Hypnosis Suggestions Updates

I do not mean, of course, that hypnotic suggestion should be used in all instruction in the above activities. Quite the contrary, it should be resorted to only in exceptional cases, when a particular inability is clearly caused by a psychological attitude of fear or uncertainty and, consequently, by an inhibition. In fact, I do not recommend the application of hypnosis on a large scale. It should remain a powerful tool used with caution and discrimination. Men lived by feeling and faith long before they began to reason. In those early days, there was no knowledge, in the modern sense of the word, no inquiries into the nature and causes of things. People simply had beliefs and asked no questions. When they believed strongly, they felt strongly; they felt with every muscle and every tissue within them. Faith may not move mountains literally, but since ancient days it has moved every important organ in the body. And suggestion is the vehicle of faith, passing it from man to man, arousing crowds, spreading from chiefs down to their followers, rising from people up to their chosen leaders. Rooted in primitive tendencies, suggestion reaches deeper than most of us know. It is a power hard to measure and hard to control.

Suggestions Daily Bulletin

Every physician knows, or should know, from experience that the prestige he commands serves not only as a means of building up his practice, but also as a valuable tool for overcoming his patients' ailments. Ridiculous as the assumption may seem at a first glance, the way he speaks, his manners, his clothes, even his automobile are often influential in restoring people to health. A patient's faith in his doctor is frequently no less useful than the drug he prescribes. Most physicians do not quite comprehend the theoretical foundations of human prestige. Yet, in the last analysis, what is prestige but popular faith and respect? Is it not a form of auto-suggestion on a large scale, with the autonomic nervous system controlling the bodily aspect of the attitude? The same truth, though in a somewhat different manner, applies to the lawyer's practice and to the teacher's instruction. All of them cannot help but deal in suggestion and, for their own sake, should prepare minds for its reception. Let then the reasons for their influence upon people's minds be not merely a lesson of personal experience, but also a scientific fact of human psychology that can be utilized in a thousand ways to improve the effectiveness of professional work.

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Despite the general correctness of this observation, E. Coué partly misunderstood and partly overestimated the power of independent auto-suggestion. In the popular mind, his name is associated with the famous formula, "Every day in every way I am getting better and better," supposedly a panacea, an efficient remedy against practically any disease. But the subsequent passing of the vogue, followed by the downfall of Coué's School, is a sufficient proof of the inadequacy of the precept. His temporary success was due, it seems, to the startling and powerful impression his lectures and books had made on the public, an impression which gradually faded, leaving the curative formula enfeebled, though still occasionally helpful. Obviously, it was founded on human faith and an individual's prestige. It remains true that only a small minority of men have a sufficient fountain of steady belief within themselves to transform indecisiveness into confidence, emotionality into calmness, timidity into courage. Even this minority have not enough faith to work upon themselves without guidance by some trusted authority. Auto-suggestion, far too commonly, calls for an outside inspiration or support.

Hypnosis Info Daily

It seems to be a simple expectation that medical men abstain from non-scientific attitudes. Yet we occasionally meet physicians and scholars, some of them distinguished, even renowned, who still maintain a mystic attitude of mind toward their science. I was surprised and disappointed to find Alexis Carrel, a Nobel prize winner, among their number. Witness a statement from his Man the Unknown: "Our present conception of the influence of prayer upon pathological lesions is based upon the observation of patients who have been cured almost instantaneously of various affections, such as peritoneal tuberculosis, cold abscesses, osteitis, suppurating wounds, lupus, cancer, etc. The process of healing changes little from one individual to. another. Often, an acute pain. Then a sudden sensation of being cured. In a few seconds, a few minutes, at the most a few hours, wounds are cicatrized, pathological symptoms disappear, appetite returns.

Hypnosis Helpful Hints Bulletin

The subjects' reports themselves are an interesting novelty, rich in valuable introspective information, demonstrating that the subject in the state of oneirosis is distinctly critical and discriminative. After having been in the state but once, no one will maintain that hypnosis is necessarily oppression and enslavement.
For comparison, take the following description of oneirosis, dealing with a group experiment in education, by an objective outside observer, a newspaper reporter : "A new approach to the problem of student attentiveness was demonstrated at City College last night by Dr. Ralph B. Winn, instructor in the Department of Philosophy and Psychology, who has developed a 'type of hypnosis in which the subject retains the free activity of the mind'."Dr. W·, who calls the state produced oneirosis- the prefix meaning 'dream'-has been experimenting with a single volunteer student for several months, he made known. Last Wednesday, with a group of ten young men and women, who had received their parents' permission to participate, he began more formal tests, and last night, after some persuasion, allowed a few outsiders to watch and hear the new form of teaching.

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Hypnotherapy Helpful Hints

It is fallacious, I think, to assume that there are fields of knowledge which are perfectly safe. None is. Every science and profession is good only in so far as it is used for good purposes. Human genius has been known to turn the best things into sources of evil and destruction. Explosives, airplanes and submarines can be used to promote civilization or to take human lives in war. Industrial inventions can be operated to increase prosperity or to deprive people of the means of livelihood. Drugs can be and have been used not to restore health but to impair it. Laws can be and are being made to dispense injustice rather than justice. Political power can oppress or liberate. These facts give us no reason, however, to repress research and experimentation. The benefits of science, in all its forms and branches, outweigh immensely its occasional detriments. This surely holds true of hypnotism, too. Hypnotism is one of the sciences, with everything that this word implies. It is harmless in itself, as has been fully demonstrated in the above pages, but in certain cases of negligence or evil intention it becomes, like all good things, a source of harm.

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Hypnotism Daily Helpful Hints

The harmlessness of hypnosis is as firmly established as it could be. Nevertheless, no matter how small the danger of the trance may be, caution should not be forgotten, the more so that, in case the practician is accused by a subject or his relative-rightly or wrongly-of having done him some physical, moral or financial damage, public opinion is sure to be antagonistic to the practician.

Therefore, I recommend the following simple rules of caution

1. Never to attempt the practice of hypnosis before one has made a thorough and minute
study of the field;
2. Never to hypnotize unless one is a physician, psychologist or educator;
3. To avoid superfluous public demonstrations of the art of suggestion;
4. To practice hypnosis only as an essential part ofscientific research;

Hypnotic Suggestion Bulletin

One of the most important consequences of post-hypnotic suggestion is the increased susceptibility of the subject to the practician's directions. Whenever the subject must be hypnotized repeatedly, it is always desirable to shorten the pre-hypnotic period. The procedure becomes easier with every sitting. But it will be truly of negligible duration, if the practician tells his subject, just before arousing him from the preceding trance, to enter the state practically instantaneously at the next sitting. As a result, it sometimes suffices to snap the fingers, and the subject is immediately in a trance.

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Hypnotic State Info Blog

How does one end the trance? Ordinarily it is sufficient to say, "Open your eyes," and to repeat the phrase emphatically if necessary, and the subject is back in his normal state, ready to report his experiences or to go home. He may feel somewhat bewildered or drowsy. In fact, it has been pointed out that "it is quite general for subjects to show a slightly dazed appearance, upon first being roused from deep trance. As a matter of fact, subjects do not really wake instantly, as is sometimes thought by superficial observers of a trance demonstration. On the contrary, it is evident that the influence of the trance persists for some little time after they have responded to the command to wake by opening their eyes. This is probably why subjects can be thrown into a trance very much more readily a minute or so after waking from one than a day or two after."

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Hypnosis Daily News Updates

Most hypnotists seem to encourage and actually to suggest amnesia subsequent to the sitting. Occasionally there may be, I grant, a need for doing so. But in most cases it is quite superfluous, in my opinion, to give the subject a pre-hypnotic suggestion to forget whatever will have happened during the trance. With Schilder and Kauders, I contend that "we do not consider it an advantage to have the patient kept in ignorance of what is happening to him." I object to the traditional tendency on purely practical grounds. I do not know of any advantage in producing amnesia in every case. But I do know from experience that a suggestion contrary to the customary practice, namely, a suggestion to remember everything that happens during the state, actually increases the practician's chances for success and shortens the pre-hypnotic period. I have often observed a marked decrease of tension immediately after such a suggestion. It has an additional importance in that it counteracts the tendency among persons able to recall their experiences during the state to deny subsequently that they had been hypnotized at all.

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Hypnosis Daily Scoops Blog

Children of normal and superior intelligence are, on the whole, excellent subjects. Unless they are very young, boys and girls are somewhat more susceptible to suggestion than adults. Liébeault has practically demonstrated this fact by inducing hypnosis in every one of 88 children, ranging in age from 7 to 14, whereas other cases averaged success only in 9 cases out of 10. Though figures vary among later investigators, the rule is not seriously disputed.Theoretically, it is true that "practically all normal persons can by hypnotized" and that "practically all normal persons can learn to hypnotize." Even blind and deaf people can be put into a trance, by a slight modification of ordinary procedure. Actually, however, no practician ever attains one hundred percent success. Failures are not due solely to deficiencies and peculiarities of the subjects, nor to the hypnotist's insufficient knowledge of, and experience in, handling his cases skilfully and safely. The situation itself may arouse or create psychological forces that will prevent the practician from establishing the necessary psychological relationship and, consequently, from succeeding in putting across his suggestions, as the subject's habits and memories can never be fully known or his reactions and behavior fully predictable. Nevertheless, proper caution and technique will greatly help eliminate most difficulties.

Hypnotism Updates Blog

The behavior of a hysteric does not seem to be very much like the conduct of a person under hypnosis. Nor can a man suffering from a complex of inferiority be confused with one in a trance. Any one who has had but a single opportunity to witness a hypnotic session knows that a hypnotized person does not look like a man in the state of high suggestibility, such as one observes in the whims and passions of an excited mob or in the moods of a waking neurotic. It is customary to believe that people are most open to suggestion while they are wide awake. But a hypnotic, for all we see, does not seem to be wide awake. Rather, he looks as if he were asleep.These two sets of facts-the indubitable evidence, on the one hand, that hypnotized people are under the strong influence of the practician, to the point of obeying even nonsensical commands of his, and the apparent truth, on the other, that the subject is in the stage ranging in depth from mere drowsiness to stupor-led many learned observers to conclude that hypnosis is a paradoxical phenomenon in which the state of high mental suggestibility is combined with bodily sleep. At a first glance, hypnosis does resemble sleep.

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Hypnotism Daily Blog

Thoughts as well as emotions do influence bodily metabolism. The state of mind can, indeed, * "cause or cure organic troubles." Who has not seen, in fact, persons who virtually "blossom out" after having won success or happiness ? And who has not seen them, as it were, wither away under the pressure of failure? Who does not recall the bodily radiance of a couple in love? And who can forget the sight of a mother actually perishing from grief after the loss of her only child? Every physician or nurse knows that, in combating a serious disease, consideration and tact are essential. Life hanging on a thin thread may turn one way or another, depending upon the patient's mental attitude. And this is open to suggestion. It may be criminal to tell him the plain but cruel truth. A white lie, consolation, and encouragement should be given him, not to soothe his suffering, but to give strength and support to his mind and also to his body. Medicine has at its disposal the weapons of laboratory, surgery, pharmacology, and psychology. None of these should be neglected.There is a power of mind over body that cannot be denied. It used to be conceived as a mystical influence of the disembodied soul upon mortal flesh. Science offers us a more reliable explanation. We have already repeatedly intimated that there exists a bodily mechanism responsible for this connection. We observed that, under the pressure of a powerful and appropriate suggestion, almost any part of the organism may begin to act in a fashion which under no circumstance can be reproduced at will. It does not matter whether the change takes place under hypnosis or in an ordinary waking state. In either case suggestion is operative. In fact, many of the phenomena commonly observed under hypnosis have also been seen apart from it, in the normal state of high suggestibility, or in the abnormal state of hysteria.

Hypnotism Daily

"Let me take a look at the weather report for today. Ah, fair and warmer. It certainly is warmer, much warmer. Do you mind if I take off my coat? I do not recall, you know, a hotter day in the City. Not for several years, at least. It is surely above 90, perhaps above 100. In a tropical country, say in the West Indies, I should not be surprised. There you expect it, you get used to it. And, of course, you wear clothes appropriate to the climate. But here, in New York City, it is amazingly warm for the month of September. In spite of the fact that I am lightly dressed, perspiration just flows down my face and back. Where is my handkerchief?"

He gets uneasy and, true enough, perspiration bedews his face. Nothing surprising, one may remark: he has merely received a suggestion and has reacted to it in a natural way. This is precisely my contention: the phenomenon is a natural reaction to suggestion under hypnosis. But this reaction, though quite normal under the circumstances, is not one you can reproduce by an effort of conscious will. Try, indeed, with all the imagination you possess, to develop sweat by a sheer strain of your fancy. It simply cannot be done. Obviously, we have witnessed a case of auto-suggestion considerably intensified by means of hypnosis. It brought into operation certain natural powers of the subject's body, making the imaginary experience sufficiently realistic to evoke drops of sweat out of the pores of his skin.

Dangers of Hypnosis Bulletin Blog

Since James Braid found that hypnosis is unbelievably harmless for a power so remarkable and great, his contention has remained virtually unshaken. Despite the low opinion of hypnotism held by the public, manifested both in its idle curiosity and its evil-humored gossip, there have been reported amazingly few instances of ill-effects. Moreover, of the few that have actually occurred, most, if not all, should be attributed to accident or coincidence. In a recent study of this problem, M. H. Erickson states,"The literature offers little credible information concerning possible detrimental effects of experimental hypnosis, although replete with dogmatic and opinionated denunciations founded on outworn and untenable concepts of the phenomenon. The author's own experience, based upon several thousand trances on approximately three hundred individual subjects, some of whom were hypnotized at least five hundred times each over a period of four to six years, reveals no evidence of such harmful effects. The clinical finding is further substantiated by the well-known difficulties encountered in the deliberate therapeutic attempts to occasion desired changes in the personality. Accordingly, marked changes from experimental hypnosis appear questionable."

Psychoanalysis and Suggestion Blog

The problem of hypnosis is much clarified, when we realize that the mechanism determining it accounts not only for the pathology of suggestibility (hysteria), but also for many old and current methods of treatment and cure of neurotic states, namely, for the practical successes of primitive faith-healing, of Christian Science, and of psychoanalysis. These three ways of handling mental diseases, though thoroughly unlike in assumptions, are identical in so far as they dress their doctrine in an obscure or mystical terminology and, especially, in so far as they command, and rest upon, the same bodily powers. The scientific approach to our problems demands that the latter dependence be revealed and insists on explaining all phenomena as natural.

Complete Relaxation Update

The hypntized subject appears to be in a deep sleep, the eyes are either closed or half closed, and the face is without expression. The body appears to be in a state of complete collapse, the head is thrown back, and the arm sand legs hang loose, dropping heavily down. In this stage insensibility is so complete that needles can be run into any part of the body without producing pain, and surgical operations may be performed without the slightest unpleasant effect.

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Hypnotism Info Blog

The same is true of bad habits in children. The weak may be strengthened by the stronger nature, and hypnotism may come in as an effective aid to moral influence. Here again character is the deciding factor.

Dr. James R. Cocke devotes a considerable part of his book on"Hypnotism" to the use of hypnotism in medical practice, and for further interesting details the reader is referred to that able work.

Unconscious Impressions Blog

We may now turn our attention to another class of phenomena of great interest, and that is the visions persons in the ordinary state have of friends who are on the point of death. It would seem that by an extraordinary effort the mind of a person in the waking state might be impressed through a great distance. At the moment of death an almost superhuman mental effort is more likely and possible than at any other time, and it is peculiar that these visions or phantasms are largely confined to that moment. The natural explanation that rises to the ordinary mind is, of course, "Spirits." This supposition is strengthened by the fact that the visions sometimes appear immediately after death,as well as at the time and just before. This may be explained, however, on the theory that the ordinary mind is not easily impressed, and when unconsciously impressed some time may elapse before the impression becomes perceptible to the conscious mind, just as in passing by on as wift train, we may see something, but not realize that we have seen it till some time afterward, when we remember what we have unconsciously observed.

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