Hypnosis
or self-hypnosis only works if the person accepts and
allows it to work. It is important to use only
suggestions that are acceptable to the person hypnotized
while in a trance. When we are in a hypnotic trance, the
conscious mind is much more active than in the normal
state, which is why we must take a positive
attitude.
All
hypnosis is by nature self-hypnosis. The work of the
hypnotist is to guide the person during the process, but
hypnosis is something very, very personal and only you
can decide to enter into this state or not. By allowing
new information in the form of suggestions into the
subconscious mind and by replacing the existing
information we will reject any suggestion that it is
perceived as a threat to us. (we would simply wake
up)
Everything
we have learned since we are born, and perhaps before
that, is stored in our subconscious mind, and every
experience is there. Every sound, smell, taste, and word
is all recorded similar to a hard drive but with a
tremendous amount of storage space. This memory is not
responsible for our actions, but stores the information
enabling it to establish our beliefs and habits, so I
suppose we could consider our conscious mind similar to
the Ram of a computer.
Some
call it the Long Term Memory. The beliefs are the result
of our life experiences. Experiences that are perceived
according to their influence on us, the people around us,
including our family. Today, that influence can come from
media, including television, radio, games, etc. All this
will create an expectation about how life should
be.
Habits
automatically respond to different situations or
circumstances. If you have the habit of smoking a
cigarette after a meal, then you will, almost
automatically, and you won't feel very bad about it. Once
we managed to evade the resistance of the subconscious we
can generate an immediate change in beliefs and habits
which will result in changes in our emotions and
behavior. The emotions are generated in the subconscious,
including the emotions generated by our perception of
what is happening to us now, right now, or what we've
done in the past or what we do in the future.
Every
emotion we have experienced is here, but we do not
consciously realize it, the subconscious mind responds to
these emotions physically. No matter how old we are, no
matter how many experiences we have, the subconscious
mind will store all our experiences unless you have a
brain injury due to illness or trauma.
It is
important to understand that many of the habits and
beliefs that are rooted in our subconscious is the result
of information that the subconscious has received but not
necessarily corresponding with reality, or at least with
the reality that we think at a conscious level. An
example is the fact that people smoke on a conscious
level and say they do because they are calm and relaxed.
However, if we look in detail will find that most people
smoke because at some point in their lives, adolescents
may need to be accepted in a given group and smoking was
a way to seek acceptance and security, which generates
they belong to a group or social circle.
As you
can see the reasons that give us the conscious mind are
not always original. We just search our database that is
stored in the subconscious mind and we can locate the
original reasons for a particular habit or behavior. The
Conscious Mind is our analytical mind. It's specialty is
to detect problems, analyze actions in response to
problems. This part helps us to operate daily in our
social circle, work, home. The conscious mind is least of
all suggestible, which is why many hypnotists use
"tricks" to demonstrate to the conscious mind that the
person is in a hypnotic state.
When we
are immersed in the hypnotic state we are still
conscious, very different from what people had always
believed. However, in states of hypnosis or self-hypnosis
we can feel a profound impact on our conscious awareness,
experiencing hallucinations or temporary changes in our
beliefs.
Some of
the functions of the conscious mind in relation to
hypnosis :
Critical
Factor. It rejects the information based on what is
in the conscious mind. Only in a very deep state of
hypnosis can this work with the conscious mind
suggestions.
Protective
function.
This
act immediately let's us see that something is dangerous,
and also rejects any suggestion that it is not considered
safe.
Focus.
The conscious mind is part of our state of consciousness,
it can focus on a time, place or problem. Its main focus
is on this, but can easily go back to retrieve
information stored in the subconscious or perceive the
future and be creative using information from the past
and present.
Critical
Thinking is consistent with the beliefs of the
individual, critical thinking is used when necessary and
can be improved with education and training, to solve our
problems, it is logical, analytical and rational.
The
ability of the conscious mind is quite small compared
with the extraordinary ability of the subconscious, and
can only keep six to nine bits of information at the same
time.