"There has never been a universal or authoritative definition or agreement about
what hypnosis actually is."
"No one in a hypnotic trance loses their will, their inherent self-determination,
or their freedom of choice."
"The value of hypnosis lies in the fact that it can make the deep workings of the
mind accessible to influence. These deep workings are the very mechanisms for the
formation and evolution of all of our habitual behavior."
"Force of Habit takes you beyond hypnosis and into a world where deep level personal
change becomes possible and accessible to anyone who is ready to use its remarkable
qualities."
Hypnosis suffers from an unfortunate, misleading, and downright incorrect dictionary
definition. To add to the confusion, in the professional world there has never been
a universal or authoritative definition or agreement about what hypnosis actually
is-or isn't-in spite of the fact that the American Medical Association recognized
hypnosis as a legitimate medical treatment modality in 1959. Evidently hypnosis
is nothing special; since it is nothing special it can go by a number of different
names.
Hypnosis Makes the Mind
Accessible to Influence
While the famous "placebo effect" resolves about 30% of all medical/pharmacological
symptoms, research has demonstrated that "hypnosis" (whatever it is) resolves at
least 80%. Each year, leading edge research in numerous scientific disciplines demonstrates
in ever greater detail the underlying chemistry and neurophysiology that explains
the remarkable effectiveness of hypnosis as a psychological and medical treatment.
Hypnosis is many things to many people.
The value of hypnosis lies in the fact that it can make the deep workings of the
mind accessible to influence. These deep workings are the very mechanisms for the
formation and evolution of all of our habitual behavior. The subconscious mind not
only creates and perpetuates all of our habits,
it also prevents them from being tampered with or changed. However, by means of
hypnotic communication we can make an ally of the subconscious mind (1)
(2)
(3) (4)
and employ the same processes to free you from the negative and destructive habits
that caused them to form in the first place.
You can intentionally shape your feelings, your behavior and your health in a positive
direction.
Hypnosis is Relaxed, Focused,
Comfortable
Unless you routinely use hypnosis or have experienced hypnosis at least a few times,
you are likely to have any one of a number of misconceptions about what hypnosis
is.
The dictionary says that hypnosis is a state that is like sleep, or that is sleep.
And yet most-if not all-hypnotic, or trance state work can be conducted and completed
with your eyes wide open. No one sleeps with their eyes open. Furthermore, the brain
wave activity of sleep (delta waves) is not the same as the brain wave activity
of what is called a "hypnotic trance" (alpha waves for light relaxation and theta
waves for deep relaxation). Moreover, there are many things it is possible to do
while "hypnotized" that are not possible for a sleeping person to do, such as precisely
follow directions or shift states of awareness and open their eyes at will. During
sleep the conscious will is not engaged; during hypnosis it is.
The biggest difference between hypnotic trance and focused, intentional consciousness
is that, during a trance it becomes possible to establish and maintain connection
with the most highly creative and evolutionarily productive portions of the brain
and mind. When you are in a trance state (i.e. a deeply relaxed and focused state)
your mental and physiological conditions are de-stressed and slowed down; you are
quiet and comfortable. It is a condition during which fear may be absent altogether
because there is no sense of threat; therefore safety is not an issue. In states
like this it becomes possible to envision, actually experience and move toward possibilities
that are ordinarily out of sight, out of reach and unobtainable. It creates possibility
for you.
Hypnotic Trance, Suggestion, and
Your Will
The dictionary says that the person who induces hypnosis makes suggestions that
the subject readily accepts and carries out. This implies that the subject is under
the power and control of the hypnotizer. Because of stage hypnotism and because
of the way hypnotism has been portrayed in suspense and horror films, many people
do believe and fear that it is possible for someone to hypnotize them and then control
their mind and their volition. But it is not true. It is not even possible. The
human mind and spirit have characteristics that cause it to reject and resist attempts
at domination or control by another. Universal laws and principles promote and protect
our self-determination.
The stage hypnotist show is solely an entertainment. People who do foolish and embarrassing
things in front of audiences at hypnotist shows, giving the impression that they
have lost their will, their sense of decorum, their self respect-and possibly their
mind-are willingly carrying out the hypnotist's "commands" as an excuse to act out
their "closet exhibitionism." They would never carry on that way if it was genuinely
against their will to do so (their fears about survival of the species alone would
forbid it!), and many of them would never carry on that way at all if they couldn't
claim that they had first been hypnotized.
No one in a "hypnotic trance" loses their will, their inherent self-determination,
or their freedom of choice. Your will is always engaged. A person in a hypnotic
trance is at all times fully aware of what is being said to them, and they are free
to follow or ignore any and all "post-hypnotic" suggestions (a post-hypnotic suggestion
is given to someone in a hypnotic trance, when they are presumably more susceptible
to following it). Being in a hypnotic trance does not increase the likelihood that
you will do anything you don't want to do, anything that is not in your best interests,
or anything that you wouldn't otherwise be willing to do. Even in a trance your
mind is always turned on.
Hypnosis, Fear, and the Subconscious
Mind
Though cooperative, linking and community-conscious by nature, we are also deeply
configured to be aware of and to protect our immediate self-interests, especially
when our primary need to survive is-or feels-threatened. When we feel threatened,
our fear triggers the flight-or-fight
response that causes us to drop down into survival mode; it is fear that
causes and perpetuates our habits. Habits are installed by the mind for our protection
and survival. For that reason they cannot be ignored and they cannot be easily changed.
Relaxed states of mind like hypnosis make precise communication with the subconscious
mind possible. The sense of fear and threat in the subconscious mind can then be
resolved and dissipated, enabling your mind to adopt positive and creative solutions
in place of negative habits.
Hypnosis is Self-Hypnosis
No formal trance induction per se is even necessary in order for hypnosis to facilitate
mental and physical healing. One of the greatest and most accomplished hypnotherapists
of all time, Dave Elman, said that there is nothing that can be done with your eyes
closed that cannot also be done with your eyes open. (See
Force of Habit for much more about this.) Dave Elman was absolutely right.
Hypnotists and hypnotherapists know that all hypnosis is really self-hypnosis. No
one can make you enter a deeply relaxed state of mind. You have to do it yourself.
It is something you learn to do and then you learn to do it better. That means that
sometimes hypnosis itself isn't even hypnosis. It means that Force of Habit takes
you beyond hypnosis and into a world where deep level personal change becomes possible
and accessible to anyone who is ready to use its remarkable qualities.
HYPNOSIS AND TRANCE
Tranceformation, Mind, And Shifting Levels Of Awareness
Hypnosis-and Tranceformation-makes use of our mind's natural ability to move in
and out of various states of awareness, or consciousness, in order to establish
healing connections. People often think of hypnosis as a trance state, but trance,
awareness and consciousness are relative concepts; they include any and every state
of awareness, whether "hypnotic" or not. Furthermore, the different regions of the
brain are in different states of awareness (and brain wave frequencies) at the same
time.
"Trance" (or "trans") is defined in the dictionary as a state of awareness that
passes and does not last, as in the words "transitory" or "transitional." A transom
above a window is a way for air to pass from room to room; to be in transit means
to be passing between destinations. It is a very apt way to describe the trance
experience of what we call hypnosis. Trance is nothing more than the shifting levels
of awareness or conditions of your mind from one state or quality to another. Hypnosis
is used to enable the mind to make specific shifts in awareness for the purpose
of moving the mind's attention from one feeling, experience or behavior to another
one that is more desirable, healthy, balanced, natural and beneficial. It is used
to allow the mind to access your deepest possibilities for healing and for personal
and spiritual evolution.
"Hypnotic trance" is one way to think about how Tranceformation helps your mind
to release the effects of the negative life experiences that create and support
bad habits and then to reorganize for a stronger, freer, healthier state of balance
and wholeness. The same powerful, innate characteristics and qualities of the mind
that make it possible for your bad habits to form also make it possible for them
to naturally be tranceformed into positive feelings and behavior that will last.
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THINK RESPONSIBLY!
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