Learning the psychological theory behind the hypnosis, you can form new insights and ideas, which may change your life.

I remember when I was a professional musician. I played by "gut feeling." I really didn't know much music "theory." I played guitar by ear and didn't read music. I formed a duo with a woman who was a very technical musician. As I learned more theory from her, I discovered my learning of intricate patterns in music became a lot easier. Now music began to make sense.

So it is with hypnosis. As you learn more hypnosis theory, you will increase your ability to succeed. You may enjoy using the theories or invent your own. As I said many times before, you are always the best hypnotist for yourself. Everything you need to be successful, you already possess.

The objectives of Chapter 14 are for you to understand some of the theory behind hypnosis and then apply this theory to your everyday life. Books will be listed in the bibliography located in the appendix, which will give you more theory and principles of hypnosis.

Let us begin!

Are there any side effects of hypnosis? Are any of these effects harmful?

There are some very interesting side effects of hypnosis. Some of these side effects may be construed as harmful.

The first effect when a hypnotist is involved is the effect of increased rapport. As the subject or hypnotee is responding to the directions of the hypnotist a relationship begins on a very unique level. Just think about it. The hypnotist may be someone the subject has never met before, and the subject is going to trust the hypnotist with the most important part of his being. The subject is going to give the hypnotist control over his/her mind and body.

This is really an illusion of course. But, it happens just the same. As the subject allows more and more of this artificial control to be in the hands of the hypnotist, more and more amazing phenomena is produced by the hypnotee. This is why more and more sales organizations want their salesman to know basic hypnotic techniques. As rapport grows between hypnotist and subject, more control barriers are broken down. The two begin to think as one.

In a stage hypnosis presentation, the more the subject responds to the hypnotist's suggestions, the less likely the subject will be distracted by people talking or even shouting from the audience. The subject will seem to hone in on the sound of the hypnotist's voice. He/she will turn up the volume of the sound frequency of the hypnotist' voice and turn down the volume of all other sounds.

Rapport is the most common side effect of hypnosis.

Time distortion is an interesting effect. Time distortion is the ability of the hypnotee to be able to accurately estimate time, expand time or contract time during the hypnosis experience.

Have you ever set your alarm clock for an important event only to wake up about 30 seconds before the alarm going off? The subconscious mind has an unbelievable way of estimating time when we are hypnotized or when we are asleep. If you are involved in a job that is very repetitive, such as running a production machine or working on an assembly line, you will experience the estimating time phenomenon many times in your workday.

If you are hypnotizing yourself, you can tell yourself as you close your eyes that you will awaken from hypnosis in two minutes and you will awaken in two minutes. Time distortion can be very helpful. You can expand time with hypnosis. This has already happened to you.

Did you ever have a bad day at work or school? Did you find the day seem a lot longer than a typical day at work or school? This is how time expands with hypnosis. You were so involved with the misery of your day. You then had a fear the day would never end. This "fear" became a goal and time stood still for you.

It is a natural phenomenon that happens in every day life. How could this natural phenomenon benefit you during hypnosis?

Let's say that you have a problem with self-confidence. You only have ten minutes to concentrate in hypnosis. You want to use a prescription that allows you to visualize a successful event. Assume that the experience will normally take five minutes in real time. If you tell yourself to allow the five-minute visualization to feel like two hours of experiencing the successful event, imagine the extra positive feelings you will achieve. You will boost your self-confidence once the hypnotic trance is terminated. Instead of feeling that the majority of time in your life, you have been unsuccessful, you will feel that the majority of time in your life you are very successful. This is due to the time distortion phenomenon of time expansion.

Clinical hypnotherapists in helping clients with "pain management," also time expansion. If a client has a twinge of pain every thirty seconds, a hypnotherapist, under the direction of a medical doctor, may give suggestions to the patient that the thirty-second interval is really five hours. The patient may still feel the twinges of pain; however, he will have five hours of pain free life.

Time contraction is the third feature of the time distortion, phenomena. Time contraction occurs when real-time is perhaps an hour where as hypnotic trance time is actually two minutes. Why would you use time contraction?

Again, suppose you are suffering from pain. Let's assume that the pain duration is over an hour, then you experience two hours of relief, and then you experience an hour of pain again. Using time contraction during the hypnotic condition you can contract the one-hour duration of pain to maybe ten minutes. You may then use time expansion for the two hours of relief. You may expand the time of relief from two hours to four hours. You are then able to condition the client to experiencing more life without pain.

Dissociation is an interesting phenomenon of hypnosis. Dissociation allows the subject or hypnotee to experience sensations as if he/she has left their own body.

Again, this is a very natural phenomenon. Think about the prisoners of war from the Viet Nam and Korean Wars. There are many accounts of a prisoners being tortured by their captors. When the torture became so painful, many times a prisoner would say that he felt his spirit lift out of this body and watch the torture take place. He would experience empathy for the body he was watching being tortured. However, he would experience no pain.

Many times, children that experience severe child abuse will have situations where their minds takes them to a different place or time as the abuse is taking place. It is the child's way of coping with the event. The hypnotherapist uses dissociation to relieve a person of physical or psychological pain.

A person may have been a witness to a horrible automobile accident where every one was killed in the automobile but him. The insurance company cannot find any witnesses that remember what events took place causing the accident. The lone survivor of the accident cannot remember anything of the accident because his subconscious mind is blocking everything that happened that day out of his conscious memory. In order to restore the memory of the survivor of the accident, dissociation may be indicated. When the survivor is hypnotized he is told to create a movie screen in his mind. Further, he is then viewing this incident from a seat in a movie theater and not participating in the events on the screen. Then he is told to recreate and watch the movie screen and view the accident. By dissociating the survivor from the accident and by taking the entire emotional trauma out of the conscious memory, the survivor has an excellent chance to recreate the accident.

Hypnotic age regression is one of the most interesting phenomena associated with hypnosis. When people are regressed in time, they feel that they are remembering events very clearly, that took place years ago. They may experience the same sensations of sound, sight, smell, taste and touch that they experienced in another time or they may just see events as if they are watching a movie. Usually they are not that emotionally attached.

Revivification is the actual reliving of a past event. The hypnotist actually becomes a stranger in this process. If the hypnotee or client is regressed to an age of four or five, his understanding of vocabulary and concepts will be that of a typical five or six year old. If that regressed person is to recall events that happened when he was twenty or thirty years old, he will not know what to say because he is now experiencing life as a five or six year old child. The subject or hypnotee will actually relive the event with all of emotion that was present when the event first occurred.

Age regression as it was outlined in the dissociation example of the automobile accident earlier, is more artificial. The hypnotee will know who the hypnotist is at all times and will know he is recreating the event as an adult as opposed to reliving it as a child. This is a great tool that is being used by hypnotherapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists around the world.

Hypermnesia is a fantastic effect of hypnosis! Hypermnesia is an accentuation of memory while the person is being hypnotized. Even without suggesting age regression or revivification, the hypnotee will increase his memory. Just by the process of relaxing the body, the memory will become very stimulated.

Every incident in your life has been recorded in memory. You conscious memory handles only those memories that are most recent or help you retain a certain skill you exercise often, such as driving a car or reading. With "hypermnesia," you are able to tap the vast memory included in your subconscious mind. You will be able to remember events and people you thought you forgot. This is a common "side effect" of hypnosis and your self-hypnosis session.

Hyperesthesia refers to the increased sensitivity to all of the senses while the subject is in a hypnotic condition. If the hypnotic subject is instructed to feel heat or cold, or if he is asked to hear something that isn't there, the subject is reacting to hyperestesia.

Hyperestesia is easier to produce than anesthesia. Therefore many times a therapist will suggest hyperestesia to get the subject some success in feeling greater sensation. After the subject is successful with that, the hypnotist will suggest anesthesia for that part of the body. This technique is very effective for hypnotherapists.

This is a great benefit of hypnosis and self-hypnosis.

I wonder why dentists and doctors don't use it more often. Sure, it may take the doctor or dentist up to forty minutes to hypnotize, test, and condition a patient to remove the pain from the affected part of the body. But, once that is done, the subject can be conditioned to create a profound anesthesia or analgesia, immediately. While the patient is in the waiting room, the profound anesthesia is taking effect. The patient can turn it on at will. Hypnotic anesthesia may be used again and again with absolutely no harmful side effects. There will be no drug induced hangover and in the case of a dentist, no numbing sensation in the mouth that prevents the dentist to working on both sides of the mouth during a single visit. He won't have to worry that the patient will swallow or bite off his tongue. His patient won't be squirming around in his chair because of his fear of needles either.

Hypnotic anesthesia has a much longer history than traditional drug anesthesia. I hope more medical doctors and dentists find it useful in their practices.

Yes, there are some harmful effects of hypnosis. I have listed some of the harmful effects of hypnosis. I think the most important one for people to realize is that we experience the hypnotic condition, even when there is no hypnotist around. When we are children under the age of seven or eight, we are in the state of hypnosis almost all the time.

Therefore it is very important for parents to take note.

Children under the age of seven or eight, before the sense of reason develops, are in the state of hypnosis nearly all of the time. They are hypersensitive to any and all suggestions their parents give them.

Have you ever wondered why a Mother picks up her child when the child gets a cut or a scratch? The Mother then kisses the wound. Mother says to the child, "It will be all better now because Mommy has kissed it." Guess what? The child stops crying, forgets about the wound and continues playing again.

Parents sometimes say hurtful remarks to their children. Listening to remarks that will tear down the child's self-esteem and self-confidence, the child will except those remarks and possibly go through life with low self-esteem and low self-confidence. Always give children positive and loving suggestions.

Sometimes a stage hypnotist, as well as a clinician will forget to remove the suggestions of the hypnotic session. That may become a problem, especially in the case of pain management.

The subject may be instructed to create anesthesia in his hand, (this is called glove anesthesia) and then rub his hand on the part of the body that needs to be anesthetized. The part of the body in the case of a dental patient may be the side of the face. However, after the session if the dentist or hypnotist doesn't remove the suggestion that the numb hand will return to its previous sensation, the person may slam his car door on his numb hand and not get proper treatment. Since the patient will not feel any pain in his hand, he may deny treatment and a serious injury may result.

Always remove the suggestions after the hypnotic session.

Activity 1 - Effects of Hypnosis

Name and discuss 5 effects of hypnosis. How may each be employed in hypnotherapy?

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List 2 places you may find more information on hypnosis theory. Read one article or book on hypnosis theory.

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Learning theory will assist you in achieving all of your goals in life.

This is the end of How To Hypnotize Yourself Without Losing Your Mind.

Always remember that this book, just like your life, is a work in progress. 

If you are interested in one-on-one sessions via telephone or in person, please call me at:

602-647-4280 or email me at wayne@wayneperkins.net

I wish you all the best in your pursuits. Always remember that you are the best hypnotist that ever existed for yourself. You will succeed!

You can hypnotize yourself...without losing your mind.

My words will go with you wherever and whenever you need them.

...And always remember.

"My mission in life is to help you achieve your mission in life."

--Wayne F. Perkins, Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist

How To Hypnotize Yourself Without Losing Your Mind