October 2020
I was doing a hypnosis the other day and thinking, at the same time, about how much of what we do in daily life as if in a trance. Driving (much of the time anyway), eating, drinking, smoking, reading, watching television/movies, walking, singing, writing - even, are mostly done in a semi-conscious state. It is no wonder, then, that the habits we have seem to run on their own steam and apparently drag us along for the ride. We forget that we, as a friend used to put it, are the drivers of our own life.
The trance state, it should be noted, is a very useful space to be in, as long as we can emerge from it at will. The trance state can be very creative, and full of possibilities. It is a relaxed, yet focussed dreamy state for the job at hand. Most of us know how that feels. It is as though we are locked onto doing what we’re doing. Yes, we are aware of outside things: wind in the trees, a gecko chirp, water boiling, smells of dinner or the heavy scent of Jasmine in the afternoon, but it is in the doing of what we have chosen where our mind is at. In other words, it is in that quasi-awareness of outside things that we have the key to breaking free from being a slave to the trance state, if that’s what are interested in doing. There is, in here, a choicefulness in what is paid attention to in the gestalt of awareness (figure-ground, ground-figure), and, isn’t it interesting that we can be aware of both at the same time?
The art of breaking free of doing something inherently bad for us: things that undermine our health and/or self confidence and/or a block to creativity (writer’s, painter’s, etc), can be learned in hypnosis. Hypnosis plays with the trance state, so that, coupled with expectation for change, the client experiences new internal statements as being part of the trance and also as part of ordinary life. In other words, the person’s preferred way of life is introduced in hypnosis as though it is just part of the ‘now’ of life, even if in fact, it hasn’t been part of ordinary life for a long time. A smoker who wants to give up smoking, experiences – in the hypnosis, and beyond – life without cigarettes and also a sense that smoking is now just a vague memory, without in any actual present interest.
In hypnosis time is traversed freely backwards and forwards, now, in a year’s time, yesterday, tomorrow, at Christmas time, five years time, so that what is learned in each hypnosis session (and three sessions is the minimum required for some people; more is usual) feels to the client as though that knowledge has always been there, and is felt to be preferable to what went on before. On top of that, there is a sense of a hidden observer, an agent of the self who can observe or witness our behaviour whenever we do those things we, until now, have habitually done. An observer that can step in whenever we drift off into unconscious habit activity and turn things around to doing what nourishes and heals us, instead of performing harmful things.
Hypnosis is a tool where the hypnotic trance is introduced as a place of change, and not a place of just doing what we always do, outside awareness. Hypnosis is thus paradoxical where the awareness of the hidden observer is introduced, or enhanced, while in that lovely relaxed, focussed, dreamy state, and we become aware of our own capacity for change, we enter the path of choice, as opposed to feeling a slave to unhealthy being. The clinical practice of learning mindfulness also has that purpose.
Being hypnotised feels good because feeling relaxed feels good and the beautiful thing about the process is that you never lose control, but can step out of the trance whenever you like. You are comfortable in your relaxed, focussed state, and may thereby avail yourself of the freedom that awareness brings.
