trying to understand what hypnosis/trance is - opinions ?

**Posts:** 8 · by **jhegedus42** » Thu Oct 27, 2016 8:12 am

I just want to write down my understanding about what hypnosis / trance is, please comment if you agree or not, what are your opinions ?

1) there is a sort of critical thinking in the brain that is goal oriented and uses logic and reasoning to filter how a conversation goes and where should be a person's attention, so this critical, goal oriented thinking is governing the imagination of a person

2) Trance is a state where this critical thinking is switched off (or at least its effect on the person's ability to control his/her own thoughts is lessened), where suggestions can induce a dream like state, the person accepts a suggestion as if it was his/her own idea and wants to play around with that idea.
It's a dream like state because in a dream we don't question where our ideas come from, normally we believe everything what we dream, this also explains why authority/trust (as a doctor for example) is related to hypnosis/suggestions, when we are talking to an authority (or someone we trust), we suspend our critical thinking because we know that the other person wants what is best for us or for some other reason ( perhaps authority equals a learned response to a que - the authority - which says that critical thinking must be suspended )
while in trance the person can explore ideas and experiences that would be impossible when not in trance because the person would not let himself/herself to be lead to those experiences - he/she would be too resistant to go there to begin with

3) the third question is what happens after a person comes out of trance ? once the critical thinking is restored

**Posts:** 8 · by **jhegedus42** » Thu Oct 27, 2016 8:31 am

Here is a higher quality of the same post, please disregard the first (I accidentally hit the submit button):

I just want to write down my understanding about what hypnosis / trance is, please comment if you agree or not, what are your opinions ?

1) CRITICAL THINKING : There is a sort of critical thinking in the brain that is goal oriented and uses logic and reasoning to filter how a conversation goes and where should be a person's attention, so this critical, goal oriented thinking is governing the persons attention and what he/she should imagine or enjoy imagining.

2) TRANCE:

Critical thinking suspended: Trance is a state where this critical thinking is switched off (or at least its effect on the person's ability to control his/her own thoughts is lessened), where suggestions can induce a dream like state, the person accepts a suggestion as if it was his/her own idea and wants to play around with that idea.
It's a dream like state because in a dream we don't question where our ideas come from, normally we believe everything what we dream.
Authority: This also explains why authority/trust (as a doctor for example) is related to hypnosis/suggestions, when we are talking to an authority (or someone we trust), we suspend our critical thinking because we know that the other person wants what is best for us or for some other reason ( perhaps authority equals a learned response to a que - the authority - which says that critical thinking must be suspended )
Energy barrier lowered : While in trance the person can explore ideas and experiences that would be impossible when not in trance because the person would not let himself/herself to be lead to those experiences - he/she would be too resistant to go there to begin with

3) AFTER TRANCE: The third question is what happens after a person comes out of trance ? Once the critical thinking is restored ?

The subject can use the experiences experienced while in trance / guided imagination to change their behaviour, attitude, understanding of world.

QUESTIONs:

Q1) How and where does post hypnotic suggestion fit into this picture ? How does post hypnotic suggestion work ? Can someone explain it ?

Q2) What is your opinion about this understanding of hypnosis ? Is it correct ? Is this described like this in some books/ research papers ?

**Posts:** 1435 · by **jargan** » Sun Oct 30, 2016 1:20 am

Your analysis is a very reasonable interpretation of hypnosis. Of course there are quite a few different ones... I find that it helps to be familiar with a bunch, so you can kind of get an understanding of hypnosis that combines all aspects in all of the interpretations, even if you might not be able to put all of it in words (which matters for writing about hypnosis but not so much for using it).

One thing worth pointing out is that critical thinking isn't an on/off switch; it's a slope of sorts. At any point, a hypnotic subject might accept suggestion A easily but reject suggestion B.

Something that comes up often in explanations of hypnosis that you didn't mention is themes of attention and focus. Trance states tend to change attention and focus quite a lot. At the very least, attention and focus can be helpful tools for hypnosis. One could probably argue, though, that they are not absolutely required.

To better understand posthypnotic suggestions, think of them as a form of hypnotically amplified learning. Posthypnotic suggestions are best formulated as cause-effect relationships, e.g. "when X happens you'll do Y". This is the same format in which most behavioural learning is structured.

Is your understanding "correct"? Well. Nobody knows for sure which explanation of hypnosis is most accurate. Yours is similar to the one presented by Dave Elman in his book "Hypnotherapy". I'm not sure to which extent the same perspective is shared by scientific papers.

trying to understand what hypnosis/trance is - opinions ?

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