Directing And Controlling The Imagination
We explore some basic facts about the way in which the brain and body work. Specifically we See how words and images can activate other systems in the brain which relate to feelings, muscles, Senses, sense of balance etc. These are compared with “tests of hypnotisability” and “hypnotic Inductions” ENTERTAINMENT hypnotists love to make hypnosis look dark and mysterious and complicated. They love to pretend that they have special powers that no-one else possesses. I love to make things bright and clear and open, and I do not claim any special powers. In this first chapter I am going to ask you to try out various things and to think about them. These things are simple and every day, and will turn out to be not at all mysterious, and yet they are a foundation on which much of hypnosis is built.
If on the other hand you want to call what happens when a particular collection of subsystems is active “an hypnotic state” then I would not mind, though I would simply note that it has proved impossible to find ONE such collection, so that you have simply found one of many possible “hypnotic states”. In practice I avoid the use of the word “state” myself because of this vagueness, preferring to be more precise and instead to describe what is happening in a particular person at a particular time by as detailed a list as possible of what systems are active and inactive, and how they are interconnected.
Nevertheless the generalisation that they all tend to have a focused or limited awareness compared with normal, outward oriented functioning makes a useful step towards the matter of the next chapter. You have probably already noticed in the above experiences that they are most effective if the mind is focused. If there are no distracting thoughts. If there is nothing else distracting happening. In other words it is best if there is no other mental activity. If other mental and physical activity is switched down or off.ded as
The first exercise in this chapter is something that might be familiar to you. It is a relaxation technique that is sometimes called “progressive relaxation”. Something similar can be met in ante-natal clinics; stress-relief courses and so on. But it is also a common starting point for many hypnotists. The simple idea is that you pay attention to a particular muscle or muscle group and think “relax”, NOT in a spirit of “For heaven sake, RELAX! I tell you. RELAX!!” but rather of, “I am asking nothing of you now and so you can stop doing anything, you can go to sleep.” Alternatively you can use the word “sleep” rather than “relax”. It is not that YOU are going to sleep but that a group of muscles are going to sleep.
Beyond that you can continue to pay attention successively to all other major muscle groups, relaxing each in turn in the same way. As far as I know there is no magic about what order you do this in. Some people like to start with the feet, then calves, then thighs, then lower body, then back, then chest, then shoulders, then upper arms, then lower arms, then hands, then neck, then face and then scalp. Others will reverse it. But I have often jumped about with just the same effect. When working with others I will ask how things are progressing and if any particular group of muscles feels tense. That group will then get more attention, coming back to it repeatedly in between relaxing other, easier groups.
Then you arouse these pictures in your mind or the other’s mind, perhaps by gently repeating certain key words. But since we are interested in how much effect the pictures alone are having on the relaxation try to avoid words such as “relaxed”, “calm”, “sleep” and so on that might have a direct effect. Continue for about the same length of time that you used for the direct relaxation by means of simple words and directed attention. And again feel free if you are working with another to ask for progress reports so that you know what is going on. Finally at the end ask for some measure of how relaxed the person feels. Then see if any clear pattern emerges FOR A GIVEN INDIVIDUAL. You may discover that one of the two approaches tends to give the better result for one person and the other for another. For, as always, people vary, and we have no way of knowing without trying.
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