What really happens in the mind during hypnosis? How does it work?
Let's take the mystery out of hypnosis. It is a completely natural state of mind. Although you may not have been formally hypnotized before, you have experienced this state of mind countless times. You'll understand that better when you know what it is that really happens in your mind during hypnosis.
For the moment, imagine dividing your mind into two parts. One part is the conscious mind, filled those things you are fully aware of. One part is the subconscious mind, which works like a giant CD recorder. Every experience we've ever had in our lives is permanently stored there. Of course it would be too much trivia to be constantly aware of, so you can think of it as a filing system that is accessible to us with hypnosis and other methods.
The subconscious mind also controls those bodily functions over which we do not need to exercise conscious control, such as heart rate, breathing, digestion, and so forth. With practice, you can gain the ability to bring many of these "involuntary" bodily functions under your voluntary control.
Imagine, if you will, a filter, screen or network which lies over the subconscious mind. I will call it the critical factor. You can think of it as a kind of protective mechanism so that every single thing we are exposed to does not become accepted as truth by the subconscious mind and become acted upon. In hypnosis we are purposely bypassing the critical factor of the mind so that ideas which are beneficial to us can make a deep and lasting impression on the subconscious mind. The critical factor of the mind merely becomes less active through a variety of methods but it never disappears. It is simply less active and it will return to full activity should any suggestion be presented which your mind did not deem to be in its best interest. You are not a blank slate in hypnosis and you will not accept just any suggestion that is presented.
Think about sometime when you were watching a sad movie and maybe you were crying or at least feeling some emotions coming up. The critical factor was still active enough that you know it was just a movie and yet it wasn't bombarding you with interfering thoughts like, "Why are you crying? This lady is not dead. You saw her on Oprah today." And yet, if your friend taps you on the shoulder and asks if you want some popcorn, you can respond and then instantly return to the movie and be right back into it again. We go into and out of our subconscious mind all day long. Every time we are involved in some creative activity, every time we drive along in our car and suddenly realize we don't remember the last mile we drove, every time we are feeling our emotions or acting out of some previously formed habit.
It is estimated that we spend between 50 to 80% of our waking hours in our subconscious mind. It is a common and completely natural state of mind that we have all experienced countless times before, but we just didn't call it hypnosis.
For the moment, imagine dividing your mind into two parts. One part is the conscious mind, filled those things you are fully aware of. One part is the subconscious mind, which works like a giant CD recorder. Every experience we've ever had in our lives is permanently stored there. Of course it would be too much trivia to be constantly aware of, so you can think of it as a filing system that is accessible to us with hypnosis and other methods.
The subconscious mind also controls those bodily functions over which we do not need to exercise conscious control, such as heart rate, breathing, digestion, and so forth. With practice, you can gain the ability to bring many of these "involuntary" bodily functions under your voluntary control.
Imagine, if you will, a filter, screen or network which lies over the subconscious mind. I will call it the critical factor. You can think of it as a kind of protective mechanism so that every single thing we are exposed to does not become accepted as truth by the subconscious mind and become acted upon. In hypnosis we are purposely bypassing the critical factor of the mind so that ideas which are beneficial to us can make a deep and lasting impression on the subconscious mind. The critical factor of the mind merely becomes less active through a variety of methods but it never disappears. It is simply less active and it will return to full activity should any suggestion be presented which your mind did not deem to be in its best interest. You are not a blank slate in hypnosis and you will not accept just any suggestion that is presented.
Think about sometime when you were watching a sad movie and maybe you were crying or at least feeling some emotions coming up. The critical factor was still active enough that you know it was just a movie and yet it wasn't bombarding you with interfering thoughts like, "Why are you crying? This lady is not dead. You saw her on Oprah today." And yet, if your friend taps you on the shoulder and asks if you want some popcorn, you can respond and then instantly return to the movie and be right back into it again. We go into and out of our subconscious mind all day long. Every time we are involved in some creative activity, every time we drive along in our car and suddenly realize we don't remember the last mile we drove, every time we are feeling our emotions or acting out of some previously formed habit.
It is estimated that we spend between 50 to 80% of our waking hours in our subconscious mind. It is a common and completely natural state of mind that we have all experienced countless times before, but we just didn't call it hypnosis.