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Hypnosis & Self-Help Articles
by C. Roy Hunter, M.S., FAPHP
Have you ever tried to change a habit pattern,
or become more self-motivated, only to find your subconscious mind resisting?
If so, then perhaps it's time to boldly go where others have gone before:
into
the world of hypnosis!
Every year the New Year's resolutions of
many thousands of smokers literally go up in smoke! Also, millions of dieters
experience the fact that diets work on the body but not the mind. Countless
others feel like the "light at the end of the tunnel" was that of an
oncoming train, and hope to find a way to get up again and keep on going...
Since we can all identify with one or more
of these above frustrations, perhaps we should find out how to get the
subconscious mind to become the servant rather than the master!
By profession, I've been involved in the
hypnotherapy profession since 1983, and have been teaching professional
hypnosis in a college since 1987. Although interest in the benefits of
hypnotherapy is far greater than ever before, people still ask two very
important questions: WHAT IS hypnosis, and WHY should we even consider it?
Before discussing what hypnosis is, however, we need to discuss WHY we should
even consider hypnosis in the first place.
My clients frequently ask me why they find
themselves unable to accomplish seemingly simple goals and objectives through willpower.
My response is to explain that acceptance of any new habit pattern requires
subconscious cooperation, otherwise your conscious
decision to make the desired change is undermined by your own subconscious
belief in failure.
There is a basic law of the mind at work:
whenever your conscious and subconscious are in conflict, your subconscious
invariably wins! This has been proven repeatedly by smokers unable to stop
without outside help, by dieters constantly going up and down with their
weight, by outgoing people suddenly finding themselves petrified with fright
when speaking in public, and by each of us as we wonder why motivation to
change often does not come easily.
People usually try to change their habits
through will power and/or self-discipline. While they may convince themselves
what the logical course of action is, they still imagine themselves doing what
they subconsciously desire to do. For example, smokers trying to quit still
imagine the taste or smell of cigarettes, or dieters imagine how good junk food
would taste - and then wonder why they backslide into old habits.
Simply stated, imagination wins out
over logic. Knowing what to do consciously is often not enough to make the
difference between success and failure. We must find a way to get the
subconscious to accept our conscious decisions; and since hypnosis and/or
self-hypnosis can be an effective way to facilitate change at a subconscious
level, increasing numbers of people are discovering the benefits of seeing a
hypnotherapist!
"Old
Tapes" Must Be Changed
In my business, we refer to subconscious
programming as "old tapes" since our minds retain everything. But
unfortunately, we can't just erase a program tape; we have to record a new
program tape over it.
Some old tapes are good. We may be
programmed to stop automatically at a red light, brush our teeth every day, say
"thank you" when appropriate and act according to certain social
standards, etc. We accept these tapes without thinking about them. When the
subconscious mind is full of negative program tapes, it's virtually impossible
to stay in a positive frame of mind unless those tapes are changed on a
subconscious level; and to do this often requires assistance from a
professional hypnotherapist.
Several diet counselors have told me that
97% of people who pay money to lose weight find it again in less than two
years. In other words, unless the subconscious is changed, what is accomplished
through will power may be only temporary. Some of these people have paid
literally thousands of dollars to reach an ideal weight, only to end up
heavier than when they started! Do you know anyone who has done this? If so, it
might be well worthwhile for that person to consider hypnosis.
Other
Benefits of Hypnosis
Learning self-hypnosis can help empower
the user to remain calm in stressful circumstances, and/or reduce anxieties.
Mastering a simple stress-coping technique may help prevent the recovering
alcoholic from backsliding during a time of stress.
Sometimes hypnotherapy can also be helpful
for more serious issues as well, but may require a professional referral from
another licensed health care professional. For example, an ethical
hypnotherapist will not see you for pain management without such a referral, as
pain is a warning that something is wrong with the
body - and the cause(s) must be professionally diagnosed first. In other words,
we need to consider hypnotherapy as complementary health care rather
than alternative health care.
Just as in any profession, there are
competent hypnotherapists...and there are those who have taken shortcuts to go
into business. Which one will you choose? Before answering that question, let's
consider just what hypnosis is.
What Is
Hypnosis?
When is the last time you cried real tears
during a powerful movie? Even though your conscious mind knew you were sitting
in a theater watching actors and actresses, your subconscious accepted them as
real characters because you were in the state of hypnosis! And since the
subconscious doesn't know the difference between fact and fantasy, we respond
emotionally to what happens on screen. People jump or scream during a scary
movie - or get excited during a juicy romance scene - yet the conscious mind
knows where they are. And when I saw the movie E.T., it seemed like everyone in
the theater cried, including me.
The word hypnosis, coined by an English
physician in the 19th century, has given us an inaccurate picture for well over
a century. It is derived from the Greek word hypnos, meaning sleep; but hypnosis is not a state of
sleep. Rather, it is the same state of altered conscious awareness described
above. It is the same relaxed state of mind we enter daily when our brain wave
activity slows down to a frequency called "alpha," which we pass
through on the way to and from sleep.
Our bodies become physically relaxed when
this state of mind is reached, as in meditation, so an observer could perceive
us to be asleep; however, the awareness of a person in hypnosis is heightened
rather than lessened. Because the conscious mind has relaxed, the subconscious
mind becomes accessible; thus giving us expanded possibilities for change. The
power is not with the hypnotist - but within the minds of each one of us as we
enter hypnosis. And since all hypnosis is, in reality, guided self-hypnosis, a
more accurate definition of hypnosis would be guided meditation - or
guided
daydreaming.
This same state of relaxation is familiar
to you, although not by the name "hypnosis." Every day you experience
four different mental states. ...
Benjamin Franklin made an important
observation while serving on a committee to investigate the work of Mesmer in
the 18th century. He noted that the so-called power was in the imagination of
the participant, and NOT with the facilitator! Thus, hypnosis does not put you
under someone else's power. This was personally proven to me when a woman
hypnotherapist hypnotized me deeply and tried several different ways to suggest
that I shave off my beard. After several minutes of her persistent prejudice, I
brought myself out of hypnosis and gave her one lecture on ethics I hope she
remembers for the rest of her life. Needless to say, she has never hypnotized
me since!
The effective hypnotist is not a
scientific mind controller, but an artist who facilitates your ability to use
your imagination and respond to simple suggestions. In other words, I do not
put a client into trance. The client creates his or her own trance state, using
me as an artist who provides my voice as a point of focus; and enters what may
also be called the ALPHA state. This is a mental state where one's brainwaves
can be measured to have slowed down to a rhythmic vibrational
rate. (There are two slower states than alpha, the
Believe it or not, we create our own
hypnotic trances; and have done so thousands of times since childhood! Most of
my clients are amazed upon discovering the various ways that we ALL experience
hypnosis frequently during our every-day lives...
How We
Enter Alpha
The most common hypnotist in the world is
television. Have you noticed how you can be perfectly content watching a good
program; and then during a commercial break you suddenly have an urge to raid
the refrigerator? You may have drooled over a pizza commercial, but your
conscious mind knows that you have a bag of potato chips, so the suggestion
given by the sponsor is modified by your conscious mind. The imaginative part
of your subconscious produces a brief image of munching potato chips, and you
are on your feet in a flash, headed for the kitchen! You might also find
yourself checking the refrigerator for something else to go with the chips.
Does this sound familiar? You are responding to hypnotic suggestion whenever
this occurs.
Many parents have noticed a child totally
mesmerized by the Saturday morning cartoons. I have had to stand directly
between the television and child to get acceptance of a simple suggestion such
as taking a dirty cereal bowl to the kitchen. The child can be in such a deep
state of hypnosis that there is immediate acceptance of the sponsor's
suggestion to get the cereal with the toy in the box. The response is so
automatic that the little hand is in the grocery bag, finding and opening the
box of cereal - even before the groceries have been put away. Additionally, if
TV doesn't hypnotize you, radio might do so!
In case you think you are immune, how
often do you remember to ask for cellophane tape, take photocopies, or grab for
a facial tissue when you sneeze? And do you call it facial tissue? Also, what
do you think of with the words, "You deserve a break today, at...."
Another example of our daily trip into the
alpha state is at night in bed, just before falling asleep. I used to get irate
at the neighbor's dog barking while trying my best to go to sleep. In effect, I
would enter the alpha state and think to myself, "I can't sleep with that
#?!@? dog barking!" I had unknowingly been giving
myself nightly hypnotic suggestions to be at the dog's mercy. After I realized
what I was doing to myself, I reversed it by thinking, "Every sound I hear
makes me sleepier and sleepier." The result was the ability to sleep
soundly with a German Shepherd barking frequently less
than thirty feet from my bedroom window.
We can enter alpha in numerous ways:
staring out the window while daydreaming, getting lost in a good book, sitting
in Church engrossed in a sermon, listening to music, or whenever we find our
imaginations running freely.
Even hard rock music induces alpha in some
people (although not me!). Some people believe that music helps them think.
Looking at the mountains, or lake, or waterfall, or meadow, etc., helps others
to think and/or meditate. Ability to imagine is enhanced, memory is enhanced,
creativity is enhanced, and it becomes much easier for the subconscious to
respond to whatever we imagine ourselves doing.
Remember that we may enter alpha at
various times during our waking hours - and while there, whatever we imagine is
going straight into the subconscious! And because we are suggestible, it
behooves us to be careful about whatever we imagine or daydream.
Being in a state of meditation, alpha, or
self-hypnosis is neither good nor bad - it is what we are thinking or imagining
that produces either a positive, neutral, or negative result.
The language of the subconscious is
imagination. A competent hypnotherapist will help teach you how to use your
imagination for greater self-empowerment. Those who have shortcut their
training might simply try to hypnotize you deeply and give scores of
suggestions in hopes that some of them work.
How Do We
Choose a Competent Hypnotherapist?
I could literally write an entire article
addressing this one question alone. Let's sum it up by stating that you should
consider several important questions:
1. Do you want a devoted hypnotherapist,
or someone trained in another health care field who only occasionally dabbles
in hypnosis?
2. Do you want someone who has taken a
respected training program of at least 120 hours in the specific applications
of hypnotherapy, or a health care professional licensed in another profession
who took only a 3-day or 5-day crash course in hypnosis?
3. Do you want someone who promises to
"cure" you in only one session, or do you want someone who will be
truthful about the fact that most goals (including smoking cessation) require
several sessions to insure long-lasting results? Remember that NOBODY has a
100% success rate, so if someone makes promises that seem unbelievable, check
elsewhere. There is no therapist alive who can help all the people all the
time; however, a competent hypnotherapist can help most of the people most of
the time.
4. Do you want someone who will "do
it to" you, or do you prefer someone who believes in an approach of
self-empowerment for the client? Ask your prospective hypnotherapist who has
the power during trance. In my opinion, the most ethical philosophy is that all
hypnosis is guided self-hypnosis, although even today there are those who
debate this. Who would you rather go to?
5. Do you want someone whose price is the
lowest in your area, or are you willing to consider that cheapest is often not
the best? (I've seen many clients with previous failures because they looked
for cheap hypnosis the first time around.)
If possible, ask for a free 20-minute
consultation before booking a series of sessions. Most ethical hypnotherapists
are willing to meet you prior to forming a client-relationship. It is also
important to feel comfortable with your hypnotherapist. Good rapport increases
the probability of success.
Additionally, it is important for YOU to
make a commitment to success. If you expect the hypnotherapist to simply MAKE
you change without any effort on your part, you might be disappointed.
Often there can be a conscious desire to
change, but there may also be strong subconscious resistance, which could block
simple post-hypnotic suggestions. If this happens to you, a competent
hypnotherapist can help your subconscious release the cause(s), whereas a
hypnotist with minimal training might try to convince the client that he/she
was not yet ready to change.
My belief is that a competent
hypnotherapist should fit the technique to the client rather than vice versa;
and I call it diversified client-centered hypnosis.
If you wish to become more informed than
95% of the American public, then order my book THE ART OF HYPNOSIS: MASTERING
BASIC TECHNIQUES. It is available from Kendall/Hunt Publishing for $21.95 by
calling 1-800-228-0810. This is a layman's book written for the beginning
student of hypnosis as well as those who are just curious; but I believe that
you will learn enough to make an informed choice should you ever desire the
services of a professional hypnotherapist. I've also written a book of advanced
techniques for the professional entitled THE ART OF HYPNOTHERAPY (also
available from the same publisher). Both these books have been praised highly
by my peers. View the Table of Contents of each online at www.royhunter.com/books.htm.
Hypnotherapy is finally starting to emerge
into the Light once and for all, with what I call the new ethics: the
ultimate goal of empowerment for the client.
I hope to see my profession go into the
21st Century at warp speed! Perhaps you can boldly go with us and journey into
a path of greater empowerment.
***
Roy Hunter, M.S., FAPHP, practices hypnotherapy near
For more info, visit: http://www.royhunter.com/consulting.htm
You may
purchase
http://www.royhunter.com/hypnosis_books.htm
Last
updated: January 8, 2008
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Originally posted: September 21, 2001.