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powerful, entrancing hypnotic verbal tapestries for empowerment, relief, self-control & relaxation |
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Well, no, you're probably wrong. Well, anyway, you might be wrong. You may actually be much more capable of being hypnotized than you think. You probably mean you have a hard time letting go when you expect that someone else may be about to "do something" to your mind. Or you've tried hypnosis but didn't feel like you were in an altered state of mind. Going to the movies, a good play, a good sermon, a good lecture -- someplace somewhere along the lines -- you've probably already experienced the experience of hypnosis. You probably were hypnotized. You didn't feel hypnotized. "Hypnotized" is just a state of profound focus where you're a bit more open to thoroughly embracing certain ideas -- like when at a movie something scary happens and you jump as if you were there in the situation on the screen. And then you remind yourself you're in the audience, not in the happenings on screen. That's the experience of hypnosis -- into thoughts presented and then out and reminding yourself where you are, and then back into thoughts presented. (Actually, people should probably try to be more resistant and self-aware when at the movies -- more like you would be if you were thinking about someone intending to suggest thoughts to you in a hypnotherapy session. Many people don't realize how hypnotized and how many attitudes and ideas are being suggested when watching a movie.) Believing you can't be hypnotized has more of a flavor of believing someone else can't "make you" do something against your will. Believing you can't experience a hypnotic trance is believing you can't really focus your mind on a particular thought. Some people can't, but most people can. And when guided, they can focus more intently than they may have believed they were capable of. Believing you can't be hypnotized can also be a matter of not feeling anything different when you try hypnosis. If you feel profoundly different -- more relaxed or somehow changed -- after hypnosis, you can easily recognize having been hypnotized. However, though it is possible to not have any effect of hypnosis at all, many people do benefit from hypnosis even though they believe nothing happened. Sometimes this is because the depth of trance may not have been very "deep" and sometimes this is just because our memories and our awareness of altered states are a bit idiosyncratic. With regard to depth of trance, studies have found that how deeply one is hypnotized has NO RELATIONSHIP to how well the hypnotic suggestions worked afterwards -- at least with regard to psychotherapeutic uses (i.e., motivation, self-control, self esteem, relaxation, fears and anxiousness, depression, stress relief). (Depth of trance is considered more important when it comes to hypno-anesthesia or post-hypnotic suggestions that are common with stage hypnotists -- like the suggestion that you feel like a chicken or that you will want to pat your head when you hear the word "broccoli.") With regard to feeling the experience of being hypnotized, the most common two experiences are feeling like you fell asleep or feeling profoundly relaxed. But these effects are not always there, even for people who often feel them. I myself have been hypnotized many times and have often felt profoundly relaxed and once felt as if I was emerging from a huge sleep as it ended. But I have also been shocked when I have been hypnotized and felt like nothing had happened at all and then found out that something in fact had. For example, there was the time in graduate school when I was the demo subject for a hypno-anesthesia demonstration and didn't think anything had worked and had my heart jump into my throat as the hypnotist dramatically drove a long needle through the back of my hand as I, in horror, readied myself to deal with a terrible amount of pain. I was astonished -- to put it mildly -- when I saw the needle slide in and pass through without feeling anything. Head-cleaners hypnosis tapes and CDs offer several pluses with regard to concerns about having something "done" to one's self by someone else. First, the listener can pick time and place and can take it very carefully or dive in -- whichever he or she seems to prefer -- and can listen over and over and over, letting go more of objective attentiveness with each listening. This can be done with a hypnotherapist, too, but at a greater cost. Second, all suggestions, implied or directly given in head-cleaners tapes and CDs are indirect and permissive (e.g., "can you imagine being able to...") . There are no direct suggestions (e.g., "you will...") Third, just to be extra sure of what is to happen and be heard, the transcript of each tape/CD is available for any potential listener, parent of a potential listener or therapist of a potential listener. Reading the transcript of a head-cleaners hypnosis tape or CD prior to listening to its recording will not reduce and may in some cases actually increase the efficacy of the listening experience. (more issues and ideas will come to this and the other shrink rap pages as emails come in and as chance, God and/or the Cosmos dictate) |
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hypnosis designed with the anxious in mind { { {  } } }all head-cleaners hypnotic presentations are woven to be applicable to a broad range of individuals, including abuse survivors and others who struggle with significant anxiety and issues of self-esteem. |
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