What is Hypnosis and How Exactly Does It Work?
By Desi Ivanova, Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist
Thanks to movies, TV or the experience of a close friend, you may already have ideas about what hypnosis involves. But how accurate are they? Let’s break down what hypnosis really is, the theory behind it, and how it can help you make positive changes in your life.
What is hypnosis?
Hypnosis is a safe, relaxed state of focused attention and increased suggestibility during which positive suggestions (based on your individual needs) and guided imagery are used to help with a variety of mental, physical, and emotional concerns.
“Focused attention” is the key term here. During hypnosis, we are in a slow THETA brain wave allowing us to be 100% focused on what we want to change. So as your therapist speaks and makes suggestions, your mind can listen, integrate and activate those suggestions fully.
In the hypnotic state, you are still conscious and aware, but you have full access to your Subconscious Mind.
Hypnosis and the Theory of Mind
We can use the THEORY OF MIND to further explain how hypnosis works. Imagine an iceberg. What you see above the water is just the tip, but underneath there is a giant part that makes up most of the iceberg.
Now think of that tip as our Conscious Mind (which accounts for 12% of our mind) and that huge part below the water as our Subconscious Mind (the remaining 88%).
How the Subconscious Mind works
Let’s focus on the larger part for a moment, our Subconscious Mind. It’s formed at birth and absorbs all beliefs and associations that we witness and experience like a sponge - without doubt or question.
For example:
If a dog bites you, you’ll have a negative association with dogs.
If you’re given sweets for being a “good kid”, you’ll have a positive association with sugar.
The statements that parents regularly make about you or others will also anchor in as your personal beliefs.
This process continues until we’re about 7 years old. Then something new happens. The mind decides that it has gathered enough information about its environment and will now lock that in as its “sacred map” to help us navigate the world.
So it puts a “lid” on the Subconscious Mind (imagine the water surface as the lid) and, on top of that, starts to build our Conscious Mind (the tip of the iceberg).
The Conscious Mind and the Critical Mind
The Conscious Mind is used for analysis, logical thinking and discernment. It’s where all information, including any new beliefs, is stored before it can enter our Subconscious Mind and become part of our sacred map.
The lid (the water surface in our example) that separates the Conscious and Subconscious is called our Critical Mind. Any new belief that’s outside our sacred map is unknown and potentially dangerous. So the Critical Mind prevents information from the Conscious Mind from sliding directly into the Subconscious.
Any new belief from the Conscious Mind will stop here at the Critical Mind (the lid) and check in with the Subconscious Mind. If our Subconscious has stored a different belief about this subject, it will reject it.
So even though 12% of us (our Conscious Mind) wants to absorb the new belief, if the remaining 88% contradicts it, it will refuse it. Because it’s outside the sacred map, it represents a threat.
The Critical Mind in action
Let’s say you want to believe that smoking is unhealthy and quit, but in childhood, your parents smoked. So because you loved your parents, 88% of you has a positive association with smoking. The opposite is unfamiliar and therefore, scary.
Another scenario -you want to believe that relationships are safe, but you witnessed a stressful divorce. That means 88% of you has a negative association with relationships. The opposite is unfamiliar and therefore, scary.
Now you can see why all these thoughts won’t get past the Critical Mind (the lid/separator) and will only remain up there in our Conscious Mind.
Unfortunately, we can’t make changes with just 12%; we need 100% consent.
The tricky part is that a lot of the time, our Subconscious associations are, well, just that- subconscious, and so they’re not apparent to us.
The Subconscious quietly sabotages our behaviours thinking it’s keeping us safe by navigating our life within its locked sacred map.
Hypnosis holds the key to the Subconscious Mind
This is where hypnosis comes to the rescue. During the state of hypnosis, the barrier/lid of the Critical Mind opens up, and we have free access to the Subconscious Mind. So anything we think or believe with our Conscious Mind can now be dropped down directly into our Subconscious Mind to “reprogram” the sacred map. The hypnotherapist will use appropriate suggestions and images to do that for us.
The same is true when it comes to extracting information from our Subconscious Mind. Once the lid is open, it can easily rise to the surface. We can now access all those old associations and remember where they came from. And once we’re aware of them, we can start changing them.
How does hypnosis happen?
But how do we actually get hypnotised? By overloading our mind with “an excess of message units” - in other words, too much information (thoughts, emotions, visuals, sounds etc.)
In fact, we experience hypnosis almost daily. If you’re watching a fascinating movie (overloaded by emotions, visuals etc.), you’re in hypnosis. Your mind is 100% focused on the film. If someone calls out your name, you’ll hear it, but you probably won’t pay attention because the film is the most important thing right now.
Let’s say you come home tired from a long day of work. You sit down in front of the TV, the commercials come on, and suddenly (companies famously take advantage of this), you see an attention-grabbing, shiny ad. Because you’re already overloaded from all the happenings of the day, it doesn’t take much more to send you into hypnosis. The ad does the job, and you may find yourself ordering that juicy burger or buying that rejuvenating (Michael Myers) laser mask.
Hypnosis as a tool to change your life
Now you know that we frequently fall into hypnosis in our daily life, you’ve probably guessed that we can create new Subconscious associations, even as adults. Any charged experience that caused information to bypass our Critical Mind can be anchored into our Subconscious and become part of our “sacred map”.
This means we can use hypnosis to help us overcome and process traumatic events and responses like a fear of driving caused by a serious accident. However, hypnosis can also help us tap into joyful, successful events that increased our confidence and self-worth, e.g. winning an award for our work. So whether you’d like to overcome a phobia, better manage stress or anxiety or increase your self-esteem and build positive habits, hypnotherapy has the potential to help you reach your goal.
If you’d like to find out more about how hypnotherapy can help you transform your mindset and change your life, then I’d love to have a conversation with you. I offer a free 15-minute consultation over Zoom where I’d be happy to answer all your questions.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Desi Ivanova
Desi Ivanova is a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist who specializes in healing people on a deeper mind and soul level.
Her purpose is to help individuals transform their mindsets and change their life so they can impact more people, create their dream life and feel completely fulfilled.
Desi firmly believes that humans are ever-evolving and have the power to transform into versions of themselves that best serve their highest good. She has helped her clients with depression, anxiety, stress, pain management, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder, addictions, habits, sports performance, irritable bowel syndrome, weight loss, self-esteem and confidence.
Connect with Desi via her website or on Instagram, to find out more about her work and how hypnosis can help transform your life.