The Healing Power of Hypnosis
The mind is a powerful tool, however it is said most people only use one-tenth of one percent of its capabilities.
Your subconscious mind is the part of your brain responsible for all of your bodily functions and automatic behaviours (blinking, breathing, blood circulation, healing, habits, etc.). It controls most of your behaviour functions and is also the source of your emotions. Hypnosis is a way of speaking to your subconscious and adding particular thoughts and suggestions to it that can help direct your behaviour. The benefits of hypnosis cannot be ignored.
Unfortunately many people equate hypnosis with the occult; something used only by those with spiritual beliefs far different from ours. When searching the Internet on the subject of hypnosis, you do come across websites with quotes like this one: “Through the use of deep hypnosis, remember your journeys as a spirit through the spirit world”. But, there are also some pretty weird and wonderful websites found when searching for eating healthy (people worshipping the earth). We just have to learn to separate the good from the bad.
Using hypnosis for healing or self-help purposes is known as hypnotherapy. According to Dr Hilary Jones’ book, “Doctor, What’s the Alternative?”, ‘Hypnotherapy aims to re-programme patterns of behaviour within the mind, enabling irrational fears, phobias, negative thoughts and suppressed emotions to be overcome’.
I guess I can say I have first-hand knowledge on the subject. My Dad (who I am proud to say was a great believer in the Israel Truth; he studied and taught it most of his adult life) practiced hypnosis for many years. He didn’t use it for entertainment; his sole purpose of learning it was to help others when needed. Over the years I recall him helping friends deal with stress, quit smoking, relieve allergies, etc.
Back in my teenage years, I played a lot of sports. Hockey was my first love, and I was a goalie. Just like a catcher in baseball, goalies are prone to a lot of stress on their legs and knees. I developed shin splints, a very painful injury that the medical doctors had no answer for. So I decided to give hypnosis a try, and with two or three sessions a week, I was able to play nearly pain free.
So, how does hypnosis work? When you enter into a hypnotic state, you are not asleep. Rather you are in a very relaxed state of consciousness, not unlike daydreaming, where you can still hear everything around you. You are actually able to tune out most of your every day thoughts, and concentrate only on those suggestions being given to you. When you are hypnotized, your conscious, thinking mind takes a back seat, and your subconscious mind becomes more readily available to learn new things. The subconscious mind then accepts these suggestions and creates the behaviour changes in order to achieve the given suggestions. It is said when you are in a hypnotic trance, your subconscious mind is 88% more alert than when in a conscious state.
Have you ever been driving, usually on familiar roads, and not be able to recall a couple of minutes of the journey? Or, so lost in a daydream that it was almost like it was real? Then you’ve experienced something very much like a hypnotic trance.
Hypnosis can be used for a variety of purposes. We have all seen ads in newspapers for seminars to quit smoking. It can be a powerful aid towards increasing your confidence and self-esteem, getting over phobias, (such as fear of heights, fear of public speaking), helping you to lose weight, easing almost any type of pain or discomfort and so much more. It has even been known to help younger children with bed-wetting and thumb-sucking habits.
Before and after surgery, hypnosis can help a patient to cope with the anxiety of both the procedure and recuperation. A relaxed patient has a better chance of being a successful patient.
Even your immune system can benefit from hypnosis. Negative thoughts and emotions (stress) can lower your immune system, while positive thoughts and emotions actually boost the immune system. In a study at Washington State University, a group of volunteers were given hypnotic suggestions specifically to boost their immune systems. Another group received only relaxing suggestions, or no suggestions. Their levels of T- and B- cells (special defence cells) were measured. Those who had received hypnotic suggestions showed significant increases in their levels of protective cells.
Of course to be hypnotized, you must want to be hypnotized. And it is only effective if you really want to attain a specific goal. You can’t be told to quit smoking, and expect it to work, if deep down you really don’t want to quit.
The theory of hypnotism encompasses a very simple set of rules, including the nature of the ailment, the subject’s desire to be cured and the nature of the relationship between the patient and the hypnotist. It has been shown that if a patient has complete faith in their hypnotherapist, has a desire to be healed and the healing is possible through manipulation of the body’s own healing mechanisms then healing will take place and at a faster rate than normal.
With all of the benefits of hypnosis, and no side effects, it is no wonder many in the medical profession are calling it the wave of the future!
Hypnosis is a mental state (according to “state theory”) or imaginative role-enactment (according to “non-state theory”) It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary instructions and suggestions. Hypnotic suggestions may be delivered by a hypnotist in the presence of the subject, or may be self-administered (“self-suggestion” or “autosuggestion”). The use of hypnotism for therapeutic purposes is referred to as “hypnotherapy”. Wikipedia Free Encyclopaedia)
