The question of whether hypnosis is real or not has been a hot topic of discussion for over 200 years.
Exciting new research in the field of brain studies is now settling the argument once and for all!
Read a Good Book Lately: Then, Welcome to Hypnosis!
If you’ve ever lost yourself while reading a really good book, you’ve already been :::this::: close to hypnosis.
When you’re really into a book what happens?
a) You feel incredibly relaxed,
b) Have an amplified sense of imagination, and
c) You are highly suggestible (more open to receiving and acting upon the suggestions of others, like the story the author is telling you).
Guess what? This is exactly what happens during hypnosis. It’s known as a trance state.
Going Deep! Your Subconscious Mind in Action
To understand what’s going on in a trance state, we need to first define the difference between conscious and subconscious mind states.
Your conscious mind is associated with the left hemisphere of your brain. It is your “control center,” and it operates on deduction, reasoning and convention. It tells you what’s possible and not possible based on your past experiences.
On the other hand, your subconscious mind is aligned with the right side of your brain, which is responsible for creativity, freedom, and emotion.
It is more holistic, emotive, and universal. It solves Big Picture problems. It allows you to go beyond “reason,” and frees you from convention.
Researchers believe that trance states are activated when you are able to circumvent the inhibitions and walls set up by your conscious mind and begin accessing the subconscious.
More specifically, when you can “short circuit” the inhibitions and “can’ts” that your conscious mind has set up, you can do many of the things that are associated with truly therapeutic hypnosis, e.g., break addictions, overcome phobias, work through deep-seated emotional issues (psychiatric hypnotherapy), ease chronic pain (medical hypnotherapy), and even solve crimes (forensic hypnosis is fascinating field of study being explored by law enforcement agencies now).
Scanning Rhythms: Your Brain Can’t Lie
But, is there science to support this hypothesis?
Using electroencephalographs, or EEGs, experts studying the effects of hypnosis on the cerebral cortex have documented that activity in the left hemisphere of the cerebral cortex decreases during hypnosis. At the same time, brain activity in the right hemisphere increases.
Why is this important? It shows that hypnosis is able to pacify the conscious mind and its logical and “limiting” functions.
At the same time, it also shows that the subconscious mind – with its creativity, emotiveness, imagination – takes control.
These findings prove that something researchers long believed to be true about the effects of hypnosis are indeed accurate.
“A Trance State Sounds Pretty Awesome: How Can You Turn It On?”
Okay, so how does hypnosis activate this trance state?
Researchers believe that hypnosis calms your left brain and conscious mind. With your logical-self taken out of the picture, you’re more able to directly connect with your subconscious mind.
In this state, you are highly suggestible. In other words, you’re able to believe, enact, and go for things that your conscious, logical mind might have kept you from believing you could do.
It allows you to free yourself from convention, from being limited based on the outcomes of your past experiences, and to experience the world and yourself in it in new and powerful ways.
For example, hypnosis can help boost your confidence, increase your brain power, aid in weight loss, increase your money-making potential, and take you to places you never believed you could go (much like that feeling you have when you’re reading a great book).
By short circuiting long-held self-beliefs and deep-seated behavioral patterns, hypnosis can often deliver real-world results that simply cannot be achieved in any other way… all because your brain allows you to believe in yourself in new and empowered ways.
Sites like Hypnosis Bootcamp offer great resources for anyone looking to learn more about the current benefits and newest applications of hypnosis.
As we are just now discovering, the world of hypnosis is able to unlock doors beyond our comprehension … but still within the reach of science.
To be sure, this is an exciting time to be alive!
