Critical thinking preventing me from staying in trance

**Posts:** 18 · by **Jappards** » Sun Dec 20, 2015 11:37 am

I had a summer holiday when I discovered hypnosis 2 years ago. Before that I was extremely stressed by school, the word "homework" alone caused me to go into panic mode. I learned hypnosis by watching youtube video`s and taking over their methods.

This helped and learned me to stay calm and I even whent so far as to formulate my own suggestions aswel as to implement them. I had triggers for extra strength(temporary, formulated as a 30% increase), speed and a few other things I can't remember at the the top of my head. It also made my mind very flexible. allowing me to change the way I think through pure force of thought or if anything I do requires a change in thinking. It also allowed me and stil allows me to study better.

However, since a while ago, I found my critical thinking skills going up and even function inside a session if I am deep enough. This made a hypnosis session much more difficult and eventually made implementing any suggestion impossible. I tried forcing myself not to think or use hypnotic suggestions to stop it while in hypnosis and even both at the same time.

My problem is that the induction(relaxation method) works fine, but once I get deep enough, my critical thinking is strangely enough working again, preventing me from going deeper and eventually takes me out of hypnosis again.

The way my mind currently works is that I have 2 parts of my mind: Emotions and Critical thinking, these both work as seperate "entities", but stil far from any seperate personalities. I have also become a much more rational person, using my emotional part less and temporarily releasing it compleetly when I am at home in my own room.

I suggest things in a hypnosis suggestion by thought, I prefer it over a recording, because I know what I want to implement as I am suggesting it, allowing for a great and easy way of implementing a suggestion perfectly.

I am looking for a way of fixing this problem.

**Posts:** 332 · by **Hypnoboy** » Tue Dec 22, 2015 9:43 am

What kind of induction do you use?

If you use ' magical ' methods like reiki or astral magic or haptic touch and you distinguish places on your body by pressing on it then trance might stay longer.

If you have the possibility; then read and practice a lot about these subjects I mentioned. Read about yoga and tai-chi too.

Realize that food also influences the way you feel.

There are cycles called ultradian cycles making you more or less susceptible from hour to hour, but even from year to year. (testosterone levels are f.i. higher in autumn I dont know if this influences critical thinking but it might influence the type of emotions you experience (low vs. high emotions))

**Posts:** 18 · by **Jappards** » Thu Dec 24, 2015 1:24 pm

I just take a deep breath(my eyes go up instinctively) and I am in hypnosis.

I didn't know there where "magical" methods, but are you talking about inductions or deepeners? Anything can be experienced with hypnosis I guess.

I will look at these methods and what they contain.

I didn't really notice anything about how food influenced the way I feel. Not that I can do anything with it if I don't have the knowledge about how food influences me.

I read a little bit into it and there are actually 3 types of cycles: Infradian rythm(less than 28 hours), ultradian rythm(more than 28 hours) and the circadian rythm(at 24 hours). I will try the things on the uncommon knowledge site(can't post URL, due to spam filter)

**Posts:** 54 · by **hypnotism** » Sun Jan 24, 2016 3:16 pm

what does critical thinking mean in the context????

**Posts:** 18 · by **Jappards** » Thu Jan 28, 2016 10:15 pm

hypnotism wrote:what does critical thinking mean in the context?

I have 2 trains of thought running at once while doing hypnosis. One doing the suggestions and the other acting analytic. If I control only the one doing the suggestions, the other will be chaotic. If I control both, I can't let go enough to go deeper. it is impossible for me to not control the one doing the suggestions.

**Posts:** 1554 · by **laureat** » Fri Jan 29, 2016 12:44 am

there can be fear as bad as one wish to have a shell like a turtle, so he can hide inside and feel safe

you have to know the mind, so you can think beyond the mind, to access the intellectual way of thinking, which is beyond human

**Posts:** 135 · by **saladinsmith** » Fri Jan 29, 2016 3:23 pm

Sorry, I didn't realize you were still here or I would have replied to this thread sooner.

Many people dissociate themselves from their own thoughts and experiences, which makes hypnosis harder. Teppo Holmqvist says in his book Hypnotic Influence that it helps to imagine moving your sight behind your ears, so that you're looking inside your own head at the place between your eyes.

It also may help just to try different inductions. All healthy people have a critical part to their minds, and bypassing that is a routine part of hypnosis. Sometimes it helps just to find someone who bypasses it in a different way. Like for me, I watch for covert suggestions and they feel very manipulative to me, so covert hypnosis has even less effect on me than overt -- maybe it's the opposite for you, and covert will be able to slip right past that critical part of your mind. After all, everyone is different.

Also, there are certain ways to word inductions for critical people as opposed to other people. I have a friend who is an exceptionally skilled subject, and I really put her under like this once:

"It feels good to go into trance, doesn't it?"
"Yes."
"Can you imagine feeling that good now?"
"Yes."
"Can you feel it now?"
"Yes."
"Are you in trance now?"
"Yes."

/if I tried that induction on you, it probably wouldn't work as well. I imagine it would be more like this:

"It feels good to go into trance, doesn't it?"
"Yes."
"Can you imagine feeling that good now?"
"No, not really."

So instead of saying something like that with a difficult subject, I might instead say something more like "It feels wonderful to lose yourself in that sleepy feeling. You may not be there yet, but just breathe slowly and allow your body to relax."

The word "yet" is nice because it creates a statement that implies that what I want is going to happen, but it's also saying that you may not be there now, which you can agree with, unlike my statements in the previous induction.

"Might" and "allow" are also very permissive words, that suggest that I'm not doing something to you, so much as I'm guiding you through a process and you're doing it all yourself. That also tends to work better with difficult subjects.

Many youtube videos are half-hour-long affairs, and it's easy to get bored with them when they're not working for you. Difficult subjects actually go under much better for short, fast inductions. They don't have the time to build up the idea in their minds that it isn't working for them. Also, the more you practice being hypnotized, the easier it gets. So a five-minute induction every day would be far better than an hour-long induction once a week.

**Posts:** 18 · by **Jappards** » Sat Jan 30, 2016 4:45 pm

saladinsmith wrote:Sorry, I didn't realize you were still here or I would have replied to this thread sooner.

Many people dissociate themselves from their own thoughts and experiences, which makes hypnosis harder. Teppo Holmqvist says in his book Hypnotic Influence that it helps to imagine moving your sight behind your ears, so that you're looking inside your own head at the place between your eyes.

It also may help just to try different inductions. All healthy people have a critical part to their minds, and bypassing that is a routine part of hypnosis. Sometimes it helps just to find someone who bypasses it in a different way. Like for me, I watch for covert suggestions and they feel very manipulative to me, so covert hypnosis has even less effect on me than overt -- maybe it's the opposite for you, and covert will be able to slip right past that critical part of your mind. After all, everyone is different.

--snip--

Many youtube videos are half-hour-long affairs, and it's easy to get bored with them when they're not working for you. Difficult subjects actually go under much better for short, fast inductions. They don't have the time to build up the idea in their minds that it isn't working for them. Also, the more you practice being hypnotized, the easier it gets. So a five-minute induction every day would be far better than an hour-long induction once a week.

The induction isn't the problem. Reading "It feels good to go into trance, doesn't it?" and afterwards: "Can you imagine feeling that good now?" put me into trance. Reading "It feels wonderful to lose yourself in that sleepy feeling. You may not be there yet, but just breathe slowly and allow your body to relax." did the same to me.

I have been in hypnosis countless times(and even quite deep in trance almost every time) before encountering this problem.

**Posts:** 135 · by **saladinsmith** » Sat Jan 30, 2016 9:56 pm

Oh I see. I'm clearly not reading carefully enough.

If you find a solution, please let me know. I'm in the same boat. The difference is that for me, I have trouble with the induction as well, so I hardly ever even get to this point where you're having trouble.

I always thought that I was having trouble because of my ADHD. Is that also an issue for you?

**Posts:** 24 · by **master1** » Sun Jan 31, 2016 1:09 am

"helps to imagine moving your sight behind your ears, so that you're looking inside your own head at the place between your eyes".

Great tip - thanks!

Just trying it now, it has the effect of altering eyeball position. Eyeball position can be very useful for switiching off the critical faculty.

**Posts:** 24 · by **master1** » Sun Jan 31, 2016 1:21 am

Jappards, maybe try the following:

- thank the critical mind for its protection, and allow it to run its course... before switching off. Don't force it to switch off. Allow it 20 seconds to just... check everything is ok.... and gradually...everything is ok?.... good .... and.... OFF.

- confusion techniques to give the critical mind something to distract and fatigue it
eg. "look at how wonderfully the critical mind finds this and if it would just over a bit, and then it's down deeper because that feels good... doesn't it?".

**Posts:** 18 · by **Jappards** » Fri Feb 05, 2016 11:30 am

master1 wrote:Jappards, maybe try the following:

- thank the critical mind for its protection, and allow it to run its course... before switching off. Don't force it to switch off. Allow it 20 seconds to just... check everything is ok.... and gradually...everything is ok?.... good .... and.... OFF.

- confusion techniques to give the critical mind something to distract and fatigue it
eg. "look at how wonderfully the critical mind finds this and if it would just over a bit, and then it's down deeper because that feels good... doesn't it?".

Thanking the critical mind works for me, finally I can experiment again.

I will also be trying out some confusion techniques. I have Autism Spectrum Disorder, which makes it easier to confuse my critical mind, because I tend to be more literal when it comes to expressions. I have already found a video about how to do such a thing.

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