For people who can't trance, the main problem with hypnosis
Posted: November 25th, 2011, 11:56 pm...at least in my opinion, is that people expect it to work like it does in bad Hollywood movies. Forgive me for waxing philosophic, but as a relative newcomer to being hypnotized (I've been practicing hypnosis for years but never tried actually going under myself until recently, as "hypnocritical" as that is), I can't help but comment on my experiences. I've seen a lot of posts on this site and across the internet talking about how people "can't" be hypnotized, or "I listened to the file but it did nothing", and it seems to me that the problem isn't with the process but the expectation of the process. People expect someone to swing a pocket watch around a couple of times and suddenly they're stripping naked and dancing the funky chicken, but hypnosis doesn't work like that.
As someone who has been doing hypnosis on others for years, I've often run into the problem of people after the fact complaining that they were aware of everything I was saying the entire time. I always have to explain that there are levels of trance and that only at the very deepest levels do you absorb information without "actively" hearing it. You CAN be hypnotized without being compelled to obey someone's every command, only to forget the whole session afterwards. Not to say that such a scenario can't happen, because of course it can, but generally not until you've had a lot of experience going into trance and have reached such a deep level that your mind stops actively following the session, which takes a lot of practice (and a lot of trust in the hypnotist, which neophytes and skeptics seldom have, for good reason).
As someone who has recently made the transition from hypnotist to subject, I can only assure you that, almost invariably, after listening to a decent hypnosis file, you were almost certainly in trance to some degree or another. If, while listening to a file, you reached a point at any time where, say, some part of you itched slightly but you didn't feel like having to move to scratch it, you were in trance. Trance isn't all or nothing, and you can be in a fairly light trance at any given time. According to current scientific speculation, it is believed that most people go into a degree of trance just by watching television. You know that point where you're caught up in the show so much that everything outside the screen of the TV seems to fade out, and all you can see is what's happening on-screen? That's trance.
And the funny thing is, the more often you consciously decide to go into trance, the easier it becomes. At first it may be hard to tell if anything is even happening, but as long as you keep your mind open to the POSSIBILITY that you can trance, and as long as you WANT to trance, you'll trance.
You also have to remember that, while hypnosis can directly speak to your subconscious mind, it doesn't necessarily make your conscious mind just get up and leave for a while. Think of it like you would the hemispheres of your brain. Both the left and right brain work in tandem. The left brain is the more analytical, logical, numbers-oriented part of your brain. The right brain is the creative, free-thinking, random part of your brain. Just because you're working on balancing your checkbook, that doesn't mean your right brain completely shuts down. It's still active, still being playful in the background. It's just receded a bit while your left brain steps forward and takes control during the specific task it excels at. Hypnosis is like that. Your subconscious steps forward and listens intently while your conscious mind relaxes and just kind of hangs back in the shadows a bit. The more often you go to trance, the more your conscious mind will learn to give up control and the more control your subconscious mind will learn to take, and THAT'S when you'll start to have sessions where you don't remember part or all of what was said, or where you don't remember what you may have done during the session.
So, the point of this diatribe is to encourage those people who have tried hypnosis and are convinced they are immune to its effects. Virtually everyone who has ever lived has had a subconscious mind, and so everyone can be hypnotized. Because all hypnosis is, really, is a conversation with the subconscious mind while the conscious mind is otherwise occupied. So, don't give up. You CAN be hypnotized, you CAN go into trance. You've been doing it all your life, any time you daydream or any time you focus on a task so much that the background fades out. Most people go into a form of trance just by reading a book, they stop seeing the pages of the book and start seeing the images and people it describes, and for the duration of the trance your mind, to one degree or another, suspends disbelief and believes what you're reading. All you're doing with hypnosis is teaching your brain a new way of going to the same place, and that takes time, faith and practice. Just want it and don't give up, and it will happen.
As someone who has been doing hypnosis on others for years, I've often run into the problem of people after the fact complaining that they were aware of everything I was saying the entire time. I always have to explain that there are levels of trance and that only at the very deepest levels do you absorb information without "actively" hearing it. You CAN be hypnotized without being compelled to obey someone's every command, only to forget the whole session afterwards. Not to say that such a scenario can't happen, because of course it can, but generally not until you've had a lot of experience going into trance and have reached such a deep level that your mind stops actively following the session, which takes a lot of practice (and a lot of trust in the hypnotist, which neophytes and skeptics seldom have, for good reason).
As someone who has recently made the transition from hypnotist to subject, I can only assure you that, almost invariably, after listening to a decent hypnosis file, you were almost certainly in trance to some degree or another. If, while listening to a file, you reached a point at any time where, say, some part of you itched slightly but you didn't feel like having to move to scratch it, you were in trance. Trance isn't all or nothing, and you can be in a fairly light trance at any given time. According to current scientific speculation, it is believed that most people go into a degree of trance just by watching television. You know that point where you're caught up in the show so much that everything outside the screen of the TV seems to fade out, and all you can see is what's happening on-screen? That's trance.
And the funny thing is, the more often you consciously decide to go into trance, the easier it becomes. At first it may be hard to tell if anything is even happening, but as long as you keep your mind open to the POSSIBILITY that you can trance, and as long as you WANT to trance, you'll trance.
You also have to remember that, while hypnosis can directly speak to your subconscious mind, it doesn't necessarily make your conscious mind just get up and leave for a while. Think of it like you would the hemispheres of your brain. Both the left and right brain work in tandem. The left brain is the more analytical, logical, numbers-oriented part of your brain. The right brain is the creative, free-thinking, random part of your brain. Just because you're working on balancing your checkbook, that doesn't mean your right brain completely shuts down. It's still active, still being playful in the background. It's just receded a bit while your left brain steps forward and takes control during the specific task it excels at. Hypnosis is like that. Your subconscious steps forward and listens intently while your conscious mind relaxes and just kind of hangs back in the shadows a bit. The more often you go to trance, the more your conscious mind will learn to give up control and the more control your subconscious mind will learn to take, and THAT'S when you'll start to have sessions where you don't remember part or all of what was said, or where you don't remember what you may have done during the session.
So, the point of this diatribe is to encourage those people who have tried hypnosis and are convinced they are immune to its effects. Virtually everyone who has ever lived has had a subconscious mind, and so everyone can be hypnotized. Because all hypnosis is, really, is a conversation with the subconscious mind while the conscious mind is otherwise occupied. So, don't give up. You CAN be hypnotized, you CAN go into trance. You've been doing it all your life, any time you daydream or any time you focus on a task so much that the background fades out. Most people go into a form of trance just by reading a book, they stop seeing the pages of the book and start seeing the images and people it describes, and for the duration of the trance your mind, to one degree or another, suspends disbelief and believes what you're reading. All you're doing with hypnosis is teaching your brain a new way of going to the same place, and that takes time, faith and practice. Just want it and don't give up, and it will happen.