Self hypnosis and hallucinations.

I guess it would depend on the kind of self-hypnosis and how you define deep trance. Certainly there are those that will claim success, but could you replicate their exact conditions? Based on my personal experiences, I would say more than likely it is not the hypnosis, but things such as sleep deprivation or other factors associated with hypnosis might be the actual cause of a hallucination.

Maybe look into the literature reference the American Indian and their "vision" seeking experiences.

Based on my personal experiences [...]

What are those, out of curiosity?

Richard@DecisionSkills wrote:I guess it would depend on the kind of self-hypnosis and how you define deep trance.

Self hypnosis, as in not using a audio track (although I would do if it's necessary) and a by a deep trance I mean a point where one's thoughts are slowed, diminished or stop.
Oh yeah, it'd be used in an eyes - closed context, if that helps.


And I'd imagine this could be plausible, as we vividly hallucinate every night.

SizzlingIceTray wrote:Oh yeah, it'd be used in an eyes - closed context, if that helps.

We hallucinate every night? You believe a dream and hallucination are synonymous? I'm not saying you are correct or incorrect, I am simply clarifying your thought process.

Why eyes closed? What does that have to do with anything, in your opinion? Once again, trying to understand your thought process.

I guess maybe a better way to approach the entire concept is to start by asking, what is your goal, what are you wanting to achieve? By knowing what you want and why you want it, I might be able to narrow in and be more useful.

jimmyh wrote:

Based on my personal experiences [...]

What are those, out of curiosity?

Experiences as a result of my time in the military. Temporary, short hallucinations as a result of hunger, sleep deprivation, cold, wet, darkness. One involved seeing Bart Simpson on a purple skateboard surfing down the middle of a flooded ravine. It was night time, lightning out, raining and the middle of December.

Richard@DecisionSkills wrote:We hallucinate every night? You believe a dream and hallucination are synonymous? I'm not saying you are correct or incorrect, I am simply clarifying your thought process.

Why eyes closed? What does that have to do with anything, in your opinion? Once again, trying to understand your thought process.

According to an online dictionary, a hallucination is 'A perception or image of an external object that is not there in reality.'
I would of put the link, but it won't let me, so just Google 'define hallucination and it should be the second result. So by that definition, dreams can be considered a hallucination as they do not exist outside of the mind of the person dreaming them (some may argue otherwise, but that makes things confusing)

And, I mentioned eyes closed because I've been attempting 'lucid daydreaming', where I imagine a landscape and.. well, this is hard to describe, mentally 'place myself' into it. This combined with this, would potentially produce an profound sense of being immersed in said imagined landscape. What I was wondering, was if self hypnosis could accelerate or intensify this?

Experiences as a result of my time in the military. Temporary, short hallucinations as a result of hunger, sleep deprivation, cold, wet, darkness. One involved seeing Bart Simpson on a purple skateboard surfing down the middle of a flooded ravine. It was night time, lightning out, raining and the middle of December.

That's interesting stuff. Haven't had that sort of full-blown sleep dep hallucinations myself, but I've heard of them. A friend of mine told me about his experience adventure racing where he got off his bike in the middle of the desert to help his ex-girlfriends dad install a VCR - until his team mates asked him wtf he was doing.

I've had various other types of hallucinations though. One time I accidentally "turned myself invisible" while practicing my patter in the mirror. As I was giving the suggestion for invisibility, I noticed myself disappear from the mirror, which startled me and snapped me out of it.

The strange thing is that while it definitely seemed to correspond to the suggestion I was inadvertently giving myself, it was not at all like you might imagine it. It wasn't like I could really examine what was supposed to be where I was. In fact, the moment I moved, I reappeared. It was almost like the sort of effect you get from pure eye fixation for long enough when your nerves start to tune out the fixed stimulus. Also interestingly, the first time I experienced *that* kind of hallucination I was quite sleep deprived and attributed it solely to sleep dep until I learned that I could do it when well rested too.

Why eyes closed? What does that have to do with anything, in your opinion? Once again, trying to understand your thought process.

Eyes closed does generally make things easier to generate and fixate on novel hallucinations, as there is less background signal to overpower it. That's why psychedelic users note more "closed eye visuals" than "open eye visuals".

And, I mentioned eyes closed because I've been attempting 'lucid daydreaming', where I imagine a landscape and.. well, this is hard to describe, mentally 'place myself' into it. This combined with this, would potentially produce an profound sense of being immersed in said imagined landscape. What I was wondering, was if self hypnosis could accelerate or intensify this?

Ah, so you *are* looking to use self hypnosis to help with Wake Induced Lucid Dreams! It's a super interesting idea. To start with, google up on WILD methods. I've pulled it off once, and I guess I'm priming myself here, but it can only be described as a "wild" experience!

I've been meaning to experiment with using (hetero) hypnosis to assist in wake induced lucid dreaming, but have never gotten around to it. Definitely keep us updated, and if I manage to get my other projects in line, I may offer to help directly.

jimmyh wrote:Ah, so you *are* looking to use self hypnosis to help with Wake Induced Lucid Dreams! It's a super interesting idea. To start with, google up on WILD methods. I've pulled it off once, and I guess I'm priming myself here, but it can only be described as a "wild" experience!

I wouldn't call it WILD, as it's not preformed when falling asleep. Google 'lucid daydreaming' and you should be able to find it.

But I was considering using hypnosis to help with lucid dreaming

Interesting.

I googled "lucid daydreaming", but most of what I found was using daydreaming as a way of noticing the "dreamlike quality" which they would then use to turn sleep dreams into lucid dreams.

Reading that was actually very interesting for me, since it helped make sense of somethings I've noticed. I've had "unreasonable" success hypnotizing people (including myself) into lucid dreaming that night, and I had a hard time making sense of it, since I didn't know what the PHS was anchored to. This is more confirmation that there is indeed a "dream like feeling" that is always there to anchor to. Neato

What is the difference between WILD and your desired "lucid daydream" is if you're going to be eyes closed and completely immersed in dream land?

jimmyh wrote:What is the difference between WILD and your desired "lucid daydream" is if you're going to be eyes closed and completely immersed in dream land?

Well, WILD requires you to wake from sleep and fall asleep consciously. You also need to be rather tired for it to work. What I'm doing (and trying to get better at) is simply a highly immersive, vivid, lucid (eyes closed so it's easier to 'hallucinate') daydream. Basically, I'm trying to find a way to spontaneous start dreaming/daydreaming on command.

Also, going at it from a different angle...if you want instant, guaranteed effect, MAE or motion aftereffect illusions, can induce temporary distortion of the environment around you. Cool to experiential, just thought I would add

I'm a bit late joining the discussion, but this is absolutely possible. The term you want to search for is tulpa imposition. Basically a whole internet subculture has arisen about creating alternate personalities, called tulpas, and imposition is what they call it when you teach yourself to hallucinate that you can see or hear or feel one of these tulpas. It's typically not done with hypnosis, but I imagine that hypnosis should only speed the process up.

There's also an account in the book Hypnotism, by G.H. Estabrooks, where the author tells of hypnotizing himself to hallucinate as a means of entertaining himself while confined to a hospital bed.

Light a candle in a dark room (dawn or dusk are the ideal times). Sit cross-legged on the floor and place the candle three feet away. The candle flame and your eyes must be parallel. You may use a chair to give the desired height to the candle. Use cushion so that your legs do not hurt. Make sure the windows and door are closed and the flame is still, and no external sound disturbs you.

Look into the flame consistently. Do not wink your eyes. In the beginning, your eyes will hurt, tears will fall, and even your nose will run. When it becomes impossible to look at the flame, close your eyes and rub gently with your palm. And then continue to look into the flame again. As you look into the flame, don’t let your mind wander. You have to concentrate on the flame and empty your mind from wandering thoughts. Just witness what’s happening inside the flame.

Start with ten-minutes-practice and then gradually increase your exercise. At first you won’t be able to stare the flame for too long, but with your persistent practice you can look into the flame for 20-30 minutes without closing your eyes. After your session ends, wash your eyes with water and then rub gently with your palm.

As your ability to look into the flame increases, you will witness different things. At first, you will see colors inducing through the flame. Then one day you will see a dark hole appearing in the middle of the flame. Take your mind into that hole, and travel through it. After few days you will see white light appearing. Travel through the light. As you continue practicing, you will witness many other extrasensory experiences.

Now you can move into the second level. In the level two, you don’t use any medium. Close your eyes and concentrate on the spot just between the eyebrows. This spot is called Third Eye in the Hindu term. As you continue concentrating on the Third Eye, you will see light blue light appear between the eyebrows in few days. Witness what happens with this light. Extrasensory experiences may differ person to person.