www.mindmagic123.com
Though we have one mind, there are usually considered to be
two sections of it: the conscious and the subconscious. The subconscious was
termed by Freud the unconscious. He only saw it as a negative, a swamp of
primitive drives and aggressive impulses. Perhaps his was. Hypnotists, au
contraire, regard it as the source of creativity, inventiveness and strength,
a valuable resource that can be utilized, not only as this negative primitive
area. Nowadays some hypnotists use the term, "other than conscious," mind, to
define it as everything not in conscious awareness in the present moment. A
metaphor that is used to illustrate the conscious and subconscious parts of
the mind uses a comparison to an iceberg. The visible portion above the
surface of the water is the conscious mind, guestimated (I can’t imagine how),
to be approximately 10% of our thinking ability. The subconscious mind,
consisting of that portion of the iceberg beneath the water, being the other
nine tenths. I have also seen information that the conscious mind processes a
few hundred impressions a minute, to the thousands of impressions the
subconscious mind processes in the same time, (I can’t imagine how this was
arrived at either), but the general consensus is how much larger and more
powerful this mostly hidden "other than conscious mind" can be.
Another useful analogy is to the computer. It seems to fit
so well. After all, where would we intuit the design of a complex information
processing system, other than our own minds? Many new processes such as "fuzzy
logic" are in fact actual conscious attempts to reproduce our own mental
processes, as far as they can be ascertained. In this comparison, the
conscious mind is the equivalent of the computer screen, consisting of that
which is available to our conscious thinking process. It is the analytical,
linear, logical, rational, "two plus two equals four" mind. Plus our conscious
emotions, those surface emotions that we are aware of. Here we move
information around, computing how to minimize pain and maximize pleasure, the
two fundamental desires of any organism, however they may be conceived of in
any particular being or life path. Here we use the mind to analyze our
environment to obtain the necessary control for achieving these ends. So this
mind operates primarily in the here and now, though it usually calls on the
past as a computational factor. This means many of its functions operate
within the framework of and/or via the perspectives and "lenses" supplied by
the subconscious mind.
I have found a major function of the conscious mind is to
"bend" information to fit these hidden perspectives. Here is one of my usual
simple crude examples. "I don’t like women with red hair, they are easily
angered and bad tempered." He forgets the little red headed six-year-old
girl that used to hit him when he was four. Or if the memory of her is
accessible, there will be no awareness of how those events are connected to
his current views! Similarly, how many times does a person see advertisements
of happy laughing healthy young persons playing on the beach, accompanied by
the slogan, (or hypnotic auditory suggestion), "Things go better with
Coke." The visual imagery is also a visual suggestion associated, i.e.
"paired with" the verbal one. Then in a store, the person purchases Coca-Cola,
consciously thinking, "I need some Coke," or "I need some for when
my friends come visiting." Never connecting their actions to the numerous
adverts that have been absorbed. But the Coca-Cola Company does not spend
untold millions putting out this information in this way for nothing. Cinema
and television are powerful trance mediums, as a picture is "worth a thousand
words." This is an example I use with my clients, to illustrate the persuasive
penetration of repetition, especially useful when internally absorbed deeply
from repeated playing of a hypnosis audio product. This being the case,
Hypnotherapists realize that people are actually mainly persuaded based on
emotional processes that are going on within them, not logical thinking. Logic
helps, but people are making most decisions emotionally, and then backing them
up by manufacturing conscious logical thought.
Some psychologists identify anything that can be
voluntarily called to mind as being in the "pre-conscious". A hypnotist
however would include all of that in the "other than conscious mind," too. How
many memories are there that could be recalled with the application of some
thought, but how many of them are left undisturbed for decades, loitering in
the lower reaches of consciousness? And how many are separated from linkages
that would give more profound insight, meaning and relief? In our computer
analogy, the subconscious mind equates to the software, operating systems, and
memory banks, containing our automatic responses, deeper emotions, feelings,
habits, impressions, and permanent memory, and our compulsions, impulses and
responses to them. It operates apart from the linear logic of the conscious
mind, though working with the subconscious as a hypnotherapist, I see what I
term as "emotional logic." Behavior, as is illustrated also in much
psychotherapy and Neuro-Linguistic Programming, always has some positive
intent, which when disinterred, becomes comprehensible within it’s own context
and it’s own terms. The inner mind works with analogy and association, uses
ambiguity, poetry, and especially imagery and metaphor for storing and
processing information, rather than the more limited inductive/deductive
quasi-logic, (and prejudices, rationalizations etc.) of the conscious mind.
That is why the former inward factors stir us so deeply and readily.
Learned habits, such as walking, are permanently installed
and normally accessed without conscious thought by sub-systems. Redundant
acquired habits become "grooved in" and self-perpetuating in the "software".
In fact, attempting to consciously "take them over" causes a loss of effective
functionality. (Try consciously thinking of where you are placing your feet
the next time you hurry up a flight of stairs, and you will soon discover what
I mean). So athletes often have to be assisted by a hypnotist to "get out of
their own way", allowing themselves to trust in their own trained abilities
without thought, flowing more naturally in the "zone" as it is termed. Or
using the "no-mind" as the Zen Buddhists would have it.
The lower or deeper levels of the subconscious part of the
mind control blood pressure, body temperature, breathing, digestion, heart
rate, and similar biological functions of our body. Also the instincts and
instinctual responses, and their physiological counterparts, our reflexes, All
of which we inherit presumably mostly through our genes. This resembles the
"hard wiring" of a computer. In my pre-talk, to illustrate this point to
clients, while simultaneously reassuring them of their ultimate control I
inform them, "No matter how many times it might be suggested, "you will
stop breathing", you would not do so, because it is wired in on the survival
level." Though Yoga adepts and so forth may bring many of these functions
under conscious control, it is not such a usual accomplishment in Western
culture. The subconscious never sleeps, never takes a break from keeping our
biological functioning going. I also explain this to clients by, "It’s the
part of the cave man mind that always stays on the alert for the Saber Toothed
Tiger." This is usually accepted with a smile. Also relating the "other
than conscious mind" to the Guardian Angel, provides a positive frame of
reference that helps counter any fears the client may have in releasing
conscious control.
The subconscious mind is concerned with bringing about our
deepest wishes expectations and desires, even if sometimes they are contrary
to logic, and our own current well-being. The subconscious mind, seeking to
meet our deepest needs, expectations, wishes, does not always do it the way we
want it done. The subconscious mind does not care if the body hurts, but
rather that the deepest needs are met. If our greatest need is for affection
and the only time we experienced affection was when we were sick, we may get
sick in order to receive that affection. This occurs even though consciously
we don't like being sick and the reason is unknown. So it is evident that once
a solution to a need is found, it may be repeated in essentially the same way
incongruently, redundantly, at times in a disguised adult form. A female
client, in trance, with no prompting from me said with tears streaming down
her face. "When I was young, I was bitten by a dog two or three times. This
was the only time I got any caring at home. That is why I kept going to
Hospital Emergency Rooms for overdoses or cutting my wrists." She was
bearing the label of a mental condition. As I observed her release herself I
thought, "She is never going to be that sick again."
The soil of the subconscious mind accepts any kind of seeds
- good or bad. Once the subconscious mind accepts an idea, it begins to make
the idea a reality. When applied in a negative way, the subconscious can be
the cause of failure, frustration, unhappiness, and even illness." Einstein
said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." And in the Bible,
(proverbs), "Whatever a person thinketh in his heart so is he."
Hypnosis is a process that allows access to a whole spectrum of altered states
of awareness, (generally described as trance), that allow simultaneous
states of inward concentration to occur, with a fluid flow between many levels
and depths of the mind. In this state, the mind and body are more open and
receptive, the most helpful tool for pursuing treatment goals. The beauty of
clinical hypnosis is in acquiring the ability to enter a trance deliberately.
This gives us a key in hypnotherapy, because in trance, deep level
dysfunctional beliefs can be attenuated or erased, and more functional ones be
instilled and installed. Negative images and metaphors can be altered and
supplanted with more useful ones. We can guide a person move "away from"
damaging information and/or "move towards" healing/positive ideas. This can,
when targeted at emotional processes for therapy, give a person a "virtual"
better childhood, as the "old tapes" as they were referred to in latter day
psychotherapies, can be annulled. More limited problems are amenable to less
general suggestion processes. All of this appears to take place, in trance, on
the "other than conscious" level where the negative processes were formed, for
highly effective change, without will power. Even physiological processes may
be affected by suggestion, and has given me the ability at times to assist
people who have run out of medical options. Behavioral and functional
difficulties can be overcome. As I have stated elsewhere, at times the
results, psychological or physical, can appear miraculous.
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Brian Green, CHT, CDS. Certified Hypnotherapist. Former
Senior staff Therapist, Hypnosis Institute, Glendale. Former member, ACHE,
NGH, IHF. In private practice twelve years, (2007). Warm, caring,
professional and confidential. Author of, "Mind-mending for Mind-bending,
Wizard Ways With Words." Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor, (Mission
College). Power to solve your problems. All issues. "If it can be done, I'm
one of the guys that can do it." 12 Step counseling. Family and couple’s
issues. Sessions in the Greater Los Angeles area. Potent hypnosis audio
products, (available by mail). Free twenty minute phone consult.
Presentations and Workshops given for hypnosis groups on Hypno-linguistics
or Addictions. mindmagic123.com.
www.mindmagic123.com
Based in
West Hollywood, California, U.S.A
