Hypnosis, what is it?
Hypnosis is a process that guides a subject into an intentional state of suggestibility that we all experience naturally every single day.
You may have an understanding of the different levels of consciousness you experience every day, from being wide awake and aware to be unconscious and sound asleep. You may also be aware of how you drift in and out of different levels of consciousness throughout the day.
For example, you probably have experienced the difference between;
- Being wide-awake and present in the moment
- Being focused on a task and unaware of your surroundings
- Driving your regular route home from work and not paying attention to where you turned or how you got there
- Watching a movie or reading a book and getting lost in the story
- Feeling relaxed and allowing your mind to wander during a massage or at the end of a yoga class
- Drifting in and out of sleep in the early morning
Consciousness works more like a dimmer switch, not an on and off switch.
You don’t flip a switch in your mind and are suddenly unconscious and asleep. You drift in and out of various states of consciousness depending on what time of day it is and what you are doing.
A trained hypnotherapist uses various techniques to intentionally guide you into your most suggestible state of consciousness.
That is necessary because in order to change behaviour you have to have access to the part of the brain that controls it.
Did you that you are not in conscious control of 85-90 per cent of your actions?
According to what’s known as Passive Frame Theory, “nearly all of your brain’s work is conducted in different lobes and regions at the unconscious level, completely without your knowledge.”
Most of your behaviour, from how you tie your shoes to your emotional reactions to daily situations, is not under your conscious control.
If you want to test this, just try doing a few of those tasks differently in a single day. You’ll find that you’re pretty exhausted after an hour or two from the effort and focus required.
Up to 90 per cent of your behaviour is controlled by your subconscious mind, so it makes sense that trying to change your behaviour with your conscious mind is using the wrong tool, particularly if you want to be efficient about it. Hypnosis allows you to bypass your conscious mind and gain access to your subconscious programming in order to change your behaviour, including your habitual thoughts and emotional reactions