To Hypnotize or Un-Hypnotize?

To Hypnotize or Un-Hypnotize?

Jane Ann Covington, BA, CCHT, RBT
for Maui Ana

People find hypnosis a fascinating subject. Most have developed a lot of assumptions and sometimes fears about what hypnosis is and how it works, and about what it can or cannot do. Historically a great deal of mystery and “magic” has been attached to “hypnosis“. Lack of scientific research has left us with many misconceptions regarding this powerful phenomena.
Occasionally people suggest to me that they either cannot be hypnotized (even if they wanted to be) or they don’t think they could be hypnotized because they are too strong willed and don’t want anyone to control them. I get a good laugh from this perspective. Let me tell you why.

The question that one should ask is not “Can I be hypnotized?”, rather the question is “Am I willing to be un-hypnotized from my own hypnosis?”

For instance, from around the 4th month in our mother’s womb, our brain wave patterns become detectable, We are learning in measurable ways. Before we are born, we are quite familiar with mom’s and dad’s voices, as well as others that we’ve been exposed to. During gestation, we are also constantly being bathed in the emotional biochemistry of our mother’s emotions, as well as the energetic field of the outside world. Unseen experiences are often remembered decades later, only to be acknowledged with amazement. We, in essence, are being hypnotized into a unique perspective.

Almost all of how adults respond emotionally is unconsciously programmed into us by the age of six, and the majority of the programming occurs by the age of three. Because our “conscious, logical, analytical mind” is not developmentally mature enough at these early ages to be aware of these decisions and perceptions we took on as children, we do not experience these as choices in terms of “who we are” now.

Only through awareness and exposing ourselves to new options can we create new potential and express a new reality for ourselves. Otherwise, we tend to obliviously rush through life accepting our quirks and so forth as “just who we are”, as if our responses were all biologically pre-programmed. In fact, they are a result of learned behavior.

As children we were unable to see the bigger picture and had no opportunity to experience a broad range of humans expressing as healthy role models. No, most of us were pretty much in the small microcosm called “our family,” and assumed that the limited point of view of our parents was the “truth” about ourselves and about life itself.

In college, studying psychology, I learned that however we are when we are young, we become more that way as we age-unless we develop awareness, give ourselves new options, and consciously (with effort) choose to change.

The latest brain/learning research indicates that more than 99% of what humans learn is learned unconsciously. We must become aware of ourselves. We must “be awake”, as Jesus says, and “be mindful”, as Buddha suggests. As we awaken to our expressed nature, as we begin to look within ourselves, and perhaps through the reflections of those around us, we will start to see patterns. These patterns are simply programs that seemed an appropriate response or a mirroring of those around us from some time back in our history, but they may no longer serve us.

If the brain does anything well, it creates great patterns/programs. These are a form of hypnosis. Of course, a lot of this hypnosis is positive and appropriate. Yet, we fail to realize that we are hypnotized by the many fears from our parents and society. We fear that we are not enough, and that we are “just the way we are”, implying that not much can be done about it.

NOT SO! Humanity has slowly been awakening to it’s higher nature, and to its unlimited God-Self within. As the phrase goes, “With God all things are possible.” When we begin to awaken to the power that lives, not outside of ourselves, but within, we will also awaken to the consciousness that we have more choices to create, to evolve, and to demonstrate the greater potential of who we are.

We must begin to understand that we have all been hypnotized from the earliest times. We’ve even been told to fear being hypnotized. Little wonder we fear our true selves. We have been unconsciously trained, hypnotized into thinking that we are not enough and never can be.

Frankly, it’s not a matter of whether one can be hypnotized or not, because we simply are. So, the question becomes not can I, but “Will I set myself free and awaken to un-hypnotize myself from my own self-hypnosis?”

We can awaken from our old, unconsciously learned hypnosis into our powerful, unlimited potential, to choose how and what we wish to become and be. The past does not have to equal the future.

Above all else, we are learning beings. We can learn to reawaken (un-hypnotize) and consciously re-program our selves with a new inner vision where true control, true choice, and true fulfillment can be made manifest.