A Layman's Guide To Hypnosis

By Author: Milos Pesic
Total Articles: 28
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Although a subject under hypnosis appears to take on the features of a person asleep, they are actually fully alert. Hypnosis is exceedingly complicated to describe, as nobody truly knows what is hapenning inside the mind of a hypnotized subject. What we do know is that whilst in hypnosis the subject becomes so suggestible. A subject`s attention, while they are going into trance state, is narrowed down progressively. Firstly, the sense of sight is lost as the hypnotic subject is required to close their eyes. After a while it is not uncommon for the subject to lose whole responsiveness of their body. Though one by one the senses are bit by bit slipping away, one sense is deeply enhanced by the process of induction. This is the sense of hearing. A subject put under hypnosis can repeatedly hear remote sounds that they would not be able to hear in the conventional waking state. This, evidently, means that through the whole process the subject can easily hear all the things that the hypnotist might suggest. When you initiate to induce trance state in people you will frequently find that after awakening the hypnotic subject, they ...
... will believe they could not have been hypnotized as they could still hear your voice. The mistaken belief that they won`t be able to hear your voice often comes from those persons who suppose hypnosis to be similar to sleep.

A person in the trance state is truly susceptible to suggestion. One of the reasons for this is that, whilst in the state of hypnosis, you are only able to focus on only one thing at a time. For example, if I were to tell you that you are a delicate ballerina, you would immediately compare this hypnosis suggestion with what you already know to be authentic, and, unless of course you are a ballerina, you would tell me I am talking nonsense. The hypnotised subject nonetheless is not able to entertain the thought that they may not be what I have suggested, as their inadequate awareness is taken up by the thought that they are in fact a dainty ballerina. The outcome, as desired, ends in the hypnotic subject jumping to their feet to execute a series of pirouettes across the stage.

The human mind is divided into two very distinct areas. The conscious mind, which is accountable for all our conscious thoughts and decisions, and the subconscious mind, which organizes our autonomous activity. The mind can be best called a computer, the subconscious as the processor and the conscious as the monitor and keyboard. Our subconscious mind is a sort of guardian; it protects our body and helps us to persist.

Although our subconscious can do manytasks that consciously might be impracticable, it also has one extremely essential characteristic. Somewhere between our two minds is what we call the critical factor. This is probably best illustrated as a door, at which is a keeper. Our subconscious mind will process anything that enters it no matter how weird. So, as long as you can get a suggestion through the door it will be adhered to. This is exactly why hypnosis works. The guardian's door can be uncaringly opened while we are under hypnosis.