Hypnosis - the state between sleeping and waking
By Michael Sanford
Hypnosis is a state of consciousness one enters and
leaves naturally all the time during your day-to day
experiences. It feels very much like day dreaming i.e.,
the state between sleeping and waking. Hypnosis is a
guided fantasy. In this state of relaxation you are more
open to suggestions. In this state (also called alpha)
your brain wave vibration rate slows down, giving you
access to your Subconscious Mind. While your
Conscious Mind is still completely aware of what is
going on the whole time, in this relaxed state of mind,
your subconscious mind has the ability to accept
information given to it by the hypnotist.
Hypnosis is a valuable tool for self-empowerment and
continuous personal growth.
Hypnosis is a state of heightened suggestibility. We are
all influenced by suggestions. Hypnosis uses this
natural human process to change negative patterns into
positive patterns of behavior.
There is nothing mysterious about hypnosis.
There are five components necessary to induce
hypnosis.
Motivation - You must want to be Hypnotized
Relaxation - Hypnosis is a state of deep relaxation.
Concentration - You will use your ability to concentrate.
Imagination - You will use your vivid imagination.
Suggestion - You will hear and respond to suggestions.
Its application is based solely on the relationship
between the conscious mind and the subconscious
mind.
The subconscious mind, having no power to reason,
accepts and acts upon any fact or suggestion given to it
by the conscious mind.
As long as there have been human beings, there has
been hypnosis. We use this commonly occurring, and
natural state of mind, unknowingly, all the time. It is just
natural for us. For example, if you have ever watched a
television program or a movie and became really
absorbed into the program, you were probably in a
trance.
Advertisers understand this. They use television
programs to induce a hypnotic trance and then provide
you hypnotic suggestions, called commercials!
Everyone has already experienced hypnosis, by
accident or intentionally.
Another common example of this naturally occurring
state of mind is when you are driving down the road,
with your mind focused on some other task (a day
dream perhaps), and next thing you know, you have
passed your next turn.
The hypnotic state is an optimum state for making
changes in your life.
During hypnosis you can set aside limiting beliefs that
may have been preventing you from moving toward a
more healthy, and happier you.
In order for you to understand how hypnosis works, it is
very important for you to understand the relationship
between your conscious mind and your subconscious
mind.
Since everyone has experienced light levels of hypnosis
at different times, don't be surprised if you don't feel
hypnotized. All that is required to be hypnotized is a
motivation to be hypnotized, concentration, imagination,
relaxation, and the willingness to respond to suggestion.
There are ways to check for the depth level of hypnosis,
usually in a one-on-one session.
During hypnosis, you will remain conscious of your
surroundings. Some of the sensations you may
experience are:
Tingling in your fingertips or limbs
A sense of numbness or limb distortion
A sense of being light and floating away from your body
A heavy feeling like you are sinking
A sense of energy moving through your body
Feelings of emotions
Fluttering eyelids
An increase or decrease in salivation.
When you notice that you are noticing these sensations,
do not become alarmed or you may shock yourself right
out of your trance. Just expect the trance to occur
gradually and it will. Suggestions stay with some
individuals indefinitely, others need reinforcement. The
effects of hypnosis are cumulative: The more the
techniques are practiced and posthypnotic suggestions
are brought into play, the more permanent the results
become.
Brain-imaging study has shed light on why some
people are more susceptible than others to hypnosis. By
hinting at the brain processes involved, the analysis
also suggests that hypnosis - both the stage and
therapeutic varieties - does have genuine effects on the
brain's workings.
Those who are easily hypnotized show different activity
in a brain region called the anterior cingulate gyrus,
which is involved in planning our future actions, reports
John Gruzelier of Imperial College London. In a
hypnotic trance, the function of this region may be
impaired, he says, meaning that subjects are more
likely to follow a hypnotist's suggestion: "The hypnotist
tells you to go with the flow, and so you don't evaluate
what you're doing."
This is consistent with the idea that those who are
easiest to hypnotize tend to describe themselves as
generally letting go of their inhibitions quite easily,
Gruzelier told the British Association Festival of Science
in Exeter, UK, on Thursday.
Mind games
Some experts have argued that hypnotism is not a real
physiological phenomenon at all, but rather the result of
hypnotists imposing themselves on their subjects, who
may be simply swept along. Stage hypnotists are often
accused of intimidating their 'volunteers' into playing
along for the sake of the show.
This effect is certainly part of the picture in performance
hypnotism, says Gruzelier. "Lots of it is due to
personality and persuasiveness, but then that's
showbusiness," he told news@nature.com. Such tactics
can cause people to ignore the potential of genuine
hypnosis to ease painful diseases, he adds:
"Unquestionably, stage hypnotists give hypnotism a bad
name."
"Humans like to comply; they don't like to be
embarrassed," agrees Peter Naish, who studies
hypnosis at the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK.
But he insists that underneath the coercion used by
charismatic stage acts, a physiological effect is
occurring. "The evidence really is there; hypnosis is not
miraculous," he adds.
Gruzelier studied 24 subjects, half of whom were
categorized as succumbing easily to hypnotism, and
half of whom were resistant. He scanned the
volunteers' brains while they tackled a problem called
the Stroop task, a test of mental flexibility that requires
subjects to categorize a list of colours presented in a
different colour - the word 'green' printed in blue, say -
depending either on the name or the actual colour.
Gruzelier tested the subjects before and after they
underwent a standard procedure used by hypnotists to
put their subjects into a trance. In resistant subjects, the
anterior cingulate gyrus was less strongly activated after
the procedure than before, showing that their brains
were working less hard as they got better at planning
how to complete the task.
But in hypnotized volunteers, the anterior cingulate, and
the regions that govern it, were more strongly activated
when they were in a trance, showing that they were
struggling harder to plot their actions, Gruzelier
reported. He suspects that this impaired ability to plan
for oneself makes people more suggestible.
This process may underlie hypnotists' ability to influence
their subjects' behaviour, be it stopping smoking or
barking like a dog whenever they hear Elvis Presley.
Subjects frequently report that they feel compelled to do
something even though they know they don't really want
to.
Gruzelier also suspects that hypnotism may interfere
with subjects' evaluation of future emotions such as
embarrassment. A region in the brain's medio-frontal
cortex, close to the anterior cingulate, governs our
perception of how we will feel if we take a certain course
of action, he says. If connections between the two
regions are impaired, stage volunteers might happily
act without thinking.
That may well be the final weapon in the showbiz
hypnotist's arsenal, says Gruzelier. By not only making
volunteers suggestible but also taking away their sense
of shame, the possibilities for public ridicule are
immense. "The structure that monitors the emotional
consequences of future actions becomes
disconnected," he suggests. "So you make a fool of
yourself." About the Author For more information on Hypnosis please visit the Hypnosis resource center at http://www.hypnosis-explained.info
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