Hypnosis Vs. Religion

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Permalink Reply by Rev.William Mitchell M.Div.,BCH,CI on December 21, 2008 at 7:52pm

How Freudian can you get? Freud tried to psychologize belief in God with his important ,but now discarded psychological constructs. I would suggest that you would enjoy Jung much more than Freud.
You might be pleased to find your spirituality validated by a larger and less restrictive understanding of the Divine.
Respectfully,William Mitchell

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Permalink Reply by Bernie Nordquist on August 10, 2008 at 4:29pm

An excerpt from a recent post:
"Until we acknowledge our spiritual and divine nature, we remain lesser animals with a highly
developed brain."

Sounds like absolutism to me;
I submit that unquestioning faith is not a virtue.
People have slaughtered each other in wars, inquisitions for centuries and still kill each other over beliefs in religions and political ideologies. These belief systems when stated as propositions, may appear mystical and genuine to the naive, but when confronted with a testable bases from reason and experiment, they fail miserably. I maintain that beliefs create more social problems than they solve and that beliefs, especially those elevated to faith, produce the most destructive potential to the future of mankind.

FWIW
Bernie

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Permalink Reply by Rev.William Mitchell M.Div.,BCH,CI on December 21, 2008 at 8:01pm

Thou protesteth too much?
You think people need religious belief to torture ,kill , persecute, and commit genocide?
the sinful and fallen reason of humanity does not need religion to destroy others.
Your arguments based on this trait of the human animal are not as powerful as you might believe.
Man's inhumanity to man and other animals has little to do with religion. To the contrary,religion has been a powerful force in the process of outlawing such vile and disgusting practices. In the last days of the Roman Empire it was the Christians that opposed the gladiatorial games and the Theater where slaves were REALLY put to Death at the appropriate time in the Drama! These efforts by religion to humanize our violent world continue today.
respectfully,William Mitchell

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Permalink Reply by Amanda Irvine on August 10, 2008 at 6:05pm

Leo
I truly believe that your question is more about reality than the exsistance of God. I for years considered myself and atheiast but always saw admiration in those who believed. I spent time investingating many religions and God himself. And one day I had a very insightful conversation with a lady who was a very strong catholic, and she simply stated what do I have to lose in believing. My opion on the subject is a little abstract from most, but needless to say, I would now consider myself an agnostic (not knowing one way or the other) Faith is great, for those it works for. Spirituallity however is something more. I found this question rather interesting as in my journey's I have found a lot of strong believers who also believe that hypnosis is the works of the devil. I have heard a lot of people say they can't disprove God's exsistance, however I want to mention that we can't prove it either. Now I am trying to say all this in a nuteral way with out trying to force my opinions on others and I am deeply sorry if I offend anyone, as this is not my intent. However when I mention earlier that I think your questioning reality and not God, what I meant is that I think in general as a whole you are questioning exsistance. As far as reality goes, life is different for everyone, what may be my reality may not be the reality of a unfortunate child half away accross the world who hasn't had the oppertunities as me, due to what ever circumstances. What I believe is that all we need lies with in us. I think hypnosis is a great tool for coming to understand our sub consciousness, and learning with in. I believe that we all have the powers of the things we need but inorder to understand it we must realize it first. Everyone in this world is different. We all have different priorities, needs, and desires. Tapping into our true selves, I believe we can find all that. Sounds easier than said, but this is my view

Thanks Leo for the great topic and thanks to all those who participated with thier own veiws.
Amanda

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Permalink Reply by Roxann Higuera on August 10, 2008 at 6:25pm

I'm not sure what hypnosis has to do with belief in God one way or the other. Hypnosis can be used for religious purposes, but it is not an innately religious tool. Hypnosis is a way to achieve a state of mind. The Roman Catholic Church recognizes hypnosis as a neutral tool that can be used for good or bad. By itself, it is neither. Paul Durbin has written some excellent articles about hypnosis and religion. You can find them here: Human Trinity Hypnotherapy

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Permalink Reply by Gary Noble on September 7, 2008 at 8:34am

God, I could write a hundred pages on this one. But I won't.

Those who think they know are confined by what they know.

What do you know?

Or, better yet, what is plastic?

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Permalink Reply by James Klingensmith on September 7, 2008 at 12:12pm

Thank you For this Discussion,
Here's what I belive, As a Christian I belive it's very important to belive God is prefect!! and since he is so powerfull he had to create hypnosis so we could understand how to understand him.
"What is Real?" How about God, Eternal Life, and the Holy Spirit
"is reality afterall completely plastic?" No, Reality is just the testing ground for free will.
And I belive Science is "Plastic" it may last for a million years but not forever.
God is with out end.

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Permalink Reply by Donald Currie, M.H, NLP.P, Past life, life between lives practitioner on September 7, 2008 at 1:18pm

I think that God is everything personally. Everything is just one thing, and that is god experiencing itself into infinity in every possible configuration imaginable.

And if after learning hypnosis and NLP you are seeing it used everywhere, then it sounds like you have just discovered that life is hypnosis!

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Permalink Reply by Beryl Comar on September 7, 2008 at 8:10pm

In my opinion: Hypnosis is a tool of the mind. Eg I don't have to "believe" in a hammer, or glue, they just exist. .... But I believe that I will be safer once that hammer fixes my front door so it locks effectively.

Let's not overglorify the tools, they are just tools.

Religion has it's place, it is belief based. I work in the Arab world where around 50% of my clients are Muslim ... It is Ramadan at the moment and my practice is packed with people wanting to quit smoking because fasting requires nil by mouth during daylight and they believe this is a good time to quit as motivation is high. And almost every page of the Qoran mentions the brain ... yes, many people don't relise that!
My favourite quote from the Qoran is "Allah (God) gave you a brain - but it is up to learn how to use it" If that is a belief then it leads you to find those ways and tools. And many searches lead to hypnosis and NLP.

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Permalink Reply by Rev.William Mitchell M.Div.,BCH,CI on September 8, 2008 at 4:42pm

Religion is alive and relatively well( compared to the Inquisition, for example),although many confuse describing God's creation with explaining away God. To understand God's Handiwork does not reduce the Miraculous or the Majesty of Creation.Long before we called Hypnotism a name, the Creator instilled within our ancestors the Gift you and I refer to as hypnotizability. It is great you are noticing that all of humanity possesses the same Gifts and also the same need for a relationship with our Creator. Some of us find that relationship through the life,death , resurrection and teachings of Jesus. The Path is important that you chose,but on those paths we have the same gifts for experiencing life and the divine. May God Bless Your Search ,William

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Permalink Reply by James Klingensmith on September 8, 2008 at 6:32pm

May I Quote you on my web sight?

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Permalink Reply by Steve Andrade on September 9, 2008 at 4:57am

Great topic.
Have you ever had, or heard of a client whose problem, when communicated, was poorly worded and after some communication back in forth, just by rewording the problem brought such an awareness to the problem that the solution could now be seen?

What if I were to reword the topic for a moment and ask, what is the relationship between Hypnosis and religion?

It was pointed out to me that religion is the best use of hypnosis around. Someone searching automatically follows the suggestions from the git go. Let’s start with the place of worship, (I almost wrote warship, I chuckled, but seriously…), they can create an altered state, there is an automatic association to the reverence of a sanctuary. Some have high ceilings, stained glass windows, a built in respect, and they even have their own words for the anchored trance, “holy grounds,” you walk in and sit down, remain quiet while the authority figure speaks. Uses metaphors and truisms or generalizations to get many yes’s from the congregation, orders the congregation…..I mean, suggests that giving money will benefit you spiritually…..and through the embedded suggestions along the way….it almost seems like it’s your own idea to give. And what about the singing, the words being repeated, (law of repetition), one might even think a slight form of brain washing. Then close your eyes together and repeat a prayer….speaking to a non physical deity, while making yourself feel humble……over load city…..and then, amen, lock in those suggestions, but they are only good for one week, can I put you down for the same time next week? It doesn’t work if you stop trying.

There was many a sermon where at the end…the tone changes, the talk slows, and the truisms are activated….sometimes there is soft music or singing and then there is a calling to come up front, first one then two, then like a stage hypnotist show where you rest the head of one on the other and the other so their own senses pick up the body language of the others. At this point you are totally convinced of what ever the message is…..all the anxiety or message units are allowed to build up to a focused point….and a suggestion of closing your eyes is taken by everyone, and the post hypnotic suggestions are re-enforced….you feel them emotionally and they are locked in with an unspoken guilt, as the post hypnotic embedded idea. And as hypnotherapist give suggestions that you’ll start to notice in the days to come and you will pick out signs that remind you of your new changes….maybe it’s a cloud pattern maybe in a dream……some religions do even better. They convince you that even if bad happens to you, if you have the faith of a mustard seed, then you will deserve…..and then the non biblical biggy: The Lord works in mysterious ways….can be a generalization that covers just about any situation.

Hypnosis vs. Religion?
Religion, like the map is not the territory thing in NLP, religion is a path to spirituality, or salvation, or what ever your goal is, heaven, bliss, nirvana. I would have to say that hypnosis is finely weaved into Religion.

I wonder if religion could exist without hypnosis?

If hypnosis can be a catalyst for religion or meditation lay the groundwork for communication with spirit……where’s the problem?

Please, the above assembly of words are just observations, I do hope that any limiting beliefs were set aside during the reading of this message…..I do believe myself in a higher source that we all draw from and that we are all connected.

And with this, I cannot comment on Hypnosis vs Religion

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