Does Caffeine Affect Hypnosis

[Cubeguru]

does it? i dont know.........ive been using hypnosis for a while...no triggers work....i drink a lot of caffeine....or it might be that its usually a bit late when i listen to them

[dachshund]

does it? i dont know.........ive been using hypnosis for a while...no triggers work....i drink a lot of caffeine....or it might be that its usually a bit late when i listen to them

It's not so much the caffeine itself as its effects. :D

Nah, really -- if you're jumpy, twitchy, and wide-eyed, that goes against the mental contract the whole scenario is meant to create; it requires you to be 'relaxed' and willing to contemplate the 'suggestions' (read: agree that they might be possible), without being so wound up that you're going to be 'poking them with a stick,' looking for vulnerabilities in the logic.

This doesn't mean you need to be groggy, either -- whether you subscribe to the concept of a subconscious or not, your conscious mind has to be around and functional (on some level) for you to know you're having an experience. (My personal take is that the whole idea of 'the subconscious' is a tool for misdirecting our consciousness. They aren't separate entities, just patterns in the brain, but the 'watchdog process'* that creates our sensation of self can only be aware of so many things at once, so anything it's not immediately focused on is by necessity going to be 'subconscious' -- going on outside its purview.)

Try to approach it from the physical and mental stance you'd approach a daydream... and if you haven't daydreamed in a while, try to remember what it was like when you could. Also, try files that give you a concrete instruction that doesn't demand an instantaneous change in awareness -- those are fun when you're really primed for it, but if no chunk of your brain actually knows 'how' to respond or feel it, you may be letting your fact-checking tendencies overrule the idea that it could be working, literally 'inhibiting' those thought processes. (A stimulant like caffeine, for purposes of this argument, basically speeds everything up, and lets you both accept and inhibit new trains of thought more quickly; not exactly what's warranted in hypnosis, where you want to probe your ability to ride a specific one.)

Or at least, don't swig that double-espresso right before you listen; it's uncomfortable, and certainly doesn't gain you anything. :lol:

*Pardon the pun. Arf. [And yeah, software metaphors get messy -- if you accept what science seems to know, these 'processes' are encoded as much in structure as in whatever 'runs' atop it... but semantically, 'process' can sometimes refer to structure, so don't let that phrasing grate.]

[a3a2004]

I find that caffeine helps me not have extra (ie any) thoughts, but it also makes me very twitchy, which makes it impossible to relax. I'm planning on trying a smaller dose (5 caffeine pills seems to have been too many - I still feel like shit from that, and I had them yesterday, 30 hours ago).

Also, this is my 20th post :wink: hopefully I'm not a newbie now.

Just to spite me, it probably changes at 25 posts.

[Agriff]

I had 8 caffeine pills today (1 pill= 1 cup of coffee) and let me tell you it does not help hypnosis at ALL. I tried a file (LRInduction2) and I couldnt concentrate on Lady Rio at all. This was mainly becuase I felt sick and none of my body was willing to stay still.

Maybe 1-2 cups will help but I dont think so.

[misfit]

From my own experiences, I have to say that it makes me too jittery to relax and let go, so I don't go under. I have to wait about six hours after my last shot of caffeine to have any chance of going under.

[davelowe1977]

If its all about being relaxed - how about trying it drunk? I'm going to get off my face on vodka and try it. Results in a few hours.