What is hypnosis?
What is your first thought when you think about hypnosis?
For me, it was a stage hypnotist making unsuspecting adults do and say dumb things, for instance, quack like a duck or bark like a dog. Last fall I went to the State Fair. Close to the entrance was a large audience watching a stage with 12 people making car noises. The hypnotist was talking them through a scenario, they were race car drivers. People were laughing, the hypnotist expertly guiding and directing the show, tapping the shoulders of some participants having them sit down. At the time I was five months into Hypnotherapy Training and had a new understanding of hypnosis. This is stage hypnotism. It utilizes the same principles of hypnosis that hypnotherapy does but for a different purpose.
While I am no expert at stage hypnotism, I am aware of the techniques used to select the best participants. First and foremost, the participants have to be willing. This seems to be a popular misconception of hypnosis. People often think the hypnotist has some power to control people’s minds without consent. This is completely false. The truth is the participants have to be willing. When the hypnotist asks who would like to go on stage, the raised hand indicates willingness to participate and consent to go into hypnosis. Stage hypnotists would never select a scowling person standing in the corner with their arms crossed as a participant. The stage hypnotist is carefully assessing the audience for people who are engaged and participating. The reason being, you cannot hypnotize someone against their will. If someone does not want to be hypnotized, it is not going to happen. There are other aspects of selecting the best candidates for stage hypnotism but willingness is a key component.
So what exactly is hypnosis?
According to IIH (Institute of Interpersonal Hypnotherapy), the definition of hypnosis is a natural, yet altered state of mind where communication and responsiveness with the subconscious mind is present. Basically, it is a state of mind where the conscious mind is bypassed so that the subconscious mind can be accessed.
What is the subconscious mind?
The subconscious mind has six functions according to Charles Tebbets in his book Self Hypnosis.
Serves as our memory bank or computer
Controls and regulates the involuntary functions of the body
The seat of our emotions
The seat of our imagination
Carries out our habitual conduct
The dynamo that directs our energy
The subconscious mind has no power to reason. It accepts and acts upon any fact or suggestion given to it. The subconscious mind does not know the difference between fact or fiction. It does not differentiate between what you perceive as happening only in your mind (as imagined) and what you perceive as being outside of you (as real) - for your subconscious, it's all the same. For your subconscious the "reality" is determined by your feelings. In hypnosis, most words are subconsciously interpreted literally.
Accessing the subconscious mind through hypnosis requires bypassing the critical factor. The critical factor is part of the conscious awareness. The critical factor examines, interprets and filters incoming ideas. When ideas are similar to those ideas already held, the critical factor lets them into the mind, if the ideas are too divergent they are rejected. In hypnosis the subject accepts suggestions uncritically so that the reasoning, analytical qualities of the conscious mind are suspended, and the suggestion goes unchanged to the subconscious. Hypnosis works to bypass the critical factor to reprogram the subconscious mind.
The stage hypnotist uses the bypassing of the critical factor and the subconscious mind’s imagination and its perceptions of reality to make suggestions to participants about who or what they are, and then the participants respond to these suggestions, accepting the reality the hypnotist has suggested, hence the quacking like a duck or pretending to be race car drivers.
But here is an important point, while the stage hypnotist can convince his subjects they are race car drivers and make vrooming noises, the hypnotist cannot program anything into the subconscious mind that goes against the person’s moral values or belief system. The reason is that even though in hypnosis you have bypassed the critical factor, your conscious mind is still present. If any suggestion violates the person’s moral values or beliefs, the critical factor will jump in and reject the suggestion. So quacking like a duck or vrooming like a race car driver will probably not rise to the level of triggering your critical factor rejecting the suggestion. Although, if you are morally opposed to stage hypnotism or making a fool of yourself, you probably won’t be a good candidate for the show.
Why do we want to access the subconscious mind?
Which brings us to the final point. Why do we want to access the subconscious mind? The use of hypnosis in a hypnotherapy setting is an incredibly powerful modality for eliciting long term positive change. Overcoming negative beliefs and emotions, resolving bad habits, losing weight, smoking cessation, improving relationships, resolving conflicts, improving sleep, reducing stress, basically anything the mind controls we can use hypnosis to help. Hypnotherapists are trained in the ethical use of hypnosis to support the goals of the client. Hypnotherapists use many different protocols from suggestion programming, to parts therapy, natal regressions, childhood regressions, past life regressions, interlife regressions, holotropic breath work, EMT, NLP, manifestation and life mastery work just to name a few.
In sum, while hypnosis is often seen as a carnival side show trick, the use of hypnosis to communicate with the subconscious mind and create positive long lasting change through hypnotherapy is invaluable.
*While there are many highly qualified hypnotherapists out there, be discerning, check their training and certifications. Most hypnotherapists offer free consultations so you can get a feel for if it is a good fit or not.
