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Photo by M'reen
I can’t be hypnotised, she couldn’t be ‘woken-up’.
Both these statements are false, but, as they say there
is no smoke without fire
so let’s look into this a little closer.
Taking, “he couldn’t be woken-up- the hypnotherapist
tried everything” first.
When I was training we were told that in such a situation
to say that
we charged double for people who didn’t open their eyes
when requested.
People might not open their eyes when requested for a
number of reasons.
But the most amusing was a guy who decided that he would
not open his eyes
and so prove that he was not hypnotised.
I found it perplexing as his eyes were doing the most
amazing things as he tried to keep them closed!
Another lady found the trance state to be so relaxing and
far removed from the problems
that she had and anticipated facing that she ‘was hanging
onto the radiator’
in order not to return to the waking state.
If a person is really tired then the subconscious mind
says, ‘stuff this hypnosis lark for a game
of soldiers, I’m going to sleep’. Such a person will wake
up with the therapist’s reminders
as the subconscious mind also knows that they are not
supposed to be sleeping at this time of day
and in this situation. It just might take quite some minutes
for this to happen
and the hypnotherapist gets on with the normal daily
sounds.
This happened to me when working with a group of blind
people, the general noise and movement filtered through to the ‘sleeping’
person but I wondered what the other people might think.
I imagine that they were OK with the situation as during the
trance work someone’s guide dog
reacted to a sound and they all became more
alert until the dog relaxed.
A family visited, the father was really very tired and
was asleep in no time, the daughter entered
the trance state, the mother sat on
the edge of her chair watching her daughter like a tigress –
the mother stopped smoking and had no desire for cigarettes
even though she daily visited a friend
who smoked like a factory chimney.
As an aside, people often snore as their muscles and
tissues are so relaxed that snoring
is a natural response. One man had worked with someone
else and had experienced temporary results; I found that he couldn’t work with
my ‘normal’ style of working so I told him rambling stories
and he snored through four sessions. He told me that they
were expensive stories but
that they worked. His wife rang up six months later
to tell me how well he was doing
and that he’s also lost two stones in weight!
I can’t be ‘put under’.
Everyone can enter the state of relaxed conscious
awareness given the right situation.
I read a book that said that only one animal and one bird
could not be hypnotised.
I’m not sure how they were using the term hypnotised as
it sounded more like pure fear to me.
Apparently if you dig a V in the ground and lay a rabbit
on its back it will be here when you return from your trip. That if you lay a
hen or bird on its side and draw a line with your finger from its beak out then
it will lie there until you move it.
See you learn all sorts of interesting things reading my
blogs.
Sometimes, if someone had experienced a traumatic event,
even one that has been buried so deeply that the person is not consciously
aware of the event; that person ‘cannot’ enter the trance state.
This is because the subconscious mind says, ‘been there,
done that, and I ain’t doing it again’.
During one period, I was using progressive relaxation to
enable people to enter the trance state
and this is to start at someone’s toes and work up the
body or start at the head and work down.
Things were working fine until I got to someone’s tummy
when she opened her eyes;
we discussed this and we agreed that we would try again
and that her tummy could stay alert.
This alertness was repeated during the progressive relaxation
and the rest of her body and mind
went into trance beautifully; her tummy probably relaxed
with this confidence.
So if the hypnotherapist says that your shoulders relax
and you know that at least one is still feeling tense you concentrate and worry
about that shoulder and while you are doing that
the rest of your body is relaxing beautifully and
eventually so does your shoulder.
I give all my clients a pre session relaxation exercise
that some people use for years and others never try once. One guy had
impressive results but when he came for his first session he relaxed
so far
into the trance state and then jolted straight out. He wasn’t prepared to find
out why
and at that time I didn’t have any alternative skills. However, even in
the security and comfort of his own home he could not walk in his house in the dark and he equated
trance as being in the black
while the relaxation exercise lying on his carpet was
simply relaxing.
One lady had an understandable vested interest in not
being ‘cured’ and she would open her eyes with a wicked gleam until
hypnotherapy was proved ‘not to work’.
A very famous hypnotherapist simply could not get a lady
to access the trance state,
the lady in question wanted to experience trance.
Finally, in extreme frustration he swore at her
and she immediately entered the trance state.
Finally people with far too much will power to be ‘put
under’.
People with far too much will power are generally so energetically
exhausted and so fearful
of someone else having ‘control’ that they wouldn’t see a
hypnotherapist anyway.
Should they do so then their body and mind is so glad to
have a rest that they very easily enter
the trance state which is nothing more than an agreement
that you will close your eyes and go along with whatever is good for you right
now. Just think the simple act of closing your eyes signals to your body that
you are going to sleep. In fact, if you close your eyes while thinking or
enjoying
an experience your brain starts producing more of the
relaxing alpha waves that are the waves
of trance work.
Perhaps you’d like to check out my sister blogs:
To quote the Dr Seuss himself, “The more that you read, the more
things you will know.
The more that you learn; the more places you'll go.”
