Hypnosis is commonly defined as a heightened state of suggestibility, which is usually brought about by means of a hypnotic induction.
A more formal definition is that hypnosis is the bypass of the critical factor and the establishment of acceptable selective thinking.
Hypnosis can be effective at helping change habits, behaviors, and emotional responses because it works at the subconscious and conscious levels of the mind to create change.
Yes. Hypnosis has been recognized by the AMA since 1958. It has been used by many professionals in medicine and psychology for 200 years. No one has been hurt by simply going into a state of hypnosis.
While hypnosis is a state of heightened suggestibility at the subconscious or unconscious level, there is a protective function at every level of the mind that would reject any suggestion that would normally seem dangerous.
Just about everyone can be hypnotized and most have already been hypnotized.
Generally speaking, anyone with a normal I.Q. and the ability to follow instructions can be hypnotized.
There have been millions of hypnosis sessions and no one has ever become stuck in hypnosis. Anyone can emerge anytime they want to by simply no longer following instructions from the hypnotist.
Yes, the part of you conscious mind that remembers operates normally in hypnosis. You are not asleep and you are fully conscious in hypnosis. In fact you have heightened attention and are more conscious than normal. All levels of your mind, the conscious, subconscious, and unconscious will be working in sync.
No, not unless you want to. You are able to withhold any information, make up stories, and even lie in hypnosis.
The conscious mind is where you are right now and where we spend most of our waking time. It basically does only four things.
1) It analyzes. This is the part that looks at problems and what needs to be done to solve those particular problems. It’s also the part that makes hundreds of decisions throughout the day, things like “should I answer the phone?”, “Should I open the door”. Some of these things we think are automatic but we have to make a decision whether to do them.
2) It rationalizes. It gives a reason for everything we do. If we
don’t have a reason why we do the things we do, we become anxious, nervous, frustrated. The problem is that we consciously rationalize is often not correct.
3) It houses working memory. This is the memory we need every day. “What’s my phone number?” “What are my kid’s names?” Those are the types of things we need to remember to get through the day.
4) It provides will power.
In hypnosis, we relax the conscious mind in order to access the subconscious mind.
The subconscious mind is the part of our consciousness that defines who we are and what we do consistently. It makes up our personality. It starts off empty when it is first developed before birth, and then starts gathering information from our experiences and perceptions about what happening around us. This information is held in our permanent memory, which contains all the information that we gather throughout our lives.
Some of this information in the subconscious mind can turn into habits and we react automatically to people and circumstances in our lives. This information can also develop into beliefs, which we think are true, even though we may not have definite proof.
The subconscious mind resists change, which is usually beneficial by allowing us to conserve a great deal of mental energy. This enables us to maintain a consistent personality throughout our lives, but can cause problems when we decide we need to make a change in how we think, feel, or behave, which are areas in which hypnosis can help.
The Subconscious Mind is always working to protect us from what we believe to be dangerous. Emotions are generated when our perceptions about what is going on around us interact with our beliefs about how we think things should be. For example, when the Subconscious Mind perceives what it believes to be a dangerous situation, it generates fear. Another example could be when it perceives that you have been treated unfairly, it will generate anger. Hypnosis can directly affect these beliefs and habits.
The unconscious mind is the consciousness of the body. It is developed before birth and is completely programmed to take care of all of the things that keep the body running smoothly such as breathing, digesting food, and protecting against infections.
The unconscious mind can learn. Dr Ivan Pavlov famously demonstrated this with by training dogs to salivate to the sound of a bell when the bell had been paired with a bit of food.
The unconscious mind means well, but sometimes will program us to do things that aren’t in our best interests. The unconscious mind can actually generate symptoms like a headache or stomachache to protect us from stressful situations. An example of this is a child who will learn to be sick in order to avoid going to school.
In its mission to protect us, it can cause us to desire unhealthy substances if it thinks they will help us relax or cope with stress. Hypnosis can be used to overcome this programming.
The critical factor is the function of the mind that decides if new information is either true or not true, or at least worthy of significant doubt. That which is deemed to be untrue still enters your Subconscious Mind, but it goes into that Database of Information. This new information is then known to the Subconscious Mind, but given little or no credibility. There, it is unlikely to ever change the existing beliefs or habits. That which is deemed to be “true” reinforces the long-standing habits and beliefs inside of us.
It is the responsibility to the critical factor to keep what is in the subconscious mind consistent. This saves a great deal of mental energy, if the Subconscious Mind had to regularly rearrange its contents, especially habits and beliefs, constantly reorganizing it would be mentally exhausting.
So, unless the Critical Factor is provided convincing information, so strong that it is able to overcome existing beliefs and habits, new information is simply recorded, but not integrated into our personality and consistent behaviors. It just resides in the subconscious database, not to be acted upon.
This is where hypnosis comes in. If you remember the definition of hypnosis, it causes a bypass of the critical factor. This allows someone in hypnosis to accept suggestions at both the subconscious and unconscious levels of the mind.
The essence of the critical factor is that of being protective, and as long as the suggestions that are given to the subject are not going to endanger him/her the Critical Factor will remain in a state of bypass so that the subject can easily accept suggestions. There is no state of hypnosis that can overcome this protective function.