But all this is far from the truth. We experience a similar condition almost every day imperceptibly. Athletes resort to hypnosis to set new records, women to ease the birth process with it, and doctors use it for anesthesia.
We are accustomed to believing that hypnosis is an element of theatrical performance or magical manipulations that force a person against his will to do things unusual for him.
In Hollywood movies, characters are recovered from forgotten memories in this way.
What is hypnosis?
This is a condition in which you can be immersed with the help of psychological influence. At the same time, your attention will be focused on some kind of thought or memory and you will practically not react to your environment.
What is happening at this moment?
- It seems that you are somewhere between reality and sleep.
- Critical thinking is turned off: you do not argue or analyze what is happening.
- The brain controls the basic functions and prevents you from doing something that could be at variance with your real desires or moral principles and would be contrary to the instinct of self-preservation.
- To protect your secrets or interests, you will unknowingly lie.
- Despite the suggestion, you yourself are in complete control of your behavior and you will never do what you think is stupid or inappropriate. The exception is the deep stages of hypnosis, where it is possible to introduce an idea alien to a person.
This special condition can be used to rid a person of phobias, psychological traumas, unwanted behavior, feelings of anxiety. It can even be used as an alternative type of anesthesia, for example, if a person is allergic to certain drugs.
Psychics use hypnosis?
Yes and no. It is known that television projects with the participation of so-called magicians are just a show where everything happens according to the script, and those who play the role of “wizards” do not need hypnosis: editors tell them all the information about a person in advance. Many of the participating sorcerers after the show do not go out of their way, because of which they end up in jail for fraud or forced to pay for their slander and false “predictions”. But what about fortune-tellers and fortune tellers who conduct magic sessions at home?
Gennady Ivanov: These are, by and large, charlatans who exploit the faith of people. If a client comes across a hypnosis, you can already show more “miracles” with him, for example, make him see the “situation” in a crystal ball, on Tarot cards or communicate with the spirit using the Wiji board. A suggested person may even get better after visiting a psychic, but this is at the level of the placebo effect.
Are people possessed by the devil victims of self-hypnosis?
Gennady Ivanov: Most often, people with schizophrenia were subjected to exorcism, and this did not lead to healing, but to the death of the patient. In some cases, we can talk about self-hypnosis. In a series of experiments, people managed to induce bruising on their hands with the help of suggestion – something that would be called stigmata in the Middle Ages. Although I am more inclined to believe that it was just an ordinary props or a patient in psychosis himself damaged himself in one way or another, and the witnesses gave out everything as if the “signs of the devil” appeared themselves.
How do modern doctors relate to hypnosis?
Gennady Ivanov: Hypnotic anesthesia is effective for people suffering from various types of cancer. It allows you to save on medicines and eliminate side effects from them. This method can be used as an addition to anesthetics in the treatment of wounds, burns, in the postoperative period in order to accelerate recovery or reduce chronic pain, for example, in the lower back. Finally, hypnosis helps get rid of phantom pains when conventional medications are powerless.
Do animals succumb to hypnosis?
Yes. Suggestibility is inherent in us by nature. For many animals and birds, this is a reflex that helps to survive in nature when faced with danger: if you can not escape from the threat, it is better to numb or pretend to be dead. For others, this is an element of building a hierarchy where suggestibility forces a being to submit to authority.
People respond differently to hypnosis. The reaction of 80% of people depends on specific conditions, the rest are either easily suggestible, or completely resistant to hypnosis. The success lies in the little things: the hypnotherapist’s charisma, certain words and intonations, the patient’s trust, his degree of relaxation and, most importantly, desire.
It is easier for strong-willed individuals to succumb to hypnosis if they themselves want it and trust a hypnotherapist, and religious and emotional people respond to suggestion thanks to a rich imagination and belief in the supernatural.
Can a person be hypnotized to rob a bank?
No. The brain is always on guard. Under hypnosis, you will not be forced to sit on the twine if you are not able to do this in the normal state without harm to health. And you definitely won’t rob the bank if you didn’t plan it. Although there are several cases where the accused claimed to be innocent, because they committed a crime under hypnosis. But the investigations showed that each of them had planned their actions in advance and clearly understood what he was doing when he broke the line of the law.
How do gypsies manipulate people?
Important elements of gypsy hypnosis are intimidation and “cold reading”: a fortuneteller predicts the death of a loved one, guesses a couple of details from the victim’s life, and people begin to believe her and suggest the right answers. Another popular method is distraction. Gypsies surround the victim (someone screams, someone sings), bright colors flicker in his eyes, and the victim’s attention is defocused as if he was already in a state of hypnosis.
Try at this moment to laugh, make a face or play a joke on a gypsy – and her magic will immediately disappear. Or talk to her in a harsh, rude manner and leave as soon as possible.
What does a person under hypnosis look like?
You often feel it. For example, when you doze during the day, read a fascinating book or play on a tablet. In all three cases, you do not notice what is happening around you, you can pass your stop or not hear the sound of the phone.
A more interesting example is children’s fairy tales. By reading them, you help your child fall asleep. You set certain examples of behavior, talking about the heroes and their actions, programming your baby to evaluate how the real people will behave in the future.
In some professions, do people use hypnosis to succeed? Is it legal?
Gennady Ivanov: The use of hypnosis in everyday life and at work is a natural and important thing, because it opens the way to success. Personally, I believe that it is necessary to teach appropriate skills not only to spies and speakers, but to all children from adolescence. For example, when a marketer teaches sellers how to work with a buyer, he teaches them hypnosis. If you read the collection of speeches of the famous lawyer Plevako, then it is easy to make sure that these are coding samples.
Work with the subconscious is in demand wherever highly precise psychomotor preparation is needed. Astronauts and athletes, before acting in the field, get the opportunity to work out all the elements and techniques in a fictional reality. In a hypnotic trance, they mentally experience all the luck and failure in completing tasks, and then use the experience gained in real life. Almost like in the movie “Mr. Nobody.”
Hypnotherapy – an alternative to visits to a psychologist?
Yes. For example, Bruce Willis defeated so stuttering, Britney Spears quit smoking, singer Sam Smith, such therapy helps to cope with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and Orlando Bloom has overcome an unhealthy appetite for chocolate.
Many people who are afraid of dentists are increasingly choosing hypnotherapy to treat their teeth without resorting to general anesthesia: immersed in deep hypnosis, they are completely relaxed (but they can be quickly brought to life by a special command).
Gennady Ivanov: Every phobia is a life-developed reflex that has lost its relevance and become an obstacle. Like a mine that was laid to defeat the enemy, but the war ended, and the mine turned into danger for the one who set it. We know how sappers work: a hypnotherapist works in a similar way.
Suppose a stutter appeared in a person as an attempt to attract parental attention as a result of a shock situation at the age of 5. Having caught that a speech impediment changes the behavior of parents (they become caring), the child begins to stutter when he urgently needs warmth and participation. This forms a protective behavior model, which in the adult period becomes a burden. A man turns to me, and I immerse him in the past, where I help him find that plot, when he began to stutter in fear, aroused his parents. I force my ward to live it again, but without consequences – so that the “broken” file is replaced in memory with a new one, without a defect. 5-10 sessions – and my interlocutor ceases to respond to circumstances that previously triggered a stutter.
Why recommend hypnosis in the treatment of allergies and psoriasis?
Gennady Ivanov: About 5% of skin diseases are psychosomatic in nature, that is, they are a consequence of a nervous breakdown. If the person who asked for help is quite hypnotic and there were episodes when a strong emotion triggered reactions similar to allergic ones, then a complete release from the symptom occurs, as a rule, in every second case.
Can I not wake up after hypnosis?
No, this is just a myth. Without the help of a hypnotist or with his participation, but you will always wake up.
Gennady Ivanov: But you can use immersion in this unusual state to trigger lucid dreams and inspire the desired plot. Freud also said that dreams are a different way of fulfilling our desires and tendencies. We make a person concentrate on something, which is what he dreams at night. True, it is unlikely that this will always work, especially if a person practices this for himself. Our brain will at some point get used to such techniques and cease to perceive them.
Why is hypnosis recommended for expectant mothers?
Gennady Ivanov: Reducing pain directly during childbirth and preparing for them. Often pain is born out of fear of waiting for this same pain. The main task of hypnosis in this case is to teach the expectant mother to perceive the forthcoming birth without fear.
The other side of this therapy is the possibility during pregnancy and breastfeeding to use hypnosis as an alternative to drugs, for example, to calm down, quickly fall asleep or get rid of a mild headache.
Can hypnosis be used to develop talent?
It is known that Einstein and Mozart resorted to hypnosis, trying to expand the boundaries of the imagination. And if there is no talent, can it be instilled?
Gennady Ivanov: There is such a direction as creative hypnosis. It was developed in our country by V.L. Raikov and O.K. Tikhomirov. Thus, it is possible to activate a person’s creative abilities, but this happens due to the removal of barriers and alleviation of the emotional state. The ability to instill some new abilities by the method of suggestion is a common myth.
Can a person be taught new knowledge or made so that he remembers the forgotten?
Hypnosis makes you concentrate on a separate thought, so new information is easier to assimilate in this state. Sometimes therapy helps to remember something, but these memories can be false, so this method of restoring something in memory is ineffective. It is also impossible to somehow improve the ability to remember information by putting a person in a position. But can hypnotherapy help people suffering from Alzheimer’s?
Gennady Ivanov: Hypnosis as a way to treat or improve the quality of life for people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease will be absolutely useless (at least there is no scientific evidence to the contrary). Because this is not psychology, but physiological processes.
Important: hypnosis has contraindications
Gennady Ivanov: Hypnosis is contraindicated in epileptics, as well as in some other diseases, especially related to mental disorders. This is due to the peculiarity of the diseases themselves: in everyday life, such patients spend a huge amount of effort on conscious self-control, which they need to contain the attack. Hypnosis relaxes, removes prohibitions and blocks the mechanisms of self-control, which can lead to a sudden attack.
