Healing with Hypnosis
How you can use the magic of hypnosis for healing, self-improvement, and self-mastery to transform your life.
“And now you will feel sleepy, oh so sleepy…”
To this day, many people still believe hypnosis is woo-woo or a state of sleep in which you lose all control and start quacking like a duck. That’s not quite what hypnosis is though…
In this blog, I will go over the history of hypnosis, what it is, and what it is not. I will also explain how we are hypnotized all the time and how we can become aware of this and start using hypnotism to our advantage; for healing, self-improvement, and self-mastery.
By the end of this blog, you might be so intrigued by hypnosis and what it can do for you that you’ll want to start playing with it yourself! In this case, I’ll leave a link to access my website if you’d like to book a hypnosis session with me and experience it for yourself.
History of Hypnosis
Hypnotism has been around for thousands of years, likely starting in Egypt and then moving to Greece and Rome. As early as 1500 B.C.E., there are records in the Ebers Papyrus indicating that there was a hypnotist-like role of medical people who used their hands to heal. There were also such things as “sleep temples” where priests put worshipers to “sleep” and would suggest that they had been cured of whatever was ailing them.
There were records of similar techniques in Greece around the fourth century B.C.E. and about 100 years later in Rome. It wasn’t until the first century that a technique called “laying on of hands” was used to start healing people with the power of thought.
Edward the Confessor, during the second century, was known for his practice of “The Royal Touch”, where he would invite people in need of healing and ask them to close their eyes while he laid his hands on them. With his hands on them, he would suggest that they were feeling relaxation and a sense of peace. Most of his “subjects” would feel tingling sensations and a sense of warmth coming from his hands and usually leave feeling healed. And if they didn’t, Edward would suggest that they would feel the effects in a few days, and sure enough, this happened to most people.
When the Church of England adopted this practice, royalty lost interest. Then the people began to lose interest. This practice of “laying on of hands” became known as something evil, due to ignorance, and possibly the influence that the Church had on its people about dark magic. However, there are references in the Bible and Talmud about healing through touch and prayer; forms of light magic.
Later on, a German physician by the name of Franz Anton Mesmer was intrigued with the concept of transferring energy between living and non-living things. This led him to study animals and he theorized that animals use magnetic fields to influence other animals, calling this “animal magnetism”. With this theory in mind, he believed he could use similar techniques of magnetism to heal people. Mesmer later realized through his research that it wasn’t the magnets that were healing the people, it was his own electromagnetic field and his belief that the healing was taking place that was creating the transformation. This is how mesmerism and the word “mesmerize” were born.
It wasn’t too long before politicians and medical professionals, including Benjamin Franklin and Dr. James Braid, tried to prove Mesmer as a fraud. As many of us know, any energy healing technique that lacked scientific studies was quickly met with skepticism and called quackery.
Thankfully, they didn’t succeed, and hypnotism continued to be studied and used for healing. Dr. James Braid failed to prove Mesmer as a fraud when he was working with a patient and found them in a mesmerized state of mind. He was able to give suggestions to the patient, and to his surprise, the patient acknowledged and accepted his suggestions. Braid, believing the patient must be in some sort of sleep state, termed this technique “hypnosis” after the Greek word hupnos, which translates to “sleep”. Although he later realized that it wasn’t a sleep state that he was guiding his patients to, but a heightened state of awareness and relaxation, he became known as the “Father of Modern Hypnosis” and the word “hypnosis” stuck like glue.
Side Note: I believe the relation to sleep is due to the fact that most of the time, when in hypnosis, your brain waves enter the Theta frequency, which is the same brain wave state during REM sleep, and where your imagination is heightened and visualization is vivid.
There were many people after Braid who studied hypnotism and the effects that it produced, including Dr. James Esdaile, a Scottish surgeon who used hypnotism as a form of anesthesia on the battlefield of India in 1846, and Sigmund Freud, a psychologist who studied its effects but soon lost interest in the technique.
It wasn’t until Emile Coué, a French pharmacist, came along, that the view of hypnosis changed significantly. He discovered something called “waking suggestion”, and that the belief that something will work is enough to create a successful outcome. We know this is true because of the placebo effect!
We possess within us a force of incalculable power, which if we direct it in a conscious and wise manner, gives us the mastery of ourselves and allows us not only to escape from the physical and mental ills, but also to live in relative happiness.
- Emile Coué
This is how he also discovered that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis because the power of the suggestions and the effects of healing depends on the patient’s belief that it will work. Therefore, you allow yourself to be in hypnosis and open yourself up to the suggestions.
Since then, hypnosis has been studied more in-depth and used for healing effects, self-mastery, and entertainment. Many successful hypnotists, including Dave Elman and Milton Erickson, have influenced how we use hypnosis today for its benefits. Authors such as Virginia Satir, Ormond McGill, and Dr. Al Krasner have also brought wonderful insights into the field of hypnosis and human behaviour.
Today, hypnosis is widely accepted around the world, with many medical associations’ approval, and it is used for many different situations in life. Thanks to the research, studies, and perseverance of people like Mesmer, Braid, and Coué, and the techniques and knowledge from Elman and Erickson, we know that the power of belief, our imagination, and the connection to universal energy is what makes the magic of hypnosis work!
What is Hypnosis and What is it Not?
So, now that we know the history of hypnosis, what is it exactly and how does it influence us?
As mentioned above, hypnosis is a deeply relaxed yet heightened state of awareness where you are hyper-suggestible. It is NOT a sleep state in which you lose all control of your mind and are made to do ridiculous things. Unless of course, you participate in stage hypnosis, where you still don’t lose control of your mind but you might end up accepting the act of doing silly things. Your subconscious mind won’t allow suggestions or ideas to influence you if deep down you don’t believe them and accept them.
And in fact, while in hypnosis, if the fire alarm were to go off, you’d instantly come back to reality in the present moment. So really, there’s nothing to fear.
When used on a conscious level, you can intentionally enter this state of mind for self-improvement and self-mastery, to heal yourself, create healthy habits, and transform beliefs.
On an unconscious or subconscious level, you can be programmed with limiting beliefs, unhealthy habits, and become subject to dis-ease and imbalances in the mind, body, and soul.
Just as we can use our imagination and visualization to create what we want, we are also exposed to images and information that we might not think about on a conscious level but that are programming themselves into our being on a subconscious level. Let me elaborate on this with the good, the bad, and the ugly…
When you’re a child, up until the age of about seven, you don’t critically think about things. You soak in information and it becomes a programmed belief in your subconscious mind. For example, unless we experienced a different scenario as a child, most of us grow up with the general belief that when people smile it means they’re happy. It’s not something we had to consciously program as a belief, it was something that was experienced enough times that it naturally became part of our belief system.
The Ugly
We are constantly exposed to potential programming with our news outlets, subliminal messages in advertising, and words spoken by “authority” figures such as politicians, government officials, teachers, and world leaders.
Our subconscious programming is also influenced by our upraising and the people we were surrounded by growing up, such as our mother and father, other family members, the TV shows we watched, and even what we heard while in our mother’s womb.
If we trust the people who are providing information to us, we tend to believe it. It isn’t until we reach past the age of seven, that we have the ability to critically think and make our own decisions about the information that we are exposed to. Unfortunately, many of us are still in a child-like mindset, where we rely on and trust the government and certain “authority” figures and continue to believe the things we were taught as a child before we could critically think about them.
This mindset is an accumulation of limiting beliefs that give your power to these figures or people, and even to your past, and they are usually deeply embedded into your subconscious mind. This is part of the whole “inner child” healing that many people talk about today because most of our beliefs come from our childhood and the programming we experienced growing up.
As we know, hypnosis is a highly suggestible state of mind, and when we’re a child or have a child-like mindset, we can unknowingly enter hypnosis and soak in suggestions that do not benefit us or create limiting beliefs.
The Bad
The word bad is only used to contrast the good. Not all of our limiting beliefs, pain, discomfort, and unhealthy habits are necessarily bad, they just might not be good for us.
Our subconscious mind not only wants to make our lives easier, it also wants to protect us. It stores the memories and experiences we have in our brain to know how to deal with similar situations in the future.
So, when we experience something unpleasant, an emotion gets attached to that experience. This emotion could be sadness, guilt, shame, fear, anger, etc. The next time you experience a similar situation, your subconscious mind will trigger that emotion inside of you to remind you of what you’ve experienced in the past, and that this situation could have a similar outcome.
As much as it’s trying to protect us, if our triggered emotions are causing more harm than good, then it is no longer serving our highest good. Hopefully, we come to realize this and want to process those stuck emotions to stop the triggering in the future.
The same goes for limiting beliefs. If we grow up and are told that “money doesn’t grow on trees” or “money is hard to come by” or even, “you have to work hard for money”, then naturally, we will grow up with these beliefs! But are they true? Only if you believe them and give power to them.
Limiting beliefs are ideas we have been told many times over that have embedded themselves into our belief systems but tend to hold us back in life. They might be there to protect us from getting our feelings hurt or being disappointed, but ultimately they are limiting our potential to accomplish what we truly want in life.
The Good
The good news is that we can de-hypnotize ourselves from the fear-based and limiting beliefs that we have been programmed with and re-hypnotize ourselves with the beliefs that benefit us and allow us to reach our full potential as souls in this physical reality.
During hypnosis, you are accessing a creative state of mind, where you can use your imagination and power of belief to create what you want in your life.
The brain does not know the difference between reality and imagination. This is why when you imagine something in your mind, you can feel the emotions as if it’s happening in the present moment, in your physical reality. We feel this effect when we watch movies and feel what the characters are feeling. We also experience this when we recall a past memory of hurt or sadness that creates those feelings in the present moment, which then leads to stress, anxiety, or depression. But the same can be done with good-feeling emotions!
This is why it’s so important to be aware of not only the movies in your mind but what you’re opening your mind to on a daily basis, because your brain will believe it. If you’re imagining things going wrong in your day or that something bad will happen, you’re going to feel emotions that resonate with those thoughts, and then you will either create or attract those experiences. The opposite is true if you’re having happy thoughts and expecting positive outcomes! And even if you don’t experience the outcome you are expecting, an optimistic mind will find a positive way to look at the situation no matter what.
Hypnosis is a trance-like state of mind for creative imagination that we can use to create and attract the experiences that we want! - Jessica Rose
So, how does one consciously become hypnotized?
A hypnotist can help guide you into the state of hypnosis and provide positive suggestions for the change or transformation that you are seeking. This way, you can deeply relax and soak up the suggestions without having to come up with them yourself.
They can also teach you how to enter this state of mind on your own so that you can give yourself positive suggestions whenever and wherever you need them.
Hypnotists can teach and coach you to master that voice inside of your head to be more optimistic, your feelings by becoming aware of them in the moment, and your actions by pausing before acting.
How can you benefit from hypnosis?
There are unlimited uses for hypnosis! The only limit is your imagination.
Sounds cliche? Maybe. But it’s true!
Hypnosis can be used for pain management, to rid yourself of fears and phobias, and to quit unhealthy habits such as overeating and smoking cigarettes. It can also be used to create new habits, unlock limiting beliefs, and build new skills. In fact, many professional athletes use hypnosis to envision themselves successfully scoring that goal or winning that race. If you imagine it enough times in your mind, it does become your reality.
Its use has become more popular for childbirth, easing the process and relaxing the patient or client deeply. This also creates a calm and peaceful environment for the baby to enter the world, rather than coming into a room full of panic and stress.
Hypnosis is a magical tool that can be used to create or transform anything you can set your mind to. You just have to believe it will work and it will. You are so much more powerful than you may believe, and the placebo effect proves that over and over again. Your mind is magic; it is an imagination tool that you can use to change and create the physical reality you experience.
So, bust those limiting beliefs, put those fears in the past, and start creating the version of you and the life you truly want to experience. The only limit to your creations is your imagination!
If you’re interested in experiencing hypnosis or learning self-hypnosis, I work with clients one-on-one, either face-to-face or remotely. You can learn more about how I work with my clients on my website here, where I also provide more information on the power of belief and self-hypnosis.
