MHM Magazine

26 | MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS | 2022 | Issue 5 MHM the survival centre of the brain. Here are some examples of common, everyday hypnosis: - Driving somewhere familiar and you don’t remember the route you took or if there were any red lights along the way. This is called highway hypnosis. - Watching a movie and experiencing emotions based on what’s happening for the characters in the movie, even when you know it’s not real, even when it’s animated - Walking into a room and forgetting what you went in for - Zoning out when you are “in the zone” when running, swimming, dancing or cycling This particular pattern of brainwaves is associated with a bypass of the critical faculty for selective thinking. The critical faculty can be understood when one understands that the mind is divided into three main parts: the conscious mind, the unconscious mind and the subconscious mind. The conscious mind is like the “shop window” – it’s a nice, neat representation of everything in the shop, but it obviously can’t hold all the stock. It’s the part of us we’re aware of, the identity, self, the adult logical mind. The two store rooms: unconscious and subconscious The unconscious mind is responsible for physiological and physical safety and controls processes such as heart rate, respiration, blood pressure and endocrine function. This part of the mind comes pre-programmed at birth and doesn’t need to learn, although it can learn. The sub-conscious is responsible for emotional well-being and it comes blank at birth. It learns rules as to how to keep the person emotionally safe by deducing these rules from experiences in interpersonal contexts. These rules help the person automatically know how to avoid interpersonal pain and stay emotionally safe. These rules or blueprints are called “schemas” and are consolidated between the ages of five and nine and at times of trauma. This means, unfortunately, that they’re sometimes built on faulty logic (as at both of these times we don’t have access to fully developed or working frontal lobes) and once they’re set - they’re set. New information that is consistent with the schema, the subconscious accepts and reinforces the schema. New information that is inconsistent with the schema, the subconscious distorts, deflects or denies the new information, thus reinforcing the schema. Hypnosis is a state of mind where we bypass the conscious mind, walk past the shop window and go straight to the store rooms, to offer a new organisation for better functioning. Therefore, in hypnosis, we can talk directly to the subconscious and unconscious and offer up selective thinking: new schemas and programming that are of more benefit to the person. Like an updated operating system. What hypnosis is NOT? Hypnosis is not two things: It’s not a loss of consciousness, nor is it a loss of control. It’s easier to access this pattern of brain waves with the eyes closed and the body and mind still, but this is not a pre-requisite nor does it represent sleep. “Sleep” is a short hand suggestion used historically by stage hypnotists to give the cue “relax deeply instantly” but in hypnosis, the person is completely alert, awake and aware. In fact, it’s a state of hyper awareness in which the person is deeply attuned with their surroundings and their unconscious processes. Hypnosis is also not a loss of control. One cannot make a person say or do anything under hypnosis that they don’t wish to say or do. This

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