Hypnosis for Beginners, duchowo
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Hypnosis for Beginners:
CONTENTS
.
In this chapter some simple practical examples are given which allow the reader to explore in person and
with others some of the obvious things about the way in which the mind and body work. In particular
attention is a drawn to the way in which activity in one part or subsystem of the brain can lead quite
naturally, but usually in a little time, to activity in another part. But the speed and quality of the response
varies from person to person.
These results are related to "tests of hypnotisability" and to "hypnotic inductions": which are ways in
which they have been regarded in the past.
In which we explore various ways in which muscular relaxation can be induced. The main systems used
to do this include the verbal, visual, emotional, musical and humorous.
We end with a sample compound induction script.
We explore the visual imagination, which is enormously rich and varied. This is a tool much used in
hypnosis and so it is valuable to explore its natural processes in many people, including yourself.
You may agree that one of the main functions you have when helping another to explore his or her
imagination is in helping
to maintain focus, primarily by asking questions
.
The question of what kind of meaning such an exploration gives is left open. There are a wide variety of
interpretation schemes which you will find: I simply urge you to keep at least TWO such possibilities in
mind so that you are less likely to jump to unjustifiable conclusions. Sometimes the asking of questions
will help to resolve a conflict between two interpretations.
The material you find is seldom strange
by the standard of dreams.
The visual imagination can not only be used for exploration, it can be guided and directed. This chapter
provides exercises to develop this ability.
The specifics used are to imagine a place, then a strange element in it, then a changed, floating
viewpoint, then a floating journey. Next the ability to change images is used to change a small memory;
then developed to see if a completely different life can be pictured.
This chapter should teach you how much can be done with the imagination in many people without
any
"induction" or other hypnotic techniques.
In this chapter for the first time we will meet some processes which have been passed down the years as
being ways of producing some dramatic changes in the functioning of people. These are what have been
called "hypnotic inductions". We start with a close look at an induction used by James Braid, the father
of hypnotism. Then some others, again from well-known names in the history of our subject, are given
more briefly for you to try.
The question of whether as a result of such inductions a given person will respond more readily to
suggestions is one that you can explore practically.
Some reasons are given why such inductions may have been more successful in the past, and need
modifying for the present day.
Posthypnotic suggestions are a large part of what people regard as typical of hypnosis. We start by
comparing it with the common phenomenon of social compliance: the fact that people quite normally
will do what another asks them to do. A description of a subject (Nobel Prizewinner Richard Feynman) is
used to illustrate what it feels like to carry out a post hypnotic suggestion. Both phenomena are based on
establishing a causal connection between two subsystems of the brain.
Some exercises are suggested for you to find out how easy it is under ordinary conditions to establish
such a causal connection between two subsystems of the brain, so that you can (as in the previous
chapter) later compare the ease of doing the same after a preliminary induction.
In fact the usual word to describe the creation of a causal link between two systems is
learning
! And you
are asked to consider the conditions under which learning is most likely to happen well. I suggest that a
focussed attention
is generally best.
However this matter is complicated by the fact that the brain consists of very many subsystems and we
may consider each to be capable of independent attention, or arousal. To explore this exercises are given
aiming at maintaining the attention of just one subsystem (in this case that connected to fingers) while
conscious attention subsides.
We focus on high-order mental systems: those which determine whether to accept or reject statements
made by another. The ability to reduce the resistance and increase rapport is an important part of
hypnosis. This highly practical chapter gives exercises which take the form of two-person games which
may be used to increase your skills in this way. We run through making impersonal statements;
statements about yourself and then personal statements about another person: all in an everyday setting.
Then, in a more "hypnotic" setting, we practise making every statement of an induction totally acceptable
and then a series of personal suggestions acceptable.
The question of the difference between the system of active resistance and active rapport is discussed. No
specific exercises are given for building up the latter: though you can find out by asking a few extra
questions after the previous exercises how well you are doing. It is suggested that high levels of rapport
depend on being good at hypnosis, on being honest to yourself, but on top of that there seem to be some
innate characteristics that will make rapport between yourself and certain other people arise naturally.
The main lessons are summarised. And then the rest of the chapter is directed at giving you a variety of
goals - changes that you might make in a subject - in order to practice and expand on what you have
learned. Many of these are accompanied by hints on how to go about them. The advantages of writing
out scripts for yourself at this stage are presented.
Hypnotherapy for Beginners :
Chapter 1
In which we explore some basic facts about the way in which the brain and body work. Specifically we
see how words and images can activate other systems in the brain which relate to feelings, muscles,
senses, sense of balance etc.
These are compared with "tests of hypnotisability" and "hypnotic
inductions"
ENTERTAINMENT hypnotists love to make hypnosis look dark and mysterious and complicated. They
love to pretend that they have special powers that no-one else possesses.
I love to make things bright and clear and open, and I do not claim any special powers.
In this first chapter I am going to ask you to try out various things and to think about them. These things
are simple and everyday, and will turn out to be not at all mysterious, and yet they are a foundation on
which much of hypnosis is built.
Words can trigger pictures in your mind
.
This must seem a pretty obvious fact. You need only think of reading a novel and remember the pictures
that come to mind as you do so to realise the obvious truth of this. But it is still worth doing a little
exercise on it, as follows.
First just think to yourself, "I am on holiday." STOP NOW; did you see a picture of it in your mind?
People vary, but it is unlikely, in the very short time I allowed you, that you saw anything very clearly.
Now allow yourself more TIME. Think, "I am on holiday." Pause. "It is my favourite kind of place."
Pause. "The weather is just how I like it." Pause. "I am wearing my favourite clothes." Pause. "I am
doing my very favourite thing." Pause. "I am on holiday!"
In all probability that extra time was repaid by a very much more vivid picture or pictures in the mind.
But it is best, especially if you are a student of hypnosis, to get someone else to do the same thing,
perhaps with you saying the words: "Picture
yourself
on holiday." Pause. "It is
your
favourite kind of
weather." etc.
In this way you will discover for yourself the fact that people can have quite different degrees of clarity
of picture, and the pictures themselves can be quite different. I, for example, usually manage only rather
washed out images.
The conclusions I would expect you to be able to agree with, after some experience, are the following
simple ones.
1) Words can lead to pictures in the mind.
2) It takes a little time for them to arise.
3) The time taken and their nature varies from person to person.
As a next little exercise explore the extent to which
words can directly affect muscles
without going via
the usual volitional process of willing an action.
Hold your arms straight ahead of you with the palms facing each other and a couple of centimeters apart.
Look at the gap and say "Close... Close... Close..." repeatedly at a comfortable speed.
A typical result is that over a period of a minute or so the hands
do
move together until they touch. To
check this try it on other people (for students it is essential that you do). In that case
you
can speak the
words as you both watch the hands.
In this way you will discover that there is again a range of responses. An average closure time is a couple
of minutes. In some people it will happen in seconds. In others nothing seems to happen before you run
out of patience. Occasionally someone will resist and there will develop a trembling in the arms as one
set of muscles acts to pull the hands together and another acts to separate them. Another rarer response is
for the hands to fly apart. But in each case you or your friends should find a strange feeling of things
happening which are not willed.
The conclusions I would expect you to be able to agree with are the following simple ones.
1) Words can lead directly to muscular action.
2) It takes a little time for this to happen.
3) The time taken and the nature varies from person to person.
4) It makes little difference
who
is saying the words.
As a third example you might see how
words can lead to activity in the sense of touch
. In particular
they can make an itch arise.
All you do is to repeat to yourself. "There is something itchy on my nose." Pause. "There is something
itchy on my nose." Pause, and repeat for up to a couple of minutes. Then repeat the same thing with
others, with either the person or you saying the words. The most likely result is for an itch to be reported
and perhaps scratched within that time, but again you should find considerable variation. The time taken
will vary from seconds to longer than the time allowed. Some people will find an irresistible urge to
scratch because the feeling is so intense. For others it will be quite mild. Oddly enough in some people
the itch may arise somewhere other than the nose. But as a result of these experiences I expect that you
will be able to agree with the simple observations:
1) Words can lead directly to sensory impressions.
2) It takes a little time for this to happen.
3) The time taken and their nature varies from person to person.
4) It makes little difference
who
is saying the words.
In the above three examples we have started with words. Now move on to see the effect of mental
pictures. Here is a way of seeing if
a picture can lead directly to a muscular action
. Let your hand rest
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