the Free Hypnosis Social Network
Concentrated Mind vs a Relaxed Mind- Can you have both? (general theory)
"you need to concentrate/focus/pay attention to the hypnotists instructions" while simultaneously being instructed to "mentally relax and put in no mental effort" when going into self hypnosis seem to be a common phenomena within this community . Isn't concentrating simpily putting in mental effort or just effort in general. Don't these instructions seem to be very contradictory to each other? Ive been having trouble with this concept for a while now and I'm trying to understand it better; to successfully incorporate both ideas together or to conclude if one state is better or worse than the other for me. How would you incorporate or explain both if these ideas together? ( I think the last definition does a good job incorporating both while the first two suggest having a concentrated mind is more beneficial than a relaxed one, the first definition to a higher extent than the second)
---- (H. Spiegel & Greenleaf, 1992): hypnosis (or trance) as an animated, altered, integrated
state of focused consciousness, that is, controlled imagination. It is an attentive, receptive
state of concentration that can be activated readily and measured. It requires some degree of
dissociation to enter and become involved in imagined activity, enough concentration for an
individual to maintain a certain level of absorption, and some degree of suggestibility to
take in new premises .
Many members on this website have told me that a wandering mind (unfocused/unconsecrated) is beneficial; this definition however states that concentration is required. The notion that a wandering mind is beneficial is framed around the assumption that a wandering mind allows suggestions to bypass the conscious mind.
----Braid, Hypnotic Therapeutics: the real origin and essence of the hypnotic condition, is the induction of a habit of abstraction or mental concentration, in which, as in reverie or spontaneous abstraction, the powers of the mind are so much engrossed with a single idea or train of thought, as, for the nonce, to render the individual unconscious of, or indifferently conscious to, all other ideas, impressions, or trains of thought. The hypnotic sleep, therefore, is the very antithesis or opposite mental and physical condition to that which precedes and accompanies commonsleep
Tags: Concentrated, Mind, Relaxed, consciousness, effort, unconscious
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Graham Old on -
Is this a forum post or a blog?
Also, what's with the blue and red? I've just been to another hypnotists website where the front page was similarly coloured and differentiated. I didn't stay more than 5 seconds - and that's even with me being interested in what he had to say.
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Permalink Reply by MeandMyself on -
Red = anything that indicates effort (concentration, focus etc.) , Blue = no effort. This is suppose to be a discussion post, not a blog, which u most likely derived from the length. And I'm not "another" hypnotist because i'm not a hypnotists to begin with;college student. I asked for information on the subject not how interested u are in this post or anyone elses .
Graham Old said:Is this a forum post or a blog?
Also, what's with the blue and red? I've just been to another hypnotists website where the front page was similarly coloured and differentiated. I didn't stay more than 5 seconds - and that's even with me being interested in what he had to say.
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Permalink Reply by Anthony Jacquin on -
Wagstaff, in a pop at some of the neurological evidence suggesting a specific state of hypnosis was achieved after an induction, took two studies that used contrasting inductions and demonstrated that the nature of the task in the induction e.g concentrate and focus or b) relax and drift was likely to be related to the contradictory neurological responses.
In other words the perceived 'state' is actually related to the task instructions. You can read more in his chapter of the book 'The Highly Hypnotisable Person'
Anthony
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Permalink Reply by MeandMyself on
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So in other words different inductions produce different sates which essentially try to achieve the same results? From a generical theoretical point of view, wouldn't an induction that can produce both states synonymously utilize the benefits from both states in one session like the Hypnotic Therapeutics definition provided above suggests? Is it possible that an individual may be able to sway or influence an induction with his or her own thought proses to produce a certain state? i personally am trying to produce a session that utilizes both; concentration leading to a degree of unconsciousness.
Anthony Jacquin said:
Wagstaff, in a pop at some of the neurological evidence suggesting a specific state of hypnosis was achieved after an induction, took two studies that used contrasting inductions and demonstrated that the nature of the task in the induction e.g concentrate and focus or b) relax and drift was likely to be related to the contradictory neurological responses.
In other words the perceived 'state' is actually related to the task instructions. You can read more in his chapter of the book 'The Highly Hypnotisable Person'
Anthony
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Permalink Reply by John Cleesattel on -
I have found that the purpose of the initial focused attention is to manifest what I call a natural trance state, where we utilize our peripheral awareness to automatically react to outside input provided by the senses. This is our normal everyday type trance that we go into and out of many times a day, and primarily use to multitask (such as driving a car).
Once that natural trance state is achieved, it is further amplified into a hypnotic trance state in which the analytical part of our mind goes dormant (as does any "focus" of our mind as well as what is called..the critical faculty) and we automatically react to outside input via the intellect. This is an unfocused mental state.
If interested further, I have a complete layout of this hypnosis/mind model on my website. The address is on my profile page here.
John
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Permalink Reply by Ricky Strode on -
Actually their is nothing they have to do besides be alive. You do not need them to pay attention or focus, but it does makes things much easier and faster in many instances. I have hypnotized many people who were not even paying conscious attention to what I was doing. I have had this happen many times at shopping places and so on. However, remember that the idea in many inductions is to get someone in a state in which people are more suggestible (I.E a natural trace state as John has mentioned).
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