What is Hypnosis?
Describe the psychological and physical aspects of hypnosis and discuss the role of relaxation in hypnotherapy.
“Hypnosis is a completely natural state that along with the input of a properly trained and confident therapist can create positive changes in a person’s mental, emotional and physical state…”1
Introduction
In a world where materialism has become the appetite for the ascending classes and where spiritualism, religious or otherwise, is declining in popularity, life affirming therapy can, for the large part, be found in child-friendly capped vessels. It seems far from imperceptible to suggest that the only life improvement being witnessed is the ever-healthy pharmaceutical company bank balance. GlaxoSmithKline have indecently issued a superlative of mission statements, (or marketing lines, depending on your perspective) one being that they are…
”… committed to improving the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer.” 2
In a modern world, in particular a western one, we require concrete fact. The benefit of any treatment or therapy needs to be measured by its presence. We have become so reliant, dependent on the bombastic attack of the senses, just like every other aspect of our sensory-glutinous lives. We can no longer be a part of a therapy that requires, patience and understanding, and the nature to appreciate it with subtlety.
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Fast tracking therapy
It is interesting to note man coped with the psychological traumas of everyday life for tens of thousands of years before the inclusion of drugs. So how did our ancestors deal affectively with the stresses of human relations and existence for so long? Have we lost sight of the coping mechanisms, the tools that evolution have rewarded us with to best understand our psychological needs, or are we, as with so much in modern life, fast tracking therapy?
A History
Hypnosis has been therapeutic conjecture, a misconception of human existence since at least the times of the Egyptian priest, Imhotep. (I-em-hotep, he comes in peace) He was the physician vizier, architect and priest, to the pharaoh Zoser (2650 – 2590 B.C.) Hypnosis, or suggestion therapy, has been traced to ancient Egyptian patronized healing sanctuaries (sleep or dream temples) where promoting a healthy outlook on psychological problems was the norm as far back as 4,000 years ago. Priests and priestesses would perform trance-inducing rituals on the sick and, once under, would interrupt a half-conscious state to interpret dreams with the aim of gaining knowledge for specific patient needs. 3
The man many see as the father of modern hypnosis was the 18th century born Franz Anton Mesmer. Mesmer used an array of tools to induce a trance, and the basis of his early work suggested that human health was the result of forces exerted by the universe through an invisible fluid. Magnets were used to centre, control and influence this fluid resulting in an equilibrium throughout the body that encouraged healing. A catholic priest heavily influenced Mesmer in the 1770s, his technique being a metal crucifix to exorcise demons from malign affected parishioners. Mesmer came to his own conclusion that the crucifix must have been magnetized, so supporting his own belief and thesis of celestial atonement and magnetism. Whilst we may with hindsight doubt the magnetic affects of Mesmer’s work, we are today confident of the trance inducing qualities of his compelling sessions, and the sub-conscious impact on healing.
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Mesmer was a larger than life character and it was not long before a rift between Mesmer and a disciple the Marquis de Puysegur (Mesmer had involved a few like-minded practitioners to form a new society, The Society Of Universal Harmony).
Puysegur forced a re-evaluation of Mesmer’s’ work, Puysegur rejected the presence of magnetic fluid, although he regarded the value, and potency of hypnotic suggestion. Puysegur began honing the trance-inducing skills he had learnt from Mesmer and with his own findings and experience, removing a lot of the theatre in Mesmer’s work. Within a few years Mesmer, like the celestial bodies that were the foundation to his healing thesis, burnt out and faded into obscurity.
At this point in history along with the short-sightedness of the western world (and a desire for the next life enhancing therapy), hypnosis suffered from the lack of conclusive and credible evidence that somehow hadn’t faltered the progress of treatments such as skull-boring and leaches! Human existence and its evolutionary journey has benefited from belief structures born of instinct, not tangible fact. How an experience so positive to the mind and soul could lose its plausibility in such a fickle manner, was the only element that defied belief. Even today hypnotherapy continues to be the victim of the kind of misunderstanding best suited to fantasy, exacerbated by its entertainment value.
It was not until 1840 that an English doctor from Manchester named James Braid changed the “Mesmerism” from the century before, to the term still used today of “Hypnosis” (from the Greek god of sleep Hypnos).
Bringing hypnosis back into the spotlight, Braid worked on the therapy’s first scientific study bringing hypnosis to a level of credibility it had lost 50-60 years previously. Braid truly understood the value of suggestion and its role in healing. By the late 19th century Dr Berheim took up the challenge. He focused his energy on the soothing suggestive screed of today, and along with Sigmund Freud together they were instrumental in utilizing hypnosis as a vehicle to discover the “hidden thought processes…”1 This would help to concentrate and influence aspects of modern psychotherapy.
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A History of HypnosisHomeVitaminsThermometersBlood pressureSkincareHot SupplementsHypnosisWomenMenWeight loss Stop Smoking Erotic Hypnosis Self Hypnosis Personal ProtectionLinksDr. Franz Friedrich Anton Mesmer was an Austrian physician who was infamous for inducing a hypnotic and trance like state in human beings as a curative remedy. This process of mesmerism, as it soon became known, was ...
Early hypnotherapists had, through accident or design, tapped into a natural state of mind we all visit through each and every day of our busy lives. Our brain has a series of conscious states that are separated due to brain wave activity.
Beta waves at 15-40 cycles per second are the state of an awake and focused mind. The next group of brain waves at 9-14 cycles per second are known as the Alpha waves, these are recognized by a slower less aroused state. We find ourselves in Alpha waves when relaxing and contemplating the completion of a task – this state represents moments of creativity, these waves often come and go.
Theta waves are 4-8 cycles per second and are present during dreaming and some meditative states, they are associated with serene calmness, medium to deep hypnosis and feeling emotional surges. They are the main wave associated with our subconscious, past experiences, and thought and behavioural patterns. The classic analogy to best describe an everyday natural hypnotic daydream state and the fundamental understanding of the theta wave is to think back to a sense of unawareness of distance travelled on a car journey. It’s the moment you realise the last five miles of a journey to work have not just been uneventful, but forgotten. This is your brain acting in the Theta wave on a task that is repetitive – to the extent your seemingly conscious state has disengaged and more than likely engaged in something dreamlike, something creative.
The slowest and deepest waves are the Delta waves (1-4 cycles per second), these are produced in our subconscious mind when no other waves are present, in moments of deep relaxation, as well as detached awareness, sleep and deep hypnotherapy.
Hypnotised clients are those in states of Alpha and Theta, these waves will enable access to the sub conscious mind, and therefore the influential processes of hypnotherapy. Early hypnotherapists were unaware of the sectioned series of brain waves and their influence on our sub-conscious and conscious mind. Mesmer’s’ earlier studies recognized in order to heal the hypnotherapist needed to “… realise the block a patient had…” Mesmer may not have realized it at the time, but he had uncovered the possibility that states of trance have a direct correlation with healing. 4
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Hypnotherapy has been a significant way of realising that not all our ailments require attention in the physiological sense. Any therapy process involving the subconscious continues to raise questions that are often best answered by personal experience, as the affects of hypnosis on the mind and body differ greatly from person to person. Some individuals may be far more receptive to suggestion in a moderate trance, while for others it requires deep trance. Once under a trance, the client may feel complete detachment from their environment. Some may experience a detachment from their own bodies, as if looking down on themselves. A common description is of a womblike presence, warm comfortable and heavy or immovable limbs.
There are five recognized stages of consciousness ranging from alertness to sleep:
Alertness: Normal intellectual functioning, normal reflexive and motor response.
Day Dreaming/Light Trance: Slowed breathing and heart rate, relaxation of body.
Moderate Trance: Loss of awareness of surroundings, increased awareness of bodily/internal functions, open to suggestion.
Deep Trance: Limpness, narrowing of attention. Increased suggestibility, loss of environmental/sensory awareness. Heightened function of creative process.
Sleep: Suspension of voluntary exercise. Reduced conscious thought process.5
It is widely accepted that experiencing the hypnotic state brings a feeling of awareness, albeit one of a different kind of awareness to everyday waking life. Hypnotic awareness is a subtle, dreamlike state that accepts a familiar knowingness to your own existence, brought on by the gentle persuasive passage (or screed) vocalised by the therapist. Most screeds tend to begin with the PMR (Progressive Muscle Relaxation), which encourages a sense of calm and results in the dampening of the senses enough to expose the individual, it is hoped, to their subconscious mind. The PMRs sole job is to prepare the mind via the medium of relaxation for susceptibility. The whole process would also involve a deeper entry into the imagination, a more focused screed, before therapeutic suggestion would be affective. The final part of any hypnosis therapy is the re-orientation back to awareness, paying particular attention to the removal of any suggestion used to aid relaxation.
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From here, hypnosis and its effectiveness is determined down by personal style, expression, creativity, experience and vocal quality, as well as tone. The discipline of hypnotherapy requires an understanding of not just of therapeutic and academic guidelines, but the more difficult to acquire humanistic skills – in particular that of communication and connection with the client. Just as with psychotherapy, it is paramount to be able to consider and respond instantly to the ever-changing landscape of human subconscious behaviour. Hypnotherapy is based on suggestion, so a confident and positive approach with the less convinced client is likely to subconsciously address any scepticism.
The beneficial functions of hypnotherapy cover a wide and complex spectrum of issues that are fundamentally the result of the sub-conscious activity in all of us. These include stress, pain relief, insomnia and anxiety, addiction, memory loss, concentration, fears, phobias and trauma, as well as physiological functions such as heart rate and blood pressure. Hypnosis can help to break through secondary complications of psychological issues, as it has a direct link with the subconscious, which is a unique therapeutic opportunity.
Conclusion
Many believe modern life could benefit from spirituality. With an intensified focus on materialism and an obligation to the state, it could be argued we need more of a sense of obligation to each other as human beings. The hollow optimism that the next pill will deliver what’s missing in life, followed by another to address what wasn’t met by the last, means we live in a world where we address our physiological and psychological problems with highly profitable quick fixes.
Perhaps hypnotherapy suffers from an air of derision and disbelief. Up against pharmaceutical giants with statistical evidence for instant problem solving, it seems the spiritual philosophy and human connection behind hypnotherapy means it struggles to gain ground. Surely, as much as any other significant methodology, it has proven itself for the last 4,000 years. If only the legitimacy of a product were based on the number of years it has enhanced human lives for the better.
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Is it time for hypnosis to consider a marketing budget to beat modern medicine at its own game, and reveal the next new (read: re-packaged old) life-enhancing secret? GlaxoSmithKline’s mission could surely be applied to hypnotherapy, as it is also…
”… committed to improving the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer.” 2
Bibliography & Reference
Chrysalis – Hypnotherapy and Counselling skills – Module One
2. www.Glaxosmithkline.com
3. The Roots Of Hypnosis – David Reeve www.mindtec.co.uk
4. www.suite101.com – Sarah Viollet
5. Hypnosis For Change – Josie Hadley & Carol Staudacher
Hypnotherapy A Handbook – Michael Heap & Windy Dryden
Hypnotherapy A Practical Handbook – Hellmut Karle & Jennifer Boys
www.bsch.org.uk
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