Not many people are aware that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. When I say this in some groups, eyes glaze over. I sound as if I am declaiming a mind-numbing mantra. The fact that we are experts at hypnotizing ourselves is what spurs me on to keeping on, whether people understand it or not.
If hypnosis is equivalent to being in a trance, then we already experience this every day, depending on the speed of the brain’s electrical impulses. We don’t always realize that we are in trance. In fact, when I first went to a hypnotist - to prepare for the Law School Admission Test - I didn’t feel hypnotized at all, and refused to believe I had been. “But I heard everything that you said and I was completely aware of what I said.” All the same, according to this expert I had been deep in hypnosis and had emerged from that state as well. I only partly understood then that the hypnotic state is one of enhanced, finer focus, in what is known as Alpha. We go into light Alpha the moment we close our eyes and take deep, relaxing breaths.
There are names for the different speeds of our brain waves: Beta refers to everyday awareness and Alpha to the slightly dreamy state that intervenes between sleeping and waking. We come up through Alpha every morning before we get up, and go back down through it again in the evening as we fall asleep. We spend our sleep time in Theta and Delta, when our brain cycles slow down to 8 to 4 to 0.5 per second.
To be more precise, in Beta, when we deal with everyday life in a rational way, our brainwaves vary between 14 to 38 cycles per second. When we are in the dreamy Alpha state, our brains slow down to 13 to 9 cycles per second. This can happen when we daydream, when we are fascinated by a television program or a book, or when we are in a creative mode, composing music or a poem or immersed in a work of art or a performance. The Alpha state is a bridge between the conscious and the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is our database, where everything that we have learned is held. Some of what we have learned is helpful, but not all.
When we study hypnosis we learn more and more about the workings of the mind. Trance is one aspect of hypnosis. Repetition is another. When we are particularly vulnerable to suggestion, the more often we hear something, the more firmly and deeply it gets imprinted into our inner database. As children we heard the adults around us expressing, or trying to hide, their beliefs, which were more transparent to us than they realized. Some of the ideas that we absorbed during our most absorbent periods work well for us, while others do not.
I used to believe that with enough training I could be sure of what I was doing as a hypnotist, especially when facilitating a past life regression. I just wanted to know how to keep the client safe, no matter what dark drama our time travels will reveal. To my surprise, I found out I that I can never know what will happen when my client embarks on a past life regression. I have to be on my toes, and stick it out with her. One of my role models in hypnosis is Marilyn Gordon, who asserts that “the way out is through”. Yanking a client out of trance when the going is tough would be a huge mistake, according to my trainers. Doing hypnosis is also a training in patience.
Many a client finds her/himself in what appears like a very dark tunnel. Every one of those amazing human beings has continued onward until the light appears, and s/he emerges enlightened and strengthened. Whether or not s/he believes in reincarnation, whatever it was that s/he discovered has so far always been beneficial for her/his current life.
This applies to all those other issues that we explore together, as well as to past life regressions. I see it over and over again no matter what personal dragons clients are determined to overcome. We all are splendid beings. Much of my practice consists of cutting through old programs that got in the way of recognizing the client’s true self and opening out new avenues to inner peace.
Hypnosis used to be a hobby for me. Now it has become a rewarding profession.
