Hypnosis Articles

Difference between hypnosis, prayer and magick

Laws of Mind

Suggestibility Tests and Convincers

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Regardless of the method used to create a change, the following are pre-requisites for any changework:

• CLEARLY SET OUTCOME

  A lot of times people have an idea of what they don't want to experience, but they have no clear idea of what they do want instead.  It's important that you know what do you want.  How will your life change when you get what you want?  What will you see, hear, feel, etc. when you have the desired change?  What will you experience that you are not experiencing now?  What will you lose as a result of this change?  Will you lose anything you wouldn't want to lose when you get this change?

  It's useful to be aware of a difference between a "form" and an "essence".  "Essence" relates to the feeling you'll have when you get what you're after, "form" relates to the particular person, object, circumstance you're after. 

  Sometimes people chase a specific "form" (object, person, circumstance) believing that it will give them the feeling they are after, only to discover after they've got the thing they're after that they didn't get the desired feeling (the essence).

   

• INTENTION and DESIRE

  It is important that this desire is genuine.  Many times people would visit a hypnotherapist or a spiritual/esoteric practitioner in hopes that this one will perform some kind of magic and make the person change in an instant.  This may work with some things, but a lot of changes, especially those relating to one's personal growth require motivation, dedication, perseverance and application of new learnings.

  And a change brings new learnings and adjustments, a change in one's comfort zone as life becomes slightly different.

  The following may sound "uncivilized" in modern world, yet I'm beginning to appreciate the idea that a lot of magical powders and potions contained hard-to-get ingredients.  Just imagine if your therapist sent you to get some "graveyard dust" from a graveyard that's 500 miles away and you'd have to be at that graveyard at 2 a.m. all by yourself.  Would you still want to go ahead with your changework?

  Some of my friends who went to ashrams in  India were sent to pick some ingredients for breakfast very early in the morning while it's still dark outside, and the ingredients were in the field where they could stumble upon poisonous snakes - test of faith and devotion in exchange for learning.

  Many initiation ceremonies consist of similar acts - acts that both test the sincerity of the individual desiring a change (initiation) and allowing for the more successful imprint of the change because the person's bio-survival mechanism gets activated. 

  It's basically a waste of time (and of money - if you're paying for the changework) to attempt a change you don't genuinely desire. 

  Again, some people genuinely want the change provided that they don't have to do anything about it.  I get e-mails from people who want me to "make them" change so that they can "go out and help other helpless souls".  They have completely missed the point.  They see themselves as victims of the circumstances and they see 90% of others as victims, too.

  The secret of  empowerment lies in taking responsibility.  No one needs to take responsibility for another person who is fully capable of taking care of himself, but is unwilling to do so.  One can teach another (provided the other genuinely desires to learn and to change), help another to get stronger, to develop skills and abilities, and to become independent.  Encouraging dependence doesn't serve anyone.

  The essence of responsibility is in seeing yourself as a "cause" of everything that you experience in your world.  You may or may not be able to change someone else, but what you can always change is yourself, your perception of the world, your attitude and your actions. And that is enough to make you very powerful, because your experience of your world will change accordingly.

   

• BELIEF, TRUST and KNOWINGNESS

  To begin with, you must believe that the change you desire is possible, not only in general for other people, but for you specifically.  If you can use your mind, than you can change, because all change begins in the mind.

  If you want to go on looking for proofs, then you'll find enough proofs to match any belief system you can think of.  If according to your own belief system the change you desire is not possible, than you should either be willing to re-examine and change your belief system or give up the change.  Attempting the change, while you hold onto the belief that it is not possible for you, is a waste of time - you're simply not ready for it.

  Hoping for a change to happen and wishing for it to happen will get you nowhere.  Both hoping and wishing keep the change as some distant luke-warm possibility and often contain a good dose of doubt and uncertainty.  As a matter of fact, they contain a great deal of "faith" that the desired change will not occur, and so, they prevent the change.

  Even though "blind" faith will work, understanding of the principles that make the change possible will produce even better and faster results.  Having a personal experience that proves to you that these principles are working for you all the time, that you have been using them all along, whether unconsciously of consciously, will bring a realization, and a sense of knowingness, a sense of certainty.  The great value of this is that you will have no doubt, and you'll be able to trust the process.

  In esoteric circles, before ritual changework is to begin, a guardian stands at the entrance to the circle and asks "How do you enter?" , and the one entering responds "With perfect love and perfect trust".  And this, indeed, is the requirement for a successful changework.

   

• ACTION and EXPECTATION

  All changework requires some action, followed by expectation of the results.  For those with highly-trained minds, a simple "thought of intent" is all that is required.  For those with untrained minds, hours, days and months of mental, emotional and/or physical action may be required.

Comparison Chart
between hypnosis, prayer and magick

In Esoteric practices (and sometimes in prayer) the tools used are tangible metaphors communicating to the subconscious both the act and elements used in the process of creation, as well as the symbolic imagery associated with the fulfillment of the desire / changework. 

Specially for people with untrained minds, these tangible metaphors are powerful training tools, because most of us grew up in the world that taught us that only what you can touch, see, smell is "real".  Soon, though, one can discover that he doesn't need any external tools any longer and that it is so easy to create changes with mind alone.

For people who yet need to develop the powers of concentration and visualization, being involved in ritual activity, handling physical objects, helps to maintain focus. 

The power of "spells" lies in it that they "rhyme" and because of it are easily accepted by the subconscious mind.

(c) Dr. Laura De Giorgio

For the sake of simplicity, I'll use the term "subconscious" mind to refer to that function of the mind, which takes care of all the processes that are occurring out of conscious awareness.

Other terms used in hypnosis to refer to this function are the "unconscious", and sometimes "other-than-conscious". Most hypnotists and hypnotherapist's skip the term "superconscious", either out of choice or because they are not quite familiar with it. On the other hand, some hypnotists and hypnotherapists use the term "subconscious" when referring both to the functions of the "subconscious" and "superconscious", at least to some extent.

In strictest terms, "subconscious mind" is that function of the mind that stores individual's past experiences, learnings, memories, emotions, and beliefs. In spiritual jargon the term used to refer to the subconscious is "soul". And you may be familiar with the saying "As a man thinks in his heart", which also refers to "soul" or the "subconscious", because the subconscious is the place where the emotions are stored. This should also give you a clue that one way to access the subconscious mind is through emotions.

The "superconscious mind" refers to the universal storehouse of knowledge from which the individual can draw as much information as his "subconscious mind" allows to filter through. The filters, the guardians at the gate of the subconscious, are the individually held beliefs (in the subconscious mind).

As I have mentioned earlier, the ideas become impressed upon the subconscious mind through your emotions. The more intense are the emotions associated with the idea, the deeper this idea becomes imprinted upon the subconscious. In the extreme situations, this leads to so called "one trial learnings", usually under the influence of shock - one significant experience which becomes deeply impressed upon the subconscious. An example of one trial learning is a person who gets bitten by a snake where this experience becomes deeply embedded.

Another way to impress ideas upon the subconscious mind is through repetition. That's the way we develop habits. Through repetition the behavior becomes habitual and unconscious.

The more intense emotions accompany your ideas, the less repetitions it takes to impress the ideas in your subconscious mind. If you're working with affirmations, they will not yield much results unless they are accompanied by emotions and they match the beliefs that are already in your subconscious.

Generally to change "beliefs" what is required is more information. Yet, even for this new information to become permanent, you need to have a new experience that validates this information.

When you have two conflicting beliefs, the one that will win is the one that is more deeply impressed upon your subconscious. When you're attempting to uproot the beliefs that don't serve you any longer, sometimes it's helpful to bring them out in the open (into your conscious awareness), to examine them and to invalidate them, before you work on installing new beliefs that are more useful to you.

Subconscious mind communicates through symbolic language. Symbolic images, music, metaphors - all work very well with the subconscious. You'll find a lot of symbolic imagery communicated from your subconscious in the dreams you dream while you sleep. Dreaming is very important as it provides an outlet for the release of inner tensions, and for processing of information you imprinted upon the subconscious during the day. You can learn a lot from your dreams, not by consulting some "dream dictionary", but by bringing the contents of your dreams into your conscious awareness and if you don't get the message you can have an imaginary dialogue with the characters in your dreams and simply by asking your mind to clarify the content for you. You're bound to emerge from this contemplation with some insights.

When impressing the ideas upon the subconscious, you may find it even easier if you listen to music - music that either helps you to remain in a relaxed state or music that helps you to elicit the desired feeling.

Your subconscious mind loves rhythm. One way to use rhythm is by listening to music - for example, listening to drumming is one of the proven ways to alter your brain waves and lead you into a trance state. You may also dance and experience the sensations you desire to imprint upon your subconscious throughout your body. One form of dancing you may consider is trance dancing, however depending on your purpose, any kind of dancing will do - as long as while you are dancing your mind is focused upon the idea you desire to impress upon your subconscious mind.

Metaphors can be verbal, as in story-telling. They work better when you are using them to impress the subconscious mind of another person, where the person's subconscious is to get the appropriate meaning. The purpose of these metaphors is to by-pass the conscious awareness, and if you are the one who consciously created the metaphor, there's not much chance that the metaphor would by-pass your subconscious. On the other hand, reading stories rich in symbolism (e.g. fables and fairy-tales) may result in a flash of insight.

Metaphors can be visual, as in alchemical emblems. Aside from the fact that they look very beautiful, studying them and contemplating them, sometimes for a very long time, leaves impressions upon the subconscious mind and results in flashes of insight, deeper insight than may be expressed through words.

You can also draw or create "treasure maps" by pasting pictures of the actual or symbolic images of ideas you desire to impress upon your subconscious mind and place it somewhere where it will be the last thing you see before you fall asleep.

Metaphors can be tangible. Here a physical item is used to communicate to the subconscious mind a desired idea. A person may put on a robe, signaling to his subconscious mind that it's time to get into a trance state. Or a person may get a "success suit" - signaling to his subconscious mind that he now wants to access the state of being a superstar salesman. Some people use candles to represent the idea the desire to impress upon the subconscious - they light the candle and communicate to their subconscious that by the time the candle has burned down, the idea will be firmly impressed.

Metaphors can also be expressed through symbolic action, as is usually done in rituals - which may be associated with esoteric practices or may be simply ritual actions. Some examples are taking a small stone, and using it as a metaphor for a particular problem and then tossing it in a river - a symbolic action that symbolizes getting rid of the problem (burden). Or, pouring out your heart's woes on a piece of paper in a form of a letter and then burning it - a symbolic action that is meant to transform the emotional state.

Subconscious mind is global (wholistic) in nature. One characteristic of this is timelessness - there is only NOW. To successfully imprint ideas upon the subconscious you must experience them as if they are happening NOW. The only time when you can truly experience the feelings and the sensations in your body is in the present moment . You may have an approximate recollection of how something happened in the past , but if you really follow that feeling to experience it to its full intensity (in your whole body), you'll discover that you have spontaneously regressed and are re-living the past - the experience from the past has become a NOW experience. You may anticipate how will something happen in the future, but in order to fully get into that experience (with your whole body), you'll find yourself progressed in the future moment.

Another characteristic of this global aspect is that your subconscious mind does not differentiate between what you perceive as happening only in your mind (as imagined) and what you perceive as being outside of you (as real) - for your subconscious, it's all the same. For your subconscious the "reality" is determined by your feelings.

Your subconscious mind also does not differentiate between how you perceive yourself and how you perceive others. For example, your judgment which may go along the lines that "you are good " and that "the person out there is bad" is simply that "if you were to do what that other person is doing, you'd consider yourself to be bad". Another aspect of this is that you may feel upset with another person, yet your subconscious registers this upset as if it were "with yourself" and activates the release of appropriate poisonous chemicals into your own bloodstream. Ultimately thinking lovely and beautiful thoughts for others has nothing to do with wanting to act saintly, it has everything to do with "self-love" and taking care of yourself.

On the positive side, if you wanted to impress some quality upon your subconscious mind that you'd like to experience in your own life, contemplating this quality in others to the point of identifying with it, works just as well as if you were contemplating it for yourself. So if you focus on prosperity and abundance in general, contemplating the wealth in the universe you'll open yourself to these blessings.

(c) Dr. Laura De Giorgio

Suggestibility Tests and Convincers

People sometimes wonder how do they know if they are in "hypnosis", if they are in a state of heightened suggestibility good enough to impress desired suggestions upon their subconscious minds.

For that purpose in hypnosis we use suggestibility tests and convincers. Suggestibility tests and convincers play the same role: they are allowing you to test the level of suggestibility you are experiencing and at the same time they are convincing you that you are in a suggestible state of mind.

Successful hypnosis revolves around playing well the game of pretending. To play well the game of pretending, you have to let your imagination take over the critical faculty of your mind. You immerse yourself in your subjective experience as opposite to asking questions about whether what you're doing is working, whether you're doing it right, whether your goals is at all possible, etc.

Suggestibility tests and convincers test the power of your imagination at the time you are doing those tests. At different times you may be in different states of mind, and sometimes you may find it easier to slip effortlessly into hypnosis and let your imagination take over, while at other times, your mind may be preoccupied with distracting thoughts and it may be better to postpone your hypnosis session until you are able to and willing to just put aside any other thoughts and allow yourself to play with your mind.

Some suggestibility tests and convincers require two people, while others you can do on your own. I will go over a very simple test here that even 3-year old kids can do on their own. It is an "eye-closure test", and it is a part of every one of my hypnosis recordings. You simply close your eyes and pretend that you cannot open them. When you are convinced that you cannot open them, you try to open them and discover that you cannot open them. The harder you try to open them, the tighter shut they become. When you have discovered that you cannot open them, you stop testing and continue with your hypnosis session.

If you are using the reasoning faculty of your mind while conducting this test, of course, you will be able to open your eyes. There is no logical reason why you wouldn't be able to open your eyes. So, you put your reasoning on the side, and pretend. You can add any imagery that helps you along the way - if you need some reason why they can't open. You can imagine them heavy, or glued, or whatever helps you to pretend better. One of the reasons that this is easy for little kids to do is because they have no problem letting go and playing games. They are experts in playing games with their minds and so are creative people. They spend a lot of time imagining all sorts of things and having fun doing it. And whether you consider yourself to be creative or not, I believe that all of us are creative when it comes to fantasizing about things we would like to experience. To use this ability in hypnosis, all you need to do is let yourself go and enjoy the experience - savor it.

Another simple way of using suggestibility tests and convincers is to pretend that your legs, or arms or your entire body is heavy, or glued to the floor. When I was a teenager, I found in one yoga book a relaxation exercise that went like this. You lay down on the floor and imagine that you are laying on top of a white circle. Then you imagine different parts of your body painted black on that circle and as you paint each part of your body black, you imagine that part of your body being very heavy, like lead, and as if it were glued to the floor. I did this exercise with open mind and a sense of curiosity, just to see what happens and as soon as I completed the exercise, I became alarmed because it seemed I cannot move my body at all. Since I was alone at home I started getting anxious and wondering how long will I stay stuck like that. After what seemed like 10 - 15 minutes of struggling to move my body, it occurred to me that I could try to retrace my steps back and start painting my body white, in my mind, on that circle. To my relief, it worked instantly.

Sometimes people do suggestibility tests and convincers and get results beyond their wildest expectations. The power of their imagination surprises them. When they attempt to replicate the experience, and it doesn't turn out as good as the first one, they feel disappointed. The reason that they had awesome experiences the first time is because they were in an open state of mind, filled with curiosity, wondering what will happen when they do those experiments. Then, when they attempted to repeat them, they already had "preconceived ideas" about how it is supposed to turn out. These preconceived ideas engaged the critical faculty of their conscious minds and didn't allow them to plunge themselves into new experience. Whenever you start comparing things, comparing experiences, you are involving judgment in the process, and judgment is in the realm of critical faculty of the time.

Hypnosis, on the other hand, revolves around the pure experience in the present moment, allowing yourself to fully immerse yourself in what you are subjectively experiencing now. The more you are able to fully detach both from contemplating anything related to past and future, the more you can be fully immersed in experiencing the moment of now, the more successful hypnosis sessions will you have, and the fastest results will you get.

(c) Dr. Laura De Giorgio

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