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Enjoy my PHA presentation above and enjoy my full detailed article about the science and power of hypnosis below.
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So let’s dive in ...
Within the scientific and cultural discussion, there is a lot of research today about the healing power of inner interventions such as mindfulness, meditation, and even naturally-derived hallucinogenic compounds such as DMT and psilocybin.
However, get ready to dive pretty deep into the most exciting, misunderstood and overlooked of them all - the amazing healing power of hypnosis!
The History of Hypnosis
Nearly all ancient cultures - including the Sumerian, Persian, Chinese, Indian, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman - had shamans, priests or practitioners employing hypnosis for healing, and the use of hypnosis healing techniques is common in native and indigenous cultures all over the world today, from the healing practices of Southern Africa to Native North American ceremony
By the 18th century, enough doctors, surgeons, psychiatrists, psychologists and psychotherapists were working with hypnosis that in 1892 the British Medical Association (BMA) unanimously endorsed the therapeutic use of hypnosis (the point here being that the use of hypnosis to help people heal is not new).
In 1845, Scottish surgeon James Esdaile became a notable figure for his painless surgical procedures on the battlefields of India using hypnosis. At the beginning of the 20th century, French psychologist Émile Coué developed the concept of autosuggestion, a hypnosis technique making use of what we now call placebo effect, and American psychiatrist Milton Erickson, specialising in medical hypnosis, founded the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH) in 1957.
The UK National Occupational Standards (NOS) for Hypnotherapy were published in 2002, and a 2016 Stanford study provided the modern day scientific acknowledgment that hypnosis causes physical changes in the brain that enable “enhanced somatic and emotional control”.
It has taken time for science to catch up with what ancient cultures have accepted as common practice for 1000s of years, but many incredible and powerful medical and therapeutic benefits of hypnosis are now fully acknowledged within modern science, and its amazing potential for inner healing continues to be explored
What Hypnosis Actually Is
The biggest hinderance to the modern acceptance of the immense healing power of hypnosis is the myths and misconceptions about what hypnosis is that have “(a) fostered a skewed and stereotyped view of hypnosis among the lay public, (b) discouraged participant involvement in potentially helpful hypnotic interventions, and (c) impeded the exploration and application of hypnosis in scientific and practitioner communities.”
It is not surprising that modern day society is finding it difficult to embrace what hypnosis actually is and the many healing benefits associated with it. Why?
Hypnosis is the scientific word used to explain the path inwards from our usual state of conscious awareness into our subconscious to altered states of consciousness found within what psychologists call the ‘unconscious mind’.
This has traditionally been considered a shamanic or spiritual path, but EEG readings now show how consciousness operates at different frequency levels, each associated with a different brain state, and hypnosis can be understood scientifically by understanding these frequencies, or brainwave states.
The typical frequency of awareness (consciousness) for almost all humans on the planet is the Beta brainwave state. This is the highly active thinking mind - or ‘monkey mind’ as meditators call it - where most of us live almost all of the time.
The part of the brain that lights up in brain scans when we are in this state of awareness is called the Default Mode Network (DMN).
The issue with living in the Beta state is negativity bias. Humans spend most of our time ruminating about past regrets or worrying about future outcomes.
Yet when we carry out any activity that brings our focus to the present moment, our brainwaves slow down, we move into Alpha brainwave activity, and we go into a state of conscious awareness that shuts our Default Mode Network down.
Unsurprisingly then, this is why studies show regular training to stay focused on the present moment and out of thinking has many positive psychological effects, and “is especially effective for reducing anxiety, depression, and stress”.
But when the human brain moves from Beta (thinking) into Alpha (present focus) and then into Theta (which is the dream-like state between awake and Delta - which is deep sleep), we enter what is known as the hypnotic state because we become deeply connected to our own subconscious - or our ‘unconscious mind’.
We know this to be true because we are in Theta when we dream, or when we are driving and notice that we drifted off and our subconscious took over for a while.
Also called hypnagogia (the natural state you are in just before you sleep) or hypnopompia (the natural state you are in just after you wake up), you go in and out of Theta regularly throughout the day.
To change frequency from Alpha into the hypnotic state, where healing with hypnosis is most effective, requires the participant to relax, trust, surrender, let go, and/or ‘sink into’ the Theta experience.
“the changes in consciousness induced by drinking ayahuasca are comparable to other states of deep relaxation and increased subconscious awareness, such as the meditative, the hypnotic and the hypnagogic states which are all characterized by increased theta activity in the EEG" (Hoffmann et al, 2001).
This experience can be described as ‘psychedelic’ because, as we deepen our awareness in this usually unconscious Theta frequency, our conscious experience of what is happening within us becomes very visual, auditory and kinaesthetic.
It is here that our deepest unhealthy patterns, fears and traumas reside, as well as our deepest desires. It is literally the holder of and gateway to our dreams.
approach.
The Benefits of Hypnosis
In our modern day technological and scientific world, the qualified individual facilitating the hypnosis session can do so with you in person or online, and the therapeutic practice is called hypnotherapy or, sometimes, clinical hypnosis.
Guided recorded instructions can also be very powerful, but not as powerful as an effective face-to-face session where the hypnotherapist should be reacting to and working with what is coming up personally for you.
Traditionally, for example, a hypnotherapist uses a script to guide the session, which is the same script for each person coming to them with that issue.
But in the hypnotic state, your own subconscious can communicate with itself, the person in hypnosis (you), and with the guide (the therapist) if present.
Parts work, for example, is a well established modality in which different parts of your own subconscious can communicate with each other, with you, and with the therapist, to end unhealthy patterns, addictive behaviours, resolve issues, and to overcome past trauma.
Recent meta-analyses, systematic reviews and randomised control trials confirm hypnosis is effective at treating PTSD, clinical pain, procedural and chronic pain, depression, anxiety, phobias, irritable bowl syndrome (IBS), acute and chronic insomnia, can accelerate weight loss and postoperative wound healing, improve the childbirth experience, and induces analgesia during surgical procedures.
Hypnosis is about your own subconscious reminding you of your own power. You can change unhealthy habits, clear internally stored stress, remove physical pain, reframe traumatic events, increase self-love, and even heal physical wounds.
Hypnosis is all about you helping and healing you. I will dive more into the amazing modalities (eg. what is past lives?) and possibilities with hypnosis in future posts, but if you are curious now then take a look at my approach.
What Hypnosis Is Not
Perhaps the two most damaging myths and misconceptions about hypnosis are that 1) hypnosis is dangerous, or 2) that hypnosis is mind control.
1) Hypnosis is not dangerous.
You cannot get stuck in hypnosis, and you are aware and conscious throughout the experience.
You are in the hypnotic ‘trance’ every time you are focused on TV, your phone, computer screens, reading, painting, dancing, driving, or ‘in the zone’ (eg. when doing a sport or playing music) and time and other events exit your awareness.
2) Hypnosis is not mind control.
If you do not want to be hypnotised, you won’t be. If you resist, it will not work. If you don’t like it, you ‘come back’ and return to Beta any time - just open your eyes.
You’re in total control. You cannot be ‘programmed’ while in hypnosis to carry out or assimilate any somatic or emotional change if you are not willing to do so.
Empowered Hypnosis
When you know what hypnosis is, you are extremely empowered. The danger associated with hypnosis is not hypnosis itself, but rather to do with you not knowing you’re going into hypnosis, or willingly going into hypnosis but underappreciating the power of hypnosis, thus disempowering yourself.
Consumer psychology and mass formation (also sometimes referred to as mass hypnosis or mass psychosis), for example, are not hypnosis, but they can use hypnosis as a tool to manipulate your behaviour - if you let them.
Think about this for a moment. An advertisement during the 2023 Super Bowl cost $7 million for 30 seconds. Why? Because when 115 million Americans are focused on TV and ‘sinking into’ the show, they are going into hypnosis and willingly allow those commercials to go directly into their subconscious.
Mass formation is another technique making use of hypnosis (used by authorities to control the behaviour of masses of people). The TV/media provide an external threat (think Covid-19), and the masses willingly allow the authorities to create havoc in their subconscious by ‘sinking into’ and focusing on that angst-evoking threat. People will then follow any provided solution just to relieve their angst.
Also bear in mind that every form of media and piece of information that you’re focused on, while absorbed in, is shaping who you are.
However, remember that a) hypnosis only works when you willingly allow it to so b) when you know how it works you can choose to accept or reject the process.
Just say to yourself, ‘Okay, I’m about to focus on and get really absorbed in this - what are the messages it is giving me? Are they empowering messages?’
Understanding what hypnosis is is extremely empowering because hypnosis can be used to trick and enslave you - or YOU can use hypnosis to set YOU free.
Freedom Hypnosis
"With the State Surgeon General saying one thing and the FDA saying another, health service providers are left stuck in the middle." ~ Dr Michael Sparks.
In other words, "I don't know which authority to listen to when making my own decisions."
We are free when we follow our own inner truth - our own inner guidance system - without fear of judgement or consequence.
It's our fears and limiting beliefs of 'little me' that keep us feeling enslaved. They are a result of past traumatic experiences. They're our socialisation, conditioning, and programming.
The healing power of hypnosis expands to even greater possibilities when we invite your subconscious to do the healing with you, and guide you on a journey to understand how you can be in best alignment in your life moving forward.
Believing in and trusting your own inner ability to decide what is right and what is wrong for you, Freedom Hypnosis means re-discovering that essence within you at the core of your being before your conditioning.
That essence of who you are has many names - your soul, spirit, consciousness, Higher Self, inner knowing - or simply put, intuition.
The more you peel away the layers of what you have been taught to believe about yourself and the world and connect to that, the more you’re kept safe, the more mentally and physically healthy you become, the more you discover your own personal purpose or mission, and the freer you feel.
You also begin to re-connect with abilities lying dormant and supressed within your very own personal onion of conditioning, and part of what you experience there is the feeling we're all connected and we're all one.
Hypnosis ultimately enables you to re-discover your highest inner truth - freedom.
Email me for more info:
hello@robitochatwin.com
My freedom work ⬇️
I provide global support as we the people heal our wounds from past and current events and take back the power and control over our own lives.
I am the hypnotherapy ambassador for the People’s Health Alliance and deliver sessions to people famous and non-famous in the truth/freedom movement.
You don’t need to be in a mess to benefit from a de-stress and inner guidance from within your own subconscious.
Freedom Hypnosis:
https://freedomhypnosis.org
Email me for more info:
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Hypnosis. The most powerful, overlooked, misunderstood, healing modality?