Understanding Hypnosis and the Mind

A simple definition of hypnosis is: a state of heightened suggestibility, where the critical factor is bypassed while focusing one's concentration on one thought, idea, or person.

A person in hypnotic trance will only accept suggestions that comply with a previously established personal moral and ethical standards code.That code that cannot be violated regardless of the depth of the hypnotic trance.

To understand hypnosis consider the inner workings of the human mind. Our mind is made up of four different levels of activity:

Level 1 is beta. This is the level of focused consciousness - your awake state. We function in this level approximately sixteen hours a day. Its main purpose is to regulate our life-controlling bodily functions, such as heartbeat, breathing, kidney functions, digestion, etc. About 75% of the beta level is spent monitoring these vital physical functions. Only 25% of the conscious mind is left to deal with our conscious thoughts.

Level 2 is alpha. Alpha corresponds to the sub-conscious mind and what hypnosis deals with. This level is characterised by 95-100% concentration efficiency; far superior to the 25% efficiency of the conscious, beta level. Activities on the alpha level include hypnosis, hypnagogia, meditation, biofeedback, daydreaming, crossing over into natural sleep, and awakening. Hypnosis is not sleep. You are fully aware when you are hypnotised.

Level 3 is theta. This is hypnagogia, the subconscious mind that functions in light sleep. A simple definition of:

conscious means awake and aware;

subconscious (also termed unconscious) means unawake and unaware.

Level 4 is delta. This level corresponds to deep sleep - the subconscious mind is obtaining the greatest amount of rest. Suggestions will not be heard at this level. This level lasts approximately thirty to forty minutes each night.

Just note: there is never anything about your individuality that is not conscious. When it is said that a person is unconscious we mean actually they are not able to focus their mind onto a particular reality to willfully interact with it. However the cells of the body are fully conscious to interact with the environment, even if you have been knocked out.

When hypnotised you will be in the alpha state. What will you experience? Hypnosis is simply the setting aside of the conscious mind to deal with the subconscious mind directly. You are not asleep. When you are functioning at full consciousness (beta level), both the subconscious and conscious mind are functioning. The physical experience in hypnosis will be identical to that of full consciousness, with three exceptions:

Exception 1: your concentration will be more focused to nearly 100%, compared to the 25%t efficiency of the conscious mind.

Exception 2: every muscle in your body will feel relaxed. You may feel a floating sensation, a warm or tingling feeling. Most people feel a heavinessin the limbs.

Exception 3: "willed immobility." You are always able to move any part of the body at any time - the difference is that in hypnosis you do not want to move.

All of us are in natural, day-to-day hypnosis. That includes daydreaming, crossing over into natural sleep at night, the beginning stages of waking up from natural sleep in the morning, rocking a baby, watching television, watching windshield wipers or the white lines on a road at night (highway hypnosis), reading a story or watching a good movie and getting so involved in the plot that you lose track of time, and many other instances. Most people spend at least three hours every day in naturally induced hypnosis. But we are all constantly focused - hypnosis is thus a natural and normal state of mind. Without natural hypnosis the stress in our daily lives would overwhelm and kill us all. In fact, hypnotic states develop the acuteness of our senses and we are 'sharper'.

THE BENEFITS OF HYPNOSIS

There are two major therapeutic applications of hypnosis among others:

the cure of unpleasant symptoms and negative behavior (through past life regression), and

pain control.

Pain control by hypnosis has been increasingly recognized by the medical community in recent years. Otherwise painful medical procedures can be perfomred using hypnosis instead of chemical anesthesia. Fear or excitement can cause the body to produce adrenaline (which acts to increase the heart rate and motivate a person toward quick and immediate action-so-called "fight or flight" mechanism). Hypnosis can stimulate the body to produce other types of chemical mediators. Recent research has proved this to be the case in the area of pain control.*

Feeling pain consists of two processes:

The first is the original pain signal that is transmitted to the brain from the point of stimulation, and

the second is the interpretation of that signal by the brain.

Hypnosis apparently alters the brain's interpretation of the pain signal by stimulating the brain's production of a chemical called endorphin.** Recent biochemical research has identified the chemical structure of endorphin as resembling that of morphine, except that it is ten times more potent than morphine, and has none of morphine's addictive side effects. The brain also produces a chemical that destroys the effects of endorphin, so that the protective function of our pain-interpreting mechanisms can resume their normal functions.

Among benefits that hypnotherapy can achieve are:

1. increased relaxation and the elimination of tension

2. increased and focused concentration

3. improved memory (hypermnesia)

4. improved reflexes

5. increased self-confidence

6. pain control

7. improved sex life

8. increased organization and efficiency

9. increased motivation

10. improved interpersonal relationships

11. slowing down the aging process

12. harmony of the mind, body, and spirit

13. elimination of habits, phobias, and other negative tendencies

14. improved psychic awareness-ESP, meditation, astral projection (out-of-body experience), telepathy

15. elimination of the fear of death by viewing one's past and future lives - gaining the knowledge that nothing really dies...

* James d'Argantel has for years used self-hypnotic mantras for client's to gain relieve from such pains as migraines.

** Recent research has shown that endorphin cannot be the mechanism for hypnotic pain control since naloxene (a narcotic antagonist) doesn't reverse hypnoanalgesia.

I am indebted to Dr Goldberg. Some passages from Past Lives - Future Lives have been paraphrased here. Please see: dr bruce goldberg.com

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