Hypnosis - What is is & Why

Art by me x

As thoughts, knowledge and memories are stored in your subconscious mind, that is where
you need to go or allow them to come from if you want to make changes or let go of unwanted emotional debris.

In our busy day-to-day lives it can be hard to get hold of information because the conscious mind is active - all the time planning, thinking and doing.

A gentle way to relax the conscious mind to gain entry to the subconscious is with hypnotic meditative relaxation. When you become aware of the ease and normality of these techniques you can use them in all areas of your life and you will find your thoughts become clearer and sharper.

By understanding your hypnotic trance and meditative states, including the familiarity of it all,
sets you up for success. You are already an expert; you just don't know it yet.

I will begin by telling you a story.

Once upon a time there was trance. When you lived in a cave dressed in your loincloth you
would have been familiar with the experience of trance. The successful hunter would have
been more adept by dropping down into a focused state. Tribal and group behaviour
demonstrates the use of eye fixation, drumming and dancing (think club or disco) and the
mind/mental states created are not new.

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Man has always been 'entrancing'. You can see an excellent example of this if you have ever
watched a football match. The audience is mesmerised and behaves as one physically,
mentally and emotionally; breath-holding as they will the ball to land perfectly in the goal, all
the time holding the one shared thought - that if they shout out, 'Go in!' at the right moment,
it will.

History shows us that the trance state was used by the Ancient Egyptians in sleep temples
for healing, as did the Greeks. Yogis, fakirs, whirling dervish and shamans induce trance
using various methods but to the same end. Aborigines, American Indians, preachers and
lecturers - yes, they all do. Information has always been passed on and down through
trance. You only have to peek into any lecture hall to see that.

Healing through prayer, hands on, spiritual, chanting, drumming and spell of intent, again, all
induce trance. A child's bedtime story is another example.
Even the ringing bells that summon worshipers to church induces the alpha brain wave
pattern that can denote a light trance. You may have heard a gong or bell in many
meditations; to announce the start, end or for reminding the listener to remain or remember
calmness. Sometimes the bell is used to indicate a shift in focus.

Several times throughout each day we all slip in and out of different mind states. When we
are focused, bored, shocked, mesmerised, excited, or angry we access a different mind
state or we drift off and hear phrases like daydreamer, head in the clouds or being elsewhere
('the lights are on but there's no-one in'). There are examples of people doing extraordinary 
things that afterwards they had no conscious recall of doing. I am sure you know the feeling
of being on 'autopilot', possibly even saying that phrase about yourself.

You have no doubt experienced the irritation when supermarkets rearrange the shop in order
to 'wake us up' and notice all the wonderful things on offer instead of functioning
automatically without thought.

Have you ever driven somewhere or sat on a train and been unable to recall the journey?
Can you remember being totally absorbed in a book or film and become oblivious of your
surroundings, so much so that maybe you jumped, laughed out loud or even cried?
What about when you stop listening to someone talking to you - it's as if you 'zone out' and when
your awareness returns you're not sure whether to nod in agreement, laugh or sympathise.

One day I was at London, Waterloo Station about to step on the escalator when it stopped. Most
people on it stopped as well. It took some by surprise and they had to 'wake up' and decide
what to do next. You could almost hear their thoughts and for a few they couldn't quite
manage to work out a plan, so they stood still, shrugged their shoulders and waited for it to
start up again.

Do you lose yourself in your thoughts? Ever had a song playing repeatedly in your mind? Do
you replay situations in your mind or play the 'what ifs'? All these are examples of the
everyday trance that you most likely recognise. 
Some people try to create (believing they will enhance) these experiences by taking drugs such as hallucinogens or using dance, music and light sequences that alter brain wave activity. 
If only they knew the secrets to self-hypnosis they would save themselves a packet and keep their health.

A trance is an experience of some of the things previously described, whereas hypnosis is
the induction of a hypnotic trance during which you can decide to rest your conscious mind
thereby bypassing to your subconscious mind.

The meditative state, while very similar, varies in that it creates an open-mind focus while the
hypnotic state is focus with a narrowing of attention.
Meld them together and you get the blissful open-minded calm focus with the ability to put
your attention where you want. All the while having access to your inner you.

I have used the description before as: meditation = flowing out and hypnosis = flowing in.
When used together we can just flow.

Using hypnotic meditative states on and by yourself gives you access to your subconscious
mind that is usually pretty much ignored while it just gets on with its job, which is to keep us
alive and safe. It has no concept of right or wrong, good or bad. It acts automatically on
instruction and will make us repeat whatever we practise doing. If we have fears or anxieties
they will feed on themselves and become all-powerful.

The subconscious mind, in its endeavour to protect, may well remind us of these feelings if it has associated it with an action. Before my flying phobia was sorted, if I thought about flying I would get butterflies that flapped hysterically in my tummy.

When I had performance anxiety I would go through the whole scenario of escaping by
swooning ~ flying and performing were all sorted with hypnotherapy.
All this doesn't mean that you can be forced to do things - it does mean you can choose. If
you have decided you no longer want to smoke, for example, as soon as the old smoking
programmes in your subconscious mind are brought up to date with your present desire, you
are then a non-smoker with ease.

This is the same with phobias. My fear of flying was created by me holding onto an
experience as a child that had nothing to do with flying, but I had attached it to planes and as
my imagination is so brilliant I imagined myself into a state of terror.