When Does Hypnotic State Occurs?

When does hypnotic state occurs? We enter into a hypnotic state when we are either tired or our mind and body are relaxed or resting comfortably. It is difficult to hypnotize someone when he has just had a workout or experiencing emotional upheaval or especially alert like just taken coffee or tea.

Is Hypnotic State Permanent?

Though we are constantly drifting in and out of hypnosis in our everday life, we are however not permanently in a hypnotic state. Some people might have a wrong impression that when a person is being hypnotised and is not guided to emerge out of hypnosis, he will be permanently in a trance. This is not so because there are a couple of things that can break a person from hypnosis (or emerge him from hypnosis), things like loud noise; snap of our fingers; shaking the person; instructing him to follow from 1 to 5 etc.

Responsibility

For many a times, when people turn up to consult a hypnotist, psychologist, counsellor and others, they have the wrong mindset. They think that these professional should be held responsible for any changes on him or her. This is not right. The onus must never be solely on these professionals though I must agree they do have to carry the responsibility for the process and outcome.

If the subject does not want to have any responsibility, the effect of the outcome may not be what he or she would like to see. The moment one accepts the responsibility, he or she will be more positive towards the treatment/healing. The key here is ACCEPT. Acceptance is the first step towards opening up a person's mind so that the mind does not resist but instead make peace with whatever he is experiencing. Only then the person can make the second and third step of taking responsibility or be more receptive to the professional's advice. Because of his expectancy, what he expects is what he gets.

Daydream and Hypnosis

Hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness.

We drift in and out of beta consciousness (conscious state) and alpha consciousness (surface of unconsciousness), especially so when we are tired. When we are highly energized, chances of remaining at beta consciousness for a long time is very high.

Daydreaming occurs when we are engaging too much in our left brain activities, such as calculation, language etc. The right brain is being ignored and no activities or not much activities are being engaged eg music, arts etc. Under such circumstances, our brain (more specifically the right brain) becomes tired and drift into the apha state so much so causing us to become relaxed and idle. This is when we start to daydream - it could be a dream of reality (like going for a tour) or something of fantasy (like flying on the moon).

Daydreaming is thus a form of hypnosis.

Hypnosis focus on problem or solution?

Hypnosis is not about anaylzing the subject. It is not about breaking down the problems in search of the right solutions. It is not about asking a series of questions.

Hypnosis has by itself a very simple concept - to know what is the main problem or issue or challenge the subject faced. At the initial stage, the hypnotist will talk briefly with the subject what is his or her issue, from there he puts the subject to a relaxed mode so that hypnosis can be carried out to specifically deal with the problem.

Notice that there is not much of focusing on the problem. About 10% of the time is spent only on the problem (just the surface and never deep down) while 90% of the time is spent on hypnosis with the solution to that problem. This is critical, the reason being that the more we focus on a problem the more it gets larger. Like what Mother Theresa once said - I won't attend anti-XX rally but if you do have a peace rally, I will join in. Mother Theresa clearly understood the power of focus.

Tools Of Hypnosis

Hypnotist uses 2 main tools to re-program the subject's mind, namely suggestions and imagination. Both tools are used in a guided manner.

Like in counselling, the tool used by the counsellor is Questioning. So when someone asks what tools are used in hypnosis, you can say that in layman term it is a combination of suggestions and the use of imagination (or visualisation) to help the subject to achieve the desired outcome.

Metaphor For Hypnosis

I think a good metaphor for hypnosis would be:

Our mind is like a big patch of grasses.

Everytime when a thought flashes in our mind and/or we experience something (like watching a movie, reading a book etc) we cut away some grasses. The deeper the thoughts and/or experience, the more the grasses can be easily uprooted. Through our day-in and day-out thoughts and experience, we eventually create a trail of path that makes our "travelling in our mind" to the desired destination much more easily. For example, you have a deep desire to smoke, for each cigarette you put into your mouth, you cut away the grasses or even uproot them. Through your repetition, you will in no time create a path that makes you want to smoke effortless.

The job of a hypnotist is to help you plant back the grasses so that once the blazed trail is covered up again, you no longer can have the desire to get back to smoking because your brain can't find the path to help you reach the destination. This is done with every input of positive suggestions into your subconscious that readily create another pathway. This time, it will be no longer the old negative pathway but a new empowered pathway.