What is Hypnosis? |
As Milton H. Erickson once wrote: " It is a state of consciousness - not unconsciousness or sleep - a state of consciousness or awareness in which there is a marked receptiveness to ideas and understandings and an increased willingness to respond either positively or negatively to those ideas..."
Yet the word Hypnosis is derived from the Greek root word meaning Sleep. It refers to altered states of consciousness, naturally occurring states of mind, that people dip in and out of all the time, as ultimately all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. Hypnosis describes the act of bypassing the critical factor of the mind and the establishment of acceptable selected thinking. This altered state of consciousness can have several levels from the lightest to trancelike states resembling sleep, and it is usually induced by a therapist by focussing a subject's attention, to heightens the subject's receptivity to suggestion. The use of hypnosis in medicine and psychology include recovering repressed memories, modifying or eliminating undesirable behaviour, treating certain chronic disorders such as anxiety, reducing reaction to pain, and even stimulating the body auto-immune system to encourage the healing process. |
How does it work?Hypnosis works through the interconnectedness of the different parts of the mind: the conscious, the subconscious and the unconscious. With the use of a series of framed metaphors or suggestions during a state of hypnosis induced by a therapist, a receptive subject's mind can be stimulated to produce cognitive changes. The conscious mind has to accept harmoniously the metaphors and suggestions of the therapist, in order to work at a deeper level and start stimulating transformation from the core centre of the subconscious mind. The cognitive changes start working inter-connectedly, filling the conscious mind whilst harmoniously penetrating the subconscious. A positive dialogue between the conscious and subconscious parts of the mind works most effectively when optimized. Following the skillful means of the trance induced by the therapist, the willpower in the conscious part of the mind can harmonise with the imagination; this is when transformation of behaviour becomes most effective. The conscious mind stores willpower, temporary memory and the rational part of the mind
whilst the subconscious offers refuge to the imagination, permanent memory, and emotions. The unconscious, which in theory is also part of the subconscious, controls the body functions, such as breathing, immunity, heartbeat and so on. The functions we never pay attention to and which just seem to run on their own. This part of the mind is the most mysterious to us. |
On the conscious level, if the mind is absorbing information through all the five senses without interference from the rational, it would permeate through the subconscious and directly transform the habits of the mind. These habits reside within the subconscious mind along with emotions, permanent memory, imagination and the most powerful goal achieving agency: the creative subconscious.
This process can alter drastically and progressively the habitual patterns within the subconscious mind. The rational critical part of the mind could create obstacles by rejecting suggestions, and therefore undermine the efficiency of the process. The subject may be amenable to suggestions, which does not mean that he/she will let anyone control their mind. The mind of the subject selects the suggestions, and in the crisis that the subject may reject a suggestion, he/she may arise out of the trance or remain in it but refuse to act on the suggestion. Nevertheless, we could consider that internal changes at subconscious level are efficiently producing transformation of behaviour, despite some rejection. This is when we can witness the effects of cognitive behavioral therapy and see how they translate through the cognitive functioning. |