MentallyMessedWith wrote:Let me first state that I have never believed in hypnotism, I thought stage hypnotism was all complete BS.
Quite understandable, the stories are a bit too fantastical, after all, aren't they? And stage hypnotists do tend to cheat a lot: firstly, they prefer to use people who respond particularly easily, and of course usually the volunteers are already generally willing to do the kinds of things the show is all about and just need a little help/excuse to actually do these things that happen in a show. (The lines blur between people who just act out a role on stage, and people for whom it feels a little more real.)
That said, hypnosis is definitely real and more importantly, it's not magic. All the things attributed to hypnosis are, ultimately, things that the human mind is capable of perfectly well on its own, and hypnosis is essentially about strategically nudging someone's mental focus in just the right way to facilitate that. Anyone who isn't too scatter-brained and able to fully go along with what-ifs and ideas will get results if they're willing to go along. So, usually it's a matter of cooperation before anything else. In your case, well, we'll probably never know if drugs were involved. All in all it doesn't matter at this point, I guess... what
does matter is getting rid of these posthypnotic suggestions. In any case, it's safe to say what this hypnotist did was extremely unethical at the very least. It's puzzling that a hypnotist would do something like this based on hearsay, considering that being familiar with the principles of hypnosis she should know how little hearsay is worth. But I digress.
Getting rid of posthypnotic suggestions is simple, conceptually, but it may take some time and dedication. Any mental conditioning can be gotten rid of through the slow but steady power of attrition as long as you avoid certain mistakes. I'll talk you through it right now. You'll probably want to not read the rest until you have a few minutes of quiet and solitude.
Start out by recalling what trance felt like. You don't need to be accurate and it's okay for guesswork to be involved. The main purpose of this is to re-familiarize your mind with a mental state which works well for hypnosis, and also to create a mental distance from a normal state of being, to kind of hammer in you're doing something a little special. Take as long as you need. Ideally you'll start feeling a little trancey again, though this is not strictly necessary, the idea is what counts the most.
For the next bit, create a sense of the posthypnotic suggestions shaking themselves loose, getting weaker, disappearing, getting replaced by absolutely innocuous reactions (for instance, the word "boner" might begin to affect your toenails instead). You can do this in any way that is easy for you to conceptualize. Imagine or feel or experience or pretend or wonder, it doesn't matter. Just like it doesn't matter exactly how you're having the posthypnotic suggestions getting weaker or disappearing. The more powerfully you can create a mental experience of it, the better. Perhaps you find it easy to visualize things, or to hear things in your mind, or to feel it in your body, or just to fully consider a hypothetical scenario. Whatever works is best. Spend as much as ten to fifteen minutes, or less. There's no need to hurry, just like there's no need to keep at it for hours on end. It's just like normal learning: small units of repetition with enough time in between for it to sink in. I wouldn't recommend more than twice a day. In any case, when you're done, slowly reorient to the world around you, with a sensation of "waking up" or returning to normal consciousness. Some people use a count-up. Do whatever appeals to you.
Now, it's important to understand what the intention behind all this is. It's not to instantly replace those old suggestions. I mean, sure, it
can happen that way, but there's no guarantee and it's perfectly normal for it to take longer. Instead, what you're doing is habituating your mind to a new pattern of operation in which the suggestions no longer exist. This is typically not an instant process, it can take a few days or weeks or months (if I had to pick a single interval I'd say 30 days, give or take, but of course there are exceptions in both directions). What's important is to not count too strongly on any quick progress, often the change happens "below the radar" and if you get discouraged during that stage, you'll never get to the point where maybe you suddenly realize the suggestions aren't quite doing their things the way they used to (believe it or not, these kinds of changes can be easy to miss at first).
Whenever you do still get the old mental (and, correspondingly, physiological) responses, remind yourself that you're working on it and that's all that needs to matter. The more you can focus on the "I'm getting rid of this" instead of the "it's still there", the easier it will be for your mind to start making the switch. Don't sweat it, though, if you find this tricky at first. You'll get there. Just have a little patience. After four years, what's a few more weeks? Or even months, perhaps. What's that compared to a lifetime?
With all that in mind, I wish you all the best!