To many, the word ‘hypnosis’ automatically brings to mind popular stage shows during which the power of hypnosis is demonstrated through entertaining interactions with members of a willing audience. In this way, the term ‘hypnosis’ generally denotes little more than a diverting curiosity of the workings of the human mind employed to sell tickets.
From a therapeutic perspective, hypnosis is something far more interesting, having real-world purpose and consequence, being capable of bringing about lasting beneficial change to people’s lives. The hypnotic state is one which allows the human experience to be profoundly transformed both during and after the fact. Unfortunately, this non-invasive, chemical free, life-transformative procedure remains little known to the general public.
And yet, hypnosis is at work everywhere in modern society, being successfully employed either openly in therapy or covertly in both commerce and government in order to shape and manipulate the minds of the public. Every commercial, every billboard, every university lecture, every book, every political speech, every lie and every omission is an attempt to convince us of a different reality, to persuade us that reality differs from that which we currently believe to be the case. (This soap is better than that soap, that’s a fact because everybody knows this soap is better than all other soaps!). The piece you are currently reading is no exception. For more on this, please see: You are Hypnotised Now!
Therapeutically, hypnosis is known and understood by many as the ‘talking cure’ or as the ‘sleeping cure’. (Hypnos, being the Greek god of sleep, sheds light on the connection between hypnosis and states of mind other than everyday wakefulness.) From this we can gather that ailments, both physical, mental and emotional, can be addressed and alleviated simply by talking to a ‘sleeping’ patient.
Whilst this description is not inaccurate, it needs further clarification to be useful. And by useful, I mean of sufficient clarity and detail that a generally reliable, step-by-step method can be outlined such that it will bring about the desired result – a cure being arrived at in the sleeping (hypnotised) patient merely by hearing and accepting the words of a skilled hypnotherapist. In attempting to describe this I hope to answer the following questions:
What is it that ‘goes to sleep’ during hypnosis?
What is happening neurologically as this occurs?
How does one get that part to go to sleep?
What is it that remains attentively receptive?
In order to effect a cure, what does one say to the part(s) that do remain receptive?
So, is hypnosis simply a form of sleep where the client is unconscious to all appearances? The answer to this is a clear, ‘No’, it being well documented that an individual can be successfully hypnotised whilst believing that they are fully awake.
And yet, whilst in the state of hypnosis, something that is present during normal waking consciousness is quite clearly absent. We may say that what is no longer actively present becomes unaware or is ‘sleeping’. In our digital age we might say that this part has ‘gone offline’.
Generally, we differentiate between two distinct types of consciousness – the conscious or wakeful part of our daily routine and the unconscious aspect of nightly slumber. In common understanding, we are either awake or we are asleep. Yet consciousness is not quite so black and white. Throughout the full diurnal cycle from daily wakening to deepest, unconscious sleep, we naturally move through many vastly different states of mind.
The hypnotic state, the state of mind in which we are open to suggestion, is but one of these which occurs naturally, yet also one which can also be deliberately induced in one human being by another (and also, with training, be self-induced).
(I am being careful not to use the world ‘person’ here as this term holds different meanings for different people. Please see ‘What is a Person(a)?’ for a deeper exploration of this term.)
It is particularly difficult for the self-aware mind, that state in which we recognise and are aware ourselves having a conscious experience, to either clearly describe or analyse the experience of being in hypnosis because the hypnotic state is one in which our habitual self-conscious awareness is absent. I prefer to refer to this state as being one of unselfconscious awareness. All anxiety concerning one’s survival dissolves and a state of bliss intervenes, this being why the hypnotic state is described by so many as being distinctly pleasurable.
What is it that ‘goes to sleep’ or ‘goes offline’?
The conscious agent, that which an individual generally takes to be their own objective ‘self’, turns from active to receptive mode, thereby becoming open to both suggestion and direct hypnotic command (authoritative direction) from the hypnotist.
Differently put, it is self-conscious awareness of our current persona which goes to sleep. That is to say that focus on the personal self as a conceptual object progressively diminishes.
The human mind can choose to focus on one part of experience to the exclusion of all else. This ability is common to all, being an innate ability of every human being. When focussed exclusively on one particular activity such as driving down a busy street, using power tools or taking care of one’s child, for example, attention to all other activities and phenomena recedes from our conscious awareness. The crucial factor here is that
As a client is led deeper into the hypnotic state, self-consciousness or personal self-awareness gradually diminishes, being replaced with a growing focus on the feelings generated by (hearing and internalising) the spoken word of the hypnotist.
Intellectual analysis moves into the background, often ceasing completely, The words of the hypnotist are no longer dissected for precise linguistic meaning and the emotional aspect of the spoken word is experienced through feeling rather than processed rationally.
The client begins to enter a state of conscious or lucid dreaming, the contents of that dream being shaped and led by the suggestion of the hypnotist.
What is happening neurologically when this occurs?
Studies employing EEG (electroencephalography – the measurement of brain waves – show a general pattern. In the waking state, brain activity tends to exhibit Beta waves (13-30 Hz), associated with alertness, active focus and step-by-step problem solving.
When a human being moves their focus from the outside world to their inner experience and begins to move into the hypnotic state, their brain waves change speed, moving from high-activity Beta towards slower Alpha waves.
During hypnosis, as a human becomes relaxed and experiences trance, brain activity often transitions further into Alpha waves (8-12 Hz), inducing a calm, relaxed, yet highly focused state of mind. This shift reflects a move from self-conscious cognitive processing to a more receptive state, conducive to visualization and suggestion. (However, there is no hard and fast rule for all individuals – the exact brain wave patterns may vary depending on the subject and the depth of their hypnotic trance.)
Deeper hypnotic states may involve Theta waves (4-8 Hz), associated with daydreaming, creativity, and a more profound experience of relaxation.
These are the general conclusions arrived at from experiments using EEG (electroencephalography) although it has been found that individual cases can and do differ. Studies have also indicated that the transition from one state to another can also vary enormously, confirming the uniqueness of the human subject and the difficulty in finding a universal rule.
Simply going by these numbers (the differing brain wave frequencies), we see that the lower the number of herz, the deeper the hypnotic state. Self-consciousness then – that which appears to be absent, sleeping or offline during hypnotic states – diminishes as the brain wave frequency becomes lower. The lower the brain wave frequency falls, the deeper into hypnosis and the more open to suggestion the client becomes.
This change of brain wave frequency can also be induced chemically: A state of deep hypnosis can also be brought about by anaesthesia. Examples of this can be found in the accounts of fully anaesthetised (and supposedly deeply unconscious) patients being profoundly affected by overhearing conversation during surgery. Overhearing a surgeon intimating to a colleague during a surgical procedure that their patient is unlikely to survive can be sufficient to ensure that this outcome comes to pass, when heard at some level within the anaesthetised patient. With intellectual analysis being offline, the anaesthetised patient may process such words as statements of fact. This therefore means that, contrary to general assumption, a fully anaesthetised individual, whilst apparently insensible to the world, remains acutely responsive at some level throughout such procedures.
How does one get that part to go to sleep?
Self-conscious awareness is put to sleep (or temporarily taken offline) by persuading the client to move their focus and attention away from intellectual analysis of their current experience and towards physiological processes and emotional feeling – from their mental world towards their current physical feeling, as if from head to stomach, from brain to gut.
This is most easily achieved by encouraging the client to focus on their breathing. Breathing is one of the few automatic physiological processes which can be directly controlled by human consciousness. The way we breathe closely reflects our state of mind and, conversely, our state of mind is reflected in our breathing.
An alternative way to lead the human mind into a hypnotic state is simply to ask the client to close their eyes and enter the world of imagination, to gently coax the client to return to a childlike state of open receptivity, creating a dream world into which they enter
but also leads our state of mind from frantic to peaceful. From third person to first person.
What is it that remains attentively receptive?
It seems that there is an aspect of the human minds which never sleeps, remaining aware and relatively alert even when the normal everyday mind and body has passed deeply into sleep. (Please see The Deeper You for an example of how to directly address and access this part of the client’s mind).
In order to effect a cure, what does one say to the part(s) that remains attentively receptive?
Whatever is said with authority (the client decides intuitively whether or not something is interpreted as being authoritative) is accepted as being the case – is accepted as fact. And it really doesn’t matter what it is that is said with authority to a hypnotised client. What may hitherto have been regarded as impossible or outrageously ridiculous by the client is happily accepted as their new reality.