The Transparent Hypnotist

I am often asked what does hypnosis feel like? The curiosity is understandable. Most people have an awareness of stage hypnosis, either from live shows, or on TV, or even by watching clips on YouTube. As a result, people tend to think that hypnosis must be a very strange thing; how else could it make people behave in such an odd way?

Over the years, hypnosis has been portrayed in the media as many things, including a form of mind-control. Because of this, and as people tend to fear the unknown, the idea of “being hypnotised” often scares people.

However, hypnosis is not an unusual experience. I can guarantee that you have been “hypnotised” many times in your life. For example, have you ever driven to work and thought “I can’t remember any of that journey”?

Or consider how time flies by as you watch your favorite TV show; or how you can become so engrossed in a book that, when the phone rings, you jump right out of your skin!

All of these are examples of everyday hypnosis. Amnesia (not recalling a journey), time distortion (the evening passing by), and negative hallucination (enjoying a book so much that nothing else seems to exist) are examples of what they call “hypnotic phenomena”.

So, the first thing to remember is that hypnosis is a familiar, everyday occurrence - there is nothing to fear. Who hasn’t had the experience of drifting off into your own little world whilst talking to somebody? Hypnosis is something you’ll recognise, and also something unique to you. (Even whilst reading this article, occasionally your eyes will glaze over*, and you’ll recall a feeling or memory, and at that point you’re in a hypnoidal state, a precursor to hypnosis).

(* Don’t worry, I won’t be offended…)

So, what does hypnosis feel like? The truth is, hypnosis feels different from person to person, because people experience hypnosis in their own unique way. You can have a different experience of hypnosis from week to week, because you – like all people – are complex. Wonderful, complex, amazing, and with a built-in consciousness that is beyond mere description.

(Which means that, because hypnosis is an aspect of consciousness itself, perhaps I shouldn’t be trying to describe it! However, I’d best answer the question now that I’ve asked it…)

So - to answer the question - I’ll outline some of the things that often happen when experiencing hypnosis.

In a clinical setting, hypnosis usually feels deeply relaxing. Although you don’t have to be relaxed to enter hypnosis (and, by the way, entering hypnosis is always your choice – you cannot be forced to enter hypnosis), relaxation is used because it helps. Also, relaxation feels good, and can help with a person’s general well-being.

Typically, the muscles in your face and around your eyes are the first to relax, and your eyelids grow heavy and comfortable. To experience hypnosis, you do not have to close your eyes, but it can help if you do. However, if you keep your eyes open your pupils will dilate and you’ll get a ‘glazed over’ look, like staring off into the distance…

If you choose to close your eyes, your eyelids might flutter for a short while, particularly as you enter hypnosis, before becoming very still. Then, as tension leaves your shoulders, arms and legs, you may feel really heavy, or maybe very light, or you may even notice a feeling like floating in your own body. Imagine the most relaxing bath you’ve ever taken, hypnosis often feels just like that!

Because your body is relaxing so thoroughly, even the saliva glands can relax, meaning that sometimes you might swallow a bit more than usual. Also, your breathing will probably become slow and comfortable, and maybe your pulse will slow down a little too.

It’s not unusual for a person to report a shift in their temperature, most frequently reporting that they feel a little cooler. Sometimes the therapist may offer you a light covering (a hypno-blanket!) In a clinical setting, hypnosis is often so relaxing, that people don’t want it to end.

So far I’ve described feelings of profound relaxation, but hypnosis is much more than that; so what does it feel like mentally?

The first thing to note is that you are not “put under”. You retain your awareness; in fact hypnosis has been demonstrated to increases your awareness – more on that later.

Often, there is a sense of expectancy. Some researchers consider hypnosis to be, at least in part, a sociocognitive phenomenon (try wheeling that line out at a dinner party some time.) In simple terms, this is the idea that hypnosis happens because of social factors, such as the “role” you play when you’re being hypnotised, in conjunction with normal psychological processes. As a result, when you’re entering hypnosis you often feel a sense of “what is going to happen next?”

As you relax into hypnosis, you quickly become very focussed on your inner experience, to the near-exclusion of other ongoing stimuli, such as traffic noise and the like. So whilst the outside world gently drifts into the background, you gradually become less aware of your body. This is sometimes known as dissociation.

Aside from this physical dissociation, during hypnosis there is often a separation of conscious and unconscious thought. Researchers conceptualise this mental dissociation as “a relaxation or decreased reliance on the executive cognitive functions”. In other words, this is the experience of letting go, not wanting to control everything, and becoming completely absorbed in the moment. If you’ve ever had a Sunday morning lie-in, your train of thought wandering freely, enjoying the experience of your mind doing the thinking for you, then you’ll know just what that feels like…

Something else that will seem similar. Have you ever noticed that, whilst dreaming, we often accept completely illogical ideas, imagery, or events, without noticing anything odd? It is only upon waking that we appreciate just how weird and wonderful the dream actually was. In 1959, Martin Orne, MD, PhD, coined the phrase “Trance logic”. Orne was a famous researcher into hypnosis, who discovered that hypnosis also increases our ability to tolerate contradictory or illogical information. So when you are experiencing hypnosis, you will perhaps not be so focussed on logic and reason, instead prepared to think with more flexibility than before.

That increased flexibility has been noted by many researchers over the years. There is a term in psychology, cognitive style, which refers to the way in which we think, perceive and remember information; our preferred approach to the thought. It has been demonstrated that hypnosis increases our ability to move in and out of different cognitive styles. This increased ability means that, rather than losing awareness, in hypnosis we actually gain awareness: to think more clearly, to see things from different points of view, to ascribe new meaning to past events…

From a therapeutic point of view, this factor really justifies the use of hypnosis when helping people to find real and lasting change in their lives. Hypnosis increases our ability to look at problems differently.

Ah… one more thing: in hypnosis, there can be a distortion in our experience of time, often leading to an underestimation of the time spent in hypnosis. That in itself can be a really interesting experience!

So, to answer our question “What does hypnosis feel like?” we have profound physical relaxation, eyelids heavy and still, breathing slow and comfortable, maybe losing our sensory awareness of our body altogether.

Mentally, we are still aware, but with a day-dreamy quality that lets our minds wander; enjoyably letting go and drifting, and yet able to consider new ideas or information with greater flexibility than before…

It’s an experience of consciousness that will feel, at least in part, as familiar as gazing out of a window. And yet hypnosis is also unique – it is not simple relaxation, it is not the same as meditation, it is something vast, complex, unique and beautiful…

So this is what hypnosis feels like, and what can I say: if you’ve been thinking about experiencing it, realise now there is nothing to fear and give it a go!

Any questions or comments, you know what to do!

Adrian

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 27th, 2008 at 2:00 am and is filed under Guest Blogger, The Sunday Question. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.