How Hypnosis Works
Many people ask me how hypnosis works… a reasonable question to ask. There is a lot of curiosity about the subject and very little good information available on it. So, in this post I will attempt to answer the question as best I can – hopefully without getting too technical about it.
I think the best place to start would be to explain what hypnosis is. Hypnosis is a totally natural mental state that we all experience every day, but most people don’t know it. In the morning when you’re just beginning to wake up, before you start to think about anything or become aware of your surroundings, that is the hypnotic state. And the same hypnotic mental state occurs again at night, right before you fall asleep. Notice I said “before” you’re asleep and “before” you’re fully awake. The hypnotic state is NOT sleep. It’s in between being asleep and awake. It’s normal and natural.
When we are in that state, our conscious mind is basically offline – again, a normal and natural occurrence. Back in the 1700’s a Scottish surgeon (Dr. James Braid) discovered that people in that mental state were more open to suggestions and new ideas than when they are fully conscious. This makes sense because the conscious mind is where the ego is. The ego works well for some things but tends to be rigid, defensive, and isn’t very open to making changes. It can actually be a barrier to learning new things that will help us to grow and heal.
How hypnosis works
The sub-conscious mind however, is open to learning new things. It has no ego. The practice of hypnosis or hypnotherapy uses guided imagery and suggestions to bypass the conscious mind and gain direct access to the sub-conscious mind. In reality, it’s the sub-conscious mind that’s running the show, the conscious mind just thinks it is! When working directly with the sub-conscious mind, miraculous changes can take place with no conscious effort.
Unlike the conscious “ego” part of the mind, the sub-conscious mind doesn’t judge things; it accepts everything as being real and true. So, when we modify a troubling memory or feeling for example, it will accept it without resistance. For example, a person who is suffering from chronic pain can easily reduce their pain through the use of hypnosis and imagery. Our imagination is not imaginary – it’s real, and very powerful. By feeding the sub-conscious mind a suggestion (idea) that the pain is decreasing, it will respond by giving them the sensations of reduced pain. It’s quite amazing!
how hypnosis works
It’s important also to point out that hypnotic suggestions are NOT commands. The sub-conscious mind is very open to reasonable suggestions but can be resistant to authoritative commands. This is a good thing because one of its many jobs is to protect us. So, nobody can be “hypnotized” against their will to do anything they wouldn’t normally do when they are fully conscious. Besides, for a hypnotist or hypnotherapist to even attempt such a thing would be totally unethical.
The ethical use of hypnosis can help a person to bring about desired changes in the way they feel and act. It has proven to be very effective in treating things such as anxiety and panic attacks. It does so by helping the person to learn what’s really causing their anxiety, and also by helping them to come up with more productive solutions for dealing with it.
As mentioned above, hypnosis has also proven to be very effective in treating people who have chronic pain. In this case, the use of guided imagery can literally teach a person how to control their pain levels. This is a tremendous benefit! In many cases, chronic pain sufferers are able to reduce, or even eliminate the use of strong medications that can cause serious negative side effects.
In addition, hypnosis is also highly beneficial for people who have experienced some traumatic event in their life, and can’t get over it. It accomplishes this by making little changes to the actual memory of the event. When you make changes to a memory, it changes the way you feel about the experience. You don’t forget the experience, but it no longer has any power over you. It’s very liberating.
how hypnosis works
You might be wondering how we go about making changes to a memory. It helps to look at a memory as nothing more than a recording, like on a tape or CD. If you think of it as being like the magnetic strip on the back of a credit card, you know that if you drag a magnet across that strip, it scrambles the recorded data. Well we obviously can’t do that with a memory in your head! But what we can do is modify the details of the memory in a number of ways.
By using your imagination, you can do things like change the color, sound, texture and any other details in the memory. Like I said before, the sub-conscious mind can’t tell the difference between what’s real and what’s imagined. It will accept the new data as being just as real as the original! Consequently, your feelings about the event will change, and that troublesome memory will become just a memory that doesn’t bother you anymore.
One of the people I learned Medical Hypnotherapy from was a career Chaplin in the Army… a Brigadier General by the name of Dr. Paul Durbin. And he used to say: “Anything the mind has caused; the mind can cure”. The mind is a powerful thing. Everything that’s ever been discovered, built, created or achieved… began with someone’s imagination and beliefs. Imagination and Beliefs are POWERFUL… and they’re free!
Your imagination & beliefs can make you sick, or they can help make you healthy. Like I said, imagination is not imaginary… it’s real… and it’s powerful. And beliefs, whether they’re true or not, are more powerful than any drug on the planet.
how hypnosis works
In my Hypnotherapy practice, I use 3 main tools: Imagination, Imagery, and relaxation. When you combine these 3 powerful tools, you can do a lot of good. And that’s my mission… to do a lot of people, a lot of good.
In summary, hypnosis works by helping a person who is suffering from a physical condition, an emotional condition, or both. It does so by teaching them how to access the tremendous healing abilities of their own sub-conscious mind. It is infinitely more powerful than the conscious mind. It knows what the real problem is – and the best way to fix it.