Clinical Hypnosis
Clinical hypnosis is practiced as a form of therapy for the treatment of serious health conditions. If performed correctly by a certified psychologist or psychiatrist, clinical hypnosis has a great therapeutic potential being helpful for pain management,weight loss, stress, anxiety, insomnia, depression, panic attacks, phobias and lots more. A hypnosis session consists of several stages: the introduction, the induction, the deepening, the therapy and the awakening.
During the introductory stage of clinical hypnosis, the therapist and the patient become familiar with each other. Eye contact and body language from the therapist are incredibly important at this stage as the patient needs to feel comfortable in the presence of the therapist. The therapeutic environment is incredibly important here to create an atmosphere of trust and safety.
Then, there follows the induction stage of clinical hypnosis when the therapists uses a particular technique to divert the patient’s attention from the periphery of the mind towards the inside. The outside world runs at our periphery, and with clinical hypnosis there is a shift of focus. This is achieved by the eye-fixation method, by the use of bright colors and lights meant to induce a trance, or by some other technique, depending on the therapist.
The deepening represents the part of the clinical hypnosis session when the deep levels of the unconscious become accessible. At this stage the subject of hypnosis is fully susceptible to hypnotic suggestions. These could be verbal or non-verbal, authoritarian or permissive, depending on the situation. The suggestion contains the key to therapy.
There are cases when a suggestion made during a certain therapy session has a post-hypnotic response after years. It’s famous the example of a hypnotist who conditioned his friend to enter a hypnotic trance if he touched him with the finger. Years afterwards, when the therapist touched his friend on purpose with the finger, the latter entered a trance right away.
The awakening represents that bridge between hypnosis and reality, the passage from the unconscious mind to consciousness. In clinical hypnosis various techniques are used to awaken the patient. The therapist may count from one to ten, and when he/she gets to ten, the patient is fully awaken. Or other therapists use a word or a finger snap to reverse the hypnotic process. The passage from unconsciousness to consciousness is very important, and should be treated carefully.
Whatever your interest in clinical hypnosis, you should think twice before using it.
Covert Hypnosis
Covert hypnosis also known as conversational hypnosis consists of a communication instance in which the hypnotist and the listener interact. They have a rapport during which the hypnotist uses linguistic hypnotic methods that target and change the other person’s behavior at the subconscious level. The target does not even know that their mind has been influenced in any way, and they consider that they’ve changed their mind on their own volition.
Covert hypnosis has its ups and downs, and although interesting to the point of fascination, it can be used in the wrong way. In the consume society where marketing rules, lots of sales people start practicing covert hypnosis to make profit. It happens in car sales, real estate, banking and in lots of other domains of activity. Under the circumstances, covert hypnosis is unethical, and although it cannot be proved, it remains condemnable.
Not every person is susceptible to covert hypnosis, and a hypnotist would have to work on a certain pattern, exploiting some weakness in the target’s mental protection in order to succeed. The suggestions that are received through covert hypnosis have no conscious meaning for the person who is being hypnotized. The role and purpose of this type of hypnosis is to reduce the use of the analytical mind in a person.
If you get online and you search for covert hypnosis you will come across a huge number of websites that promote this hypnosis variety as a way to improve persuasion and gain control over others. This feels all wrong, and I’m ashamed that the need to feel better, stronger or richer drives people to rely not on personal skills and values but on other people’s weaknesses. Used for such purposes, covert hypnosis represents an aggression to someone else’s mind, and in my opinion, this should be illegal and punishable by law.
And if indeed covered hypnosis has become a strategy in the mercantile activities that make up the consume society, it only remains for people to learn how to protect themselves. The only way to increase your mental power and not be susceptible to covert hypnosis is to expand your consciousness through meditation.
Only someone who is unaware of the body-mind reality can fall victim to a malevolent covert hypnotic influence. Pay attention to the way a sales person talks to you, what images it invokes in your mind and what body language signs he/she uses to reach at your inner structures.
