What is hypnosis?

[blackbeast]

I know this seems like a simple question, but what is hypnosis really?
I am tired of hearing book text answers that say bypass of the critical factor. Is hypnosis our waking state as human beings?

[bonecollector]

Hmm Hypnosis used with trance can make you less consciously aware

Also the CF is not completely bypassed is it?

[Henrik]

...what is hypnosis really?
I am tired of hearing book text answers...

Experiencing it (or the application of it) with a qualified hypnotherapist is one option.

Henrik

[Poodle]

because everyone experiences the trance state differently. Even studying with different instructors, it can feel totally different.

First, find out exactly what it is by reading "Monsters and Magical Sticks - There's No Such Thing as Hypnosis?" and then find someone skilled. It really is only a state of altered awareness. When was the last time you really felt the space in between your big toe and the next and when is the last time you really felt how that fabric in your pants feels against your thighs and when is the last time you actually felt your feet against the rungs on that chair. They are usually out of conscious awareness until you are actually directed to notice them.

btw, I was starting out on a nice induction.

Pood :)

[Soren K (existing)]

I know this seems like a simple question, but what is hypnosis really?
I am tired of hearing book text answers that say bypass of the critical factor.

When skillfully engaged in, hypnosis is an activity which enables individuals to change behaviour which occurs spontaneously. If this is it, what kind of some thing is this? Or is it anything? Not really anything. An activity begins and ends, while it doesn't not begin. These words that are here, while you are looking at a computer screen, without realising not knowing, knowing who knows what you are thinking. You may, if you choose, become aware of the space between your big toe and the one next to it, and wonder then, when does the critical factor in all this? But then again, activities for someone, still come to an end at some time, and a lot of things suddenly make sense at some point, but don't ask me. Ask yourself!

[Poodle]

Well done my lad. Really loved it, especially one part! Ma :)

[Merlin]

Start by reading my FAQ
>Is hypnosis our waking state as human beings?
No.
>I am tired of hearing book text answers that say bypass of the critical factor.
sorry, but that's what hypnosis is.
like it or not.

The big problem is that so many methods are used to bypass the CF that there are many experiences .
So it becomes bypassing the CF + ...

[Jack]

Nothing you have ever read in a book.
Everything you experience when you try it.
So try it.

Jack

[blackbeast]

I checked out merlins faq and was impressed. I will also check out the book Monsters and Magical Sticks. Thankyou for all of your wonderful input.:)

[HypnosisNow]

I know this seems like a simple question, but what is hypnosis really?
I am tired of hearing book text answers that say bypass of the critical factor. Is hypnosis our waking state as human beings?

Hi blackbeast,

I have started a "How to hypnotize" blog a week ago. Basically, I was interested in hypnosis and wanted to share my knowledge from reading books and experiences with the hypnotist, and I created a blog on learning hypnosis and explaining the concepts. It is all free because I enjoy writing about it in my spare time. Check it out at:

[URL]deleted

I was just like you, actually... i didn't even believing in hypnosis is really working. Until my gf and I went to this hypnotic session. And then I grew my interest from there. Hope u'll find something useful there.

Vincent,

[HypnosisNow]

Hi blackbeast,

I have started a "How to hypnotize" blog a week ago. Basically, I was interested in hypnosis and wanted to share my knowledge from reading books and experiences with the hypnotist, and I created a blog on learning hypnosis and explaining the concepts. It is all free because I enjoy writing about it in my spare time. Check it out at:

[url]deleted

I was just like you, actually... i didn't even believing in hypnosis is really working. Until my gf and I went to this hypnotic session. And then I grew my interest from there. Hope u'll find something useful there.

Vincent,

Why was my website url removed? I'm not selling anything. It's a free information blog. Did I go against any rule here? If so, where it is stated?

[Connie]

Why not join the conversation here, on this forum?

[Poodle]

I would suggest that you start with Merlin's FAQ's as you are soooooo wrong on sooo many points.

After you have read and understood what Merlin has written, then feel free to come back to ask a question.

The reason your URL was removed, even though free, is simple. This site is bought and paid for by Dr. Matt James who owns American Pacific University and teaches these subjects so we would prefer information to be correct around here.

Pood ;)

[HypnosisNow]

I would suggest that you start with Merlin's FAQ's as you are soooooo wrong on sooo many points.

After you have read and understood what Merlin has written, then feel free to come back to ask a question.

The reason your URL was removed, even though free, is simple. This site is bought and paid for by Dr. Matt James who owns American Pacific University and teaches these subjects so we would prefer information to be correct around here.

Pood ;)

You were judging my hypnosis studies based on Merlin's standards (or Dr. Matt James' standards) and concluded that my writing is so wrong on so many points. Is Merlin god? Is Dr. Matt James god? How can they set the standards for hypnosis? I understand that in this forum, paid by Dr. Matt James, my studies are considered to be wrong because he or you said so. However, there are many different ways in hypnotizing a human. Conversationally, optically, and even using herbs. I suggest you take a visit to Thailand or Burma and see a hypnotist. They will hypnotize you using voodoos and Dr. Matt James will not be able to explain, or you cannot find it anywhere within Merlin's FAQ.

If this forums are mainly for hypnotic information based on American Hypnosis standards, then I did not know that. I thought it was just a "hypnosis forum" in general. So i guess no free speech is allowed here. And your knowledge will be limited to what Dr. Matt James teaching, not knowing there are other hypnotic techniques out there in the world.

[Connie]

They will hypnotize you using voodoos...

That says it all, you've revealed the extent of your sophistication (or lack thereof) on the topic of hypnosis.

So, you're not here to learn. Why are you here? To divert attention to your own "theories" posted elsewhere? Good luck! Maybe the National Enquirer would be interested. :p

[Don]

I don't know if another moderator will remove your post because of the URL in your sig, but I will make something clear.

You're right: there is no "free speech" here. It is paid for by the owners of this forum. As a result, they determine what to allow and what not to allow. If you want free speech, buy a soap box and hop on a corner or start your own forums and pay for them.

No, we don't have free speech, we have OPEN speech. If you want to post your ideas, post them here. That way, you end up being open to people looking at what you post. Your concept of free speech really means free for you and nobody else. We prefer open speech. Let me explain what I mean.

On your site, you give a four-part definition of hypnosis. Let's look at it one by one. You say that hypnosis is:

"1. When a subject enters a trance stage and being unaware of surrounding."

Totally wrong. A person (the use of the term "subject" is obsolete and is no longer used by professionals) who is hypnotized may or may not be aware of their surroundings. You don't define "trance stage" so it's meaningless.

"2. When a subject is being controlled by a hypnotist who performs either verbal or non-verbal hypnotized skills on them."

Totally wrong. The person who is hypnotized is not "controlled" by the hypnotist. They work together to achieve results. You don't define what "hypnotized skills" are so it's meaningless. The hypnotists doesn't do anything to or "on" people, he or she works with them.


"3. Most of the times (sic), the subject does not remember his/her actions during the hypnotized period."

Totally wrong. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

"4. Very easy to learn and practice."

You're getting better, here. You're only partially wrong. But that's because your definition is so totally off as to be meaningless. Hypnotic induction may be easy to learn and practice (depending upon the person learning hypnosis. However, the skills needed to do anything other than induce hypnosis and help a person leave hypnosis are complex and take training, study, and may be very difficult to master.

In sum, your understanding of hypnosis seems to be out of date by at least half a century. In my opinion your exercise of "free speech" will do more to reveal your lack of knowledge, understanding, and training, as well as misinform people who happen to go to your site.

So do you really like this "free speech" when it shows you up?

On the other hand, I admire your interest and dedication. I would suggest that rather than actually misrepresenting hypnosis by your current lack of understanding, you should consider taking a training and really learn what hypnosis is rather than what you imagine it is. With your dedication you could become quite good at it if you don't let your egotism get in your way.

[HypnosisNow]

That says it all, you've revealed the extent of your sophistication (or lack thereof) on the topic of hypnosis.

So, you're not here to learn. Why are you here? To divert attention to your own "theories" posted elsewhere? Good luck! Maybe the National Enquirer would be interested. :p

I am here to learn, but I am learning different sources of information, not just from here. I am a very skeptic person, I never believe in such voodoo or magic stuff. But after many experiences, I got shaken off. Even though I prefer to stay away from those voodoo people... most of them are not kind-hearted, they just want to make some money.

Let me tell you of an experience that I had with this "spirit caller" woman (not voodoo). One of my friends had died in traffic accident, his mom keeps dreaming of him at least twice a week after his death about random stuff but he always appear in her dreams. I thought it was just her missing the son and creating illusions. His family invited this Vietnamese spirit caller to call his spirit and ask what he wants them to do. I thought it was very stupid and a waste of money. However, the woman scares the sh*t out of me.

At first, she was doing some kind of ritual stuff, it's all weird and lengthy process. And then she sat on a very tall table and start going into a trance. Her head was spinning around and you can start seeing smoke out of her ears. We were very terified. By the way, the woman was paid $3000 for her performance, and it is done at my friend's house. Suddenly, she just sit still and stop spinning her head. And then she said "mom, dad, it's me". Even though the woman voice is still hers, but the way she speaks, I can tell that it is my friend. I was pretty amazed and thought this woman must been watching some of his birthday video and tried to mimic the way he talks. And people in the family start asking questions. Basically the woman said (my friend is talking) that he's fine where he is, just that he wants his mom or dad to put the telescope on his grave because he was on the way buying it and got crashed on the way home. The rest of the information was pretty general, so nothing remarkable. But the woman freaked me out by saying "hey vincent, you still owe me $25. But don't worry about it, I cannot spend it now anyway".

I asked the parents of my friend how much knowledge does the woman know about their son. They said that all the information the woman asked for were: his full name, his birthdate, he died in a car accident, the date he dies, the street spot where he dies, where his grave, and show her a picture of him, and that's it.

That's really got into me, and it makes me believe that there is spirit out there and some people can actually communicate with them. But I did not believe into the Chinese way of re-arranging furnitures for a better living until i see it with my own eyes. My boss is chinese, and our company was doing very badly. We tried to get a lot of contracts with our clients, but it's still crappy, some terminated us. After she asked this old chinese man came in to rearrange her office, he even re-arrange some people stuff around the building. And right at the end of that month, we our profit gained above 30%, and the next month was about 45% in addition. But it gets crappy again during this time. I think my boss asked the man come again but he refused... i don't know why :D

So you're asking me if i'm here to learn, yes, i'm here to learn. But I would not stick to one method or one technique. I like to explore others as well. I recommend the same to you.

[HypnosisNow]

I did not claim myself to be a professional hypnotist. I did state it on my website that I am still learning. When I tried to write things off from what I learned, I tried to avoid writting exactly the way they were in the book, because it's called plagarism. So i tried to write them the way i would understand it, and it is not peer-review. And sometime I missed out information like defining some terms. That's why there is the feed back feature for people to comment and criticize on my blog.

However, my blog is more open to different source rather than this forum have to be within a solid set of theories. You will be surprised of how things are done else where. If you would like to pin point out what I wrote wrong on my blog, probably it'll take you at least an hour to finish each post (counting all the typos i made in the post as well, and you too made typos in your reply).

The point is, I was wrong in going into this forum and thinking it is a General Public and Open Topics, rather than a Skeptical Topics forum. So from now on, I will not tell people to come to my website from this forum, rather I just want to keep it in my signature so people know that I'm keeping a blog and I will update whatever I learn in this forums and outside of this forums. It is just like a lot of people here posting links into their posts for people to see funny stuff without educational purposes.

And if you don't like me participating in this forums, and feel that I am a threat to your forums (paid by money for some purpose) because I will suck away your members, then I will not come back again. It is that simple.

[Poodle]

"MY FREE LEARNING BLOG". What you are writing is WRONG and there are no two ways about it. Merlin is not God but pretty close to Godess in the hypnotherapy, NLP, Time Line Therapy world. We have agreed that what she has written is correct. I don't believe any of us have studied with Dr. Matt James but that does not stop us from telling the TRUTH and CORRECT INFORMATION about our profession. There is already too much misinformation and garbage on the net about hypnosis and we certainly don't need more from you. We answer questions here from the general public wondering about hypnosis, NLP, Time Line Therapy and Esoteric studies. We are not paid for our work here and that is why you will see some come and go but we always have two Moderators (they are the ones that delete what you write). Dr. James looks in now and then and may totally decide to delete all the misinformation you want to spread.

You have also written that a "suggestibility test" is hypnotic trance. It is not. It's only a suggestibility test and in no way by-passes the CF. I personally don't like them and don't use them although I do teach them and let my students decide for themselves if it is something they wish to use or not.

As Don wrote, hypnosis is not learned from a book, DVD's or anything similar. You need in-person training with other students to practice on with the teacher watching to make sure you are doing the work correctly. After the induction, comes the really, really difficult part. Unfortunately, right now you have a lot of UNlearning to do.

Now, in light of what you have read here from us, who do teach the subject, you may want to make some changes to your blog to reflect correct information to the public.

Pood :)

[HypnosisNow]

what is the point of you replying me? All my posts were deleted, so your reply doesn't direct to anything. And Im not going to write any more. And according to Skip's private message sent to me, I am putting a "direct competition against the owners of this forum". So all this is about business? Nice!

[skip]

"So all this is about business? Nice!"

Lets see ...

If you look around this forum. Do you see the James' advertising their books? Their trainings? Any one else advertising their web site?

For you 'hypnosisisnow' to conclude that this site is 'all about business' requires quite a bit of distortion, deletion, and a mighty impressive generalization.

As I pointed out to you in private communication, your attempt to take advantage of the time, effort, and money, the James' have spent building traffic here, IS stealing.

If you are unable to recognize that, just as you seem to be unable to recognize the absence of other advertisement here, then it makes a lot about your blog more understandable, and I can only wish you well with it.

And if, as you did in your response to me, wish to defend your posting your url, by aligning yourself with some dirt bag who posted a url about women with large breasts, then you are welcome to go your own way, in fact I heartily encourage you to do so...

OR

You can post and discuss hypnosis and related topics here, and be welcome. And even though what you say will be read, thought about, and often challenged, both you and we will be better for it.

BUT

You cant have it both ways.

You choose.

skip

[HypnosisNow]

when did i align myself with that website posting women with large breasts??? Seriously, how can you claim yourself to be a professional by falsely accusing somebody like that? Take a closer look again at the private message that I sent you. This is exactly what i wrote:

"if you worry about advertiser, then i think you should focus to this kind of poster:

http://hypnosisforum.com/showthread.php?t=11082

rather than taking it on me. I got no profit from doing such to my blog. "

I was just trying to tell you that you're being too harsh on people like me because I did not know that this forum is owned by a private school, I thought it was just someone like me that is interested in hypnosis and open it up for fun. And you actively deleted all my posts without telling me to remove the link in my sig (which I could do, and I already did). I was trying to tell you that you were too busy dealing with me that's why you didn't even notice of those nasty ad been posting on your site for half a day. I did not align or compare myself with such advertiser. And I didn't see any large breasts in there when I opened it yesterday. all i saw were just a bunch of stupid videos and i pointed it out to you right away. You must been watching the videos to know there are large breasts women in there.

[Don]

HN, you continue to misrepresent the situation.

These forums are for the discussion of hypnosis, NLP and related topics. By posting your URL--whether it is for profit or not--you are using this site to
1) tell people to leave these forums and come to your site and
2) advertise your site without paying advertising fees.

Now I don't know if the owners of these forums accept advertising. I don't think they do. But as Skip pointed out, by advertising your product (i.e., your blog) and not paying for the advertising, you are stealing from the owners.

Now, your explanation is that you're making no money off of your blog. So? If I pay for some music, that does NOT give me the right to post it so that thousands of others can download it for free. My saying that "I didn't make any money off of it" is not an excuse. It's still robbing the musicians. Whether you make money is irrelevant.

Now, if you would like to freely discuss hypnosis on these forums, you are welcome to do so. Of course, that means that other people will comment, but that's the chance any of us takes.

If you merely want to get people to come to your blog, take out advertising. There are lots of sites that will gladly take your money.

[skip]

HN,


This has nothing to do with my professionalism as a moderator, a therapast, or even an apple farmer.

It is about you, and your actions here.

When defending yourself for stealing, if you point out that others are also stealing, implying that somehow that makes yours OK...

And when you use that to point out that somehow your stealing isnt as bad as their stealing, because your intent is different ...

You have aligned yourself with them in that you both believe you have the right to steal.

And when you try and accuse me of singling you out for stealing, and letting others go you are effectively saying, "Include me in the group you let go, or delete us all."

I chose the "delete us all" option.

And I stand corrected, I assumed the site you used as a defense, was about large breasted women. It could have been cialis for all I know. I'll take your word that you know more about the content of the x rated site than I do. As I told you we see about 40 of those type spammers a day, and frankly I dont even notice much of the content anymore, I am too busy deleting the posts to spend time perusing.

Evidently you spent more time than I, examining the content, and I'll accept your assessment of it to be more accurate than mine.

And your claim that your own ignorance is a defense, "I was just trying to tell you that you're being too harsh on people like me because I did not know..." is specious because I offered you a remedie that you have utilized, and still you complain.

Perhaps your claim of ignorance was more accurate than I first thought.

NOW

Yesterday you did as I requested and removed your url...

And yesterday I did as I promised and restored your posts ...

What is your legitimate complaint today?

I am putting this in a different color so I can be sure you will notice it. Your initial post here was spam. ALL subsequent postings have been mere bi*ching. This despite your claimed desire to post about hypnosis. You get two more posts to bi*ch. After that I am going to assume, rightly or incorrectly, that you arent interested in hypnosis, but only in bi*ching. Further bi*ching posts will be deleted, as soon as detected, for being non topical. Continued *****ing posts will result in all posts by you being deleted irregardless of topic, and your removal from the forum. I hope I have made myself perfectly clear. Get out whatever you need to get out, within the next two posts, or find another place, which will put up with your immaturity.

skip

[Connie]

Skip, you're so much more tolerant than we mere mortals. :) I'd like to remind those of us who don't care to peruse the next 2 "b" posts, that there's also a remedy for us--NOW. The ignore button.

[JTSullivan]

Here is my reply to what is hypnotism:
<article deleted>

Dear Mr. Sullivan,
I regret that as a moderator we had to delete your article, "Hypnotism and the Dream Observer." We have nothing against you or your position. However, this article previously appeared on another site and on the home page of that site it clearly states that they have the copyright. Therefore, it is illegal to reproduce the article without their written permission.

If you send a copy of their written permission, we will certainly be glad to let the article be published, here.

However, as an alternative, instead of merely repeating something published elsewhere, why not post a brief summary or something completely original?

[Merlin]

You were judging my hypnosis studies based on Merlin's standards (or Dr. Matt James' standards) and concluded that my writing is so wrong on so many points. Is Merlin god? Is Dr. Matt James god? How can they set the standards for hypnosis? I understand that in this forum, paid by Dr. Matt James, my studies are considered to be wrong because he or you said so. However, there are many different ways in hypnotizing a human. Conversationally, optically, and even using herbs. I suggest you take a visit to Thailand or Burma and see a hypnotist. They will hypnotize you using voodoos and Dr. Matt James will not be able to explain, or you cannot find it anywhere within Merlin's FAQ.


If you go to a formula 1 race car site, it'll make no sense pointing to a blog on the merits of square wheels. It doesn't make them gods to suggest moving past that idea.
They might even offer a FAQ as a discussion starting point.

Perhaps you'd like to discuss healing from diabetes?
My FAQ gives no specifics there.
Maybe your way is better than mine?
I'm open to learning. but don't offer me square wheels.