Hypnosis
To many people, hypnosis seems like a mystery.
You might have seen a stage hypnotist get people to do weird and even wonderful things in front of an audience, for example, acting like a chicken. As an audience member, you probably cringed at the thought of doing some of those things publically. You don’t realize that the stage hypnotist could never get you to do those things unless you were willing. The hypnotist deliberately chooses people who are naturally outgoing and receptive to his instructions.
The famous psychiatrist and hypnotherapist, Milton Erickson would demonstrate the limits of hypnosis to his students. He would instruct a subject, who he had placed in trance, to take off his or her clothes. The subject always refused.
A hypnotist cannot get you to do something that is against your will. You would just pop straight out of the trance. The hypnotist has to be in rapport with you (i.e. aligned with your will) to be able to hypnotise you in the first place and to be able to keep you in the trance.
I have noticed this in my hypnotherapy practice. If we make a suggestion to a client that does not accord with his or her views – even slightly, he or she will begin emerging from the trance. When using hypnotherapy, I always talk with the client beforehand to make sure the intervention is aligned with exactly what the client wants.
Of course there are often blocks to the client getting what they want. For example, they want to be put into the trance but are very afraid of letting go. I work with the client to remove the blocks, that are in the way. This is part of the skill of hypnotherapy, making the desired changes in a way that does not offend the client’s world view, moral code or operating system.
To put someone in a deep trance in a regression takes a lot of skill on the therapists part and much trust on the part of the client. The client’s conscious mind needs to step back so the deeper wise self can be accessed. The conscious mind is responsible for all our day-to-day thinking. It is the part of us that keeps us safe in this physical world.
To be regressed, you need to feel safe and secure in the environment where the regression is happening. You need to be open, receptive and confident in your ability to gain access to your greater self. This is why you need to feel safe and secure with the hypnotherapist, trusting that the hypnotherapist will be a caring, approachable and skilled guide.
Read more about your hypnotherapist, Karen Joy.
