Hypnosis and the Divine

by Tim Brunson, PhD

As a major proponent of the scientific validity and clinical efficacy of hypnosis, I am often questioned as to the role of the divine in the hypnotic process. While on one hand I fully realize that mainstream medical and scientific practitioners justifiably use a scientific litmus test when evaluating concepts, there are still too much unexplained phenomena regarding the human experience. This is regularly dismissed prematurely or blindly advocated by enthusiastic believers. Conversely, however, repeatedly through history many myths – which by their very nature explain mankind's relationship with nature – have been explained once theory and the sophistication of measuring equipment become sufficiently adequate. Clearly this leaves room for the possibility that concepts involving a unity of the universe or another type of divine entity may eventually gain scientific acceptance. If so, the role of the divine in the hypnotic process should warrant relevant academic discussion.

Before going much further, it is appropriate to discuss the convergence in science between the down-to-earth, no-nonsense approach, which too often results in referring to any efforts with which they do not feel comfortable – albeit un-scientifically – as being "pseudo-science," and the spiritual realm where the unexplained is the domain of the religious. Ever since scientists started dabbling into quantum and other theoretical physics to include theoretical astrophysics, it seems that professional skeptics have been increasingly developing a respect to the validity of what was previously considered as being unexplained. For instance, when Albert Einstein was exposed to the quantum physicist idea called entanglement theory, he called it "spooky." This was because it was so amazing that to accept the theory was simply so incredulous. Likewise, when the preponderance of validated evidence pointed to the reality of brain plasticity, one editor of the respected scientific journal Nature still pontificated that the concept was untrue. Add to this the discovery in 2012 of Higgs Boson, which has also been called "the God Particle" and zero-point energy concept developed both by Einstein and Otto Stern in 1913, as a follow on of the work of Max Planck in 1900. Indeed, scientists are constantly uncovering realities that tend to be more mystical than real. And, when they are so radically different than a person's heretofore limited "model of the world," they are prematurely rejected as inconceivable despite the preponderance of evidence to the contrary.

So what of hypnosis? Can the process of hypnosis uncover or tap into a level of the unknown that may in fact lightly brush the concept of divinity. For instance, the much-maligned researchers into what is known as extra-sensory perception (ESP) claim to have documented reams of research showing an inherent rather psychic ability in most of humanity. Can a hypnotic experience allow a normal human being to access some level of the physical universe that physicists just might call spooky? What if quantum physics concepts of observation and entanglement was investigated in these situations. Consider also if time distortion, regression, and progression are in fact examples of accessing alternate realities through the same worm holes talked about by theoretical physicists and mathematicians. If that is the case and experiences that occur during hypnosis also briefly encounter some concept, entity, or phenomena that is universal and/or timeless, could it be that the hypnotic act of freeing a mind from interference and inhibition just may be a step toward a divine experience?

While this is a synthesis of hypnotic theory that is discussed in many of my more advanced courses, I know that it is a stretch for many – especially those who still have a hard time accepting the results of much of the scientific revelations of the past hundred or so years. I remember that when I mentioned many of the almost hundred year old theories in one of my courses, one clinician promptly resigned himself from the course. However, while just about everyone accepts that most aircraft navigate facilitated by Global Positioning Systems, they probably do not realize that such an invention would never occurred without the acceptance of Einstein's theory that space and time are merely different views of the same phenomena. So even though the accepted use of the ubiquitous GPS devices is considered normal, the underlying science is contrary to the religious beliefs a very large portion of our society. (The exposition of this concept is what prompted my student's sudden disenrollment. Of course, he probably then drove home from the office using the services of his car's GPS.)

Modern and theoretical science has radically opened up new perspectives that benefits the typical Wal-Mart shopper and Christian Fundamentalist despite either their ignorance or categorical rejection thereof. This is no different than the fact that it took the Roman Catholic Church and most of the then mainstream scientific community over a hundred years after Columbus landed in the West Indies to accept that the world was not flat. If hypnosis indeed is a process that creates a state of heightened awareness and that awareness is of a reality beyond the scope of normal sensory perception, it stands to reason that if there is an aspect of divinity in our universe – call it God or something else – just maybe a hypnosis subject may be accessing the divine after all.