Being aware?

[HiddenBaby]

Should I be aware of the post hypnotic suggestion? Or should I essentially feel asleep until the awakener?

[MN_FriendlyGuy]

Being aware of hypnotic suggestion is less important than how the suggestion makes you feel.

Our subconscious minds communicate with emotions and feelings. That means you can listen to your subconscious by paying attention to how you feel.

And, there's more... something even better! When trance is finished, and you're alert, If you can remember the feeling - that's even better.

[Foxfuz]

You should always be aware during hypnosis. Not being aware during hypnosis is like going to the movies to take a nap. You need to keep your attention on the hypnotist and follow his or her instructions.

[ProfessorPig]

You should always be aware during hypnosis. Not being aware during hypnosis is like going to the movies to take a nap. You need to keep your attention on the hypnotist and follow his or her instructions.

i am not convinced you actively have to listen to the hypnotist or focus on them directly. i find i get good results when i allow my mind to wander. the most clear example i have of this occurred while i was listening to a file and daydreaming about something else. out of no where i feel a sharp pain on the back of my neck, i was utterly shocked and confused, turning my attention to the file i realized that a section of the file that had a suggestion that you would feel a needle entering the back of your head had just played. i had never felt this part of the file in my active listening so it was a complete surprise to feel it while daydreaming.

i dont know if my story definitively proves anything, but i think that the subconscious is able to listen without the conscious mind being aware of the file.

[Alien4420]

You should always be aware during hypnosis. Not being aware during hypnosis is like going to the movies to take a nap. You need to keep your attention on the hypnotist and follow his or her instructions.

i am not convinced you actively have to listen to the hypnotist or focus on them directly. i find i get good results when i allow my mind to wander. the most clear example i have of this occurred while i was listening to a file and daydreaming about something else. out of no where i feel a sharp pain on the back of my neck, i was utterly shocked and confused, turning my attention to the file i realized that a section of the file that had a suggestion that you would feel a needle entering the back of your head had just played. i had never felt this part of the file in my active listening so it was a complete surprise to feel it while daydreaming.

i dont know if my story definitively proves anything, but i think that the subconscious is able to listen without the conscious mind being aware of the file.

I've been puzzled by this because I've noticed what seem to be different tiers or types of attentions when I'm hypnotized.

1. I've started to think about something else and unknowingly come up out of trance, often because I have some resistance to a particular suggestion. The suggestions don't register then unless I make them.

2. My mind has drifted but this time it's as you say -- my subconscious is somehow still listening to the file and I'm surprised when it makes me do something and I realize I'm listening. This can be an excellent state for me, since my conscious mind is ignoring the hypnosis and I can accept suggestions it would reject.

3. I'm listening and analyzing, with my conscious inner voice audible to me. This is a constant battle for me because I'm analytical and I automatically start to think after every phrase, or every change, even if it's something like my trance state changing. Suggestions register only partially.

4. I'm listening and analyzing, but my inner voice is hidden from me -- subconscious. I'm aware that the analytical part of my mind is functioning though and as with #3, it will reject suggestions that I'm resistant to, but that I'd accept in deep trance.

5. Deep trance, my conscious voice is quiescent and most or all suggestions pass right into my subconscious, including ones I'm resistant to. Amazingly effective but hard to maintain for long.

6. Medium trance, focusing on hypnotist's voice consciously but not thinking. Can be a good way of keeping my conscious mind from running interference.

7. Medium trance, focused on hypnotist's voice but not listening with my conscious mind and not thinking.

8. Not focused at all -- either fall asleep or too distracted by something internal or external.

OK, so this is disorganized and may not be entirely comprehensive or accurate, but it's what I've managed to categorize and been puzzling about. The one theme that seems to emerge is that the subconscious has to be engaged while the conscious mind doesn't analyze. But those terms aren't really right -- more like episodic memory has to be engaged while the higher centers ignore the programming that is being fed to it. It's a getting out of the way that leaves you vulnerable to reprogramming and it doesn't really matter what the higher centers do then -- they can watch and help but only if you have no resistance to a suggestion, or they can be quiescent, or they can focus on something else. But that's still a coarse and inaccurate way to describe it, as the not-really-accurate conscious/subconscious dichotomy is.