About Hypnosis
WHAT IS HYPNOSIS?
To understand how hypnosis works, it is very important for you to understand how your mind works. We have three very separate and very distinct minds. They do different things and they have a hard time inter-relating and communicating with each other.
First we have the conscious mind. That is where you are right now. Below that level of awareness is the subconscious mind. And an even deeper part of us is the unconscious mind. For the purposes of basic hypnosis we are not going to discuss the unconscious mind. It’s the part of us that controls the automatic body functions, such as; our heart beating, our eyes blinking, and things on this order.
CONSCIOUS MIND
The conscious mind is where we spend most of our time. Understand that it basically does four things and no more. The first thing it does, is it (1) analyzes. It looks at problems, analyzes them, and figures a way to solve those particular problems bothering us at the moment. It is also the part of us that makes the hundreds of decisions we have to make just to get through an average day, decisions we think are automatic; but in fact, are not. Things like, “Should I open the door?” “Should I turn the water on?” “Should I tie my shoes? We think those are automatic functions, but we must make a decision as to whether or not we want to do these things.
The second part of the conscious mind is the part that gets us into a little trouble sometimes. We call this the (2) rational part. This part of the conscious mind must give us a reason why we behave in any particular fashion. We need to have reasons for why we do the things we do. If we don’t have a reason why we do the things that we do, we become anxious, nervous, frustrated and if it goes on long enough, it can lead to serious mental illness. The problem with the reason this part of our mind gives us is that it is never original and it is usually wrong. For example, a smoker says she smokes because it relaxes her. An overweight person says the reason is because she eats when she’s bored, or nervous, or she has a glandular problem. Before the smoker developed her habit she heard other people that smoked say, “I smoke because it makes me feel calm and relaxed, and it relieves my stress.” This reason is wrong. Generally, smokers start because of their need for security. Security is a basic need for all humans. Our subconscious mind must protect us against dangers real or imagined, and not getting the necessary security we need is a definite danger. So every time the smoker takes a cigarette her feeling of security goes up, and it has nothing to do with calming relaxation.
The next part of the conscious mind is (3) will power. We are all familiar with will power and how it works. The smoker may adamantly declare that she is never going to smoke another cigarette for the rest of her life. We all know how long that lasts. You know if you go on a diet how long that lasts. Just until will power weakens and the old habit patterns come back again.
The last part of the conscious mind is our (4) temporary memory. This is the working memory that we need everyday. These are the only four things the conscious mind does. It does nothing else. Your conscious mind is very logical and very analytical, and frequently wrong.
SUBCONSCIOUS MIND
Where the REAL you, and everyone else lives is in the level below the conscious, called the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is so awesomely powerful. It could make you into anything you would like to be. Rich and famous, thin, happy or sad, it is the real us. To understand how the subconscious mind works you must understand that it is very much like a computer and it operates just like a computer operates. A computer can only operate based on the programming that is placed in it and it must operate on that programming, it has no choice. If you change the programming in a computer that you buy in a store, it no longer can operate on the old programming and it must operate on the new programming information that has been placed into it. Well this is the way our subconscious mind works. It is a computer. It functions on the same rules and regulations as an electronic one does, only it is much more powerful. We program our computer every day of our lives through our life experiences. Now the primary rule of our internal computer is this. It must make us into the type of person that it perceives us to be based on all the programming that has been placed into it and will continue to be placed into it until we die.
For example, if that computer of ours, based on its programming, says we’re fat, we’re fat. If it says we’re thin or a smoker, a success or a failure that is what we are. It adds up all the programming and makes a decision about the type of person that we are. This programming has been placed in there from many sources and it must operate on this programming.
Operational Software of the Subconscious Mind
1. Permanent Memory - All of our memory since the day we were born. The subconscious mind is like a video camera. Everything that has ever happened to you, that you have heard, seen, smelled or tasted is locked permanently into the memory banks of your subconscious mind. We never forget anything. If there is a reason to, in hypnosis we can access that memory bank and it seems like we can actually travel back in time. For example, in regression hypnosis we can travel back and re-live your first birthday or your birth. Now, this is much more than recall, it is actually like you are there, it is happening all over again. You can see what happened, you can smell, you can taste, you can hear very clearly.
2. Habits - There are three kinds of habits, only three. There are good habits and bad habits, of course. But most habits are just automatic responses when something else happens. For example, when the phone rings we answer it.
3. Emotions - We wouldn’t want to be without our emotions, love and caring and all those other good emotions, but sometimes our emotions get us into trouble. The conscious mind can not deal with emotions in any way, that is not part of its job. Any time we need emotion our conscious mind parts and we deal with this particular situation from our irrational, juvenile like, but highly intelligent subconscious mind. I know that sometimes in the past you’ve dealt with a situation and it didn’t have to have a lot of emotion, just a little bit. Then after the situation was over and that analytical conscious mind takes over again, you heard yourself thinking or saying something like this, “Why did I say that?” “Why did I do that, it was so stupid.” This has happened to all of us at some time or other.
4. Protective Mind - This is probably the most important part of the subconscious mind. It must protect us against danger real or imagined. Something imagined by the subconscious mind is just as if it was actually happening, it can’t tell the difference. Through regression hypnosis we discover that many obese people are heavy as a result of the subconscious mind protecting them against danger. The subconscious mind will make women heavy to protect them from being hurt by men. Many times the subconscious mind protects us in a way we prefer it didn’t, but protection is its primary job.
5. Lazy Mind - Although the subconscious is so powerful, it is also the laziest part of us. It doesn’t like to do the work required to accept positive suggestions to give us change in areas we would like to change. It likes to keep things the way they are, it takes too much work to make change in a positive way. Positive suggestions are one of the most difficult things to get into our subconscious minds. Negative suggestions usually get in with ease because it doesn’t take any work to accept them. Example, a heavy person gets out of the shower, looks in the mirror and sys boy am I fat. The words or thought goes right to the subconscious mind and it agrees that it matches with the programming, it matches it’s perception of the heavy person. Therefore, it accepts that suggestion so the perception of that individual being fat becomes stronger and they become heavier. On the other hand, if you take that same heavy person in front of the mirror and says she’s thin, trim and attractive it goes to the subconscious mind and it is rejected because it does not match the programming. It is not allowed in.
CRITICAL FACTOR
How do we get suggestions into the inner mind? It is important for you to understand, if an idea, a thought, or a concept is allowed to go into the subconscious mind, IT MUST HAPPEN. You are changing the programming and that inner computer must respond to the new programming. But it is not that easy.
Let us explain how it works. For example, you make a decision to stop smoking. You make up your mind at the conscious level that nothing in the world is going to stop you from ending the smoking habit. Your conscious mind says, “That’s wonderful and I support you one hundred percent, you are going to be healthier. You are not going to get emphysema, or heart or blood diseases, you’re not going to get lung cancer.” But, to have change effectively happen, you have to get it down into your computer in order to change that programming.
Now, there is one more part of the conscious mind called the critical factor, and it is employed by the subconscious. Its job is to stop any suggestion of positive change that we give ourselves or receive from an outside source. It stops it.
There is a communication between the critical factor of the conscious mind and the subconscious mind. The critical factor says, “This person wants to stop smoking, can I let the suggestion in?” Remember, if that suggestion goes into your inner mind, it must happen. But the subconscious mind says, “Wait a minute. She’s been smoking for twenty years, she needs cigarettes for security.” Or whatever reason there may be for that person. “Besides I have to do so many years of re-programming and I just don’t feel up to it, I don’t want to do it, reject the suggestion!” That’s the critical factor’s boss, so the critical factor of the conscious mind kind of turns into a mirror and rejects that suggestion and it can not go into the inner mind.
Now, we only have one other place to take that idea and that is will power. That is in the conscious mind. And we all know how long will power lasts. How many diets have we been on, how many times have we tried to stop smoking.
HYPNOSIS
Hypnosis is the by-pass of the critical factor of the conscious mind and the establishment of acceptable selective thinking in the subconscious mind. This is how we get suggestions into the subconscious mind. The instant the critical factor of our conscious mind is by-passed we go into a very deep state of hypnosis. When we are in a state of hypnosis, it is not what you expect it to be. Our bodies, if we are using a relaxation type of hypnosis, are very relaxed; but the more we go into hypnosis, the more our conscious mind becomes alert. In the deeper levels of hypnosis, your conscious mind is three to four hundred percent more alert than you are at this very moment. All of your five senses, including hearing, smelling, tasting, and seeing are hundreds of times better than they are right now.
When you are in hypnosis you are not asleep, you are extremely alert. It is very important for you to understand that the conscious mind takes on the role of guardian of the gates protecting you when you are in hypnosis. You hear every suggestion loud and clear. The tools for success or failure with hypnosis come down to the mental attitude you take when you hear a suggestion. When you hear a suggestion with your conscious mind you must make one of four decisions about that suggestion. Which decision you make determines whether that suggestion is allowed to enter your subconscious mind or whether it is rejected. If it is allowed to enter, you will have the change that you are want to achieve, if it is rejected, there will be no change.
4 MENTAL ATTITUDES
1. “I like the suggestion, I know it is going to work!” When you hear a suggestion, you must think or say this to yourself. This mental attitude at the conscious level allows the suggestion to go into your computer, the subconscious mind, and change begins. Unfortunately, you have three other choices.
2. “I don’t know; it sounds a little uncomfortable to me. It just doesn’t ft me.” Of course if you hate the suggestion, or feel it is something against your morals or beliefs, it will be rejected. But even if the suggestion sounds just the tiniest bit uncomfortable to you for any reason, it is automatically blocked with the conscious mind and it is not allowed to enter the computer and there is no change.
3. “I’m neutral about it. I don’t care if I get it or don’t get it.” The conscious mind automatically blocks the suggestion and it can not get into your computer.
4. “I like the suggestion, I hope it works!” This last choice is the worst one. It is probably the choice that cause more people to fail with hypnosis, if they do fail. The word hope is the twin sister of try and they both mean automatic failure. If you look back on your life anytime you tried to do something, you failed. “Okay, mom I’ll try.” Okay, dad I’ll try.” “Okay Mr. Principle, I’ll try not to throw paper planes at the substitute teachers.” Try means failure. If you look back at your life, anytime you said to yourself, “I’m going to do it,” and there was no question about it, you did it, and you probably did it very well. So, if you say hope or try, that suggestion is blocked by the conscious mind, it is not allowed to enter the computer and there is no change.
The only time a suggestion is allowed to go into your computer is if you take the mental attitude when you hear the suggestion, “I like the suggestion, I know it’s going to work.” As long as you accept the suggestion as working you will have the desired change. And that is how easy it is!
If you allow the hypnotist to be your guide, he’ll show you how to place yourself in a beautiful state of hypnosis. Feeling the physical relaxation and mental alertness. If you allow the hypnotist to be your guide, he’ll show you how to stay there until you are finished. If you do not want to be in this beautiful relaxed state, the slightest thought by you and it is over and you are back to your normal state of awareness. But if you follow the guidance, he’ll show you how to stay there. And then the most important thing of all is, if you accept the suggestions given to you with the correct mental attitude, I like it, I know it’s going to work, you’ll have the change in the way you want it. If you take one of the other choices, you’ll fail. The hypnotist can not force a suggestion into your mind. Only YOU can ALLOW it to happen.
EVERYONE CAN BE HYPNOTIZED
Hypnosis is a 100% consent state. You must allow things to happen. You can stop them from happening with the slightest thought if you don’t want it to happen. Anyone of normal intelligence or above, and they want hypnosis, can go into a very deep level of hypnosis within a fraction of a second. Anyone can easily enter deep hypnosis providing they have the following two things: 1) They must want to be hypnotized. No one can be hypnotized against their will! 2) They must not have any fears or misconceptions of hypnosis and how it works.
FEARS AND MISCONCEPTIONS
Some people think that when you are in hypnosis, you are asleep. In hypnosis your mind is three to four hundred percent more alert than you are at this very moment, this is about as far as you’re going to get from sleep. Hypnosis has nothing to do with sleep.
Some people are afraid they won’t wake up and that they could get stuck in hypnosis. If you are not asleep, you can’t wake up. The term is emerge from hypnosis. Anytime you would want to emerge from hypnosis, all you have to do is have the slightest thought that you don’t want to be in this relaxed state anymore and instantly, it’s over and you are back to your normal awareness.
Then there is that powerful misconception of people thinking that the hypnotist can control you and make you do anything he wants you to do. If that were true success would be guaranteed. But remember you have those four choices when you hear a suggestion and that the only time a suggestion is allowed to enter your computer is if you say, “I like it, I know it’s going to work.” The hypnotist can’t force that in, the hypnotist can’t control you! You and you alone are responsible for your success. You and you alone are responsible for your failure. What mental attitude you take when you hear a suggestion determines success or failure. The hypnotist knows the correct suggestions to give to you for wonderful and absolute change. But he can’t force you to accept them, he can only guide you through hypnosis, and guide you to the point of permanent positive change. You are in complete control of what you will or will not accept. You are in complete control of what you will or will not do.
The volunteers of the stage hypnotist are not being controlled either. The stage hypnotist chooses the volunteers that want to have fun, want to let loose, and be uninhibited in public. And those people when they hear the suggestions, because they want to have fun, take the mental attitude, I like it, I want it to work and it does.
Some people have the misconception that they will tell the hypnotist all their deep dark secrets when they are in hypnosis. For the same reasons of mental alertness, you are more in control of anything you choose to do or say while you are in hypnosis than you are right now. If you don’t want to tell the hypnotist something, then you won’t. No one can make you divulge information that is proprietary.
Hypnosis is up to you. The success rate for smoking, weight control, and everything else at the Paragon Hypnosis Center is 100%. The hypnotists have had many years of training and experience, and know exactly what to say to each client and if they accept those suggestions, they’ll have wonderful change and if they reject them they will have no change. If you accept the suggestions with the correct mental attitude, I like it, I know it will work, you’ll have 100% success. If you accept with any other ideas you will fail. It is up to you. And as long as you follow the guidance of the hypnotist and accept the positive suggestions you will have the permanent change or improvement that you desire. It is very easy to do!
Hypnosis is a wonderful way to change and improve our lives and it is available to you. You will absolutely love and enjoy every moment of your hypnosis session.
