The desire for self-knowledge is genetically inherent in humans. A person constantly strives for self-improvement and the discovery of his hidden reserves. The most ancient method that helps him on this path is suggestion or suggestion - a phenomenon shrouded in an element of mystery, some mysticism, fear of misunderstanding. We live in difficult times when the brain is overloaded with information and the body is overloaded with physical activity. Often there is a breakdown in this scheme. It becomes difficult to control mood, depression, psychosomatic disorders, and illnesses arise. This is where suggestion and psychoanalysis come to the rescue. They allow you to harmonize the functioning of the body and brain, more fully realize your potential, change your life path, and adapt to an aggressive external environment. Next, we’ll talk about how hypnosis works on a person, we’ll discuss what it is like and how to protect yourself from the unwanted effects of hypnosis and not be deceived.
What is hypnosis really?
Hypnosis is a mysterious, even mystical topic. Ordinary people have a superficial understanding of this phenomenon. We even treat hypnosis with caution, because we have heard that under its influence manipulations and various types of fraud are committed.
Only psychologists and psychiatrists are interested in the problem in depth, i.e. specialists dealing with issues of altered consciousness. Normally, our brain is filled with many thoughts. When consciousness is altered, for example during holotropic breathing or sleep, only the dominant thought forms remain in the head. Hypnosis is also a way to free consciousness.
So hypnosis
- this is a high degree of concentration, leading to a state in which a person becomes very suggestible, a type of trance.
Translated from Greek, hypnosis means “sleep.” The special state of a person under hypnosis is explained by the blocking of part of consciousness. The client perceives exclusively the signals that the hypnotist gives him.
Specialists use hypnosis to treat negative attitudes, fears and phobias. Sigmund Freud himself did not neglect treatment with hypnosis. True, he later abandoned this method in favor of psychoanalysis, of which he is the founder.
In Russia, hypnosis is not officially recognized; there is no specialty “hypnotherapist”. Only certified doctors and psychologists can use hypnosis in the treatment of psychiatric disorders.
History of hypnosis
It is known from written sources that hypnosis was used in Egypt, China, Tibet and Greece before the beginning of our era. Ancient priests and healers had the mystical ability to put a person into a “holy sleep” to treat various diseases and ailments. At that time, possessing the gift of hypnosis was associated with a connection with higher powers and was completely incomprehensible to the average person. This attitude still persists, so the theory requires detailed consideration.
According to modern researchers, representatives of various cults and confessions were more often involved in the study of hypnosis for the socio-psychological impact on their flock. Hypnotic suggestion, as a method of influencing the psyche, is still widely used in Eastern religions. Indian yogis have achieved the greatest success in this. They use secret knowledge and a system of psychophysiological exercises to enter a twilight state, during which the feeling of pain disappears, and one can remain without water or food for weeks. There are known cases when no traces remained on the body of yogis after thermal and chemical exposure from the outside.
Ancient manuscript on hypnosis
The beginning of the scientific study of hypnosis was the theory of the Swiss physician Paracelsus, outlined in the 16th century. It talks about the presence of magnetic fluids that can have a healing effect on humans. At the present stage of development of science, this theory looks somewhat naive and supernatural, but this was the first attempt to explain hypnosis from the point of view of general scientific methods.
A continuation of the teachings of Paracelsus was the theory of the Viennese physician Franz Mesmer, created at the end of the 18th century. The concept (mesmerism, animal magnetism) is based on the opinion that there is a telepathic connection between people, which is possible due to the presence of special magnetic energy (fluids). The forerunner of modern hypnosis was Mesmer's exercise called bake. Its essence was that patients were located around a large vat of water, through which magnetized metal rods passed. It was believed that by touching these rods and each other, patients could be cured of their disorders. In this teaching, the doctor served as a source of magnetic fluids and, by touching a vat of water, transferred healing power to his patients. This method is pseudoscientific, but it had an effect on the consciousness of meeting participants, similar to modern hypnosis.
In 1843, the English physician James Braid coined the term hypnosis. The author of the concept argued that fixing the patient's gaze on a moving shiny object can put him into a trance - a favorable state for therapeutic effects. In the same century, the theme of the influence of hypnosis on the psyche was continued by the French physician Nancy Liebeau, who widely used hypnotic techniques in his medical practice. Liebeau is the pioneer of modern hypnotherapy. French psychiatrist Jean Martin Charcot also used hypnosis in his medical practice and used it to treat hysterical neurosis. Scientists such as Hippolyte Bernheim and Vladimir Bekhterev also examined this condition. The latter's works indicate that all people (and even some animals) are prone to hypnotic influence.
For thousands of years, the influence of hypnosis on the psyche has been studied by various figures in religion, politics, medicine, marketing, etc.
However, a truly scientific view of this problem arose only with the advent of experimental psychology and psychophysiology.
How does hypnosis work?
The action of hypnosis occurs as follows. Under the influence of a hypnotist, a person stops processing information coming to him from the outside, except for that carried by the hypnotist.
The therapist sends the information he needs directly to the subconscious (unconscious). The individual’s own needs and desires “fall asleep.”
Everything that the hypnotist voices is perceived literally by the person. For example, if the hypnotist suggests that it is too hot, the person will begin to undress in front of an astonished audience. Hypnosis can influence pain sensations. If you convey the message that walking on broken glass is safe, then the subject will do it and will not feel pain.
Imagine that there are several rays of light that illuminate a room. Suddenly they all went out, except for one, which makes only one part of the room visible. Also during hypnosis, consciousness turns off, focusing only on one segment.
Each person has varying degrees of suggestibility. Open, friendly, sociable people are much easier to suggest. Closed individuals and skeptics are poorly suggestible and resist hypnosis very well.
Stages of hypnosis
Immersion in a trance does not occur simultaneously; hypnosis consists of several successive stages.
Preparatory stage
The first stage consists of a gradual shutdown of consciousness and habitual reactions to stimuli from the outside. The person is completely focused on the words and actions of the hypnotist. The specialist performs manipulations using various techniques, using monotonous sounds or movements. The stronger the hypnotist and the more suggestible the person, the faster the stage of entering a trance is completed.
Directly trans
There are different intensifications. At the deepest stage, a person ceases to critically perceive the world around him and is completely subordinate to the will of the hypnologist.
It is at this stage that psychological problems are identified and corrected. A hypnotherapist can understand the causes of internal fears and addictions (alcohol, drugs), and reveal existing abilities.
The necessary suggestion for a given person takes place - getting rid of things that interfere with normal life. In a state of hypnosis, the client can remember and voice those moments of life, even from the distant past, that influenced the emergence of psychopathologies.
Breaking out of trance
Staying in a state of altered consciousness cannot last long; you need to get out of it.
The exit can be carried out gradually. In this case, the hypnotist usually counts to a certain number: to three, to ten, and the person enters a normal state.
We should not be afraid that if a specialist forgets to take us out of trance, we will remain in it forever. Trance is a state between sleep and reality. In any case, the person will wake up on his own and regain consciousness.
With a superficial trance, which is used in NLP, the client will simply suddenly “wake up”, the loss of orientation will be quite short-lived. Such techniques are used in fraudulent schemes, when a person, for example, is forced to buy an unnecessary product or is lured out of money (gypsy hypnosis).
Effect on the human psyche
Introducing a person into a state of hypnosis is based on the physiologically determined ability of the brain to go into an inhibited state due to the influence of rhythmic stimuli on the senses. The visual modality can be influenced by fixing the patient’s gaze on a moving shiny object, and the auditory modality can be influenced by quiet relaxing music or the monotonous speech of the hypnotist. An additional condition is to block the flow of information to certain senses so as not to distract the patient from the session. Attention should be extremely concentrated only on the words and actions of the hypnotherapist, so the patient, even in a trance, hears his words.
It is important to note that the human consciousness perceives external impulses (including speech and possible orders of the hypnotist) as signals from its own body, but only if certain senses are blocked. Experienced professionals are familiar with this pattern, so they often ask their subjects to close their eyes and not move before starting a hypnosis session. Due to the fact that the patient perceives the imperative speech of the hypnotist as his desires and needs, he carries out all the commands he hears.
It is possible to enter into a state of hypnosis in a simpler and faster way, and sometimes even without the desire of the hypnotized person.
This phenomenon is closely related to the psyche and character of the hypnotist and the one he wants to hypnotize. Sufficient experience of the master of suggestion, authority or personal acquaintance with the subject of influence guarantees a high probability of immersing the latter in a trance. If the patient is skeptical, critical, or distrustful of the hypnotist, the procedure may be difficult.
After the hypnotist takes the person out of trance, the latter experiences post-hypnotic amnesia; he really does not remember anything that happened during the hypnotic sleep. This phenomenon can be explained by two reasons: either the hypnosis was too deep, or the hypnotist was given a command to forget everything after waking up.
After the patient wakes up, the effect of hypnosis can continue, that is, the hypnotherapist can give instructions to do something after leaving the trance. An interesting fact is that a person under hypnosis always tries to logically explain his actions, which were imposed by an outside will, passing them off as his own desires and needs. During a hypnosis session, the doctor gives the following command to a patient addicted to nicotine: break and throw away cigarettes every time they come into your hands. Subsequently, the patient did just that, claiming that he himself wanted this, because the hypnotized person could no longer do otherwise.
In order for the effect of hypnosis to continue even after the trance ends, the patient must have at least the smallest degree of interest in performing a certain action. In a trance state, a person can be forced to eat an unloved dish or even commit a crime, but after the hypnotist stops stimulation, the subject will not commit actions that contradict his beliefs.
It is important to note that hypnotic sessions can have negative consequences and contraindications.
Can greatly affect the patient's willpower if sessions are performed frequently. A victim of hypnosis may lose the ability to make decisions on their own and resolve their problems. With any difficulty or test in life, such a person will definitely go for help to a hypnotherapist, since he himself will not be able to understand the current situation. In this case, we can talk about hypnomania, i.e. the need to go to hypnosis sessions more and more often and enter into a trance.
There is a feeling of increased fatigue, anxiety and fear after being brought out of a trance. Systematic fainting or seizures may occur. These symptoms appear when the specialist is insufficiently competent and last no more than a week after the last session.
There is a possibility of hypnosis transitioning into a hysterical twilight state. It is characterized by an inability to recognize loved ones, disorientation in space and time, detachment, difficulties in coordinating movements, an affect of fear, anger, and sometimes hallucinations and delusions. The condition lasts from several minutes to several hours.
If you want to try the hypnosis procedure for medical purposes, you should carefully study the contraindications to this type of therapy.
- It is not recommended to use hypnotherapy in relation to persons suffering from mental disorders: schizophrenia, epilepsy, etc. This is due to the likelihood of exacerbation of symptoms of the disease.
- It is undesirable to use hypnotic influence on patients with high fever, acute intoxication or a tendency to faint. In this case, the effectiveness of treatment and recovery from trance may be difficult, and the symptoms of the disorder may intensify.
It is important to note that trying to put a person into a trance who is skeptical about this type of treatment or has a negative attitude towards the doctor will most likely not bring healing benefits.
Types of hypnosis
In psychology, hypnosis is classified according to the following principles.
Directive or classic
Classical hypnosis is associated with the name of the French doctor J. M. Charcot, who first began to use trance induction for medical purposes.
There is a direct (directive) impact on the client. The hypnotist speaks clearly and loudly, the subject understands that he is under someone else's influence. The patient is positioned sitting or reclining, eyes closed.
A trusting relationship and emotional contact have been established between the parties.
If there are outside observers, they will not confuse the hypnosis session with anything else. This type of influence is used to treat phobias, neuroses, and other psychosomatic problems.
Non-directive (Eriksonian)
The name of the method is associated with the name of hypnotherapist Milton Erickson, who, while suffering from polio, began practicing self-hypnosis to relieve pain.
Unlike the directive type, the client enters a trance not on the direct instructions of the doctor, but almost independently. Both parties are in a relaxed state.
A hypnologist, using words, associations, hints and halftones, helps a person enter a state of altered consciousness. During the trance period, the consciousness is dominated by structures responsible for creativity, imaginative thinking and intuition.
The hypnologist decides what exactly to say and what associations to evoke individually for each client.
A person may not understand that trance manipulation is being carried out on him. This hypnosis is also called hidden. It is often used in advertising, highlighting individual words or phrases that sink deeply into a person’s subconscious and encourage him to take certain actions.
Pharmacological (psychotropogenic)
This method of hypnosis is used mainly for the treatment of severe forms of addiction in specialized clinics. To change the patient's consciousness, psychotropic or narcotic substances are used, which do most of the work for the hypnotist.
The therapist only carries out the suggestions necessary to cure the patient. In an artificial trance, the patient is susceptible to suggestion quickly and easily, and the perception of attitudes is greatly facilitated.
At the end of the session, the client is put into a state of amnesia, so that he cannot remember what manipulations were performed on him.
Pathological
Pathological hypnosis is the possibility of involuntary trance states in people suffering from mental disorders, for example, schizophrenia or epilepsy. It is absolutely impossible to consciously put such patients into an altered state of consciousness, since this poses a real threat to their life.
Types of hypnosis and their manifestations
There are 3 main types of hypnotic influence:
Lethargy
Moving through the stages of immersion, the human body relaxes as much as possible. This stage is easy to check - you need to raise the hand of the hypnotized person. We remove the support, the hand instantly falls. In average sleep there is even greater relaxation. In deep lethargy, the muscles are so relaxed that the person can be bent into a so-called lethargic arch. Flexion does not depend on muscles and is limited only by the skeleton. The lethargic form of hypnosis is characteristic of people with an athletic build. It also manifests itself when the suggender drank alcohol before the session. Most often, such a suggerend simply falls asleep in a normal sleep. The hypnotist in this situation does not decide how long the hypnosis lasts.
Catalepsy
Here it’s the other way around: when you fall asleep, the muscles tense and stiffen. If the suggender’s hand is raised, it will remain in this position for some time, and in the middle stage, the body of the hypnotized person is given arbitrary poses that remain for a long time. This stage is also called waxy flexibility.
Next comes a phase of deep catalepsy. The muscle tension is so great that the suggerend can be laid with his head and feet on two chairs. It will lie without bending like a bridge - this phenomenon is called a “cataleptic bridge”. You can sit or stand on a person. Such shows of the effect of hypnosis on the human body used to amaze the public. Awakening is accompanied by complete amnesia.
Somnambulism
In the classics, hypnosis for the somnambulistic type of brain is tested as follows: you need to start rotating the suggender’s hand around the other. If the rotation is preserved, you have a somnambulist in front of you. In the middle stage, the somnambulist can sleep sitting or standing, as well as with his eyes open. In the deep phase, we observe how the somnambulist walks in his sleep. He moves very softly, smoothly, as if floating. Extraneous stimuli are not perceived, there is only contact with the hypnotist’s voice.
How does somnambulistic hypnosis affect the human psyche? This question has been studied for a long time. The psyche of the suggestor splits dichotomously into two parts: one is in deep sleep, and the second is subject to suggestions. Through this psychic field, you can enter into a deep trance and turn off any mental and bodily functions at will. The hypnologist gives the instructions, and the hypnotized person sleeps and hears nothing except the voice of the suggestor. Another order, and at the request of the hypnotist he laughs, dances, declares poetry, speaks a foreign language. How a hypnotist influences the somnambulist’s brain is no longer a secret - it’s pure physiology and psychology. At this stage, any illusions and any reality are instilled. It is enough to set the conditions, and the hypnosis influence on the subconscious will be processed through the active field of the somnambulist’s brain.
During somnambulistic sleep, the hypnotist can penetrate into the deep layers of memory. Thus, a miner from Hungary Sandor Volmar was taken to a camp by the Nazis in early childhood. With the help of a hypnologist, he was able to remember his first name, last name, the name of the village in Ukraine where he was born, and the name of his parents. He returned and found his relatives.
In somnambulistic sleep you can achieve incredible things. An example of how hypnosis affects a person is the transfer of his consciousness to any return. An elderly 65-year-old man is convinced that he is 8 years old. He changes his voice to a thin child’s voice and joyfully skids the car in the sand. A 35-year-old woman is told that she is a 100-year-old woman. She groans, gasps, stops walking. There are two different experiences here - lived real and fictional. The woman could not have been a 100-year-old woman in the past. In this situation, the brain begins to build a chain of acting based on the stereotypical behavior of people who have reached the age of 100.
In somnambulistic deep sleep, the hypnotized person can experience all the phenomena of hypnosis, including visual, auditory, kinesthetic hallucinations, both positive and negative.
Techniques for inducing hypnosis
There are several well-known trance induction techniques that are widely used in practice.
Fixing an item
The hypnologist invites the person to completely focus on the proposed object, which is in a suspended state. Such an object can be anything: a pen, a ruler, a coin.
The distance from the client’s eyes to the object must be at least 25 centimeters. While fixating a person on an object, the hypnotist begins to say certain phrases, and pronounces them in a monotonous voice, inspiring states of relaxation, heaviness, and then sleep. The therapist may use direct counting from 1 to 10 until the patient closes his eyes.
Emphasis on hands and verbal suggestions
Instead of an object, the hypnologist uses his own hands. He runs his palm along the client's face, repeating: “Look at my palm, like this, down, up, down, up.” At the same time, the desire to sleep is verbally suggested to the person.
Induction into a trance is also possible by repeating special phrases that are suggested to a person lying or half-sitting in a relaxed state. Usually these are words that instill a feeling of heaviness in the body, warmth spread throughout it, and the assurance that a person cannot move his arms and legs.
Shock methods
Hypnosis occurs due to a sharp and deep stimulus that a person does not expect. This may be an unexpected command “Sleep”, which is accompanied by a gong strike or a flash of light.
For a successful session, it is necessary that the person is sufficiently suggestible (hypnotizable) and, at a minimum, trusts the therapist.
The described technique was used by the famous psychiatrist Dovzhenko, who invented a method of getting rid of alcohol addiction that was widespread in the USSR.
Myths about hypnosis
Hypnosis is a semi-mystical phenomenon and not fully studied, so it is overgrown with many myths and legends.
Hypnosis and sleep are the same thing
Trance is far from being sleep, but hypnosis, not inducing sleep “at will.” At the moment of hypnotization, a person is in consciousness, only changed, he can understand and feel everything that is happening around.
You can't get out of hypnosis
This is yet another “horror story” used to scare those who want to try hypnosis on themselves. Such an outcome is not possible, even if the hypnologist “forgets” about you. If the connection with the hypnotist is lost, the person will wake up on his own after some time.
Only people with low IQ can be hypnotized
Everything happens exactly the opposite. The higher a person's intelligence, the more likely they are to be hypnotizable. The same can be said about emotional intelligence: the higher the level of empathy and communication skills a person has, the sooner he will fall under the influence of suggestion.
Hypnosis can change personality
A hypnotist can get into our heads and pull out some extra thorn that is interfering with our lives. But no hypnologist is able to make changes in our emotional-volitional sphere, character, self-awareness. An adequate person under the influence of hypnosis will not turn into a maniac or murderer. Our psyche has quite strong defense mechanisms for this case.
Hypnosis on the street: how not to get scammed
Attackers who master hypnosis know how to influence people. We'll give you some practical tips on how to avoid getting hooked. Most often, people become victims of gypsies, who are taught from childhood to deceive people. This is their national peculiarity. Many gypsies are proficient in hypnosis and know how to achieve their results.
Let's look at one of the usual situations. Grandfather and grandmother live in the village and are engaged in agriculture. Periodically, “gypsy raids” are carried out in the village. A car arrives, brings several gypsy women with children, and then they follow through the courtyards shouting “Mistress!” asking or offering to buy something. This happened to one family. A gypsy appeared on the threshold and put both of them into a trance. The grandfather carried cans of canned food from the cellar, several chicken carcasses from the freezer, and the grandmother took out all the money she had saved. The condition lasted until the evening, and then realization and repentance set in. The most amazing thing is that the grandfather said for a couple of weeks that the empty cans were about to be brought, as they had promised.
This was an example of classic gypsy hypnosis. It must be remembered that no one can be hypnotized unless they wish to be hypnotized. This is an experiment of consciousness. The most important thing is to attract attention and establish trust. Next is a matter of technology. At some point you will realize that you are being manipulated. At this moment confrontation is needed. This can be achieved easily:
- Turn around and leave. This is difficult to do because your brain is already partially hooked.
- Don't look into the eyes or hands of a potential scammer.
- Ask a sudden question - what color are the president’s eyes, what powder does the gypsy wash with, how to get to social security and any other disorganizing nonsense. You will gain time and lose contact.
- Don't let him outside the door.
These tips can help you get off the hook. If you have already been hooked, try reading a poem or singing a song, mentally recounting your daily routine and remembering where you were going and for what purpose. Don't show fear. Fear exacerbates suggestibility.
We discussed how hypnosis acts on the human brain, what types there are, and how not to be deceived. We hope that our article will help you understand this topic. You will find many interesting videos on the topic of hypnosis at the link.
