What Happens Under Hypnosis?
Since the name is derived from the God of Sleep in Greek mythology, Hypnos, the practice of hypnosis is often misconstrued as putting someone to sleep, meaning they had relinquished control. This is absolutely not the case. When under a state of hypnosis you are completely aware of what’s going on, but because of being so utterly relaxed, you are not affected by them. Being in a trance or under hypnosis, is a normal state of mine whereby the conscious control of your mind is set aside and your sub-conscious is now free to come to the forefront.
You have probably found yourself totally preoccupied with something going on at home while driving to work, yet arriving there safely with no apparent memory of the drive. This means you were in a trance. While your conscious mind was busy thinking about the problems you left at home, your sub-conscious mind took control of driving you to work using your regular route. Even though you weren’t actively aware of the drive, if there had been a dangerous situation or some other event happened that wasn’t the norm, you would have snapped out of your trance and been immediately conscious of the danger and taken control of the situation. The subconscious mind immediately yields control to conscious when any dangerous situation or mental conflict happens.
While under hypnosis the mind is very vulnerable to suggestion, I don’t mean to imply that you “lose control” when in a state of trance. The truth is that any suggestions you get while in a trance will only take hold if it’s congruent with your own ethical or moral beliefs. For example, if holding up a jewelry store is not something you would be inclined to do consciously, there is no suggestion strong enough while in a trance that could get you to rob a jewelry store. The same thing holds true while under hypnosis, at the mere suggestion you would quickly “break state”, meaning you would come to and be completely awake and alert.
Because the mind is so vulnerable to suggestion is the main reason why hypnosis is so helpful for many problems. It’s possible to just “suggest” your problem away, although there is more involved than just that. But hypnosis is a very efficient method for problem solving.
Under hypnosis, you can also tap into your super-conscious mind; the place where many believe your “soul” is located. This is where we connect to “God”, “Universal Mind”, or the “Source”. Hypnosis is a very effective method to tap into your higher self. When in a hypnotic meditation, people are often able to tap into their “Spirit Temple”, where they can be contacted by their angels or spiritual guides.
How Does Hypnosis Exactly Work?
The human mind is made up of three different levels of consciousness: the conscious, the sub-conscious and the super-conscious.
The conscious mind possesses an aspect called “the critical factor” which filters out and analyzes incoming information on a continual basis. It then makes the appropriate response. It’s discerning in terms of what’s important for us to know and what can be discarded as unusable or unimportant. The conscious mind will keep everything out that it feels is inappropriate to our situation. In order to learn or take in anything new, we have to find a way to bypass the critical factor since it has no reference point to accommodate the new information and allow it to enter.
There are a number of different ways of bypassing the critical factor to allow or learn something new, including emotional trauma and repetition. However we can also do this using hypnosis. While we’re in a trance the critical factor is bypassed and we are capable of retrieving information from our sub-conscious mind and at the same time we can convey new information quite easily. This is the way suggestion is used, or hypnosis is used as a form of therapy to shed light on a situation or treat a particular problem.
Since our mind hangs onto everything we have ever experienced in life, hypnosis can be used to take us directly to a certain memory that has been problematic for us. Once we relive the experience through our memory, we are able to deal with it and all the emotions that come up as a result and alter the way we perceive it. We can change the trauma and cause it to be life altering but in a positive manner. We can actually be taught a new and different way of dealing with that traumatic event.
Hypnosis is used for Many Things
People are effectively treated for many different things using hypnosis, which includes weight loss, smoking cessation, and enhancing academic or athletic performance. There are many highly skilled hypnotists who are very effective in the work they do.
Some hypnotists help people to become aware of their psychic and spiritual self and guide them in finding their true purpose and spiritual path in this life. Through hypnosis and a trance state you can reach your angels and guides and be in touch with your higher self. Hypnosis can also be used to develop your psychic abilities. We all come into this world with a “sixth sense” but we usually lose the connection, as we get older. As children it’s very strong in us, but religion or society informs us that it’s our imagination or that it’s bad and we start to ignore it. As adults we have long since forgotten the divine part of us, the part that is connected to everything and everyone and therefore we’ve departed from our true selves, the essence of who we are and our purpose in arriving on this plane of existence.
There are some hypnotists who use hypnosis or trances to help people uncover their past lives or to visit the time between lives, their “inter-lives”. Often there are times that we have emotions or problems that come out of the blue and don’t seem connected to our life or what we’re doing at the moment. If you’ve had an irrational fear of water, heights or water with nothing in your life that could have brought this about, it very well may be carried over from a past life. Through past life regression under hypnosis, sense can be made of these supposed irrational feelings and the traumatic past life experience can be effectively treated so that it doesn’t have a hold on you in your current life.
Image Credit: Chris Nurse (http://images.wellcome.ac.uk)