People often ask me how hypnosis feels.
I usually tell them first what hypnosis is not. It is not:
- Being asleep
- Being unconscious
- Being a zombie on a faraway planet
- Losing control over what you say and do.
So what is hypnosis then? It is a very pleasant state of mental and physical relaxation similar to a Sunday morning dozing feeling. Half-way between fully awake and falling asleep, still aware of your body and your surroundings. However, it is also a state of high awareness. You will probably hear a car going past louder than the hypnotherapist but because you are so relaxed, it doesn’t bother you at all.
Some people feel heavy, some light, some feel tingling. Some are aware of their mind wandering or of trying to remember what I said. If someone comes for multiple sessions, they notice that they can fall into the relaxing hypnotic trance state quicker and more deeply.
I find it interesting that most of my clients are not of English mother tongue and yet they still gain results, regardless of their command of English. One client came from Bosnia solely to have therapy with me.
When you sleep you are unconscious so your conscious mind switches off. Your unconscious mind stays alert. That is the part of you which hears your child in the night. Your mind filters out the sounds which your child makes otherwise you would never sleep but alerts you if there is a sound which is different eg an intruder downstairs.
You might think hypnosis is sleep from the stage hypnotist’s instruction “sleep”. Actually what happens is that he pre-hypnotises the subject and inserts a post-hypnotic suggestion that when they hear the word “sleep”, they will instantly fall into a deep state of trance. Nothing to do with sleep. He has pre-selected his subjects using a series of suggestion tests to find out who can go into a deep hypnotic trance. This is necessary for stage hypnosis entertainment but not for therapy.
Although I always explain what hypnosis is and what it is not, still people come to the end of hypnosis session and think that nothing has happened because they don’t “feel hypnotized”. I remind them that there is no hypnotic feeling. They leave thinking that I didn’t hypnotize them, that it didn’t work, that I couldn’t hypnotize them or even that they failed and then are surprised to find that the desired change has indeed taken place.
The aim of hypnosis is to talk direct to the unconscious mind where 90-95% of all brain activity takes place. You might know consciously why you want to stop an unwanted habit or make a change but your conscious mind rationalises, justifies, makes excuses – all of which stop you making the desired change. You might be uncomfortable in your (dis)-comfort zone but that is what you know. “Better the devil you know”. That negative phrase keeps far too many people from making change which can dramatically alter their path in life.
Permanent change takes place in the unconscious mind. In the therapeutic use of hypnosis we work direct with the unconscious mind and that is why it is so effective, so quickly. You would be surprised how easy it is to finally make that change in your life.
©Antonia Harrison.
Antonia Harrison is the English Hypnotherapist & NLP Practitioner in Belgium helping people to make positive change in many areas of life and specializes in STOP SMOKING IN ONE SESSION OF HYPNOSIS.
Showing posts with label proof of hypnotic trance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label proof of hypnotic trance. Show all posts
Thursday, 15 April 2010
Monday, 1 September 2008
Proof of Hypnotic Trance
It's common for people in trance to feel that they're not hypnotized, when in fact they are. Often such subjects don't realize how deep they went until they come back to full awakening consciousness.
Some people also think that they are 'under the hypnotist's control' but this is not so. They are free to reject or accept suggestions.
Tom came for his first session of hypnosis in 1998 saying that he needed to lose some weight but couldn’t stop nibbling in the evenings and he also drank a bit too much. Tom was a lawyer who spent a lot of time dining with clients; as a result he was about three stone overweight.
He didn’t seem to have any real emotional issues that needed resolving, it appeared he had gotten into bad habits and lazy ways. He was well motivated to slim and really wanted to get back into sport, which he’d enjoyed in his healthier days.
Before I hypnotized Tom he said “by the way - can you put in a post hypnotic suggestion or do something just to prove that I’m hypnotized because I don’t really believe in it and would like convincing.”
I explained to him that he was always free to accept or reject suggestions and that the proof would lie in his change of eating habits but Tom persisted.
During the hypnosis I described how Tom’s arm was becoming so light that it was beginning to float up in the air, and the lighter it became, the higher his arm floated, until his floating arm was way above his head. Then I had Tom open his eyes and look at that floating arm.
When he came out of trance Tom told me that it was he who had let his arm float up, that wasn’t proof enough for him.
The next time I saw Tom he told me he’d lost about four and half pounds in weight but still wanted some proof that he was actually hypnotized.
This time I told him his leg was so heavy that he just couldn’t lift it from the floor. Try as he might that leg would not lift. And the harder he tried the heavier his leg became.
But that still wasn’t proof.
On the following visit I had Tom imagine himself in a garden where an annoying fly wouldn’t leave him alone, it kept brushing against his face and the itch was so bad that he just had to keep flicking it away. The restless arm was up, trying to flick away that imaginary fly.
But that was no proof for Tom.
On his next visit Tom told me he was well on his way to achieving his goal - he’d lost nearly a stone now, had no interest in snacking, was eating small, sensible portions of food and exercising more and feeling a whole lot better. He asked for help with his golf as he hadn't played for several years and needed a confidence booster to get him back into it.
But he also wanted me to give him one last proof.
So I told Tom that when he woke up, each time he saw me pick up my pen he would have to straighten his tie. This he duly did, but reasoned that his tie was crooked and he was going to straighten it anyway (even though I successfully demonstrated this post hypnotic suggestion six times).
A year later Tom phoned my office. He was playing golf really well, in addition to several other sports. He was happy with his weight and his confidence was fine, but still he wanted just one more proof of hypnosis.
Guess what this was????
Source: Hypnotic World
Hypnotic World 600+ Hypnosis Scripts Subscription Highly recommended for those interested in hypnotherapy!
Some people also think that they are 'under the hypnotist's control' but this is not so. They are free to reject or accept suggestions.
Tom came for his first session of hypnosis in 1998 saying that he needed to lose some weight but couldn’t stop nibbling in the evenings and he also drank a bit too much. Tom was a lawyer who spent a lot of time dining with clients; as a result he was about three stone overweight.
He didn’t seem to have any real emotional issues that needed resolving, it appeared he had gotten into bad habits and lazy ways. He was well motivated to slim and really wanted to get back into sport, which he’d enjoyed in his healthier days.
Before I hypnotized Tom he said “by the way - can you put in a post hypnotic suggestion or do something just to prove that I’m hypnotized because I don’t really believe in it and would like convincing.”
I explained to him that he was always free to accept or reject suggestions and that the proof would lie in his change of eating habits but Tom persisted.
During the hypnosis I described how Tom’s arm was becoming so light that it was beginning to float up in the air, and the lighter it became, the higher his arm floated, until his floating arm was way above his head. Then I had Tom open his eyes and look at that floating arm.
When he came out of trance Tom told me that it was he who had let his arm float up, that wasn’t proof enough for him.
The next time I saw Tom he told me he’d lost about four and half pounds in weight but still wanted some proof that he was actually hypnotized.
This time I told him his leg was so heavy that he just couldn’t lift it from the floor. Try as he might that leg would not lift. And the harder he tried the heavier his leg became.
But that still wasn’t proof.
On the following visit I had Tom imagine himself in a garden where an annoying fly wouldn’t leave him alone, it kept brushing against his face and the itch was so bad that he just had to keep flicking it away. The restless arm was up, trying to flick away that imaginary fly.
But that was no proof for Tom.
On his next visit Tom told me he was well on his way to achieving his goal - he’d lost nearly a stone now, had no interest in snacking, was eating small, sensible portions of food and exercising more and feeling a whole lot better. He asked for help with his golf as he hadn't played for several years and needed a confidence booster to get him back into it.
But he also wanted me to give him one last proof.
So I told Tom that when he woke up, each time he saw me pick up my pen he would have to straighten his tie. This he duly did, but reasoned that his tie was crooked and he was going to straighten it anyway (even though I successfully demonstrated this post hypnotic suggestion six times).
A year later Tom phoned my office. He was playing golf really well, in addition to several other sports. He was happy with his weight and his confidence was fine, but still he wanted just one more proof of hypnosis.
Guess what this was????
Source: Hypnotic World
Hypnotic World 600+ Hypnosis Scripts Subscription Highly recommended for those interested in hypnotherapy!
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