Preparing the ground
Hypnotists constantly hear a subject contend that he or she "was
not under hypnosis because..."
To eliminate some of these rather irritating "be causes", let us
discuss some questions in order to clarify the experience.
Will I Lose Consciousness?
No matter how deep you go under hypnosis you will never lose
consciousness. People who have ever awakened during the night to
go
to the bathroom and claimed the next morning that they did not
remember doing it have (a) passed from sleep to hypnosis and (b)
had themselves a slight case of amnesia without ever taking
notice
of it.
Hypnosis is actually a facsimile of a natural sleep, but
somewhat
different because under hypnosis, you may actually witness your
own
"sleep". Subjects have been known to remark that "I heard myself
snoring."
So do not expect to lose consciousness, to go out of this world,
or
to experience some extraordinary bit of sensorial or
emotional,
bizarre condition.
The common perception of losing consciousness is largely
perpetuated by Stage Hypnosis programs (nowadays a rage on
television). But consider this: When the stage hypnotist
suggests
to his subject that "He is out in the Tropics, where it is 100
degrees and ...", the subject, who everyone believes to be
"asleep", begins to perspire and proceeds to take off his coat.
He
must have "heard" the suggestion and, therefore was not asleep.
He
was hypnotized, but not asleep.
I repeat: Hypnosis is a state of consciousness in which the
conscious mind is somehow bypassed and which elicits a facsimile
of
natural sleep, but the conscious mind still remains as a witness
to
the whole affair. So, do not expect to be asleep, when and as
you
go under hypnosis. Expect to be in a state of total relaxation,
reproducing most of the outer aspects of natural sleep; but you
will not be asleep.
Why did my mind keep wandering?
In hypnosis, your mind most likely will be wandering because it
is
natural for the mind to wander, such wandering being merely the
sub-vocal association of ideas, which is commonly called
Thinking.
So, if you find that your mind does wander during your
exercises,
just let it wander.
Maybe I was trying too hard?
The answer to that question has already been given a couple of
thousand years ago: "Who amongst you, can increase his stature
one
inch by his will?"
No amount of willing, of trying, of striving, of helping
yourself
toward obtaining the goal of each exercise will ever help you
one
iota. In fact, the more you try, the less you will succeed. The
only "trying" that is expected of you is to try and keep your
exercises regular.
If you want to demonstrate to yourself the futility of trying to
will an effect, if you want to settle the question for yourself
once and for all, the following "pencil experiment" will do it
for
you.
Hold a pencil between your right thumb and index finger. Hold
the
pencil tight, and now repeat to yourself, mentally: "I want to
drop
this pencil."
You could repeat that affirmation till doomsday and still be
unable
to drop that pencil. In order to drop it, you must first change
your thought to "I am dropping this pencil."
Welcome!
I will give you a step-by-step guide to learning and applying Self Hypnosis.
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