HYPNOSIS PRINCIPLES AND APPLICATIONS:AN ADJUNCT TO ANESTHESIA - PART 2

Michael R. “Ron” Eslinger
RN, CRNA, MA, APN, BCH, CI
Captain, United States Navy, Retired
Owner Healthy Visions Wellness Center
Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Phone: 865-220-0777
email roneslinger@yahoo.com or www.eslinger.net

What is Hypnosis

The word hypnosis is derived from the Greek word "hypnos", meaning sleep.4 In the hypnotic state, however, the individual is not asleep, so the word hypnosis is misleading. Health care practitioners today prefer the term "relaxation". How often have you said to a patient, "Relax, take a deep breath and relax?" Relaxation can be described, as a particular mental and physical state a person enters when he/she accepts suggestions uncritically and acts upon them.5 Hypnosis or relaxation is a learning process in the therapist - patient relationship. Patients are treated in hypnosis, not with or by hypnosis.

In the minds of some people the word "hypnosis" has connotations of black magic, or hocus-pocus. The media, movies and fiction books misrepresent it as well. Many people believe that the therapist has incredible powers, but nothing is farther from the truth. No one can be hypnotized without their consent.6 Simply stated, it is an absolute, complete state of relaxation. This is commonly called the "trance state",7 which is accomplished by suggestions given to a patient while he or she is in a hypnotic state.

Imagination and the Human Mind

Imagination is an extremely important ingredient of hypnosis. The law of "will power and imagination"8 states: "When the imagination and will power conflict the imagination always wins out." When on a diet one may use will power to say they will not eat, but as soon as they start imagining how good their favorite desert would taste the mouth starts watering, gastric juices are secreted, and they have to have it.

Normal sleep is an unconscious state, or a state of unawareness; hypnosis is a conscious state, or a state of awareness.9 It is said that in hypnosis, one's awareness is increased by 1,000 percent. Patients in the operating room are most often induced into general anesthesia using hypnotic medications. What they hear in those few moments of hypnotic awareness may leave a lasting imprint that could effect their physical and emotional health. Therefore, positive comments such as, "you will feel better than you thought you would," or "you will have a warm and comfortable feeling as you wake up," encourage positive results to the healing process. One patient who was told to have a pleasant thought as she was induced into anesthesia later emerged from anesthesia saying, those were the most wonderful roses she had ever smelled.

The human mind is extremely complex and there is still a great deal to be learned about it. However, we do know the mind has two levels; the conscious level and the subconscious level. The conscious level may be referred to as our objective mind, while the subconscious level may be considered as the subjective or autonomic mind.10 In the normal state, ideas or suggestions are presented to the conscious level; while in the hypnotic state they are presented to the subconscious level. The subconscious level accepts suggestions more readily and acts upon them. Since the subconscious level cannot analyze what it is told, it accepts everything as the truth. In the normal conscious state after hypnosis, all units of mind power are impregnated with the suggestions or ideas that were presented during the hypnotic state.11

The mind, stimulated by suggestion, is capable of great things through its imagination. As a result of various emotional reactions, remarkable physical and mental changes can occur;12 these same changes can be obtained through hypnosis and imagery conditioning. To be continued