Much of my initial work as a hypnotherapist is to dispel some
of the myths about hypnosis. Many people, even when they
come in to see me, have a lot of misconceptions about the
process. They think I'm going to wave my hand in front of
their face, and they'll go into never-never land. Then they
think I'm going to take control of their mind, and erase all
their problems in one session. Some people want me to do
this, and some are afraid of having me in control. So the first
thing I do is explain what hypnosis is, what it isn't, what it
can and can't do. Periodically, I even hold a free hour long
mini-class, open to the public, to educate about hypnosis.
Some years ago, I was at a party. A man came up and we
started talking. What do you do? he asked. I'm a
hypnotherapist, I replied. Oh. Well, you can't hypnotize me,
he said, as he began scanning the party for someone else to
talk to. You're absolutely right. I can't hypnotize you. I don't
hypnotize anyone. By following my instructions, they
actually hypnotize themselves. That got his attention.
That's the first thing I tell my clients. All hypnosis is self-
hypnosis. If they don't follow my instructions, they won't be
hypnotized. And if they try too hard, they won't be
hypnotized. It's sort of like falling asleep at night. If you
try to will yourself to fall asleep, you'll just wake up even
more. Hypnosis is a letting go. Letting go of the details of the
day. Letting go of the concerns. Letting your analytical mind let go of its hold on you. Just being in the here and now. Some people are afraid of letting go. They think it means that
someone else will be in control. I reassure them that they are
always in control of the process, and that they only go as
deeply as they feel safe doing. Generally, a client will drift
into a light state the first time. The second time I see them,
they go deeper because they realize that I'm not going to do
anything weird, like make them cluck like a chicken.
In hypnosis, I'm merely a guide. I can lead a client where
they want to go, but only if they want to go there. If they're
not dedicated to the change they want, then I can't help them.
I've had smokers come to me and say, I'd really like to want
to quit. But I still love smoking cigarettes, even though I
know I should quit. Take away the craving. I send them on
their way and tell them to come see me when they've decided
to quit. Hypnosis is a tool that can help them through the
process of quitting, but it can't make them quit. It's not a
magic wand. I can help a client move from point A to point
B, but they're the one that gets to walk the path. Hypnosis can
make it infinitely easier. It can make a mountain into a
molehill, and make changes happen very quickly. But the
person has to really want the change, and be willing to deal
with all of the other aspects of that change. For instance, a
woman wanting to lose weight decides to reduce her
consumption of sweets. After hypnosis, she loses her desire
for them, but finds that it was an enjoyable part of the meal
with her husband. She gets mad at me because I took away
the enjoyment.
Many people erroneously think that hypnosis is some other
dimension of consciousness. It's not. It's a very normal,
natural awareness that we're moving in and out of all the
time. When you're driving down the road on autopilot, and
your mind drifts off, and all of a sudden you're aware that
you've driven past your turnoff. Or when you're at the movie
theater, and get so involved with the action on the screen that
you're barely aware of the rest of the people in the audience.
Or if you're an artist or writer, and when you get so focused
on a project that time just speeds by, and outside distractions
fade away. These are all examples of the state of mind that
we call hypnosis. It's just that I know how to help a person
reach that level of consciousness deliberately, and know what
to do once we get there.
Hypnosis is really just being able to focus on one idea. Back
in the mid 1800's, Dr. James Braid coined the term hypnosis
after Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep. But after more
experience with it, he realized that the word hypnosis was
inaccurate. Dr. Braid then tried to rename it to mono-ideaism,
for one idea. But it was too late. Hypnosis had already caught
on, and the other really is a mouthful to say.
So many people think that hypnosis is magic. Strange things
happen with hypnosis. If a subject is told that an ice cube is a
hot coal, a blister appears. A person is told that they're stiff as a board, and their head is placed on one chair, and their feet on another. Then several people stand on the person's
stomach, and he doesn't collapse. These things look like
magic. They aren't. All that happens in hypnosis is that we
access abilities we naturally have, but that we don't seem to
be able to connect with while in our normal analytical state.
For instance, a stage hypnotist may ask a shy woman to
perform by singing "Over the Rainbow." Generally, she'd
shrink into a corner. However, because her self-imposed
inhibitions have been circumvented, she belts out the song.
The critical part of us that says, "I can't do that" moves onto
a shelf in the corner, and lets the power within us come out to
play. Hypnosis simply frees us from self-imposed limitations.
Hypnosis is a process of allowing the subconscious to be
more in control than our conscious mind. Our subconscious
is the storehouse of all our thoughts, actions, beliefs,
attitudes, memories, decisions. In other words everything. It's
been programmed like a computer. We've been conditioned
with our beliefs that "I can't." Our conscious mind is the
logical part of us. It sifts and analyzes information, draws a
conclusion on that information, and then passes the
conclusion to the subconscious mind. The subconscious then
processes the information, comparing it with all the other
information it has. Then the subconscious takes the strongest,
most powerful idea, and acts on that. For instance, two
smokers want to quit. The first one decides "That's enough. I
don't want to do this anymore. I have a lot of reasons to quit.
No matter how difficult it becomes, I'm done smoking." He's
made a final decision to quit, and knows that nothing is going
to talk him out of it. He throws out his cigarettes and that's
that. He has very little trouble. We've all heard of people
doing this. The second smoker wants to quit, but thinks "I
want to quit, but I really like to smoke. And it's going to be
so difficult. I don't know if I can do it." He puts his
cigarettes in a drawer. As soon as the craving hits, he's
digging them out.
The first smoker made a determined decision. It was stronger
than the desire to continue smoking, and he committed
himself to it, no matter what. His subconscious mind picked
the most dominant thought. His choice to quit was stronger
than his outdated choice to smoke, therefore his subconscious
made the process relatively painless. The second smoker's
belief that it was going to be hard set up a self-fulfilling
prophecy. And he wasn't dedicated to quitting smoking. His
subconscious recognized that he hadn't decided to quit no
matter what, so it figured that the old programming was what
was really desired. His cravings were overwhelming, and he
gave into them, to the familiar path and to his old
conditioning.
Our subconscious goes wherever our attention is. Just like
driving a car. When our intention is to drive straight ahead,
then our reflexes aim the car along that course. If our
attention wanders to look at the beautiful mountains to our
right, and continues to gaze at them, the instinctive impulse is
turn the car in the direction of where we're looking. With the
smokers, their subconscious minds delivered to them
whatever their attention was fixed on. The one smoker had
decided to quit no matter what, so he got to quit. The other
smoker was afraid it would be difficult, that he wouldn't
succeed, and he was giving up something he liked. His
subconscious gave him what it thought he wanted, to
continue smoking.
With hypnosis, we focus on one idea, such as giving up
something we don't want anymore, and keep our attention on
what we do want. This is a process that we use in our daily
life all the time. Whenever we break new habits, learn new
skills, change the way we think about life, are creative, we
are focusing on what we want. Hypnosis just makes use of
the process that we're already using. It's like inputting data
into a computer. We use the keyboard (conscious mind)
every day to enter new information into the hard drive
(subconscious mind) of the computer. The hard drive has all
the old information, and the new information, in it. Hypnosis
is simply an auxiliary keyboard that bypasses the conscious
mind to place new data into the computer.
Sometimes, a client may be afraid that hypnosis means that
my will, my mind, dominates and overpowers theirs. That no
matter what I say, they'll have to dance to my tune. Hypnosis
doesn't unplug their will. With hypnosis, the conscious mind,
which is the willpower, and the subconscious mind, which is
the processor, co-operate to bring about a desired result. If
the will, which filters all information, doesn't agree with a
particular suggestion, change won't occur. For instance, I
may tell a client that if she smokes, her cigarette is going to
taste absolutely awful, and the subconscious complies by
making the smoke taste vile. But if she really wants to
continue puffing on a cigarette, then her conscious decision
can counteract my suggestions, no matter how disgusting the
tobacco might taste. However, if that same client really wants
to quit smoking, then she must make a conscious
committment to follow my instructions. Such as taking three
deep breaths, and getting involved with something else, to
take her mind off smoking. Her decision reinforces the
suggestions to carry out the result she's chosen.
Hypnosis balances the conscious and subconscious. The
conscious, analytical part of us quiets down and quits picking
things apart, while allowing the subconscious to come out
and play. Have you ever looked for the answer to a problem,
and started throwing out solutions, no matter how silly they
were? Many times, there's a seed of an answer in one of the
silly ideas. That answer would never have been found if the
critical part that says That's nonsense had been involved.
There's a time for the logic, and a time for unrestricted
thought. Writer's and creative people are very aware of the
analytical part versus the creative part. Our critical aspect
sabotages our work by tearing down every idea we come up
with. When we get immersed in our project, and set the
critical voice aside, we are able to be innovative. This is
hypnosis. Later, we use the critical part to assess what we've
done, and decide how to make it better.
Hypnosis helps a person get in touch with abilities they have
that they haven't been able to contact consciously. A person
can quit smoking cold turkey, but hypnosis makes it much
easier. We all know of people who have put down their
cigarettes and never gave them another thought. They've
convinced themselves that when they quit, that was it. The
subconscious mind knew that, and it followed their decision.
Another example is that everyone has the ability to block
pain. Consider the person who was in an accident, and saved
others without realizing he was injured, too. Only later, when
the crisis was over, did he begin to hurt, and discover that he
had a broken leg. With hypnosis, a person can access that
natural ability that we all have. Usually, our conscious,
critical I can't gets in the way. Hypnosis moves that self-
defeating thought aside.
We've been hypnotized all of our lives. You're stupid, I'll
never succeed at anything, Life is hard, Quitting smoking is
almost impossible, Every time I even pass a bakery, I gain
weight, I'm a klutz, and on and on. We've been using
hypnosis to program ourselves every day of our lives.
Review the beliefs and attitudes you have. You probably
accepted them without question, without your logic
evaluating whether those concepts were true for someone
else with your abilities. All hypnosis does is de-hypnotize a
person of self-limiting beliefs, and impress the ideas they
choose. Hypnosis is simply a process that we're already using
anyway. Why not use the process to achieve the results we
want?
About the Author
Linda-Ann Stewart is a nationally known hypnotherapist, writer, and workshop facilitator with over twenty-five years background in metaphysics. At her website at http://www.cedarfire.com, she offers personal development articles, affirmations, online spiritual growth courses, audiotapes, and a free newsletter. She can be reached at linda-ann@cedarfire.com.