(Warning, slightly long post)
First I just wanted to say this is such a cool site. I am lucky to have just stumbled on to all this one day. I haven’t been here long but already there is a great difference in my life and the way I perceive dreams.
My big newbie question is about hypnosis, especially self hypnosis. This could be considered putting in words/phrases/symbols into the “programming” layer of the mind. (Pardon me if this topic is covered elsewhere, I couldn’t find it)
Is hypnosis real? I know there’s alot of outrageous schlock online and I couldn’t find anything that seemed really legitimate.
Everyone seems to believe that they could never be hypnotized. Including me. But then you see these silly things like people being hypnotized acting like chickens and other such strangeness. My dad went to a hypnotist and quit smoking in a single day cold turkey.
I really think hypnosis and mesmerism could be helpful for LDing.
Any info is greatly appreciated. I will try to find as much as I can and return if I find something useful.
I just found this:
I am intrigued. Anything that can slip suggestions past the “analytical” mind would be very helpful I think. Not only for LDing but for curing addiciton, stopping bad mental programmes, altered mental states, ect…
Hypnosis is real, yet there are various degrees to it. From full hypnosis like the “when I snap my fingers, you are a chicken” act, to self hypnosis or autosuggestion (used in MILD for example). Also, not everyone has the same capacity to be hypnotised. This said, the information in your quote is quite accurate, however I would like to add that the altered state of consciousness they speak about is commonly referred to as “being in a trance” (which is generally, being in a deep state of relaxation). With self hypnosis (which is the type of hypnosis which can be used as a tool for lucid dreaming), the concious mind doesn’t need to be bypassed completely, however being in a trance makes the subconscious mind much more receptive to our own conscious input. Therefore, if you are really relaxed, and you use auto-suggestion like “next time I’m dreaming, I will realise I’m in a dream”, your subconscious will automatically pick up this “command” the next time you’re in a dream. If you really concentrate on this, and you use also visualisation like in the MILD technique, you have an excellent tool to become lucid (as Laberge discovered).
“A Comparison of Waking Instruction and Posthypnotic Suggestion for Lucid Dream Induction”, Joseph Dane & Robert Van de Castle https://www.spiritwatch.ca/acompari.htm
Yes, hypnosis is very real. I use it all the time to deal with insomnia, induce lucid dreams and at times, control pain.
All hypnosis is really self hypnosis. Even when someone else guides you through the routine you still have to be a willing participant. You can’t be hypnotized against your will like they do in the movies or anything like that.
Anyway, a good place to start would be to go to your local library and get some good books on self-hypnosis. Explore for yourself how hypnosis can benefit you.
Just want to say I basically had a dream that told me to look into hypnosis which is why I started this thread.
Thanks! very cool
I think there really is something to this.
Now do you think hypnosis is similar to meditation into a trance state?
I ask because from the description it seems like it’s not. As far as I can tell going into trance can take you inside “nothing” or inside your imagination.
So is hypnosis different because you actually access the underlying programming of the mind? I mean is it to a different place in the mind?
I can’t say I have ever tranced and had improved smells and hearing and feeling like from the description:
I think hypnosis must be something different. Thanks for your posts, I am going to look far more into this.
Yes, they are different, and some of the differences can even be measured physiologically/scientifically.
A good place to start looking would be the classic book (an anthology) Altered States Of Consciousness by Charles Tart. (highly recommended!)
(I could be wrong, but I believe he coined the term, or at least is largly responsible for its general acceptance and use. He’s one of the top people in the field.
He also has a fairly decent web site https://www.paradigm-sys.com/cttart/
In the articles section there are several of his own papers on hypnosis, hypnosis and dreaming, and meditation.
Clearly speaking, there is no “hypnotic state”. If you hypnotize somebody and suggest him that he’s sleepy, the EEG will detect a sleep state. But you can also hypnotize someone and suggest him he stays awake, and the EEG detects a waking state.
Hypnosis is based upon suggestion. I don’t think it accesses an “underlying program”. Hypnotized people are generally conscious and feel they have to do what is asked.
Post-hypnotic suggestions are more curious, since people doesn’t really know why they’ve acted in such a way, and often invent a stupid reason in order to justify their acting. But they do this because, in order to make them more spectacular, hypnotists generally put together post-hypnotic suggestions with an amnesia order.
I did not mean to say it’s the same, only that hypnosis is generally performed while a subject is in trance (because it has most effect then, connection to subc mind is stronger). Hence I called that altered state of mind “being in trance”. Hope that claryfied it.