The principles of hypnotism and sensory deprivation are the two items that are under discussion in this paper. Two totally separate items, yet both are actually quite similar and can be used together. I intend to provide framework for the integration in this document.

Hypnosis has long been a method used for both medical reasons and parlor tricks. The medical field has used it to numb pain and to help people kick addictive habits. The psychology field has also used hypnotism to gain an insight in to a patient's mind and previous circumstances, with good results in all areas. People whom criticize hypnotism, outside of those critics who work in the in the respective fields where hypnotism is used, are typically uninformed of the benefits of using it. Most of those whom I have talked to are too used to the parlor tricks and the abuses of this altered state of the mind. Before you go criticizing those who use hypnotism for fun, understand that to me, they have also provided an extremely enlightening insight. I say this, not because I agree to them making someone cluck like chicken, or stiffen their bodies to be as hard as steel, or not feel pain, but because of the frameworks that they use give us examples of just how powerful this altered state of mind is.

To understand better, let's take a look at the typical Hypnosis session. The first session is typically just testing the subject to see if hypnosis is right for them. This can range, depending on the hypnotist, from just talking about the problem in question with the patient, to doing simple tests to see if they respond to an authoritarian approach or any of the other approaches. But once that is complete and it is deemed that hypnosis is an acceptable treatment for the patient (the signs someone is able to hypnotized is not something to be covered in this document), the next session is typically a start to the hypnotism part of it. Session to session the format of the session could vary. Most of the hypnotists that I have had the pleasure to talk to in my life spend most of the time actually discussing the problem, from a psychological approach and only a small portion of the time doing hypnotism. I once talked to a hypnotist on this topic and he explained that his sessions typically ran about an hour, of which 45 minutes was using a psychological approach to things, and the other 15 minutes with the patient under hypnosis. The amount of time, while people may think is small, is actually sometimes more than is necessary to do the work that is needed to be done. The flow of the hypnosis is quite simple. It starts off with what is called the induction technique. The technique used to 'induce' the trance, or merely to start it. To say that the whole starting of it is the induction, would be a bit of a blanket remark that would not do justice to the finer points of the hypnotic technique as a whole. After the induction technique begins, the hypnotist goes in to what is called a deepening technique, which is a technique to deepen the trance for easier suggestibility. Keeping in mind that one in a hypnotic trance will not do anything that they believe to be morally wrong. If I were to draw you a picture of what hypnosis is essentially, it is drawing the curtains of the conscious mind apart to suggest things to the sub conscious mind. The method by which it is done are varied, but all with the same goal in mind. That goal being to suggest to the sub conscious mind of the patient certain positive actions to help them achieve their goals. It is a delicate procedure to be that close to someone's raw being.

The best way to achieve goals is by positive reinforcement. Thus, the suggestions provided to the person by the hypnotist should be well thought out positive statements. For example, if helping someone to quit smoking, you might positively reinforce them by saying 'when you feel that you need a cigarette, you will feel the urge to sit down and doing something creative with your hands until the urge has passed." Where as an example of negative reinforcement may be "When you feel the urge to smoke, you don't need a cigarette, the cigarette will taste terrible to you". The subconscious mind looks for positive, so the subconscious mind may indeed interpret the negative reinforcement as follows "Wen you feel the urge to smoke, you do need a cigarette, you will feel healthy when you are smoking". See the difficulty with this kind of reinforcement? It's not a good way to get your point across as the subconscious mind does not deal with negatives, however, it will reinterpret the phrases or they will be overcome by the conscious mind. Take the quitting smoking for example, the patient lights up a cigarette after leaving your session with them and the first one may taste terrible. However, their conscious mind knows that it should taste different and it will push them to have another cigarette to prove that it did not taste that way.

Now, other things have been done within hypnosis too. Automatic writing, crystal scrying, past life regressions. Sensory deprivation is another thing practiced to a certain extent under hypnosis, as hypnosis is sensory deprivation, which I will cover later. Automatic writing is a form of psychological examination. When the patient is under hypnosis, they are given a pen and a pad of paper and told, under trance, to write what is on their mind, typically worded so that the person writes something that is related to the goals they are trying to achieve, perhaps things that they feel are obstacles in their path. Crystal scrying is particularly useful when trying to get someone to talk about a situation that happened in their past, such as a childhood experience, without having to relive the experience, instead being able to watch it from a third party perspective. It is safer that way, but caution should be taken. When working with hypnotism, extreme caution should be practiced when dealing with anything that has happened in someone's past, especially anything traumatic or that has been blocked from their memory. That is why this practice should be left to professionals who have been trained in the different aspects of psychology.

Past life regressions are another integral part of hypnosis. It is another way to deal with unanswered questions and sometimes it gives light to flashes and bits of memory, often times called deja vue, that people occasionally will have. There are so many varied methods to doing this, from complete immersion to a 'mirror' technique. All the techniques have their drawbacks and their benefits. I will cover the two extremes of past life regressions, total immersion and the mirror technique.

The total immersion technique is probably the most accurate of the two, but has more inherent dangers than the mirror technique. When I say dangers, typically, past life regressions do not bring up too many problems, however, there is the possibility of something violent or a memory that a person suppressed from a past life coming back and causing turmoil in this life. It is a small risk, however, it is not one that should be taken lightly. If you are going to attempt a past life regression this way, then be careful and if there is any question as to whether someone can handle a memory, be on the alert and ready to bring them awake, or at the very least, pull them from the situation quickly.

I personally like the mirror method. Instead of having them describe their past lives from a first person perspective, you have them describe it in from a third person perspective as if they are watching it in a magick mirror. There are different techniques to doing it, here following, I will include the outline of a technique I prefer to use when performing a regression on myself. It is much easier if the memories become intense, to suggest that the mirror is becoming cloudy or some such to pull them out and it doesn't have the potential to damage their psyche as badly. This is just my personal perspective as others may have more convincing arguments to use the total immersion technique, or quite possibly another technique all together. These are just two techniques out of an infinite number of possibilities.

Now lets take a look at the sensory deprivation aspect of it. Sensory deprivation and sensory overload are both used in hypnosis. It isn't directly apparent, but I intend to show how. Sensory deprivation is the act of depriving the body of it's senses through outside influence so that it has to rely only on the mind, while sensory overload is quite opposite. It is the act of overloading the senses to a point of the mind shutting them off on it's own, temporarily. Sensory overload is one way of induction. Allow me to explain.

One method of induction using sensory overload is as follows. Make sure that the subject is comfortable, laying down is an easy way. Next, have them pick a point on the ceiling, and (depending on the choice of the hypnotist) some suitably soft music playing. Then begin to talk, giving them physical sensations through suggestions. Such a suggestion would be that their might feel their feet becoming heavy, and their breathing deepening, and their eye lids might slowly be going down. These are different things that will eventually overload the senses, all the sensations at once, combined with giving them suggestions, their mind will actually begin to create it's own overload until it essentially shuts down, allowing the hypnotist to give the post hypnotic suggestions.

Next we have sensory deprivation. This one is different in some matters, though to an observer not familiar with the techniques could be mistaken as the same thing as a sensory overload. Sensory deprivation would start more along the lines of having the patient laying down with their eyes already closed, no music playing in the background. The main difference between these two is the suggestions given during the induction phase of the session. The suggestions given might not be for the mind to notice different changes in the body, but for them to stop feeling. For example, telling the patient that they stop feeling the weight of their arms and legs etc, until it becomes feasible to deepen the trance and then give the post hypnotic suggestions.

These two techniques play a large part in hypnotism in general. To get the subconscious to come out and the conscious to stand aside (so to speak) long enough for us to put in the post hypnotic suggestions, we need to get the conscious occupied in some other way, and thus that is why the sensory overload and deprivation are so key to hypnotism.

Now there is one other item that arises on this statement made above. The issue being that so many hypnotists rely on the patient to relay information from their senses during different sessions. The explanation I give for this is that the senses are truly dual layered, just like the human consciousness. What we are doing when inducing the trance is occupying the conscious mind with pseudo-real sensations on a conscious level. The subconscious sensations that are relayed by the patient are the ones being felt by the subconscious in the reality of the inner mind, while the conscious is dealing with the outer stimulus. It is a quite complex model, but once understood, it allows the hypnotist a much better grasp of how things are working inside. The duality of the human mind is quite complex, but it is what allows us to occupy the senses consciously while still allowing the patient to experience physical sensation while in the trance.

The bottom line is that with the plasticity of the brain and a little imagination from the hypnotist, anything can be achieved through hypnotism. Case studies have shown time and time again the different seemingly miraculous things that have been accomplished through hypnotism and yet when we think that we have seen it all, yet another situation comes up to prove we have not. It is of my belief through watching these countless case studies that we have yet to scratch the surface of the subconscious mind and what can truly be accomplished there. Hopefully time will tell how far we can truly go, but only time knows and only it will tell.