A simple way of seeing it

For many, the concept of hypnosis can sound like pseudoscience. Perhaps pocket watches or black and white spirals come to mind. However, behind this theatrical performance sits a concept that is both real, and extremely powerful.

Our minds learn through the experiences we go through.

The first time you visit somewhere new, you might feel a little uncertain, and a little lost. But each time you visit again, your understanding and your confidence of the situation grows. Eventually, you become so comfortable with it that it no longer effects you at all.

We might apply this concept to other things. For instance, public speaking. The first time you give a talk, you might feel a little anxious or uncertain of how you’re going to do. There are so many unknowns that you’ll have to work out along the way. But the next time, you’ll take this experience with you, allowing you to feel slightly more comfortable. Repeat this one hundred times, and you’ll feel totally at ease.

However, it could be that your first talk didn’t go to plan. The next time you get up on stage, you have this bad experience in your head, making you less comfortable and more anxious. We can sometimes get trapped in this state, where each time we try something we find it reinforces our uncertainty.

But what both of these examples show, regardless of whether our experiences helped us gain confidence, or increased our uncertainty, is that our minds learn from the experiences we go through and the emotions we felt during them. If each time we do something it causes us to feel a certain way, this situation and emotion become linked together within our minds.

Unfortunately, our emotions are controlled by our subconscious mind. Even if we want to be confident, or we know that everything is going to be okay, we cannot completely control the emotions that we feel.

How hypnosis builds on this

Hypnosis is a way to allow the conscious mind to help rewrite the subconscious mind through simulating an experience and a desired emotion.

Hypnosis can be thought of like a dream, in which we can fully experience something and feel emotions towards it. In this way, when we enter into a state of hypnosis, we enter into a dream-like state whilst still remaining in conscious control. We can envisage ourselves in different situations, like giving a talk, and feeling a certain way, maybe confident, calm, and engaged. Simulating these experiences, through repetition, can help rewire the subconscious brain, so that next time you’re in that situation, your subconscious recalls your desired emotion rather than one of anxiety or doubt.

This differs from just day dreaming or visualising, as hypnosis first requires the complete relaxation of the mind and the body. This allows you to fully focus on the simulated experience without distractions, which is neccessary for the subconscious to learn.

This is a technique used by many professional sportsmen as their performance is highly dependent on their state of mind. For example, whilst a football player might be able to score a penalty every time on the training ground, the situation is entirely different when in a real game. However, if they have experienced and lived this situation many times before, their body and mind will react to it in a more predictable way, allowing them to focus on the kick, rather than on self-doubt or external noise. Hypnosis is a way of achieving this experience without actually having it.