Introduction to Hypnosis

by Bruce Arnold LCSW

Hypnotherapy, as exemplified so well by Milton Erickson, M.D., is a far more subtle and varied tool than merely putting people into hypnotic trance. I do not intent to explore that whole, rich vein at present. We are going to look at the hypnotic trance itself, which remains central to the practice of hypnotherapy.

There are 5 topics relating to hypnotic trance, which are important if one wishes to have a working comprehension of what a trance is and can do. Each of these 5 topics is the answer to a misconception of some sort, which I've encountered among patients. While hypnotherapy may be effective even if completely misunderstood, I find that intelligent and willing participation produces the best results.

The first topic is about control. Many people fear losing control, or being under the control of others. Dark, mesmerizing figures such as Rasputin and Svengali drift around the shadowy edges of our culture, people who supposedly have used a mysterious power of mind to bend others to their will. Perhaps you have seen a stage hypnotist induce audience members to behave in strange or goofy ways. Yet I tell you in all sincerity that no one can be forced through hypnosis to do anything they would not otherwise do. Control, then, is not an issue at all.

But what about those people up on stage, quacking like ducks or imitating famous stars?

If the process understood, the mystery is revealed, which is that there is no mystery. Here's how it works: first, the stage hypnotist is selective in the subjects he picks. If two men in the audience raise their hands, and one is wearing a colorful shirt and an earring, and the other is dressed very plainly and has a shy or hesitant look to him, the hypnotist will pick the first fellow. This man is already willing to be in the center of attention! He is not likely to resist making a display of himself; he already has.

Second, the hypnotist does not truly ask people to do anything they would not do. Who hasn't imitated a famous singer in the shower? Who hasn't made barnyard animal sounds while playing with a toddler? These are things we enjoy, under the right circumstances. All the hypnotist has to do is help the volunteers feel comfortable doing them, and it is the easiest thing in the world to distract their attention form the audience. While you may not have the training to know exactly how this is done, the idea itself is very simple.

Even without hypnosis, the concept is clear if I handed you a hammer and asked you to smash a window of the first car you see, you would think I was nuts. But if you came across an accident, and the car was about to catch on fire, and someone was trapped inside, you would not hesitate to use that hammer on a window. It is all a matter of context.

Here is one final example on the subject of control: I would not hypnotize someone, make him or her rob a bank, and bring me the money. Most people simply would not rob a bank. I cannot think of a way to make this seem okay to them. Those who would rob a bank would not bring me the money. So it goes.

By the way, over the last year I have occasionally seen a sidewalk hypnotist who entices people into very grandiose or extravagant behavior. It does not look to me as though he has put them in a trance. You might call this "video hypnosis"--some people will do anything to get themselves on TV! It goes to show that suggestibility is not dependent on hypnosis.

The second topic refers to a misconception that some people cannot be hypnotized. I believe that this notion goes back to the early days of hypnotism. The phenomenon itself was not well understood. They did not have the array of techniques at that time that have been developed since. And our knowledge of brain function has catapulted with modern laboratory methods. In the old days, if someone did not respond to the trance induction techniques then used, it would be said that he or she could not be hypnotized.

Well, with EEGs, MRIs, and the like, our picture has changed remarkably. We now know that the brain, like the muscles, has periods of rest following periods of activity. These periods of rest are identical to periods of trance, as far as brain function may be measured. They might rightly be called "Automatic Self-Hypnotic Episodes".

Most people are aware of having experienced them although have not considered them in this light. Daydreaming is a common way for the brain to take a rest after a busy spell. Daydreams have all the earmarks of trance: attention is drawn from external to internal experience, images become vivid, etc.

Many people have experienced "Highway Hypnosis". Where I live, there is a stretch of four-lane--from New Bern to Kinston, if it matter--which is very straight and very dull. When I get to the place where the speed drops from 70 back to 55, I am always amazed. Where has the time gone? I have been lulled into a trance-like state. Most people around here have had the same thing happen!

So, since everyone does experience trance-like states anyone can be hypnotized. The question, then, becomes how to achieve trance at a certain time for a certain purpose? And that is where the hypnotherapist's training comes in.

There is another important feature to this, though. That is that entering a trance is a skill. It can be learned, it can be practiced, and it can be improved. Like any skill, some have more talent for it and some have less. I will never play basketball like Michael Jordan. But if I practice, I will get better.

So it is with hypnosis. I have some patients who go readily into a deep trance the very first time. I have some who, after repeated experience of going into trance, no longer need to be "talked down" into it, but can simply close their eyes and enter a trance.

Then there are those who need much more preparation. It may take quite some time, and I may have to use several techniques, before a satisfactory trance occurs. The most extreme example of this was a young lady who I was treating for severe anxiety many years ago. We tried for most of three separate sessions without results. She was determined, however, and persisted. Finally, she was able to relax enough and dropped down into a very nice trance. She was so pleased afterwards!

Most people experience a satisfactory trance within no more than 20 minutes on their first attempt. Subsequent sessions become easier and easier. This is good enough.

The third topic concerns miracles. There are none. Some people expect hypnosis to do for them what they will not do for themselves. For instance, I've used hypnosis to help several hundred people to stop smoking. The rate of success, people who come one time and become successfully smoke-free, runs around 80%. Part of why this is so high is because I screen so carefully.

Now, I wish I could put someone in a trance, tell him or her "you will never smoke again in your life," and have that work. I really do. I'd charge $500.00 per session, work one or two days a week, and have them lined up for their turn. There is no shortage of people who would stop smoking if it took no effort or commitment on their part.

Hypnosis can only work with what you bring to the table. It cannot give you abilities you do not have. It cannot, as has already been said, make you do things you are not willing to do. It cannot stop you from doing things you are deadest on doing.

That leaves a far greater range of effectiveness than might first be thought. I have seen some truly remarkable outcomes. Hypnosis can make use of talents, which people do not know they have, or in ways they might not have considered, or in ways which are not under conscious supervision. I will give examples of each.

20 years ago, I was involved in the treatment of a young man experiencing situational depression due to divorce. The blow to his self-confidence was causing anxiety--feelings of inadequacy--as well. During a hypnotic trance, a short song was produced from this man's imagination. He had never written a song before, but it was lovely and encouraged him to write more. Over the next couple of years he wrote many songs--long after treatment had been completed--which both helped to deal with his feelings of sadness and betrayal, and to improve his self-confidence. Some of them were pretty good, and people genuinely like them. Neither he nor I would have foreseen this turn of events, the growth of a talent he did not know he had.

About 10 years ago, an elderly lady came who had a life-long phobia for injections. She had some surgery scheduled in a few weeks. Previous surgeries had been traumatic due to the necessity to put in an IV for the anesthetic. She did not want to go through that again. She responded well to the hypnosis. I only did one session with her. A week or two after the surgery, she called to let me know what had happened. She had fallen asleep on the gurney as they wheeled her into pre-op, and does not remember being stuck at all! Again, I did not anticipate this. Her mind took the suggestions I'd given and produced this solution. This is an example of how ability can be used in a different way. She already knew how to fall a sleep; she had done so every night of her life. How creative to use that common skill in such a new way.

Finally, here is an example of using a capability, which is not under conscious supervision. Most hypnotists will frequently be asked to help people with chronic pain, to reduce the need for narcotic medication. I cannot say for certain whether hypnosis blocks the reception of messages from the nerve endings which transmit pain, or whether it causes a release of endorphins, which perform the same pain-relieving roles as morphine. I do know it works, whatever the mechanism may be. I also know that if these people could simply choose to feel less pain, they would. So hypnosis precipitates a response, which their body is able to do, but which they cannot consciously select.

All of which leads back to the original point: there are no miracles with hypnosis, but remarkable things can happen.

The fourth topic is similar to the third: the experience of hypnotic trance is not outstanding. Of all the five topics, this is the hardest for me to express. Not because I don't understand it, but because I don't' know what people expect.

I have already said that trance is very much like other experiences people have had, like daydreams or "zoning out." I have already said that hypnosis does not produce miracles. Yet some people persist in thinking it will be a glamorous, glitzy, perhaps psychedelic. It is none of these. It is more like a nice nap, although you haven't fallen asleep.

It may be easier to explain if I give an example. A man came that said he wished to stop smoking. I asked the usual questions, gave the usual instructions, and he went nicely into trance (there are obvious physiological indicators that trance has occurred--its part of the training to recognize them.). After the procedure was completed, and we had talked about the usual things I ask people to do to support smoking cessation, and we were wrapping it up, he refused to pay. "I don't feel any different." You won't feel any different. That's all I can say about that.

The fifth, and final, topic we have to cover is about the subconscious mind. Often, people become so deeply relaxed in the trance that they do not remember much of what is said. They are concerned that it will not work.

It will. Here is why: you have a conscious mind, and a subconscious mind. There has been some mystification about the subconscious. Some people view it as the repository of their darkest secrets or most unpleasant feelings. It is much more simple than that. I want to clear it up. The subconscious mind is the sum total of everything you are not consciously thinking about right now. That's it. Pretty simple. Yes?

Here's how it works. Thinking of your mother's maiden name at this moment, then it is subconscious. Since I just reminded you of it, then it has become conscious. And as soon as you stop thinking of her maiden name, it will be subconscious again. No mystery.

There are many things in the subconscious that we rarely think about. The color of the front door of the first house you remember living in is probably one of those, unless you still see it frequently.

There are many things in the subconscious that you don't need to think of. This would include all the functions of the autonomous nervous system, such as heart rate. I am really glad I don't have to remember to make my heart beat 72 times every minute!

There are things in the subconscious that you don't' want to think about. This would include unhappy or painful memories. And there are those things--the "deep dark secrets"--that we have tucked away under lock and key and really can't access by memory. These are only available through such means as dreams or free association until enough processing has been done to release them again.

We also have talents and abilities that are subconscious. Some we use all the time without knowing it, and some are not used. Here is an example of those that get used. If you meet someone you know at Wal-Mart, and they ask, "How are you?" your subconscious begins a series of lightening fast observations and calculations. You will gauge the closeness of the relationships. You will notice who may be standing nearby. You will do a status check to see how you are. You will calculate which parts of your condition could be readily described, which would take a lengthy explanation, and which parts you are uncertain of yourself and could not explain well under any conditions. All of these, and hundreds more factors, will be processed in that split-second before you open your mouth and start to talk. It is so fast there is usually no hesitation evident at all, and so complex that no software could duplicate it. And we do this all the time. Amazing! The young man who learned to write songs while hypnotized is a good example of talents, which lie, follow in the subconscious until called upon.

Hypnosis is a means of speaking directly to the subconscious. When the body is relaxed, and the conscious mind has entered the trance, then the subconscious becomes open to suggestions. These may be given directly, like the stage hypnotist's tricks: "when I snap my fingers you will bark like a dog." They may be given indirectly through stories and metaphors. Many of us prefer the latter as this corresponds more closely to the language of the subconscious, which is the language of symbolism and imagery.

So will hypnotic suggestions take effect if I don't remember hearing them? Consider this: when you go to sleep at night, the world does not stop. Cars pass on the street. Dogs bark in the neighborhood. Birds call. Doors slam. Wind blows. All of this is heard by your ears, and transmitted to the brain, as always. Your subconscious mind processes every bit of it, filtering out all, which you may safely ignore. But if your child cries out in his bed, or your dog whines to be let out, or the rain starts to blow in the open window, your subconscious will "filter it in" and awaken you.

The same thing happens in hypnosis. Your ears may hear the air conditioner or the furnace cycle on and off, but you are unlikely to notice. These will be filtered out. You may drift away so thoroughly that you are no longer aware of the sound of my voice, but your subconscious will still hear every word. It will process what is important and what is not. And it will select and act upon all the suggestions, direct or indirect, which it is willing to accept. I myself would just as soon you did not consciously monitor the process, to be frank. The conscious mind has nothing to add. You may as well be off in "la-la land."

Hypnosis then can be a rich and varied experience. Unfailingly pleasant, sometimes surprising, occasionally amazing, it is one of the ways in which we can most clearly see the magnificent healing power of the mind at work.