My basic perception of hypnosis is that it provides a direct path to the subconscious, allowing the subconscious to receive new or altered ideas that the conscious mind will use to govern behavior. Because hypnosis can use imagination and visualization, it can use all of the senses to very powerfully inform the subconscious. If the subconscious causes the conscious person to act in a particular manner, then a retraining or re-informing of the subconscious mind can change that behavior.
We all have ideas programmed by authority figures and other sources throughout our lives. Our very first teachers were our parents, and many of our words and actions still reflect these early lessons, sometimes to our benefit and sometimes to our detriment. Even though we may learn to verbally disavow the premise of our actions, we may still mysteriously continue the same behaviors, because internally the belief has not changed. Only when we recognize that the source of our detrimental behavior is in our subconscious mind, can we re-inform it to create more beneficial behavior.
Hypnosis can be valuable for almost everyone. It is effective in a spectrum that ranges from self-improvement such as learning to relax or improve one's memory, to its amazing lifesaving ability in medical and emotional traumas. It has been shown that a person under hypnosis has control of body systems, even to the extent that one can control bleeding from a wound. The mind has this much control over the body. And the beauty of hypnosis is that the conscious mind, intellectually knowing what is really best for the body, can learn to inform the subconscious mind, and thus affect amazing changes in the quality of the life of that body.
The subconscious mind is not the rational mind; it does not differentiate between actions that enhance a person's well being and those that make life difficult. If it accepts an idea, it creates behaviors to reinforce that idea. Not until the conscious mind, the rational mind, effectively convinces the subconscious mind to replace false messages with true ones, will behavior change.
Bookstore shelves are full of self-help books for every area of the body, mind and spirit. They tell us how to be healthy, how to be wealthy, how to have friends, how to lose weight, stop smoking, pull ourselves out of depression, raise self-esteem, have faith in ourselves, think positively.
Self-help books have important messages. They call to us from Border's displays, or excite us as we read the reviews on Amazon.com. They entice us, because they describe our problems and promise us answers. And many of them give excellent directions about how to go about achieving the goals they propose. But many of these books are sitting on home bookshelves, or in secondhand bookstores, having been purchased with hope, read with enthusiasm, and then abandoned.
They are not usually abandoned because their messages are not true or because we disagree with them, but because we do not internalize the message. The emotional impact is not sustained -- the message about self-esteem may not have the same power as the one we received when we came home with a poor grade on a report card and were told we were "stupid" or "could never do anything right." That message may be so imbued that we don't know how to take the message from the book and replace it. Intellectually, we "know" which message we want to live by, but our subconscious mind has its own "knowing," and may convince us that we really don't deserve to have "self-esteem." The conscious mind, the intellect, must reach the subconscious with its new belief.
Steven Covey writes about the need for a "paradigm shift."
Wayne Dyer repeats often, "As ye think, so shall ye be."
Louise Hay says in The Power Within You, "I believe there is a Power within each of us that can lovingly direct us to our perfect health, perfect relationships, perfect careers, and which can bring us prosperity of every kind."
Shad Helmstetter wrote a book titled, What to Say When You Talk to Yourself, and its premise is that by repeating a positive message over and over, our subconscious finally believes it.
Most self-improvement messages have to do with changing words, thoughts, and beliefs, which is exactly what is needed. We must use positive, healthy words and think positive, healthy thoughts that create this type of belief.
Hypnosis creates a powerful communication, which allows the conscious mind to convince the subconscious mind of a new, positive, healthy idea. The self-help books hold valuable messages from which to create the scripts that the conscious mind of the person doing self-hypnosis, or the hypnotist working with a client, will use to inform the subconscious mind.
We create our world by acting out of love or hate, confidence or fear, judgement or acceptance -- and many other opposing states which are reflected back to us. It is up to the individual to choose the positive path, to create harmony in life. And having chosen the positive path and the desire for harmony, the mind must stay positive, thinking positive, constructive thoughts.
Hypnosis offers the methods to take the message from that book purchased with hope and read with enthusiasm, and create the belief, which will truly change one's life.
Josephine Greenwald
Graduate of Infinity Institute International, Inc - School of Hypnotherapy
