How Does Hypnosis Work?

Hi, Dr. D. here. Today we're going to answer the question,"How does hypnosis work?" Now most of what I'm going to write about is theory, none of which has much science to back it up, but which I've come to accept as a very plausible explanation.

Hypnosis is a natural state of mind that most of us experience several times per day to one degree or another. Often as we are waking up in the morning, just before falling asleep at night, zoning out in front of the television or getting very absorbed while reading a book.

First, let’s think of our mind as having two parts: the conscious and the unconscious minds. Often the term sub-conscious mind is used interchangeably with the unconscious mind.

The purpose of the UN-CONSCIOUS MIND is to store memories, feelings attitudes and programmed behaviors. It is also responsible for our safety and survival. If someone were to do something threatening to you, your UN-CONSCIOUS MIND would automatically guide your behavior toward self-preservation. We call this the fight of flight response. Your UN-CONSCIOUS MIND is also at work when you are doing any highly learned or automatic task, such as driving a car, brushing your teeth, or a variety of other automatic behaviors. The UN-CONSCIOUS MIND does not use language to operate, but it can be influenced by language. It will also believe anything it is told as long as the message doesn’t jeopardize your safety or security.

Now this is where the CONSCIOUS MIND comes in to play. The CONSCIOUS MIND is the part of our mind that determines what is important, believable or true. One of its major roles is to filter what goes into the UN-CONSCIOUS MIND and it relies almost entirely on language, logic and reasoning to do its job. It operates at a much slower rate, than the UN-CONSCIOUS MIND.

When we are born we have a fully developed UN-CONSCIOUS MIND, but our CONSCIOUS MIND does not really begin to develop until we have mastered language and to some degree, logic and reasoning. This happens at about age 11 for most people. And, this is how we are all so easily influenced in our early years…there’s no CONSCIOUS MIND to reject information. And remember, the UN-CONSCIOUS MIND usually accepts anything it is told. It is interesting that after around age 11, our children don’t seem to “listen” to their parents in the same way that they did when they were younger. You see, until we develop our own CONSCIOUS MIND, we use the CONSCIOUS MINDs of our parents to determine what's believable, important or true…and get programmed by them. So…the UN-CONSCIOUS MIND believes everything it is told and the CONSCIOUS MIND isn’t very well developed in let’s say a four year old child. And this is why if you told that child his or her hair is green, they would run to a mirror to look and see because they don’t have a well enough developed CONSCIOUS MIND to dispute that statement.

In hypnosis, the CONSCIOUS MIND becomes very relaxed and distracted and the UN-CONSCIOUS MIND receives and “believes” what it is told, but only if it is in the best interests of the person in trance. Because remember, the UN-CONSCIOUS MIND is responsible for your safety and security. Distracting the CONSCIOUS MIND is done by getting the mind and body very relaxed through series of instructions. This is called the hypnotic trance induction. Then suggestions are received by the UN-CONSCIOUS MIND without the interference of the CONSCIOUS MIND. Often this process may need to be repeated multiple times; particularly if the negative programming in the UN-CONSCIOUS MIND is very strong. That is why listening to hypnosis recordings repeatedly is likely to be much more effective than a single live hypnosis session.

I hope this has been useful for you and if you have questions or comments, please feel free to share them. You can find out more about me, and what I can do for you, at thehypnosisoasis.com

Have a great day!
Dr. D.