Tranceformation Now - About Hypnosis

ABOUT HYPNOTHERAPY

BASIC ABILITY

The magic of HYPNOSIS will be dispelled RIGHT NOW. You have the capability. The trance state is a normal activity of a normal mind. At one time or another you have been in a non-ordinary conscious, altered state of consciousness, been spaced out, entranced, been daydreaming, or have forgotten what your conscious mind wanted you to recall. You may have lost your train of thought. This process occurred naturally. However you lacked a guide or coach to assist with directing the process. Hypnotherapy provides the guide for this process.

The resemblance of this process compared to a vast number of indigenous cultures who value and evoke altered states of consciousness is remarkable. This universal disposition, that is independent of culture, highlights that it is an ability that most people possess.

If you are capable of sitting and having the attention span for a one half hour television program, then you are capable of transcending ordinary consciousness. If you have been absorbed in an engrossing movie, absorbed in a book, been entranced by someone, driven on the highway while day dreaming, or had to perform a mindless task, then you have most likely been in a non-ordinary consciousness.

You must be willing to not actively or consciously resist.

THE ESSENTIAL HEART OF HYPNOSIS AND HYPNOTHERAPY

Hypnosis is both a state of the mind and a process. In hypnosis, many practitioners merely read pre-designed scripts and fit the individual to the scripts. However, hypnotherapy is where neurology and artistry interface. Through heightened focus, there is greater access to the many facets of the brain. The individual and a guide learn the particular facets of the person that are unique to that person. They cooperate and learn together (heuristically) to the benefit of the individual. This information is incorporated in the change. As trust develops, as striving declines, as relaxation increases, a deeper and more meaningful experience occurs.

THE BASIC FORMAT (In ordinary consciousness)*<

Statement of Request
Define request Operationally
Discern mind blocks that interfere with the attainment of goals
Create an atmosphere of safety, trust, and understanding
Explanation of the hypnosis process
Dealing with myths and unrealistic expectations
Increase self-awareness leading to greater physical comfort – adjustments to placement of one’s head for support, glasses (on or off), torso adjustments, adjustments to clothing, and decisions about contact lens (in or out) because eyes may close
Consent
(In the onset of non-ordinary consciousness or alternative state of consciousness)*
An increase in focused attention is developed
There is a bypass of the normal doubting, critical, and skeptical nature of the mind
Further deepening of self-awareness occurs
Heightened receptivity for the delivery of acceptable suggestions occurs
Non-ordinary abilities of the brain are recognized and utilized
Investigative stage – if awareness of the past is indicated and requested
Introduction of post session suggestion
Emergence from the hypnotic process

        The terms “subconscious mind” or “unconscious mind” are at times used to describe the
       hypnotic process. Their use is archaic and often do not reflect an underlying knowledge of
        the working of the brain. More information about the specifics of these terms should be
        requested from anyone employing them, to be certain you are involved in a proper treatment
       experience.

THE BASIC EXPERIENCE

"The first session is like a day when you are scheduled to be at work or school. The alarm clamors. As you turn it off, you realize it has been snowing all night. There is no work. A lovely blanket of snow is on the ground. It is snowing so steadily that it becomes one white sheet. You have an internal experience; a feeling, a sensation and a soft inner voice that all reflect, “I don’t have to be anywhere but here”. A nice warm blanket, cuddly, all sensation, all present experience, only here.

Then the upper part of the brain starts, the conscious mind, so to speak. Am I correct, is there no other place to be? Is this the correct experience to do? Am I cheating in some way? SOON YOU RELEASE THIS MIND. You just GO TO THE EXPERIENCE. There is no figuring, no wondering, JUST BEING. A load feels lifted. A wave of relaxed comes over you. You know everything that occurs around you, but it is FURTHER and further away. You LET GO. You just DRIFT.

The second session is like a Saturday morning with no place to be. No time lines, DEMAND-FREE, TIME FREE. You do not have to leap from a bed. Did you ever slowly awaken? Did you ever experience that time when you are half asleep and half awake? You could get out of bed anytime you choose, yet you are SO COMFORTABLE, just enjoying this time of being in the bed, perhaps the feel, the touch. Perhaps there are surrounding sounds, cars, voices, house sounds, dogs barking, but nothing special for you to attend to. You have nothing special for you to do. The only thing for you to do RIGHT NOW is to experience the DRIFTING IN AND OUT, enjoying this time. You can just ENJOY RELAXING for awhile. When you arise, you are fully refreshed and invigorated.

After the hypnotic experience, a profound relaxation and sense of peace is often described.

Most people recall quite a lot of the session, but there is a sense of drifting in and out of conscious awareness. It is as if you are listening to a conversation and suddenly realize that you have missed parts of the conversation because your mind has drifted. At the end of a session your critical, skeptical mind may want to be dubious about the hypnosis. Know that you were involved, perfectly.

The experience is like receiving driving directions from a person who knows, but there are times when you have an inner sense that some inner turns would be better and you take them. You then return to the other’s directions when that makes internal sense.

At no point is anyone unconscious. There is now way to be stuck in the experience. Without continued suggestions, the ordinary consciousness would take over and you would totally connect to and be responsive to your surroundings.

Often suggestions stay permanently. Occasionally reinforcement is required.

Occasionally results occur in one session. See the book "A Turn for the Better", or with the police officer who wanted to stop cursing, or some smoke-free persons, or the person who had to give an international presentation, or the inside-of-the-mouth chewer, or the Britain bound flying phobic.

However, the effects of hypnosis are often cumulative. Some people require time to develop trust. Sometimes a resolution of a problem is unrealistic in a straight forward manner and different aspects of it must be resolved.

Generally consider THREE SESSIONS to experience a major impact. However, additional sessions may be necessary. One example is the 60-year old person who had passed out at the sight, thought, or word of blood throughout 53 years. 7 sessions were required so he could give blood and work as a driver on an ambulance. Six sessions were required for a funeral-phobic person.

BASIC PREMISE

There are areas of the brain that have localized functions, but are also interwoven. Under hypnosis, these functions can be activated through mindfulness and guided attention.

The mind is allowed to access many sensory modalities. Information may be accessed in different ways. Time may be slowed down or sped up, objects can be visualized bigger or smaller than they are, and pain can be transformed.

PET scans revealed activation in brain areas where color is visualized when hypnotized subjects were asked to visualize color. When sound was suggested in hypnosis, activation of the right Anterior cingulate cortex occurred. EEG changes have been noted in alpha and beta waves during relaxation exercises and during meditation. In hypnosis changes in delta and theta waves occur.

The upper cortical left-side of the brain assists with word formation, speech, analytical reasoning, and rational thought. Some people consider it to be the more advanced and sophisticated part of the brain. However it frequently interferes with an intuitive part of the brain.

In deeper states of hypnosis, there is reduced activity in this left hemisphere of the cerebral cortex. With a person’s cooperation, there is a letting go of the left hemisphere and at times the upper cortical brain. The person becomes attentive without the critical mind. There is a heightened state of receptivity for suggestions. It is as if this upper cortical brain stands on the sidelines to allow lost skills and past perceptions to appear. Utilization of these natural intuitive talents allows less efforting and allows abilities to surface naturally. It is the act of “being in the zone” when in an activity whereby all aspects of functioning combine and flow naturally. At this time, one may be better able to access intuition, the whole being and spiritual resources. Here time can be timeless. Past and future emerge into the NOW. There is a greater sense of oneness in the present. Here you can become an inner traveler with access to new different possibilities for healing.

The body has an amazing self-organizing self-healing system. Hypnosis may put one in touch with one’s own exceptional ability to heal. Internally communicated healing information may be transmitted more effortlessly.

Who knows who will come to the inner-mind. One patient came because he wanted to visualize a stronger immune system. He had concerns because his entire family of origin had died of cancer. In the second visit his deceased mother unexpectedly appeared in his trance state. She told him to eat his vegetables. His eating habits were horrible. He obediently obeyed. He felt less frightened and health improved substantially as eating improved.

BASIC TECHNIQUES

Various Techniques and processes can be used to bring about trance state-dancing, rhythmic sounds of instruments, chanting, and boredom. Because the critical mind is at rest, similar to brainstorming session, or when indigenous cultures consider dream states, all data is valuable. Therefore even colors, abstract shapes, sounds, sensations, proprioceptive cues are incorporated.

Built on evolving information, suggestions are developed, and data is combined, mapped over, heightened, and lessened. Pacing is an art and these suggestions are incisively inserted at a time when the self is most RECEPTIVE.

Because the focused brain is more attentive and suggestible to learning or recollecting, techniques can be learned more quickly and behaviors can be patterned. These can be available at any time.

BASIC USES

(If you or your treatment specialist have thought that your mind may contribute to your problem or difficulties then you may be at the correct site.)

Achieve goals with less effort and more focus, than thought possible
Make intentions become part of your reality more powerfully
Impact fixated neural ruts (habits)
Understand the ways that past patterns have impinged on present blocks to success
Find a pleasant and enjoyable way to make positive changes
Decrease stress
Make negatives become positives
Improve attitudes
Deal with self-defeating thoughts
Lessen fear
Remove negative blocks
Achieve a state of heightened awareness
Lower intensity of a situation wrapped in emotion
Increase awareness of past patterns
Reprogram old habits and behaviors
Set a new course in life
Create informed insight into the mind/body connection
Increase resourcefulness
Increase personal empowerment
Increase self-love and self-understanding to offset tendency to self-loathe

EPILOGUE

Hypnotherapy is a way to take personal responsibility for aspect of our healing.

It is not something passively done to you like surgery. It is the garnering of your best inner resources and directing them toward your goal. Recognize that the implementation of all hypnosis and hypnotherapy is not the same, just like all phychotherapy is not the same.

In 1958, hypnosis received formal recognition by the American Medical Association

Please call us at 804-320-7738
to discuss the ways we can best work together.
I look forward to aiding your Trance-Formation Now!