Myth-Conceptions About Hypnosis
Much of my initial work as a hypnotherapist is to dispel some of
the myths about hypnosis. Many people, even when they come in to
see me, have a lot of misconceptions about the process. They
think I'm going to wave my hand in front of their face, and
they'll go into never-never land. Then they think I'm going to
take control of their mind, and erase all their problems in one
session. Some people want me to do this, and some are afraid of
having me in control. So the first thing I do is explain what
hypnosis is, what it isn't, what it can and can't do.
Periodically, I even hold a free hour long mini-class, open to
the public, to educate about hypnosis.
Some years ago, I was at a party. A man came up and we started
talking. What do you do? he asked. I'm a hypnotherapist, I
replied. Oh. Well, you can't hypnotize me, he said, as he began
scanning the party for someone else to talk to. You're
absolutely right. I can't hypnotize you. I don't hypnotize
anyone. By following my instructions, they actually hypnotize
themselves. That got his attention.
That's the first thing I tell my clients. All hypnosis is self-
hypnosis. If they don't follow my instructions, they won't be
hypnotized. And if they try too hard, they won't be hypnotized.
It's sort of like falling asleep at night. If you try to will
yourself to fall asleep, you'll just wake up even more. Hypnosis
is a letting go. Letting go of the details of the day. Letting
go of the concerns. Letting your analytical mind let go of its
hold on you. Just being in the here and now. Some people are
afraid of letting go. They think it means that someone else will
be in control. I reassure them that they are always in control
of the process, and that they only go as deeply as they feel
safe doing. Generally, a client will drift into a light state
the first time. The second time I see them, they go deeper
because they realize that I'm not going to do anything weird,
like make them cluck like a chicken.
In hypnosis, I'm merely a guide. I can lead a client where they
want to go, but only if they want to go there. If they're not
dedicated to the change they want, then I can't help them. I've
had smokers come to me and say, I'd really like to want to quit.
But I still love smoking cigarettes, even though I know I should
quit. Take away the craving. I send them on their way and tell
them to come see me when they've decided to quit. Hypnosis is a
tool that can help them through the process of quitting, but it
can't make them quit. It's not a magic wand. I can help a client
move from point A to point B, but they're the one that gets to
walk the path. Hypnosis can make it infinitely easier. It can
make a mountain into a molehill, and make changes happen very
quickly. But the person has to really want the change, and be
willing to deal with all of the other aspects of that change.
For instance, a woman wanting to lose weight decides to reduce
her consumption of sweets. After hypnosis, she loses her desire
for them, but finds that it was an enjoyable part of the meal
with her husband. She gets mad at me because I took away the
enjoyment.
Many people erroneously think that hypnosis is some other
dimension of consciousness. It's not. It's a very normal,
natural awareness that we're moving in and out of all the time.
When you're driving down the road on autopilot, and your mind
drifts off, and all of a sudden you're aware that you've driven
past your turnoff. Or when you're at the movie theater, and get
so involved with the action on the screen that you're barely
aware of the rest of the people in the audience. Or if you're an
artist or writer, and when you get so focused on a project that
time just speeds by, and outside distractions fade away. These
are all examples of the state of mind that we call hypnosis.
It's just that I know how to help a person reach that level of
consciousness deliberately, and know what to do once we get
there.
Hypnosis is really just being able to focus on one idea. Back in
the mid 1800's, Dr. James Braid coined the term hypnosis after
Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep. But after more experience with
it, he realized that the word hypnosis was inaccurate. Dr. Braid
then tried to rename it to mono-ideaism, for one idea. But it
was too late. Hypnosis had already caught on, and the other
really is a mouthful to say.
So many people think that hypnosis is magic. Strange things
happen with hypnosis. If a subject is told that an ice cube is a
hot coal, a blister appears. A person is told that they're stiff
as a board, and their head is placed on one chair, and their
feet on another. Then several people stand on the person's
stomach, and he doesn't collapse. These things look like magic.
They aren't. All that happens in hypnosis is that we access
abilities we naturally have, but that we don't seem to be able
to connect with while in our normal analytical state. For
instance, a stage hypnotist may ask a shy woman to perform by
singing "Over the Rainbow." Generally, she'd shrink into a
corner. However, because her self-imposed inhibitions have been
circumvented, she belts out the song. The critical part of us
that says, "I can't do that" moves onto a shelf in the corner,
and lets the power within us come out to play. Hypnosis simply
frees us from self-imposed limitations. Hypnosis is a process of
allowing the subconscious to be more in control than our
conscious mind. Our subconscious is the storehouse of all our
thoughts, actions, beliefs, attitudes, memories, decisions. In
other words everything. It's been programmed like a computer.
We've been conditioned with our beliefs that "I can't." Our
conscious mind is the logical part of us. It sifts and analyzes
information, draws a conclusion on that information, and then
passes the conclusion to the subconscious mind. The subconscious
then processes the information, comparing it with all the other
information it has. Then the subconscious takes the strongest,
most powerful idea, and acts on that. For instance, two smokers
want to quit. The first one decides "That's enough. I don't want
to do this anymore. I have a lot of reasons to quit. No matter
how difficult it becomes, I'm done smoking." He's made a final
decision to quit, and knows that nothing is going to talk him
out of it. He throws out his cigarettes and that's that. He has
very little trouble. We've all heard of people doing this. The
second smoker wants to quit, but thinks "I want to quit, but I
really like to smoke. And it's going to be so difficult. I don't
know if I can do it." He puts his cigarettes in a drawer. As
soon as the craving hits, he's digging them out.
The first smoker made a determined decision. It was stronger
than the desire to continue smoking, and he committed himself to
it, no matter what. His subconscious mind picked the most
dominant thought. His choice to quit was stronger than his
outdated choice to smoke, therefore his subconscious made the
process relatively painless. The second smoker's belief that it
was going to be hard set up a self-fulfilling prophecy. And he
wasn't dedicated to quitting smoking. His subconscious
recognized that he hadn't decided to quit no matter what, so it
figured that the old programming was what was really desired.
His cravings were overwhelming, and he gave into them, to the
familiar path and to his old conditioning. Our subconscious goes
wherever our attention is. Just like driving a car. When our
intention is to drive straight ahead, then our reflexes aim the
car along that course. If our attention wanders to look at the
beautiful mountains to our right, and continues to gaze at them,
the instinctive impulse is turn the car in the direction of
where we're looking. With the smokers, their subconscious minds
delivered to them whatever their attention was fixed on. The one
smoker had decided to quit no matter what, so he got to quit.
The other smoker was afraid it would be difficult, that he
wouldn't succeed, and he was giving up something he liked. His
subconscious gave him what it thought he wanted, to continue
smoking.
With hypnosis, we focus on one idea, such as giving up something
we don't want anymore, and keep our attention on what we do
want. This is a process that we use in our daily life all the
time. Whenever we break new habits, learn new skills, change the
way we think about life, are creative, we are focusing on what
we want. Hypnosis just makes use of the process that we're
already using. It's like inputting data into a computer. We use
the keyboard (conscious mind) every day to enter new information
into the hard drive (subconscious mind) of the computer. The
hard drive has all the old information, and the new information,
in it. Hypnosis is simply an auxiliary keyboard that bypasses
the conscious mind to place new data into the computer.
Sometimes, a client may be afraid that hypnosis means that my
will, my mind, dominates and overpowers theirs. That no matter
what I say, they'll have to dance to my tune. Hypnosis doesn't
unplug their will. With hypnosis, the conscious mind, which is
the willpower, and the subconscious mind, which is the
processor, co-operate to bring about a desired result. If the
will, which filters all information, doesn't agree with a
particular suggestion, change won't occur. For instance, I may
tell a client that if she smokes, her cigarette is going to
taste absolutely awful, and the subconscious complies by making
the smoke taste vile. But if she really wants to continue
puffing on a cigarette, then her conscious decision can
counteract my suggestions, no matter how disgusting the tobacco
might taste. However, if that same client really wants to quit
smoking, then she must make a conscious committment to follow my
instructions. Such as taking three deep breaths, and getting
involved with something else, to take her mind off smoking. Her
decision reinforces the suggestions to carry out the result
she's chosen.
Hypnosis balances the conscious and subconscious. The conscious,
analytical part of us quiets down and quits picking things
apart, while allowing the subconscious to come out and play.
Have you ever looked for the answer to a problem, and started
throwing out solutions, no matter how silly they were? Many
times, there's a seed of an answer in one of the silly ideas.
That answer would never have been found if the critical part
that says That's nonsense had been involved. There's a time for
the logic, and a time for unrestricted thought. Writer's and
creative people are very aware of the analytical part versus the
creative part. Our critical aspect sabotages our work by tearing
down every idea we come up with. When we get immersed in our
project, and set the critical voice aside, we are able to be
innovative. This is hypnosis. Later, we use the critical part to
assess what we've done, and decide how to make it better.
Hypnosis helps a person get in touch with abilities they have
that they haven't been able to contact consciously. A person can
quit smoking cold turkey, but hypnosis makes it much easier. We
all know of people who have put down their cigarettes and never
gave them another thought. They've convinced themselves that
when they quit, that was it. The subconscious mind knew that,
and it followed their decision. Another example is that everyone
has the ability to block pain. Consider the person who was in an
accident, and saved others without realizing he was injured,
too. Only later, when the crisis was over, did he begin to hurt,
and discover that he had a broken leg. With hypnosis, a person
can access that natural ability that we all have. Usually, our
conscious, critical I can't gets in the way. Hypnosis moves that
self- defeating thought aside.
We've been hypnotized all of our lives. You're stupid, I'll
never succeed at anything, Life is hard, Quitting smoking is
almost impossible, Every time I even pass a bakery, I gain
weight, I'm a klutz, and on and on. We've been using hypnosis to
program ourselves every day of our lives. Review the beliefs and
attitudes you have. You probably accepted them without question,
without your logic evaluating whether those concepts were true
for someone else with your abilities. All hypnosis does is
de-hypnotize a person of self-limiting beliefs, and impress the
ideas they choose. Hypnosis is simply a process that we're
already using anyway. Why not use the process to achieve the
results we want?