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

Well my faithful friends, I leave at 4 am tomorrow morning and will be gone until next week. I know for sure that I will not be anywhere near a computer from Thursday afternoon until Sunday night. But…as usual I am taking this time to feature some wonderful hypno friends. Please feel free to comment, I will release the comments when I can.

Here is the line up:

Wednesday, July 23 - A Book Review by Gary Noble

Thursday, July 24 - The First Time with Gary Noble

Friday, July 25 - 10 Questions with Steve Williams

Saturday, July 26 - Esoteric Saturday with Terry O’Brien

Sunday, July 27 - The Sunday Question with Adrian Tannock

Monday, July 28 - The First Time with Caere Dunn

Tuesday, July 29 - The First Time with John Weir

Wednesday & Thursday,  July 30 and July 31 - The First Time with Michael Raugh - except Michael is going to share with us both the first time he hypnotized someone else and the first time he was hypnotized!!!!

Like Ellie, Debbie, Josh, and many others who frequent The Transparent Hypnotist, I’m a member of the National Guild of Hypnotists (NGH). The first thing I did when I became certified was to join the NGH because everyone I knew in the hypnosis community said NGH was one of the top, or possibly the top, professional hypnosis organization. In the years since then my friends’ recommendation has proven to be mostly true. Like any large organization NGH has its hang-ups, but by and large I’m still very happy with them.

That doesn’t mean that from time to time I don’t look at other organizations, too. Lately, for instance, I’ve been thinking a lot about the Society of Experiential Trance, a fairly young (established 2005) organization that came to my attention when I attended Hypnoticon earlier this year. That’s their logo at the top of this post.

SET has a feel and attitude that’s different from any other organization I’ve seen or heard about. Where most hypnosis organizations emphasize their training resources, professional codes of conduct, legal/political actions to protect their memberships, and whatnot — all of which, I hasten to say, are very good things — SET, primarily, is all about the trance experience and how people use it. Their membership criteria is telling: while they respect professional certifications from other organizations, the only way to join SET is for one of SET’s officers to actually watch you perform a list of trance phenomena, either live or on video. I have to admit, I like that.

Another interesting thing about SET is that they are extremely inclusive. Most hypnosis organizations are willing to accept and even teach in their conventions things like energy healing, past life regression, emotional freedom technique — things that may or may not be related to hypnosis but which tend to come into play frequently. There are some practices, though, that are decidedly Not Welcome. SET embraces every field of hypnosis, though, even the ones that organizations like NGH frown upon, such as erotic hypnosis. SET’s attitude is that if people are going to do these things — and they are — then it’s important to teach people to do them safely and responsibly. I love that position; I think it’s practical and realistic and fresh.

What I fear — and, after all this set-up, the point of today’s Sunday Question — is that if I join SET, the NGH people may frown on that because SET does support uses of hypnosis that NGH considers unprofessional or inappropriate. I still value my NGH membership and would rather not lose it. I still want to be taken seriously as a professional, and I see the NGH membership as part of that. So, today’s question is:

Would you associate yourself with an organization that supports alternative practices such as erotic hypnosis? Why or why not?

<MR>

Yes, it is true, I am off to see the world yet again. So, I am about to depart, but as always, I am leaving you, dear reader, with wonderful posts to read each day. No, I am not ringing my own bell, but those of other hypnotists who have been kind enough to write for the Transparent Hypnotist. I am starting a new segment that will run when I am not available on days when my regular features aren’t scheduled (10 Question Fridays, Esoteric Saturdays, and The Sunday Question). I call this new feature posting - The First Time. It will be the words of the hypnotists you may have already have come to know here and it will be all about their first experiences hypnotizing someone.

We will begin this tomorrow with Josh Houghton.

On Thursday, we will hear Debbie Lane’s version.

Then its back to 10 Questions for Hypnotists and this week the interview is with Susan Wallace.

Terry O’brien will handle Esoteric Saturday and Michael Raugh will be back with the Sunday Question.

So stay tuned…

by Frank Murphy

I have been teaching my brother to drive.  Every day we go through the same procedure - we go out to the car, I hand out the keys and say “do you want to drive?”

He always says “no,” so I drive to a quiet estate, swap places, he drives round for a bit, we swap places and go home. Same routine everyday.

One day not long ago he booked a ‘proper’ instructor as I told him he is not far away from being ‘test ready.’  I asked him does he want me to spend 5 minutes to hypnotize him and get rid of the hot flushes, panic attacks, hot sweats and to ‘make’ him pay more attention to things I picked up on that could use more attention -mirrors, handbrake, etc.

I spent literally 5 minutes with him before we went out for a lesson.

We went out and I asked the usual “do you want to drive?”

He said “yes,” took the keys, got straight in the driving seat and took off at the speed of light STRAIGHT AT A PARKED VEHICLE, which to make matters worse was my hypnobile!!

On another occasion, I visited a client going through a divorce, whose husband was bullying her and still controlled her life.

The day after I worked with her, the police brought her back home after she had gone round to his house, and, for the first time in her life she stood up for herself.

I re-thought my approaches after that and put emphasis on due control and caution!!!

So, with these occasions in mind, my question is this:

Can a person have too much hypnosis/hypnotherapy?  Even though it is used for a right reason and used properly, can it still be dangerous?

by Terry O’Brien

Vampires are some of the most popular supernatural characters, and one of their most salient features (aside from living forever) is their hypnotic power.

But where did that power come from? Its not in any folklore of any kind, nor is it in Stoker or any other fiction of the time. (In fact, the hypnotist in “Dracula” was van Helsing, who hypnotized Mina to use her psychic connection with Dracula to track him as he fled across Europe.) But it was definitely seen in the 1931 movie with Bela Lugosi and it is now an accepted part of the canon. So somewhere in the approximately fifty years between the publication of “Dracula” and the Bela Lugosi movie the concept of vampire hypnotism was established.

Until recently, my best guess was that it had something to do with the popularity of hypnotism as a subject of investigation for the genteel upper-class society of Victorian England and the popularity of the novel “Trilby.” Just like :”Dracula”, “Trilby” also featured an Eastern European character, a character that was a sinister hypnotist. Even the illustrations in “Trilby” played up the stereotypical “eye contact” and “hypnotic gestures” inductions. It was only natural to consider that there was some cross-fertilization between “Trilby” and “Dracula” especially on stage. The problem was in trying to prove it.

However, after talking with Michelle Bellanger, who is an expert on vampires, I was led back to “Dracula” and especially the actor who portrayed him on stage.

That actor was Sir Henry Irving. This was the actor that Bram Stoker wrote the character for. Irving was reputed to be an extremely powerful charismatic individual, both on and off stage. So much so that Stoker himself was of two minds about him: Stoker wrote himself as both van Helsing the protagonist and as Renfield the sycophant. It was that charisma, suggests Michelle, that became the basis for vampire hypnosis.

If contemporary reviews of the plays in which Irving played Dracula mentions this, or if it was written into the stage directions in copies of the script from that time period, then this becomes a much easier theory to prove. Now all it needs is the research.

By Mark Scher

Howdy folks, or cheerio (haha Ellie). I appreciate the opportunity to talk to “thems” that know and get some useful advice, so when Ellie asked if I would write in as a glogger while she’s on the road, I jumped at the chance.

 I noticed when my kids were young, their teachers, the good ones, typically did a lot preparation work. As they got older, they still did a lot work, but it was different. There were lectures to prepare and papers to grade.  I noticed that the constant for good teachers was heavy preparation for setting the learning stage, so the kids could actively work hard in higher grades. There were one or two that stuck with lecture,  but it was different—instead of just sitting there passively listening, I was actively caught up in the topic. It was like listening to a good story teller. “Going internal,” I would play with the material, do thought experiments, etc.. Other teachers would lecture, but they were only talking at me—no mental involvement. The “cool” teachers could talk about anything and make it involving.

 As a trainer and instructional designer, I’ve followed the path of most instructional designers and given clients what they expected. Very focused learning objectives with observable criteria (after all if you can’t measure it, how do you know learning took place?), scripts for e-learning instructors, plenty of interactions to involve learners, feedback, etc. Some of my more adventurous clients even let me pose scenarios, simulations, and ask applied questions rather than the usual recall and recognition-level queries.

 Could anyone suggest techniques for trainers teaching adults for developing mentally captivating and memorable lesson content? How can we talk directly to the subconscious to improve assimilation and accommodation of useful content?

By Gary Noble

There are others, who like Mesmer, had studied and practiced hypnosis and other mystic phenomena, (or should we call them sciences?), and were willing to share their discoveries.

Take for instance Alexander Cannon K.C.A., M.D., PH.D., CH.B., D.P.M., M.A., F.R.G.S., ETC. He authored several books including The Invisible Influence (Rider & Co.), Powers That Be (Mott Co. LTD., London), Hypnotism, Suggestion and Faith-Healing (Heinemann, London), The Power of Karma (in publication, May, 1936).

After reading the entire volume, I quote from his book The Science of Hypnotism, first printing May 1936 and published by E. P. Dutton Co., Inc. where, in the chapter named “Hypnotic Colour Science” he tells about The Great White Lodge Psyche Lamp:

This is a great secret of the “White Lodge” which as a Master-the-Fifth, I am now permitted to make known to all, but to ensure that it gets into the right hands, have placed the powers of patent in the hands of The Colour Center of Blackpool, under the direction of Mr. Roland Hunt and others.

The power of this lamp can only be appreciated by those who use it and see it used. It is used in the “Magik” of the Lodge’s three golden rules:

1. Learn to build intelligently. (See Chapter One of Powers That Be.)
2. Give the impulse through the correct word which will animate that which he (the builder) has built; the thought-form then conveys the intended idea with force.
3. Send this thought-form correctly oriented to your goal: being truly directed it will reach the objective and accomplish that which it was sent forth to do.

To accomplish these three golden rules, the great rule of the Lodge must be obeyed in order that the rule may obey you. It is wrapped up in one word, SECRETIVENESS: Jesus Christ the great sage of two thousand years ago, when He cured the sick said: “Go thou thy way and TELL NO MAN.” He knew that the telling of it to others would make the rule non-operative, and the cure of sickness would not be permanent. All the great men in history have brought their plans to fruition by being secretive about them: to even mention them to your nearest friend causes them to lose their effect. For those who live in doubting castle, I counsel them to try practicing this law as I have directed, knowing that it will be proved to the hilt.

The following rules are subsidiary and are directed towards the training of the right thinking against wrong thinking (as the East puts it: to prevent the disciples from the harmful force of the Black Magic.)

1. View the world of thought and separate the false from the true, retaining only the true.
2. Learn the meaning of illusion (see Chapter One of Powers That Be which fully explains this), and in its midst locate the golden thread of truth: the real meaning of truth.
3. Control the emotions of thy mind and soul, for the waves that rise upon the stormy seas of life engulf the swimmer, shut out the sun as he sinks and so render all his plans futile.
4. Discover that thou has a mind, and a dual personality, and to use the duality of thy mind.
5. Concentrate on the principle of thought-power and be master of thy mental world.
6. Learn that the thinker and his thought and that which is the means of thought are diverse in their nature, yet one in ultimate reality.
7. Act as a powerful thinker and learn the error of selfish thought, and that what-so-ever man wishes for another he wishes for himself. Think success to another and success also comes to the thinker.
8. Picture the thought-form before constructing it and ascertain its goal and verify its motive.
9. Think only good of others: if thou canst not say good of another never say evil of them, for as thou speakest of others so do others speak of thyself. Bar fast the doors of thought to hate and pain, to fear, jealousy and low desire. Take heed lest thou fall!
10. Watch close the gates of thought. Physical life is mostly centered on the plane of concrete life, and so thy words and speech will indicate thy thought. Pay close attention to these facts.
11. Speech has a triple nature: idle, selfish and hateful words. Idle words if good it matters naught, but if evil the speaker is sooner or later adversely affected thereby. Selfish words sent forth with strong intent build around its speaker a wall of separation and loneliness. Hateful words spell ruin to the speaker of them, for he falls into the grip of their doisonous fangs: and these words kill the flickering impulses of the soul, and cut at the very root of life itself, bringing in their train the Angel of Death. All thoughts, words and deeds sent out to others sooner or later return to their owner with increased power.
12. Never ask another to do anything that thou thyself wouldst not do. “Don’t trouble trouble “till trouble troubles you, you’ll only double trouble and trouble others too.” The secrete formula is OM MANI PADME HUM. If spoken between the hours of midnight and two of the clock in the early morning, under the deep red ray or infra-red ray, the thought sent out by him is most potent for good or evil according to the mind of the commander.

These are the twelve so-called “Laws of Magik” which in the East is not associated with conjurors and jugglers, but with real science as many have borne witness thereto. This Great White Lodge of the Himalayas is the remnant of the Great University of Atlantis, which was sunk by the selfish powers of mankind about the year 254,666 B.C.

This Great Seat of Learning knows secretes which are ours for the searching, for the power of study, for the ability to learn the power of persistent concentration (practically unknown in the West). It is in this ancient University that the real science of colour, sound and perfume values and their hypnotic effects are fully known and understood.

I felt it necessary to give this introduction to my Lodge before describing its physic lamp, lest anyone might not appreciate its value and therefore never even inspect it and test it out to his own advantage.

The author continues to describe the room in which the magnificent lamp is housed. Its colours are mostly black, indigo and blue with some red panels with golden edges. Each part of the room is described in detail, as are the pieces of furniture.

Dr. Cannon next describes the Lamp. He talks of a globe 12 inches in diameter and composed of seven strips or bands of colour, some being red, some being violet and some being orange. I cannot give out the order of color for fear of someone possibly creating this magnificent lamp. There is a mechanism (clockwork) to drive it so as to turn in a special way. He compares the drive to a unit he adopted for his psychostethokyrtographmanometer drum (the “thought-reading machine”). He claims the use of the lamp for an hour a day soon straightens out permanently those bent on negative poles and so ensures health, one of the secrets of happiness in this short and fleeting earthly life.

This book is a wealth of information for the hypnotist who wants to learn from the old masters. It includes the techniques used and mastered by Lloyd, Tuckey, Bernheim, Grossman, Liebeault, Erskine, Binet and Fere, as well as the Bernheim-Coue Method.

There are chapters on the theory of hypnotism and chapters on methods of hypnotizing.

Egregiously late again, I still owe Ellie and you a Monday post.  It should have had something to do with Memorial Day, I suppose, but that’s not quite where my heart is.

I mentioned my girlfriend, Julie, in posing the Sunday Question.  She’s back home now, 500 miles away, hopefully still smiling as much as I am.  Which has me thinking about how hypnosis comes in handy in the oddest ways.  Yes, even with a long-distance relationship.

Julie is a kinesthetic type, meaning her mind tends to represent and recall data in terms of body sensations.  Because her mind naturally leans that way, Julie is very good at recalling and even reproducing sensations of touch, texture, and warmth — she can even hallucinate them with very little prompting.  Which makes it very easy for me to send her a warm hug, for example, by posthypnotic suggestion.  It’s still not the same as physically being there with her, but it makes her feel good and I (being an auditory type) get to enjoy hearing her sigh when she feels it.

Skype is our friend, of course.  The call quality is generally outstanding and the price is unbeatable (free).  People who use computer voice chat also tend to do it with headsets, which eliminates the problem I mentioned before about dropping the phone.  I’ve talked with other hypnotists who’ve done whole sessions over Skype with distant clients and gotten very satisfying results.  No surprise, then, that another powerful way to connect is to do a form of guided visualization (or the kinesthetic/auditory equivalent) over that voice connection — with a little hypnotic help, we can create a shared space where we can sit together, cuddle, and talk.  It’s quite nice, and again adds to the feeling of connectedness that’s so hard to sustain across multiple state lines.

I could go on, but I didn’t clear this topic with Ellie beforehand and it would be dangerously easy to drift into Too Much Information. ;^)  So instead let me just suggest that those of us who work with people in relationships, or who are in relationships ourselves, take a few quiet minutes and ask, are we making the most of the tools we have at hand, for ourselves and for our clients?

<MR>

Hypnosis has so many applications within modern medicine that it I often think most hospitals should have a hypnotist or two on staff.   The effectiveness of hypnosis for managing pain has been well documented, but there is a lot more than just that going on in an average hospital that could keep a staff hypnotist busy.

Case in point:  the well-known Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or MRI, test.  It’s a pretty intimidating procedure.  You lie down on a sliding table, get inserted into a narrow tunnel inside a huge round machine, which then begins to make loud chunking noises all around you — while you’ve been admonished to remain absolutely still.  Some patients are so unnerved by the noises, or by the close confines of the tube, that they panic and technicians have to pause or redo parts of the test.  In extreme cases the patient has to be sedated to keep them calm long enough to take the images.

A few weeks ago a dear friend of mine was scheduled to undergo an MRI exam of her pelvic region.  She was fairly experienced at being hypnotized and wondered whether I could give her some suggestions that would help her to remain still and calm during what she knew from prior experience would be a relatively unpleasant process.  Of course, I told her.

We arranged a Skype voice chat for the evening before the test.  I took my friend into hypnosis and we walked through the procedure in her mind:  arriving at the hospital, changing into the usual little gown, getting on the table, being slid into the machine, hearing the noise, etc.  Then I used the noise, which she could remember from prior MRI sessions, and made that noise a trigger for her body to become totally relaxed and still.

My friend got through the exam quickly and easily.  The loud clunking of the machine, which had been unnerving and startling to her before, became a welcome trigger into a state that made the imaging time pass very quickly for her (hooray, hypnotic time distortion!).  I won’t claim that hypnosis made the MRI experience pleasant, but she did feel pretty good during most of it.  And the test results were happy ones, so everything worked out well.

<MR>