What
is Hypnosis?
Hypnosis
FAQ
Life
on earth is a moderately dangerous experience
We spend a lot of time and energy identifying and avoiding
problems and obstacles. However once the immediate survival requirements are
dealt with we are able to relax and withdraw from the often constant demands
of paying attention to the outside world.
For instance, when we learn to drive a car our first journeys are packed full
of new observations about traffic and the demands of safely controlling the
car. As we gain experience, many elements of car control become almost automatic
and we are able to direct our attention away from the constant need to attend
to the process of driving. At the appropriate times we are able to resume
full awareness and control of the car to slow down or turn.
Driving a car, like many other activities, we are able to gradually learn
and do with less and less effort. The act becomes habitual. Particularly when
we get older, more skilled and accomplished, much of our life runs in predictable,
set patterns. Habits don’t require much thinking so our minds are free
to wander or momentarily relax.
Mind in standby mode
So if you are comfortably occupied in some task or activity that doesn’t
require your entire attention and your mind wanders onto other topics of interest,
you might call that brief, unconnected moment a state of trance. I suggest
that many parts of your day are spent in brief moments of trance. If you’ve
ever gone to a movie and can recall most of the story but almost nothing of
what you were doing, you’ve probably tranced out for 90 or so minutes!
Daydreaming, times when your mind wanders and trance I suggest are all names
for the natural phenomenon of your mind enjoying a waking rest.
Hypnosis is a process where this trance state is deliberately invoked,
by yourself or another, to gain access to your inner awareness without
the full, vigilant defenses or filters of your everyday awareness. But
this is not a sinister process, it is a method of communication with yourself
and the basis for ancient forms of education and entertainment.
If we can return to the example of movies, in a trance you can enjoy an adventure
or love story despite the fact that the actions in the real world would be
logically impossible. In a trance you can listen to and tell a fairytale.
Your trance state is about a simpler, more direct, more honest, more generous,
more flexible part of you.
In a trance you are not carrying the full load of the opinions, justifications
and excuses that are part of your armory for handling the outside world. When
you daydream you can go anywhere and do anything.
Self-hypnosis is practical day-dreaming
If you can begin to get positive, encouraging messages into the mix of
your inner thoughts through hypnosis, you are on the way to changing the
mix of your everyday thoughts, and that leads the way to changing your
everyday attitudes and behaviors. This is why hypnosis is such an important
part of psychotherapy ( and sports training by the way ) as it helps effect
changes coming from within the people who want to change.
Privacy, self-control / self-administration, speed of application, convenience and economy. All of the above are considerations but they are part of the most important issue of self-responsibility. You can change your attitude to the world and you can achieve a greater sense of happiness and satisfaction but it is YOU who must do it. No expert will make you happy, it’s your own lifelong D.I.Y project.
The self-hypnosis process
A hypnosis or self-hypnosis session requires the listeners to commit to a set time in a comfortable, safe environment and be guided by a spoken commentary to discover and freely explore their thoughts. In the HypnoBooks, the DVD medium also gives the listener’s eyes a gentle and engaging point of focus to free their visual attention. Just as Susie’s commentary on the DVD offers a calming, reassuring and permitting message, so the screen image slows down and concentrates all of the viewers attention - making a space where they can quietly drop back to the luxury of exploring positive thoughts.
The HypnoBooks
After noting their own expectations, goals and rewards with the manual / journal, the viewer sets up a viewing schedule using the DVD. With repeated viewings of the DVD, the viewer records in the manual / journal the before / after effects of this very personal period of self-enquiry. As attitude shifts occur viewers can see their ability to influence their own experience reflected in the pages of the journal. The aim is firstly to prove that change can occur then to explore how much change is possible.
We live in a reality of our own invention - why not imagine the best and most practical reality for you and live in that? Guided self hypnosis is a tool you can use to rearrange your attitudes and responses to assist constructing the life of your choice.
All material on this site is the copyright property of The Living Skills Library ™ 2009
