The Facts

Questions, questions, questions! What are the facts about Hypnosis? How is it defined? What part do the conscious and subconscious mind play? People new to hypnosis always have lots of pertinent questions...and that's good. The more you know, the more effective it will be, and the more satisfying life will become.

Definition:

Hypnosis has as many definitions as there are practitioners - everyone has their favourite. Some call it 'an altered state', others talk about the 'functioning of the conscious/subconscious', others still refer to 'heightened suggestibility'. Everyone is right in some way, at least.

I like the definition given by A.M. Krasner in his book, The Wizard Within:

"a process which produces

relaxation,

distraction of the conscious mind,

heightened suggestibility, and,

increased awareness,

allowing access to the subconscious mind through the imagination.

It also produces the ability to experience thoughts and images as real."

Belief and Expectation:

Two components must be present: Belief and Expectation

If we have the belief that we can be hypnotized and the expectation that we will, then we will be hypnotized.

What is Hypnotherapy?

Hypnotherapy is the use of hypnosis to achieve simple or profound healing or changes. Is it magic? No, while we try to be very skilled and knowledgeable at our end of things – creating a safe, relaxing atmosphere, building trust and confidence by our standard of performance and ethics, writing appropriate positive statements, and perhaps, most important of all, listening to you, you are the one who does the work. If anyone creates magic, it’s YOU!

Is Hypnosis safe?

Generally, it is considered very safe and very effective. It is natural and non-invasive.

How does it work?

First, there's the relaxation (everybody this part) and then, secondly, the relaxation 'quietens' or 'distracts' the conscious mind.

The conscious mind is that busy part of our mind that we're aware of most of the time, the part you're using right now to read this.

Remember the definition said "quieten" or 'distract', not put out of business! Its still there, its may even float some thoughts in and out of your mind while you are in trance and its perfectly aware of everything that is going on around you.

Yes, everything! You will hear everything that is said. You'll still be able to make judgments about what you hear - and accept or reject them. You can bring yourself out of trance anytime you wish.

So now you're relaxed, and your busy mind is quiet. This is when you have 'increased awareness' and 'heightened suggestibility'. Suddenly, you become aware of the vast capabilities of your mind.

Think of it this way. Picture a bowl of clean, pure water. See yourself adding a few drops of oil. See how the oil floats on the water. Now pretend or imagine that you add a drop of detergent to that water.

All the oil instantly clears away to the sides of the bowl. (If you haven’t seen this happen, try it at home). Now think of the pure water as your subconscious mind and your conscious mind as the oil.

Most of the time the conscious mind (the oil) covers our subconscious mind (the water), when we add relaxation and a quietened conscious mind (the soap), we can have access to (see) our subconscious mind (the water). So, you see, the subconscious mind is always there, just hidden from view.

What does our subconscious do?

Your subconscious mind is the boss - it runs our bodies. All those things our bodies just do automatically without us thinking about them, well, the subconscious looks after them all - our memory, our breathing, our heart rate, perspiration, and so on. It does everything it can to protect us and keep us alive.

It also holds onto bad habits. And runs our emotions. And it does it the best way it knows how. And that might not be the way you want it to behave at this point in your life. So after you reach the point of relaxation and trance (clearing the oil), your subconscious mind can accept new positive suggestions and with the power of your imagination make those images real.

The image in your mind is what your subconscious mind will perceive as the truth. The more real that image is in your mind, the more powerful will be the change effected.

Is it normal?

A lot goes on, yet it’s very simple to achieve most of the time. And we can accomplish a lot with it. People are thought to go into trance maybe 6 or more times a day. Anytime you become so focussed on something, for instance a tv show, videos, repetitive advertising, driving, anytime that you aren't aware of what you're doing - maybe you don't hear someone calling you or you arrive somewhere without being aware of how you drove there, you were in trance.

So you can see it's something quite natural and normal - something that happens on a regular basis without our conscious decision. When you use hypnosis by choice you take control over what goes into your subconscious mind. It’s something that you can develop as a skill to use at will.

Some people say little children are always in trance! And that's why we need to be so careful how we speak to them. (See Positive Thinking) And it gives us some insight into how we may have inadvertently been programmed into some of our own thought patterns ("if you don't eat all your dinner, you won't get dessert" – so now you eat it all up whether you’re full or not).

The belief is that little children do not have, what some call, the Critical Factor in place until around the age of eight years. Up until then they are highly susceptible to outside suggestions. A child will believe everything he is told; he believes it to be true, with all the deep emotion of a child. Again we can gain some understanding now of why some of our fears and phobias have such a profound impact on us even in our adult years.

Some child psychologists believe that we develop our strongest personality traits and behaviours during these early years. This is when we learn to trust or not trust; have self-confidence or self-doubt; become friendly or alienate ourselves; reinforce our sense of initiative or fear of failure. Some neonatologists even believe that some of those characteristics are set before the child reaches the age of one.

After the age of eight years, the Critical Factor develops and our option to choose comes into play.

So is there any hope? Are we stuck with our habits? No! The old computer that is us can be reprogrammed! The old data can be replaced. Our bodies are just like robots, acting on command. By accessing our subconscious mind, we can re-program ourselves the way we want to be. The same ability that accepted all the negative programming, can accept new, positive suggestions. With the aid of Hypnosis (to bypass that Critical Factor), new beliefs and behaviors can be established; we can change bad habits, remove fears and phobias (and gain insight into their cause), we can reduce stress and anxious feelings, even boost our immune system. That is, if we want to change. We do need that desire.

You need that desire because nobody can make you do anything you don't want to do. You always have Choice. So let's add that to our definition: You must want to change.