Learning Hypnosis

Sometime in March of 2000 I took a hypnosis course with George Bien (http://www.georgebien.com) at the Learning annex in Midtown Manhattan. It was interesting because I meet some characters in the course and a friendship with those characters began. One of those characters was J.J. he used to work for the Education Department as a Teacher. For some reason he left the Education Department after 20 years of service, however he told me that he was ineligible to collect a pension. This lead me to think he was fired. J.J is also a recipient of a PhD and is an ordained Minister with the Universal Church. Thus he holds the titles of Dr. and Reverend (Dr. Rev). He has been a certified hypnotist with the International Association of Counselors & Therapists. He conducts hypnotherapy and does counseling work he also told me that his specialty is in meta-physics. We hit it off pretty well, and I eventually became one of his patients. He counseled me in stress management and I revealed some of my dream experiences and possible contact with spirits (more on that later). J.J was the person who introduced me to the concept of self-hypnosis.

Historical Overview of Hypnosis

There is evidence that hypnosis was practiced before modern history was documented. The evidence was revealed through pictographs and other early writings. For example “the Ebers Papyrus  a 3000 year old Egyptian document that has described how an Egyptian Soothsayer” functions. The descriptions of the soothsayer process were the ideas and techniques of hypnosis. Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) was the first person to formulate a scientific explanation of the hypnosis process. Mesmer used the process in his medical practice and produce interesting results. The term “hypnosis” was coined in 1841 by a Scottish Physician James Baird (1795-1860). Baird rejected Mesmer’s theory that the effects of hypnotism as being magnetism and ascribed that the trance state is produced by a physiological process, through the prolonged attention on a bright moving object or fixation on an object.

Hypnosis defined

The American Medical Association (AMA) defines hypnosis as “The bypassing of the critical factor coupled with selective input.” Hypnosis is described as the suspension of the “critical factor.” This enables a person to become highly suggestible. This means that ideas, concepts and behavior that a person would normally reject will become acceptable. For instance if a hypnotist suggest that a person forget their name the person under hypnosis would accept the idea and forget their name which they would not under normal conditions. The person under hypnosis would submit themselves to the authority of the hypnotist over their own experience. Afterwards the person who was under hypnosis would not be able to recall what the hypnotist suggested that they do while under hypnosis. However, those who remembered what the hypnotist suggested claimed that they recognized what the hypnotist told them to do was wrong, but it seemed easier to follow his commands. Many hypnotists will say that it is the difference between a deep and hollow trance.

What is Hypnosis

Often hypnosis is compared to or thought of as being meditation. This misconception is because a hypnosis induction could be used to help you get into a meditative state. The separation between hypnosis and meditation happens with your intent when you actually go into the altered state. With meditation, the body is relaxed, with a goal of getting in touch with the higher self; the focus is on the inner self. While with hypnosis, the body is in a relaxed state with the goal of having a change in behavior, or learning something new at an accelerated pace, or changing a thought or idea, which is done through a focus of receiving suggestions so that the change in behavior, thought, idea or learning takes place. Also hypnosis is not a form of relaxation. Although one could induce hypnosis by getting a person relaxed, which is often done during a formal hypnosis session, however it is not necessary. A person could be tense, or in a highly emotional state, which makes hypnosis possible.
Hypnosis is not sleep. Contrary to popular belief, a person’s eyes do not have to be closed to be in a state of hypnosis. Let’s compare the similarities. With sleep the eyes are closed, body relaxed, there is no attention paid to the surrounding environment, as we are sleeping we do not hear anything, and have no ability to concentrate and we usually move around, the brainwaves slow down to that of delta. With hypnosis, the eyes can be closed, or they can remain open, there is no attention paid to the surrounding environment, the hypnotist’s voice is heard, our concentration ability becomes heightened, and we tend to remain still, not making an effort to move. And the brainwaves slow down to that of the alpha state.

Self-hypnosis

Self-hypnosis is a term that is used in which a person hypnotizes themselves and gives themselves suggestions without the assistance of another person to serve as the hypnotist. Self- hypnosis is a staple of hypnotherapy and other related self- help programs. It is most often used to help the self-hypnotist stay on some type of diet for weight loss, overcome smoking or some other type of addiction, or to generally boost self- esteem. The use of self-hypnosis is rarely used for the more complex uses of hypnotism, which require the hypnotist to monitor the hypnotized person’s reactions and responses and respond accordingly. Most people who practice self-hypnosis require a focus for their attention in order to become fully hypnotized.

Method of Self-hypnosis

There are various techniques that can be used however I am going to describe the method that J.J had given me. The instructions are as follows:
1) Sit down in a comfortable chair with the back supported.
2) Focus attention on a spot just above eye level. The spot can be real or imagined.
3) Take three deep breaths slowly, when the third breath is inhaled, hold it for three seconds.
4) Close eyes, exhale, relax and allow yourself to go into the deep sound hypnotic rest.
5) Slowly count backwards from 25 to 1 (50 if no results counting from 25)
6) To awaken, just count forward from one to three and open your eyes feeling refreshed.

First Experiences under self hypnosis

September 1, 2001 at work I was taking my break in the mezzanine in the building 437 Madison Ave; at that time I decided to practice the self- hypnosis technique that Dr. J.J said that I must practice. After going through the steps, I started to see pictures, at this point I don’t know if I was under a hypnotic trance, or was I sleeping? The first thing that happened was that I had a feeling of floating. I was slowly being raised off the seat that I was seating in, and then I felt a weight on my neck, and shoulders, it felt as though I was being held down. As I was floating I had passed a mirror, I don’t know if it was the mirror in the bathroom, or anywhere else? Yet, the mirror was there. When I looked at my reflection, I saw that there were two boys hanging on to me. The appearance of the boys were similar the ones that is depicted as cupid. Only they did not have wings and were a tad taller. They had their arms around my neck and their weight was pulling down on my shoulders, one was on the left, the other was on the right. I tried to free myself from their grasp, but could not. Then I saw that both of them suddenly let go. They stood in front of me; it looked as though we were negotiating a compromise; the boys did not speak, they only made a gesture. The gesture that they made was flexing their biceps. I heard myself ask, do you want me to teach you how to build up your muscle? They made a gesture of approval, and then they disappeared.
As I got out of the trance state ended, I or woke up.
I did not recognize if what happened was because of being in a trance state? So I went through the motions of using the self-hypnosis method again. The same thing happened. I was floating off the chair, and when I reached the mirror, I saw that the boys were still hanging on my neck and shoulders. This time I felt that they did not keep their part of the agreement (whatever it was), so I mustered up enough strength and removed them form hanging on my neck and shoulders. Then suddenly I was back in the chair. My eyes were still closed, yet I could see through my eyelids. I saw the wall in front of me as though my eye were open.

Self-Hypnosis Experience # 2

September 8, 2001; I was back at work at 437 Madison Ave, on my break I began the self-hypnosis process as I closed my eyes I got the same phoneme that I could see through my eyelids as though they were peeled open. I could see the entire room. I decided to see if I could see the hallway. I had floated out of the chair, I saw the door and I went through the door, the hallway appeared. I decided to see if I could use the freight elevator. When I went to the elevator the buttons were different, I could not operate the elevator so I got out of the elevator and went down the hall way. As I was going down the hallway I came across a man with a blue custodian shirt. He was standing in the hallway. When I saw him I pushed him, I stopped and went back to apologize. I had hugged him with the hopes that he under stood my remorse. The gesture did not work, he appeared to be angry, and I got the feeling that he wanted to retaliate. I felt the need to go back to the room where my physical body was located. As I was going back to the room I saw that the man was running behind me; then I saw other men with the same type of clothing; they were also coming towards my direction. As I was got back to where my physical body was sitting, the men also tried to enter the room. I decided to take action to slow them down with the hope of preventing them from entering the room. I mustered up some energetic force, and repelled them. They went back outside the room. They tried to reenter the room, I blew them back out. I went back inside body.

Reflection

After that experience, in my conscience state (awake at my post), I had felt the presence of people coming into the building. Then I felt as though someone had come in, and was standing opposite to me. I knew that the building had a history of entities or spirits coming in and out, because I have witnessed it on several occasions. Plus apparitions of people had appeared on the security cameras. Could it be a coincidence that I had gained a heightened sensitivity to the presence of those entities, after the self-hypnosis exercise that resulted in my first self-induced lucid out of body experiences also I would like to note that that heightened sensitivity, had decreased to normal after two or three hours.

Relax