely outside of their experience. They don’t know how to imagine it. It sounds silly and unimaginable.
In that scenario a little more explanation, information and practice is required.
You might be thinking “This is silly. If I imagine my hand stuck to the table, I’m just pretending. It isn’t imagination, it’s pretending”. In a way that’s correct, but only because pretending anything is also imagining. Pretending, which uses imagination, can also create unconscious effects – acting sad can make you feel sad, acting happy (and smiling) can actually release endorphins and make you feel happy.
The effect we’re looking for in the experiment isn’t just a hand stuck to a table, it’s the feeling in the person of wanting to lift it but not being able to. It highlights the divide between the conscious and unconscious, the will and the imagination.
It relies on a truism of the unconscious mind – when the imagination is put against the will, imagination always wins. One of my trainers, Gil Boyne, used to say this a lot. It took me a while to understand it fully, but now I do, and it works for me.
Here are some more examples of this that will show you what it means.
If you put a long plank of wood on the floor, and tried to walk across it, you’d be able to easily.
If you then put that plank of wood between two tall skyscrapers, as you stood on the edge of one and was about to cross it, you’d feel completely different to how you did on the ground. Ignoring things like increased wind or temperature differences for a moment (all other variables being equal), it would be very unlikely that you’d be able to cross as easily as on the floor.
What happens?
Your limbs seize up, you tremble, you try too hard and get into little over-compensation feedback loops where you swerve one way and then the other.
So what’s different?
You’re imagining falling.
The presence of height and the potential to fall offers a strong suggestion of falling, which your imagination wraps itself around. Your unconscious is automatically responding to an idea. The unconscious automatically moves towards the ideas, expectations and beliefs within – so it sends signals to your body based on the idea of falling.
When people who are normally able to speak articulately and fluently to someone in a room suddenly fall to pieces giving a group presentation, it’s because at some level they’re imagining it going wrong and being nervous. They’re imagining the audience not liking them, finding fault, criticizing.
The unconscious is then sending those protective signals as if what is being imagined is actually happening, and it’s trying to shut them up! Making them stammer and stutter, look to the floor, mumble, anything to hide away and protect against what’s being imagined.
When the will is put against the imagination, the imagination always wins.
Some positive thinking self-help books advocate the idea of writing or saying affirmations – like Emile Coue’s classic “every day in every way I am getting better and better”.
There are a couple of arguments to this. One is that by sheer repetition, positive affirmations might be absorbed by the unconscious mind. If you remember what we discussed earlier, the idea of repetition is like someone walking up to the guard of the unconscious, every day until the guard doesn’t notice any more and the idea slips through. The same can happen with negative affirmations – “I’m no good at this, I’m no good at this” or “she won’t like me, I know it, she won’t like me” and so on.
However, a barrier to affirmations is imagination, because when it’s put against the will, imagination always wins.
So if someone is saying “I’m going to do this, I’m going to do this” but they’re imagining that they aren’t going to do it – then they probably won’t. Will is just a conscious idea, a thought, a want. Imagination is an unconscious process utilizing belief, expectation, visualization and feeling. It’s a much more powerful process. This is why what people deeply imagine about themselves more often, tends to have a habit of becoming true. The unconscious moves towards those ideas with all its little decisions and responses.
So back to the experiment – if you can imagine well (and this is why imagination is a virtue of hypnotically responsive people), then you can achieve the effect of feeling your mind in conflict.
And… back to the idea of control. This experiment is really about wielding control, not losing it. Because you’re controlling the process of imagination, without ever really losing control. When you aren’t able to feel the desired effect, it’s because you’re not in control – another unconscious idea is controlling the results instead. The more you think about this, the more it should make sense.
I don’t like the idea of someone thinking that they’re controlling me
I don’t blame you! When I was in hypnosis training, I had an interesting experience that taught me a lot about that as a potential reaction from someone.
My instructor (who is a good guy) was demonstrating rapid inductions, and picked me from a group of about twenty to show the process. He did a standard hypnotic induction, where I felt a resistance because he hadn’t taken sufficient care to build up trust. I didn’t like the idea of being showcased as way to boost his ego because I felt like it was more about that than actually explaining something to us (it hadn’t been explained very well by this point). He was looking for gasps and surprise, rather than understanding. It was a momentarily lapse, he was riding a wave of mania at the end of a long day.
I felt like I went along with the first suggestions, drooped my head, and followed the suggestions consciously rather than unconsciously.
He then gave me a post-hypnotic command to go back into trance when he said the word “sleep”, and brought me out of the supposed ‘trance’. I felt a bit embarrassed by this point, because I was far too aware of all the dynamics at play.
By this I don’ t just mean aware of what was being said, because that’s normal, but I was aware of the flaws in his teaching method and approach (this is because I had self-trained far more extensively beforehand through literature and my own practice and experiments). I was aware of these things:
- That he hadn’t sufficiently explained the dynamics of a rapid induction, how they work and why they’re useful
- That he hadn’t hypnotically trained me enough beforehand to be more unconsciously responsive to his suggestions
- That he didn’t test my unconscious responses to ensure that I was actually being automatically unconsciously responsive, before giving the post-hypnotic command
- That the rest of the group, because they hadn’t been sufficiently trained, would see his impending second (rapid) induction as something other than what it was, and this would be counter-productive in terms of their learning
That last point by the way, was my main gripe. I was now basically anticipating the instructor putting his hand on my head, saying “sleep”, me playing along, and the rest of the group gasping with awe.
This was training – it shouldn’t be a show-piece to elicit awe and admiration from the group to the instructor, it just felt wrong to me. Their understanding and learning was more important than his sense of self-validation and power.
He started a conversation with me, in front of everyone, and I knew all too well what was about to happen. Then he put his hand on my head and said “sleep”. Immediately I was faced with an unwanted conflict, to play along and feel embarrassed for doing so (but saving him from embarrassment), or to resist and allow him to feel embarrassed. I didn’t want to do that, because I didn’t want everyone else in the group to have that experience to make them doubt the power of rapid inductions (which can be very real and useful). It just hadn’t been done properly. He was riding an ego wave by this point and was ahead of himself.
But I did have an unconscious response.
In that state of conflict, with my head lowered and eyes closed, whilst the group were gasping and he was saying “see how easy it is?”, my body went incredibly hot. I felt like I’d gone very red.
As he was explaining how easy it was, I then spontaneously “brought myself out of trance” to ask him a question about it. This was my way to compromise and let him know that I didn’t think it right that I should just play along.
This experience was extremely important to me, because I was basically representing “most people” in that situation. It allowed me to analyse the dynamics of such a situation.
Gil Boyne did rapid inductions in a different way – not just in form but in terms of the overall suggestions that are offered – the context. He carried the rapid induction through by ensuring all the progressive little suggestions were offered and accepted first, each one compounding on the responsiveness of the last so that the person ends up in a state of automatic unconscious response. The other thing he did was to not suggest a sense of power on his part – his actions and manners suggested the idea that this was a really useful, peaceful, enjoyable state that the person was entering into, and it was almost like a celebration of the powers of the mind. This creates a sense of trust, of mutual partnership, that you’re both in it together, which is really important. This is what was missing from my other instructor. It shouldn’t be a power play.
Interestingly though, that instructor also defined hypnosis in terms of the “everything is hypnosis” approach, which is quite common. It reduces the process to any form of influence, which I personally think is a bit pointlessly broad in scope. He said that if you asked someone to sit on a chair, and they did, that this was hypnosis, because you’d influenced them. I’m sure though that if you then said to that person “hey, I just hypnotized you!” that they’d think you were an idiot.
This loose definition also suggests that the term ‘hypnosis’ would also include someone just ‘playing along’ with suggestions, which I don’t agree with. As mentioned, I define hypnosis as automatic unconscious response, and the unconscious bit is important. There isn’t any conscious analysis, “shoulds”, conflicts or agendas involved. It takes a person below all of that conscious clutter stuff – because this is where it really does feel immensely relaxing, enjoyable and peaceful. Where people say “I could hear what you were saying… but I just didn’t care about anything”.
Hypnosis Has No Room For Egos
Unfortunately, ego can be a problem with hypnosis, because of how it looks. In the same way that a magician might imagine that they’re actually making things disappear so they can rationalize a way to deserve the awe and admiration of their audience, a hypnotist might easily get sucked into that wave of wanting to feel like they’re some kind of master mind controller. This is probably the thing that people are thinking about when they imagine being controlled by a hypnotist – a hypnotist who assumes control and revels in it at your expense.
There’s a conflict here, which I think a lot of hypnotists grapple with. It’s important to excite the person’s imagination in order to get the automatic unconscious responsiveness in hypnosis, so there can be a pressure for the hypnotist to really go to town on the ‘prestige’ and power of what people expect from them.
That level of awe and expectation can really help, especially in a stage setting. Although this approach can definitely repel the anxious, resistant sorts, the audience will still always contain enough of the already-responsive kind to make a show.
This is why Mesmer got such great results with his whole charade of black capes, candles and all that kind of thing when doing his original hypnotic routines based on ‘magnetic passes’.
It’s also why some people are able to achieve miraculous effects (or faint) in the presence of highly-regarded religious people or artifacts. Expectation and prestige renders people more automatically responsive, the ‘guard’ to the unconscious is like a rabbit in the headlights and can’t see what’s getting through.
But also, a hypnotist riding that wave of power and prestige to enhance the expectations and belief of the people he’s about to hypnotize is doing a kind of injustice to the phenomena of hypnosis. He or she is claiming it as a power that belongs to them – rather than the mind of the person and nature itself. It’s presented as a form of control, which it isn’t, and this kind of thing allows hypnosis to continue being wildly misunderstood by all the onlookers.
So, in a nutshell, I can see why you might be worried about feeling like someone else is going to control you! But it doesn’t need to be that way (and it really isn’t that way).
Is All Hypnosis Self-Hypnosis?
Another maxim often applied to hypnosis by professionals is this one – “all hypnosis is self hypnosis”.
It’s basically reaffirming that hypnosis is something you allow to happen to yourself, by following instructions, by letting go, by being open to the experience. You’re always in control, basically.
A good analogy would be this. You want to drive somewhere interesting and exciting, but you don’t know the way. You’re only used to the roads that you’ve been on many times before.
A hypnotist is like a guide who gets in the passenger seat, and directs you where to go. You can listen and follow the directions if you wish to, or you could just pull over, or go in the other direction! The way it may have looked to you before, which is inaccurate, is that the hypnotist shoves you in the backseat and starts driving – but that’s really not how it is!
You’re in control.
Using Hypnosis To Rise Above Conscious Clutter
Having broken down some of the myths around hypnosis, you’ve probably already picked up a few of the obvious benefits of hypnosis whilst thinking about it.
Hypnosis is useful in both an immediate way, because it’s relaxing and enjoyable, and in a long-term way when it’s used as a tool for exploring issues and conflicts of the unconscious mind.
Consciousness, really, is a real cluttered up mess of illusions and nonsense that get in the way of reality. Letting go of all that for a while is a really relaxing and useful thing to do.
You’re no longer affected by the usual clutter of thoughts, expectations, negative beliefs, false associations between things, the shoulds and shouldn’ts of the world, self-consciousness, being liked, being correct, being anxious, worrying about pointless things.
Your attention is focused inward to the point where it dissipates into nothing, and you’re just left with pure awareness. It’s like a heightened state of consciousness (in terms of awareness, not thought), where your unconscious mind is responsive to the flow of suggestion. Visualisations become hyper-real, sensations can be felt, creativity can be enhanced. It’s your deeper, more resourceful self.
One main thing that all my experience and study has taught me is just how much our conscious cluttered thoughts get in the way of our lives. I used to think that we’re supposed to be living there, in our conscious thoughts, that they were the be-all and end-all of who we are.
But that’s really a massive mistake, and it’s why people get depressed, stressed, anxious and really confused in their lives. All those conflicts, negativities, expectations – they all stem from the distractions of conscious “noise”.
Conscious thinking is useful to an extent – but everything in moderation. It’s far more healthy, useful and balanced to adopt the natural rhythms of mental relaxation – which is why daily meditation (which is self-hypnosis) is ridiculously good for you. Did you know that Stephen Hawking, the filmmaker David Lynch and Winston Churchill have all practiced daily meditation?
Allowing yourself periodic moments to step away from the “noise” lets you tap that resourcefulness. It makes for better ideas, putting things into perspective, feeling energized and refreshed, feeling less cluttered, feeling in control of your choices and actions rather than feeling controlled by them. The benefits are truly endless – twenty minutes a day of relaxation is really a no-brainer!
Hypnosis As Therapy
As well as the powerful benefits of self-hypnosis and meditation, hypnosis can also be used as a directive tool as hypnotherapy, where changes are made to a person’s subconscious mind. Most people think of hypnotherapy as suggestion therapy, where the therapist relaxes the client and then loads them with positive suggestions. The suggestions then take hold, and the unconscious mind works towards them.
This can and does happen, but it’s very much a “light” kind of therapy. The unconscious mind can be a bit more tenacious than that, and if the person hasn’t been trained towards a good level of hypnotic responsiveness then their imagination is likely to be counteracting the suggestions anyway. For smaller issues that might just need a bit of positive unconscious encouragement, suggestion therapy can work wonders, and on occasion it can create a rolling snowball effect that really does get positive results.
Where other, deeper issues are concerned though, hypnosis is used a tool to explore and influence the unconscious mind. This might include the beliefs, meanings and associations that a person holds, which can often be counter-productive, destructive, or just wrong. The vast majority of stress and anxiety that people face is caused by these irrational, erroneous ideas that have taken root in the unconscious through experience and the application of false meanings.
Regression might be used where a person is suggested, in hypnosis, to go back to a certain significant time in their lives. Sometimes such memories might not be accessible to conscious awareness, but with hypnosis, incredible detail and sensory experience can be achieved. This is because there is much more information stored in the unconscious mind that we realize. Regressing to an earlier memory may allow realizations to be made which give the person greater control over their responses and emotions. New meanings might be absorbed which are more productive and positive. Different outcomes might be explored, or deeply held emotions might be released which have been pushed down for so long that they’ve drained the mind of huge amounts of energy.
Creative visualizations might be employed which allow the person the opportunity to explore deeper, darker issues via metaphor, or to allow communication with various parts of the psyche.
The effects of work like this can be staggering – in a very short space of time (sometimes as little as a single session), a person can make such significant breakthroughs, or release so much emotion that their outlook changes forever. Their energy levels can suddenly be boosted, physical changes in their face might be seen. It really is powerful stuff.
What do you think?
So hopefully by now, we’ve broken down some of the myths around hypnosis, and along the way found some reasons why it can be incredibly useful. If you still have any anxieties or niggles about it, then I apologise for not having explained them enough.
Perhaps you could find a way to let me know, through the website, so I could have a chance to reassure you.
Overall though, the best thing would be if you went away and tried a little self-directed relaxation to just experience what it feels like to really let go of the conscious mind. I think if you experienced this first hand, you’d definitely start to have a more positive outlook towards hypnosis and why it could be really useful, especially if used in a directed way.
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