My theories, based on new brain-science

[gdrileyx]

My files are based on emerging brain science that says that the conscious mind is not in control of the brain. The conscious mind is merely an observer of the activity of the brain, an observer that tries to make the actions of the brain seem to make sense. New studies show that the brain works in parallel, with several conscious and unconscious modules working simultaneously to accomplish any task. Though simultaneous, the modules do not always cooperate, and there is no organizational scheme working towards cooperation, no central command. Thinking is largely a process of association, and the more associations you have, the better you think. Visual images are the elite of associations, the most powerful, and the most broadly distributed. Essentially the only thing powerful enough to rewrite visual associations are actions. However, imagined actions are almost as powerful as enacted actions, and observed actions can be more powerful in impacting on one's mind than one's own actions.

What we have been doing in any form of hypnosis is an attempt at persuasion. We are trying to persuade our subject to change an action (quit smoking), a belief (gender identity), or an attitude (slutting is bad). One thing we know for certain, the persuader buys persuasion with credibility. It's like a tank of gasoline, the more you start out with, the farther you can go - but the faster you go and the farther you go, the sooner you run out of gas. The Great Houdini, that's credibility right there. That's part of what made his magic work.

So this is why I spend what may seem like an inordinate amount of time, in my inductions, talking about science. I'm fueling my credibility tank. Every time the subject thinks, “I never thought of it that way, but it makes perfect sense,” that's fuel in my persuasion tank.

One of the implications of persuasion science, for hypnosis, is that you have to set incremental goals. You are not going to drive from Vermont to Kansas on one tank of gas. If you shoot for small success, and achieve it; then reminding the subject of the previous success fills your credibility tank. I am not going to be able to hypnotize an alpha male to go to a gay bar dressed as a woman in one session. But, if I can get him to just imagine sitting down to pee, I am farther towards achieving the ultimate transformative goal, than if I had taken him a hundred small steps towards the goal.

Another implication, is that we must realize that the old paradigm for persuasion is wrong. Beliefs generate attitudes, attitudes generate actions, change the beliefs equals change the actions - that's wrong. Action impacts on belief more than belief impacts on action. It's not true that we go to church because we believe in God. It's more true that we believe in God because we go to church.

The other thing that I think I am doing very differently has to do with associations. If I just put a single line of a David Bowie song into a file, I might open a hundred associations: images of Bowie, other lyrics in other songs, other openly bisexual celebs, images from videos, memories of places where I was and people I was with when I heard Bowie songs.... This might seem like a two-edged sword, because it might seem that these associations might as likely totally distract my subject from my objective, as reinforce my objective. However, the new brain science says that it's not a two-edged sword.

The new brain science says that these functions are running in parallel. If the parts of the brain that listen to hypnosis are engaged, they stay engaged. Other things taking place in other parts of the brain at the same time, only strengthen those functions that are already ongoing. This is because the brain associates things that fire synapses together as being related, even if they are not; and then those reinforces those synapses that fired at the same time as other synapses.

I have a particular experience that I find impacts on my theories of hypnosis, that I think is a relatively rare experience. I danced the Ghost Dance. I used to go to summer camp, where we did Indian Dance Shows every weekend. One year, we did the Ghost Dance, and the night of the dance, I went into a deep trance, and had all kinds of visions, without ever missing a step in the dance. I think this is because we had to keep doing this repetitive, fairly simple sequence of steps, and keep a running count of the steps taken, so as to know when to switch to the next sequence. It was all-engrossing, until the brain learned to automate the process. Many parts of my brain were revved-up, working hard, burning alot of calories and using alot oxygen, to do all these different things involved in this dance. But one of the brain's automatic functions is to figure out how to automate these kinds of brainstorms, to figure out how to save energy. So, when the process was automated, suddenly, all these highly active, fully-fueled brain areas had no task. Hence the visions.

This might only make sense to me, but I think that what I am trying to do with my files is the reverse of the Ghost Dance. If I can take brain-processes that are active, and redirect them to a simple repetitive task that can't be automated, I can turn more and more of the brain's activity towards a unified goal. In what I think is my most advanced file (Princess-Slut/Soundtrack) I make the task of listening to the hypnotist un-automatable by changing up the musical soundtrack, unpredictably.

The songs seem like familiar songs, but I have cut and pasted them to be unfamiliar. The brain finds itself trying to predict if the refrain will repeat or if it will change. The brain struggles to figure out what is the pattern of the changes, but there is no pattern to find. So it tries that much harder, drawing in parts of the brain that were previously uninvolved. Then, when the music goes away; all these active parts of the brain are sitting there with nothing to do but listen to the hypnotist. But these brain parts also know that the music is going to start again, so they can't disengage. Nor can they start some new process. They have to stay ready and active, but they have nothing else to do but listen to the hypnotist and make free-associations. These associations only strengthen the impact of hypnotist's message. Moreover, the music makes the part of the brain that's primary function is to listen to the hypnotist, concentrate harder to do so, against the distraction of the music.

In summary, my goals in adapting this new brain-science to the existing technology of hypnosis are:

Get the subject to use the Mind's Eye to imagine taking actions, and to imagine watching other people take actions; in order to impact on attitudes and beliefs,

Encourage associations, particularly visual associations,

Shoot for small but concrete incremental changes,

Regularly replenish my credibility tank, and be stingy in my expenditure of credibility towards persuasive effect,

Don't make it too easy for the subject. It's not enough for the subject to merely listen, the subject needs to be engaged.