Hypnosis: Suggestion and Illusion: the Power of Words

a discussion by Ken Wear first posted
January 2001 and occasionally edited

Confusing and conflicting ideas abound and an almost mystical aura surrounds hypnosis. For most of us our only observation of hypnotism has been its use in entertainment, and it is often thought to be somehow akin to the sleight-of-hand or illusions of magic.

While it is easier to describe what hypnosis is not than what it is, in reality hypnosis is a very common experience for all of us. As we go to sleep we first enter the alpha state, in which breathing slows, muscles relax and heart rate slows, but it is a state of calm wakefulness in which our senses are very much alert, and, if nudged, we claim to be awake. In sleep the brain waves slow still more to the theta state, and the senses are no longer active. (Beyond that there are further stages of sleep that do not concern us here.)

In hypnosis we wish to induce the alpha state but arrest the descent into the theta state by maintaining mental alertness and focus. And with the mental focus our senses are in a state of heightened sensitivity and the ability to recall remains strong. But there is no sensory change to tell us we are in a hypnotic trance; in fact, it is common for a subject to deny afterward being hypnotized. Some practitioners include suggestions that cause some unusual response to convince his subjects, after they are brought out of the hypnotic trance, they were indeed hypnotized, such as uncommon thirst. The sense of total relaxation does persist after the trance and is indeed very pleasant even if short-lived.

If you have read self-help books to enhance your ability to get along with people or hold your own in relationships or improve your salesmanship (or myriad other objectives) you may recall the suggestion to repeat a particular phrase or idea over and over. The author is encouraging you to impose on your subconscious mind an idea that will improve your responses to people and events; that phrase or idea is comparable to the suggestions the hypnotist will plant in your subconscious during your session; it is akin to self-hypnosis.

In our modern era the practice of hypnosis started with Mesmer, but the power of suggestion has been practiced for millennia, as you will recognize if you reflect on ancient religious practices. (Picture, if you will, a religious shaman exciting his listeners to a religious fervor.) Hypnosis is likely nearly as old as language. Truly, it is no more than a new name for an ancient art.

By contrast, in stage hypnotism (the use of hypnosis for entertainment) it is questionable if the alpha state that characterizes hypnosis is involved at all. In fact, a researcher, based on the use of hypnotism in entertainment, concluded that hypnotism is a hoax, that it is in fact an unspoken agreement between hypnotist and subject. Based on what he was analyzing, the researcher reached a proper conclusion. But let me explain:

Recall the method of selection of subjects to take part in stage hypnotism. All are volunteers. Recall that the audience, including volunteers, has paid for the privilege of being entertained; volunteers obviously consider their participation as part of their own entertainment. Some may be motivated by a desire to confound the hypnotist, but all are volunteers. And most volunteers are predisposed to cooperate. In a practical vein, the hypnotist does not have the luxury of adequate time to induce a trance; if he took the time, the audience would become restive. It is the hypnotist's task to select between willing subjects and those wishing to trip him up. In either case, whether or not a subject is hypnotized is not an issue; the only issue is whether the hypnotist has chosen his volunteers wisely.

My mentor, Dr. A. M. Krasner, did not like the word "trance" because of the negative connotation to many people. Taking it as a mental state of heightened suggestibility, let us use the word to describe that state of relaxation and alertness that is entered during the hypnotic induction. What is a hypnotic trance like? Superficially, I could say (and, for purposes of demonstration, please perform each step in turn):
"Lower your head and close your eyes [pause];
take three deep breaths [long pause];
now open your eyes and look up [short pause];
now how do you feel? [brief pause]
If you did this exercise with me, you have just experienced the sensation of being hypnotized."
Many people afterwards deny they were hypnotized at all; as in the alpha state of approaching sleep, there are no peculiar feelings that you can use to distinguish between ordinary wakefulness and the hypnotic state. But you will be supremely relaxed and alert, and your senses will be sharp.

If the subject is abandoned while in a trance, he will either spontaneously exit the trance or the trance will revert to normal sleep and, except for the effect of suggestions that have been planted, there will be no after effects as a consequence of the hypnotic trance. However, because of the alpha state there is a concentration, a sharper focus, on the words of the hypnotist, and this produces a heightened receptivity to suggestion. And, apart from the benefit of relaxation, it is this heightened receptivity that we use to assist a person in whatever purpose he had in pursuing hypnosis. Let me list a few uses: Giving up smoking or changing another habit, wise eating or weight loss, pain relief, reducing tinnitus, recall of past incidents (this or a prior life), overcoming the anguish of a failed romance, improving sexual function, going to sleep readily.

The brain is a truly remarkable mechanism. Your conscious mind allows thought; it recognizes messages the nerves bring from your body and responds to those messages; it interprets what the eyes and ears sense. But much of your brain operates below your consciousness to control things like breathing and digestion and to intercept nerve signals of normal bodily operation. Every nerve in your body is susceptible to stimulation continuously (non-stop 24/7); when triggered the nerve impulses are forwarded upstream to the subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind filters all of those signals brought by the nerves and forwards to your conscious mind only what seems necessary to allow your conscious mind to respond, such as hunger or pain or danger. In hypnosis we wish to plant suggestions in your subconscious mind to influence its workings in sorting or to pair a recognized bodily demand with a desire you have introduced such as pairing hunger with your desire to lose weight.

But you cannot with the brute force of your conscious mind require your subconscious mind to alter its workings; suggestion is subtle and works without your conscious control. For instance, I am convinced that to a limited extent you can express to your subconscious a wish and it will attempt to alter its workings in response to your wish, but you cannot with your conscious mind require it to do so. (A personal example: At one time I read about sleep, that the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep was shallow and dreams took place during REM sleep. I reasoned that my body needed deep sleep so I wished to cease REM sleep with its dreaming. Well, I reasoned incorrectly; REM sleep is just as necessary as deep sleep, but my subconscious mind did respond by ceasing to let dreams appear in my conscious mind. I still dream; on rare occasions I remember a dream; but I seldom have a conscious recollection of a dream. I made a mistake; I would like to be aware of dreams, but I have been unable to command my subconscious mind to allow recognition of dreams.) So, the workings of the subconscious mind are subtle and hypnotic suggestion, to be effective, must work within the limitation that your conscious mind cannot impose but your subconscious mind can receive and incorporate those suggestions into its workings.

You may have read a self-help book with the notion of repeating a particular phrase over and over so it becomes embedded in your subconscious mind and thereafter influences your behavior. It is an effort to force your subconscious mind to cooperate; it may or may not "take" depending on brain operation that is beyond your conscious control, as, for instance, when the newly-introduced idea produces a conflict with something you have previously attempted to introduce or with a fundamental or core belief.

Is it only the weak-minded who can be hypnotized? Not at all. The weak-minded have difficulty concentrating, and if you cannot concentrate your chances of being hypnotized are poor.

Are there personal traits that lend to hypnosis? Yes, certainly. People of an imaginative bent, such as writers or musicians, find it easier to achieve a trance than the analytically oriented such as engineers or bookkeepers. Because, the better you are at visualizing yourself in pleasurable activities, the more readily you may be hypnotized, I encourage exercising the imagination, as in visualization -- something like day dreaming. Imagine yourself in pleasant surroundings, such as a park or a woodland or the beach -- or, for the ladies, an extensive shopping mall. One of my favorites is walking along a narrow farm road with a fence to my right; what I feel and see and smell and hear depends on the season; I allow myself to move around, taking part in pleasurable activities or simply examining whatever confronts my senses. It is true that, once you have experienced hypnosis with its extreme relaxation you will find it much easier to re-enter a hypnotic trance; in fact, you may find yourself welcoming it.

Is there a mind-set that hinders achieving a trance? Certainly. For instance, you may in your mind try to act as observer of the process rather than participant. If you are actively participating, your chances of reaching a trance are greatly improved, but, if you act as an observer, your chances are reduced. Or, if you are convinced hypnotism can't or won't work, or may be harmful, that conviction will likely override any conscious effort to cooperate with the hypnotist. And, for success, you must make a deliberate effort to avoid distractions so your focus can remain on the experience at hand.

People differ in their attitude toward hypnotism, all the way from those who deny the possibility to those who have not drawn a conclusion about hypnosis to those who welcome the experience. Some are fearful that it might work (or are convinced it does work) and might have a deleterious effect. Some distrust the hypnotist. Some, perhaps out of curiosity, attempt to observe themselves during the experience and thus have a divided purpose and do not fully participate in the hypnotic induction, with the result they weaken or deny themselves the benefit of the suggestions what were the purpose in undertaking hypnosis. Persons with prior experience can testify that it is a pleasurable experience with no effect beyond the suggestions planted by the hypnotist -- certainly nothing debilitating or a residual harmful effect.

People differ in their response to the hypnotist. Some approach hypnosis as an adventure that adds to their life experience, some are unwilling to contemplate what they perceive as surrendering control to the hypnotist, and some make an effort to cooperate regardless of any preconceived notions. About a third resist; repetiton may improve their chance for success. A second third should reach a shallow trance on the first attempt; repetition improves depth of trance. The other third should, on the first attempt, reach a depth of trance that is adequate for success. It is true that some -- a very few -- people are capable of entering a much deeper trance, perhaps to an extent comparable to sleep-walking. But such a highly suggestible person is the exception. And, even so, it would require extended effort on the part of both hypnotist and client in order to enter such a deep trance. ^{1To view footnote, click here.}

How did I approach hypnotizing a client? There are many techniques but I used a relaxation technique. After some reminders and two or three demonstrations of the near-irresistible effects of suggestion, I suggest you visualize yourself taking part in a very relaxing setting. And then I suggest relaxing first one area of your body and then another so that you gradually become extremely relaxed and focused. This is most often adequate to induce a shallow trance. The procedure may be repeated in a variety of ways to deepen the trance until you are prepared to receive suggestions. Now, you had approached the hypnotist for help in achieving some personal objective so, because you had agreed on your objective, you are anticipating suggestions and readily receive them. Since introduction of suggestions was the purpose for the trance, the purpose has now been served so the trance may be broken and the session ended. And you are left with a tool to help you in pursuing your objective.

It should be evident, since this is the alpha state and you are fully alert, anything that produces mental agitation or loss of concentration will be disruptive of the process. Hence your morals are not put to sleep; you cannot be compelled to do something contrary to your nature or even contrary to your wishes. In fact, such a radical suggestion would result in your abandoning the trance and aborting the session.

An example: A friend was hosting a hypnotist and wished a demonstration. She liked beer and someone thought making beer unappetizing would be a splendid trick. So the hypnotist went through his paces and suggested she would dislike beer. Now, I don't know what result you, the reader, would expect from this hypnotic session, but, after coming out of trance, her first demand was for a beer. She had not wanted to give up beer, and the hypnotist was helpless to require her to want something she had not beforehand desired for herself.

(I would caution against irresponsible antics should you undertake to hypnotize a friend. It is possible to introduce suggestions that deceive the senses, such as making a walking stick feel like a snake or the touch of your hand feel like a spider; this aspect makes a strong contribution to the entertainment value of hypnosis. If the friend has a deadly fear of snakes or spiders, you could produce a strong, unpredictable and possibly dangerous reaction. I doubt you would be successful in hypnotizing a known enemy, but murder and suicide have been attempted by progressive reduction of heart or breathing rate; but when the subject lost consciousness natural bodily responses took over and death was frustrated. One could, of course, construct a situation where the subject innocently walked into a booby trap.)

Once you have a desire, hypnosis can assist you in pursuing that desire. But hypnosis cannot introduce a desire; it cannot require you to want something against your wish. It is not a technique we can use to torture our fellow men; hypnosis is a tool we can use for our own betterment.

Let me emphasize that cooperation is vital in reaching a trance. The question of motivation must be explored by the hypnotist before he undertakes working with a client. There are certainly other ways to assess motivation, but the surest technique lies in assessing a fee that the person considers to be significant. For instance, were I to charge you $15 for one of my tapes, your purchase might be simple curiosity or a party stunt; but if you paid $200 for the tape I could reasonably conclude you are adequately motivated to cooperate. But some applications are so self-evident that adequate motivation can be assumed.

I had used hypnotism on a limited basis with friends, both in person and via cassette tapes. To assist in weigh reduction, or give up smoking, or gain the peace of sleep, or revisit the past, or relieve pain in a specific part of the body. I have used hypnosis on myself -- prepared a cassette tape and then listened to it -- to relieve pain (plantar fasciitis, or the perennial feeling of a stone bruise of the heel), to achieve sleep, and to help overcome the trauma of a shattered love affair. Despite my analytical orientation as a physicist and engineer I can attest to its effectiveness.

Can hypnosis be of value to you? I don't encourage it for trivial purposes or to delight your friends. It is a powerful technique that should not be wasted in absent-minded trivialities but reserved to help you achieve worthwhile goals in your life.