HYPNOSIS –MYTHS
Imagine a pendulum moving slowly in front of your eyes. Keep your focus on the pendulum…slowly moving back and forth…back and forth…Maybe you are experiencing something…Perhaps a feeling… or nothing at all… Eyes getting tired and heavy…so heavy…eyes wanting to close and it is okay to resist….Perhaps it’s just easier to simply let them close. Hypnotist or Snake Oil Salesman? If you are a skeptic about Hypnosis, you many want to read further. I promise, not to make you quack like a duck.
The first experience of Hypnosis for many people is from the fun and entertaining Stage Show Hypnotist. The hypnotist, at the very beginning of the show, has a few simple tests to see who will be most responsive to suggestion. He/She then calls those individuals to the stage. Those who go on the stage have an underlying desire to be part of the entertainment and enjoy themselves, otherwise the suggestions would not work. Those who choose to stay in their seat, no harm, they simply remain in the audience and enjoy the rest of the show.
A common myth about hypnosis is that you are unconscious or unaware during hypnosis. Generally you are not unconscious or unaware during hypnosis. In fact, if a fire started in the building the hypnotized person would most likely be aware before the hypnotist.
There are four levels of hypnosis: Light, medium, deep or Somnambulism, which is best used for direct suggestion. The greater the depth, the more awareness, and the better the results of hypnosis, and very deep which is a comatose state. This state is used for performing surgery without anesthesia. It is rarely used outside of a surgical context and only a small fraction of clients can ever reach this level. Most hypnotherapy is done in a light or medium state. You are completely under the control and direction of your own free will at every moment. No one can hypnotize you without your consent.
Hypnosis is the temporary quieting of the rationalizing mind and an expanding of the greater consciousness so that you experience things happening in two or more places at the same time. It is similar to that which you experience in your everyday conscious state.
You can become aware of that which is near and that which is distant at exactly the same moment. The expansion or contraction of your consciousness is dependent entirely upon your desire. You can choose to be conscious of a certain tree or flower in a park or of the entire park at the same time. You can use the same faculties of sight to see both. When you wish to see both, you enlarge its activity until it takes in all you desire. Much like a camera. You can expand the focus to take in the entire park or zoom in on one little flower.
The larger expansion still includes the smaller, so you see, you can be conscious of the full control of all your faculties in both places at the same time. By exactly this same process, you can be conscious of sounds in a room and also be aware of sounds outsides i.e., cars going by, dogs barking, or wherever you place your attention. You can expand it or contract it. Hypnosis expands your everyday consciousness so that you have an even greater awareness of past events, feelings and hidden motives. This greater expansion of your own consciousness enables an awareness that is not available through ordinary everyday limited consciousness.
Anytime a suggestion or posthypnotic suggestion is given that is contrary to the wishes or beliefs of the client, it can be voluntarily rejected. If the suggestion were of such a nature that harm might result, there would be an immediate return to the ordinary conscious state.
Another common myth is, your weak minded if you can be hypnotized. The susceptibility to hypnosis has nothing to do with a strong or a weak mind or the intelligence of the individual. In fact the stronger minded or intelligent person often has the most beneficial results, primarily because once they experience the power of their greater consciousness during hypnosis, they drop all defenses and trust in the process.
Can you be hypnotized? Most people can be hypnotized. In fact we all are in trance everyday. When you drive your car, watch TV, eat, drink, even having sex, you are generally in an altered state. Have you ever driven your car, reached your destination and wondered, “How did I get here?” Having no memory of getting from point A to Point B. You were in trance. It is like being in the movie the Matrix, you think you are really conscious, but you are not.
The average person spends most of their time in an altered state. When the body is on autopilot while your mind is continuously thinking about your job, taking the kids to school, what chores need to be done that day etc., you are not present. A qualified Clinical Hypnotherapist can assist you to relax the body and quiet the mind so that you have greater clarity and peace; in addition, for those who have insomnia, fifteen minutes of hypnosis is equal to approximately three hours sleep.
One of the greatest myths is that hypnosis is some kind of magic and you come in for a session in a conscious state and are hypnotized and go unconscious and awaken miraculously healed. Believe it or not this can happen, however, the person is usually in trauma or has an addiction and is already in an altered state of unconsciousness when they come in. The Hypnotherapist can put them into a deep state of relaxation and bring them back into the conscious state. This process often does create spontaneous healing. It is the awareness of taking back ownership of your own life that creates the healing. It only seems like magic. It is not unusual to have a profound insight in the first session and want to return to continue working on other blocks to your sense of wellbeing.
Two things are required for hypnosis to be affective: (1) you must have the sincere desire to do or change something and (2) trust in the process. Hypnosis does not work for everyone because not everyone has the sincere desire to change or the trust in the process.
Hypnosis like alternative medicine is rapidly moving into the forefront of healing modalities in conjunction with conventional medical treatment. Many well know psychotherapist and psychiatrist used hypnosis in their practice such as Sigmund Feud, Carl Gustav Jung, and Milton Erickson, just to name a few. Milton Erickson, a psychologist and psychiatrist, pioneered the art of indirect suggestion in hypnosis. Erickson is primarily responsible for shaping our modern view of hypnosis and its official acceptance by the AMA.
Myths are a fictitious story often having some historical basis. Hypnosis myths have been exaggerated by the strange behavior of those participants who seemed to be mysteriously controlled by the mad scientist type person with a pendulum. In fact, little was know of how it worked until Richard Bandler and John Grinder studied Milton Erickson, Virginia Satir and other notable geniuses. They succeeded in making explicit the syntax of how people avoid change and how to assist them in changing. They developed a model of communication; visual, auditory, olfactory, and kinesthetic that has broken the spell of ignorance about hypnosis. You can now open your eyes.
If you would like to know more about hypnosis, contact Tonda Adams, JD. CCHT. at MtnQuest Hypnotherapy 505 S Arlington, Suite 212 Reno, NV 89509, 775 825-2588 or mtnquest-hypnotherapy.com
References: Frogs into Princes, by Richard Bandler and John Grinder, The Magic Presence, by Godfrey Ray King and Innerquest School of Hypnotherapy.