Recently I had an interesting conversation with someone that got me thinking “I wonder who else feels this way?”
On a night out last week, I was introduced to somebody as a ‘hypnotist’. This usually gets a common covering of the eyes gesture, or them comically looking away so as to prevent eye contact with the whole ‘look into my eyes not around the eyes” lines. However this time it was slightly different, in the sense that the individual I met was a huge psychology fan, who took it upon himself to challenge everything that I believe. Now I don’t mind this, as everyone has a right to their own beliefs, and sometimes we do need to step into other peoples worlds in order to understand where they are coming from.
This individual was adamant that hypnosis involved huge amounts of layers that need to be stripped away, and that a deep level of unconsciousness would be needed in order to implant the desired suggestions which only very few people would be capable of. I found this highly interesting and decided to put across my beliefs, that I thought I would like to share with you all.
Hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness. It doesn’t involve sleep, and it certainly doesn’t involve giving the hypnotist entire control of everything that you do. In theory we have all been hypnotised every single day, just unaware of it as most people don’t know what hypnosis is. What about those times when you start driving, and before you know it your mind wanders off thinking about your tasks for the day, and all of a sudden you notice you have arrived at your destination? Or how about when you start reading a book, and you get 7 or 8 pages in and ask yourself “What have I just read?”. To me these are examples of the state of hypnosis that we all experience regularly, here our unconscious mind takes over and we go into an ‘auto-pilot’ state.
When I hypnotise someone in a session, they are still awake, they are still in control, and if I walked away leaving them like that and a fire alarm went off they would run for the door as quick as anyone else would. Hypnotherapy is a do with process, and involves me working with the clients unconscious mind to achieve their results, whether its losing weight, stopping smoking, letting go of a phobia, or releasing anxiety.
To sum it up, I believe that EVERYONE can be hypnotised, however they can only be hypnotised to do something that want to do, when they want to do it. I can’t MAKE them feel more confident, but i can help part of their mind to understand that they are worthy of everything that they want, and to love who they are.
If you would like to find out more, please feel free to contact us at Cambridge Hypnotherapy by clicking here now 🙂
Luke Clough