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| We're often overstimulated and get hypnotised by day to day life! |
Hypnosis is a group of natural phenomena under one umbrella term. In reality, almost everyone in the world experiences at least one of these phenomena every day. They happen anyway, but at random. If you have day-dreamed, you have been in a condition the same as a hypnotic trance. It just wasn’t directed. Hypnosis at it's simplest is guided day dreaming.
When a daydream is undirected, it is left to chance if this is a constructive or negative occurrence. The default setting of life is negative, therefore if you are daydreaming with the radio on, it could be influencing you subconsciously. The news is a perfect example, you switch on and hear about war and crime. Imagine BBC Breakfast covering a story like this “Steve Harlow has been working hard for a year and just bought a new BMW in cash. He’s really happy about that.” The look on most of the audience’s faces would not be congratulatory or happy, they’d probably think “Why is this on the TV?” But why not? Technically it is news, it did just happen! Yet in the western world, our “News” format actually means “bad things that have just happened”. This constant barrage can give our day an undercurrent that doesn’t boost us. It takes up space in our minds and actually works to overwhelm and confuse us.
The benefit of hypnosis is in harnessing these phenomena and choosing what goal they will be used towards.
Some people will say something like “I can’t be hypnotised” without really understanding what hypnosis is. It is in a way creating an adversarial challenge when most hypnosis is cooperative. This is not always their fault, as hypnosis is considered to be something “done” to a person. This is not quite true. Hypnosis relies on the individual’s internal processes. Therefore, a person can certainly make the processes work easier or resist them. When there is resistance to a hypnotist, it is a bit like resisting a dentist. The phenomena within hypnosis are as real as a dentist’s drill, but whether they can be used on a resisting person effectively is a very different story. A dentist would not want to clean up the plaque of someone who says “Come on then, let’s see if you can do it to me.”
Having said that, whenever a person has more than about 7 processes running in their brain at the same time, they can often “crash” like a computer. The person is sent into a default mode where their subconscious puts them on autopilot. It is no surprise that life alone can produce these overwhelming conditions. Because it is impossible to “resist” life effectively, people are often victims of circumstance. So once we know this is the case, we can try and avoid any negative circumstances.
Here are some examples of how a person can be hypnotised by life alone.
Types of Negative Hallucination Including Not Hearing, Seeing or Feeling Something
A negative hallucination is when something that happens is not perceived. Here are some examples.
Not Hearing Something When Concentrating
You are deep in a book, you are reading a story that requires you to hear words in your mind, see pictures, and create the world on the page. Someone says to you “You want a cup of tea?” you don’t here them. They come up to you again and tap you on the shoulder, you jump. “I didn’t see you there!” “But I just talked to you!”, “No, I didn’t hear you?” You were already running so many processes you couldn’t hear what was being said. Try in a crowded café to hear every conversation, you can’t, you have to choose one or two to follow.
Not Seeing Something When Stressed or Overloaded
Picture this, you are searching for something you need before you leave the house. You are in a rush. You needed your car keys five minutes ago but they’re missing. You’re not quite sure if you want to go to the place anyway because it is not going to be enjoyable. Hopefully this will have triggered memories of a doctor’s appointment, a boring get together or a commitment like getting to a garage.
Someone walks into the room and says “What are you looking for?” you say “My car keys!” like it is their fault. They calmly walk over to a mantelpiece you have already checked, pick up the keys and say “Here they are.” This “not seeing” is produced by having too many processes running. One way of avoiding this situation is to have a specific place for your keys, this way you have one less thing to think about. It reduces the tasks your mind must complete and improves clarity.
Here is another example of when you do not see something. You are going about your business, and someone asks you to look for something. They assume you are doing nothing, but you are in fact in deep thought. “Get me the salt please!” they say. It is the one extra thing that makes you overloaded. You look for the salt but can’t see it. “I can’t find the salt!” they walk in, “Here it is!” and the salt is right in front of you. This happens when your processes are already in motion and something else is added.
If this happens to you often, you have to try and stop running so many processes at the same time. This means if your phone is on, the radio is on, the TV is on and the cat is meowing at you... maybe turn off a few things and put the cat outside! I had a girlfriend who couldn't leave her phone alone for five minutes. When you talked to her she would start texting, put on a film, start leafing through a book and roll a cigarette all at the same time. She was always in a state of confusion and stress, but no one had done this to her. It led her to doing things such as forgetting appointments, being late to work and always tired because she never relaxed.
Another symptom of running too many processes is if you are talking to someone but use the name of a person you have just thought about. This happens a lot when parents talk to their children, many parents list the names of their various children until they get to the one in front of them! Maybe this has happened to you?
Not Feeling Something
You are daydreaming as well as performing a task like cleaning. Maybe you’re listening to headphones to fight the boredom and also wondering what to have for dinner. You walk into a table, it doesn’t feel painful. A few days later you have a bruise and you can’t remember where it came from. You never felt any pain. This is an example of how we can reduce sensation when we are focused on other things.
In part II we will look at how Momentary Amnesia is triggered and how Confusion can put us into a trance like state!
Evan Burgess is a qualified hypnotherapist. Contact him to
book an appointment to help you find your own solutions for issues affecting
your life. Whether it be improving upon what is already working, coping with a
tough situation, or making constructive changes to your habits. If Evan can’t
help your particular issue, he will know another therapist who can! Get in
touch on Evan@Cirencester-Scene.co.uk,
or ring 07901 634 748.
For a list of things that hypnosis can help with, check out
this link here!
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