Article from a famous hypnotherapist
A simple way of understanding how
hypnosis works is to view the mind as having 3 separate components:
- The Conscious Mind
- The Subconscious Mind
- The Unconscious Mind
In reality these minds intermingle
and overlap, creating the complex web of our brains, but if we view these minds
as separate entities we can understand how and why hypnosis is so effective.
Just as all human beings have
different personalities and tendencies, the same can be said about the
conscious, subconscious and unconscious minds.
The Conscious Mind
The conscious mind is, of course,
where all of our conscious thoughts and actions originate. It is also the area
of the mind that willpower, rationality and the ability to analyze reside. All
temporary thoughts are stored here.
This is the area of the mind that
psychologists appeal to, rationalizing situations with the hope that the client
may find peace in that conscious knowledge.
However, as many people know, even
though consciously we may be aware of why we behave a certain way, and want to
change that behavior, more often than not we continue that behavior anyway.
Take, for example, a mother who
yells constant abuse at her children
even though she knows it’s wrong and would like to stop. Consciously she knows
all the reasons why she does it – it was the way she was raised – but still she
does not stop the behavior. The same story goes for the overweight person with
high blood pressure that continues to eat fatty foods and the smoker who has
watched both smoking parents die of lung cancer. Consciously they all know, but
just can’t seem to change.
So why can’t we change with
willpower and rational thinking alone? Well it’s the personality of the
conscious mind. It’s lazy. The conscious mind follows the lead of the
subconscious and rarely overpowers it.
The Critical Factor
The critical factor can viewed as a
protective barrier between the conscious and subconscious minds. Its purpose is
to protect the subconscious from negative experience by either accepting or
rejecting suggestions and experiences. On the whole it works very effectively
but can work against us when we want to change a pattern.
For example you may state to
yourself that you will not eat anymore chocolate again because you want to lose
weight. However, the subconscious mind may have a pattern already formed where
you eat lots of chocolate because it remembers how much pleasure it bought you
as a child on holidays. It doesn’t matter that it was the holiday at the time
that made you happy, the fact was that you were eating chocolate at the same
time as being happy and so that’s the pattern that was created. You eat to be
happy even though consciously you know it’s silly. In this case, the critical
factor rejecting your analysis and rationalization hurts you.
The Subconscious Mind
The subconscious mind contains every
experience that you have ever had, whether you were or are aware of that
experience or not. It holds all of this in its permanent memory and doesn’t
know the difference between real and imagined.
Using past experience, the subconscious
mind creates patterns and habits for you to follow automatically. These
patterns are created as a reaction to experience without rational thought and
may be viewed, consciously, as either negative or positive.
If there is a pattern in our subconscious
mind that we are trying to overcome with willpower, the subconscious mind will
work very hard to beat the conscious mind into submission. For example, when
trying to quit smoking cold turkey, people report withdrawal symptoms that
include persistent negative thoughts or even lighting a cigarette without
consciously realizing it!
The Unconscious Mind
The unconscious mind stores and
controls the automatic nervous system and immune system which are basically all
of your physical body processes that you don’t think about. I.e. the beating of
your heart and breathing. It is also accessible with hypnosis, but doesn’t tend
to be used unless the client is requesting physical healing.
The Hypnotic Effect
Put simply, hypnosis bypasses the
critical factor allowing access to the subconscious mind.
Because the subconscious mind does
not know the difference between real and imagined experience, when we access it
through hypnosis, by visualizing or imaging what we want as well as repeating
positive phrases, the subconscious mind uses those experiences to reprogram its
patterns. This brings about wonderful, positive change with much less effort.
So Will I Lose Control & Be Made
to do Something I Don’t Want to?
The critical factor doesn’t
disappear entirely during hypnosis it just lets its guard down so to speak.
Further more, you will be consciously aware during the whole process and the
conscious mind is just as capable of rejecting suggestions as the critical
factor is.
This is why it is important for you
to remain positive consciously and to say ‘YES’ internally when the hypnotist
is giving you suggestions. That is your part of the process, agree and whole
heartedly commit to your desired outcome and the hypnotist will make it easy.
6-12-2014
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