Self-Hypnosis: The Simple Facts Uncovered

January 19, 2010 | By In General Articles |

THE DEFINITION OF HYPNOSIS: Self-Hypnosis is a condition of hyper-suggestibility where the conscious and the unconscious disconnect. It is a state of mind where the hypnotized patient is more likely to acknowledge the Hypnotist’s suggestions.

You have been in the hypnotic state many times in the past without even realizing it. If you’ve ever watched a sad television show and reacted with a tear in your eye, you have been in the hypnotic state. You entered a state of increased suggestibility where you uncritically accepted the idea of unhappiness on the TV screen and reacted with a sad emotion, your tear. To put it into different words, your reasoning ability, which is controlled by your conscious mind, was bypassed. You did not reason that the show was just a play; you accepted the action as being genuine. So you reacted with real passion and shed a tear.

WHO CAN BE PLACED INTO HYPNOSIS? Hypnotherapists have found that all normal people can be hypnotized to a greater or lesser extent. Subjects with the I.Q. of the moron level of intelligence or less generally are not hypnotizable. People who are actively psychotic generally are not hypnotizable. Most senile people are difficult or impossible to hypnotize. I have found in my own private practice dealing with a large number of retired people up to 85 years of age, that hypnotism is a compelling and beneficial technique for most people. The person’s personal motivation is the key to success.

DO I HAVE TO BE A “DEEP” HYPNOTIC SUBJECT FOR SUCCESS? For the healing applications of hypnotism we most often deal with, hypnotic depth of any kind is not required. You can be the lightest possible subject and still obtain all of the benefits from hypnotism that the deepest subjects will obtain. I feel that over the years, far too much importance has been placed on how deep a subject can go. If the client is deep, it can be of benefit. This however, may not necessarily be the case. In reality, with the latest hypnotic methods like Ericksonian hypnotism and state of the art “NLP” (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), the depth of the hypnotic state is one of the least imperative aspects, which create success.

ARE THERE ANY DANGERS IN HYPNOSIS? There are on the whole no dangers to the practice of hypnotism. It is not possible to “get stuck” in hypnotism. The most awful thing that can possibly happen while a patient is in the hypnotic state is that she might fall into a natural state of sleep for 20 or 30 minutes. She would awaken rested and out of a hypnotic state.

MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT SELF-HYPNOSIS: There are many misconceptions about hypnotism. Most of the misconceptions are due to stage and TV shows. As luck would have it, it’s because of the fact that the TV can hypnotize you that these misconceptions are so strongly entrenched in people’s minds.

IS HYPNOSIS A STATE OF SLEEP? The largest misconception about hypnotism is that it’s the state of sleep. Not anything could be further from the truth. If you are asleep, you are unconscious. If you are unconscious, you cannot hear anything. If you cannot hear anything, then the hypnotist cannot help you. Hypnosis is a state of keen awareness. The subject is wide-awake and aware of everything around her. This misconception stems from the stage Hypnotist’s use of the word “sleep” as corresponding to a state of hypnosis. When the old time hypnotist swung a watch in front of his subject’s face, he told his subject that she was getting “sleepy.” He then told his subject to “go to sleep.” What he meant was to go into a hypnotic sleep, not a natural sleep.

IS THERE A HYPNOTIZED FEELING? The second largest misconception about self-hypnosis is that there is a hypnotized feeling. There is no specific hypnotized feeling. I repeat there is no specific hypnotized feeling. Most people feel very relaxed when in the hypnotic state, as relaxation seems to be the essence of hypnotherapy. Some people feel heavy. Some people feel light. Some people have other sensations and feelings. Other people have absolutely no feeling that they are in self hypnosis, and believe they have not been hypnotized when they most definitely have.

CAN THE HYPNOTHERAPIST CONTROL ME? NO! A hypnotist cannot make you do anything against your will. There is always an observing ego state. Should the therapist make an offensive suggestion; this observing ego state would reject that suggestion. Additionally, you will probably come out of the hypnotic state if the hypnotherapist makes an offensive suggestion.

CAN THE HYPNOTHERAPIST FORCE ME TO DIVULGE ANY OF MY SECRETS? You will not reveal any secrets while in the hypnotic state unless you want to. The therapist does not have any control over the subject. Quite the contrary, the subject has more control over herself since at this time she can directly communicate with her own unconscious. The subject can easily decline any suggestion the therapist makes, no matter how simple or complicated the suggestion might be. The subject can open her eyes, emerge from the state of self hypnosis, and walk out of the room at any time she chooses.

MUST PEOPLE TELL THE TRUTH WHEN IN SELF HYPNOSIS? NO! People can lie when in the state of self-hypnosis.

DO HYPNOTISTS HAVE SUPERNATURAL POWERS? This is a common misconception. The therapist does not have any special powers, nor does he have any special vibrations with which to hypnotize you into the hypnotic state. Actually, all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. The therapist leads the subject into a state of self hypnosis. In other words, the ability of self hypnosis is within the subject.

WHY DO PEOPLE FAIL TO REACH THEIR GOALS USING HYPNOSIS? Perhaps the biggest reason for the inability to reach one’s goals through self-hypnosis is an inadequate amount of practice where self-hypnosis is concerned.

The greatest reason for the return of a symptom or “relapse” is the early discontinuance of hypnotism with the Hypno-therapist or recorded program. While self-hypnosis is important, it is generally the hetero-hypnosis with the therapist or hypnosis recording which has the greatest impact upon the unconscious.

This is because of the training that the therapist has vs. the lack of training of the client. Some people are penny wise and pound-foolish. They mentally set an amount of time or money that they are willing to spend for help. And then they prematurely stop their sessions because; “I didn’t lose 50 Lbs. in two days, so it isn’t working.”

If a therapeutic method is really helping one to make positive changes, then it is priceless and it should be continued. For this reason it is wise to have follow up hypnotherapy sessions, even after a symptom seems to have disappeared completely. Self-hypnosis should be an ongoing affair on a daily basis. Ultimately, YOUR SUCCESS IS UP TO YOU!

WILL I BE BETTER OFF HIRING A HYPNOTIST, OR WILL PURCHASING A RECORDED PROGRAM WORK BETTER? That is a great question. Normally I would recommend that you employ the services of a reputable therapist. The reason is that by meeting with you, a good therapist / NLP’er will be able to customize his approach to your personality and your favored representational system — the way you favor taking in information through the senses to make sense out of it and react to it.

In my opinion, ninety-nine percent of the pre-recorded hypnotherapy CDs available at this time are strictly Traditional Hypnosis, and are made up of only one or maybe two sessions of it at that. Traditional Hypnosis is nothing more than a set of direct post-hypnotic suggestions: “If you eat a brownie you’ll throw up.” “You will not have urges,” etc.. This technology has a very poor track record of success because the people in our generation have been educated to question everything. That’s why you, your friends, and your kids usually do the opposite of what they are told to do. This is called a polarity response.

That being said, having personalized sessions with any therapist / NLP’er who has enough experience to be able to actually help you can be very expensive. There are some hypnotic programs based on Ericksonian Hypnosis and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) that have overcome those shortcomings. They’ve managed this by utilizing a mix of NLP, Traditional Hypnosis, Ericksonian Hypnosis, And the highly regarded Video Hypnosis technology.

These are all methods that are designed to overcome the resistance factor. In fact, Video Hypnosis and the NLP technology that it’s based on do not utilize suggestion at all. These technologies rely on using the thought processes that have created a problem, to eliminate it!

Look for companies that offer these methods in multi-session products. These are programs that generally have six to eight different hypnosis or NLP sessions, so you are exposed to a broad range of methodologies. It takes a lot of work to make this type of program, but the high success rates achieved are well worth the trouble.

I recommend that you stay away from the “one size fits all” — “do-or-die” hypnotism CDs and downloads. Many are attracted to these tapes because they are very cheap, usually under ten dollars. But is it cheap if it just wastes your valuable time and doesn’t work?

If you try something and it doesn’t work, then you get guarded and start to expect the next approach to fail. And you get what you expect. Do you really think that the same exact post-hypnotic suggestions will work for everyone? Do you think that they will work for you? Do you always do exactly as you are told? Or do you generally feel the desire to do the opposite of what you are told?

(c) 2007 By Alan B. Densky, CH. This document may be re-printed as long as it is not altered and the author’s name and clickable links are retained.