You would think that with the billions of dollars NASA. spends on launching probes and satellites into the farthest reaches of the universe that space, as Captain James T Kirk said, was the final frontier. I beg to differ. I suggest to you it is ‘inner space’, the human mind, than represents a greater enigma than the distant stars ever will.
Thanks to modern technology, our knowledge of the external has, much like the universe itself, expanded rapidly. We can be certain of the motions of the planets around far off suns and have discovered that an insubstantial ‘dark matter’ fills the heavens, yet the grey matter between our ears still remains somewhat of a mystery.
So what do we know? We know your mind is incredible and has been described as a biological computer more powerful than any electronic brain yet devised by man. Every man made thing we see around us, from the smallest ball bearing to gigantic Apollo space rockets, was first conceived in and then made reality by the human mind.
Although all our man-made achievements may seem impressive, it is generally accepted that we use only about 10% of the brain’s ability, whilst the remaining 90% remains dormant and unused.
That part we have used to create our world demonstrates only a fraction of the human mind’s capabilities. What we have discovered and achieved so far is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
To Boldly Go
Of this we are certain. If you were to compare the mind to Captain Kirk’s Starship Enterprise you’d see there were two things going on at the same time as it speeds through space.
First you have the crew, busying themselves with the everyday tasks needed to keep everything ship shape. This is like the conscious mind, the part you are using now to read these words and over which we have most control. We use it for daily decision making, rational thinking and other everyday tasks.
But your average starship crewman probably doesn’t think about all the other unseen, unnoticed things going on in the ship that keep him alive and prevent the ship from slamming into asteroids.
There’s the air conditioning that lets him breathe and keeps the temperature just right. There’s the lifts speeding people to other decks, doors opening and shutting automatically to let him in and out of rooms, and millions of routine computer processes that every second keep the ship and its crew ‘alive’ and functioning normally.
Similarly the subconscious takes care of all the automatic functions we need to stay alive but which we don’t have to think about every second of the day, such as breathing (you don’t have to think “now I breathe in, now I breathe out” do you?), emotions, imagination, memories and the autonomic nervous system – pupil dilation, saliva production, skin condition, that sort of thing. Two different ships, two different ‘yous’ inhabiting the same space, interdependent on each other and subtly interacting all day and all night.
And, like the computers on the Enterprise, the subconscious also possesses the remarkable ability to record everything you’ve seen, heard, experienced or learned since you were born, even things you were not consciously aware of at the time. You may not be able to access that information right now but it’s all in there somewhere. That’s why police forces around the world sometimes use professional hypnotherapists to hypnotise crime scene witnesses.
Under hypnosis the conscious mind is ‘bypassed’ and the subconscious ‘tape recorder’ accessed to recall photographic details about a scene that, at the time, the witness may not have consciously registered.
Tell the computer on Enterprise to blow up the ship and it will probably do it, no questions asked. It doesn’t reason or question the command. Same with the subconscious – it records anything and everything and believes whatever it is told, if it is told often enough.
That’s bad if you keep telling it you are useless or unworthy or fat or not loveable or whatever that little niggling negative voice inside all of us keeps saying. The subconscious just says “okay, that’s fine, so be it” and will do its utmost to make those beliefs come true. But what if you were to keep telling it “you are great, you are self confident, you are loveable and you are slim”? Same thing, subconscious accepts these things to be true and will change your belief systems, way of acting and re-acting to the outside world accordingly.
The subconscious cannot resist consistent bombardment of one simple idea or set of instructions. It simply has to give in and give you whatever you want. The subconscious is that powerful! Not convinced? Take these examples.
Perhaps one of the most often quoted and well known examples of the incredible power of the subconscious mind was an experiment carried out in the 1950’s on a cinema audience in America.
During the movie, just a single frame with the simple instruction to buy a certain product, was inserted into the film. As a single frame it flashed by without the viewers even noticing it was there but sure enough, come the interval, everyone went out to the bar and bought the product and overall sales soared!
Luckily, so effective was this form of subconscious advertising, it was banned before any other company could jump on the bandwagon and bend unsuspecting audiences to its commercial will. Still, the fantastic power of this method to influence the way people think and act did not escape the British and American medical authorities who, in the same decade, gave official approval for the use of hypnosis in treating both physical and psychological disorders.
Since then, the amazing ability of the mind to control both physical and mental states has been proven again and again. Doctors and therapists all over the world recognise hypnosis as a valuable therapeutic tool that can be used to treat asthma, tension, headaches, stomach disorders, blood pressure, smoking and many other physical ailments.
Even dentists are now using a form of hypnosis on patients so that they feel no pain during treatment without having to take a conventional anaesthetic.
Boosting the health of the body is one of the areas where hypnosis seems to work particularly well. Years of clinical research and controlled experiments seem to suggest that it is possible to boost your immune system just by thinking about it.
Nicholas Hall, a neurophysiologist at George Washington University Medical Centre in America found that his subjects could increase the number of white blood cells, as well as an immunity hormone called Thymosin-alpha-1, in their bloodstream by simply using visualization exercises.
Still not convinced? Try this one for size. At the University of Texas, Dr Frank Lawlis found that if his subjects used their imaginations in a creative way, they could boost the number of disease fighting cells, called Neutrofils, in their bloodstream.
Similarly, in Japan, doctors found in controlled tests that their subjects could eliminate the itching, swelling and blistering caused by exposure to a poisonous plant by imagining, under hypnosis, that it was harmless. Amazingly, when the experiment was reversed and patients were told that a harmless plant was poisonous, their skin reacted as if they had really been exposed to its harmful chemicals!
This, to me, demonstrates beyond doubt the power of the mind to influence the body. If it can have this much influence on our physical state, just imagine what it can do for our mental one! The subconscious mind also has enormous influence over what way we think. It affects the way we feel, the way we see the world and the way we deal with life.
What is Hypnosis?
When I talk about hypnosis I don’t mean the silly kind you see on television where some stage hypnotist makes a poor unsuspecting victim believe he’s Mr Spock and has no control over his actions (although this is another good example of how the subconscious can be made to modify your belief and behaviour). I’m talking about hypnotherapy, which is another kettle of fish altogether but often confused with the kind used for entertainment.
Hypnosis in this context does not mean someone completely taking control of your mind and turning you into some kind of zombie to provide embarrassing entertainment for audiences. It could be compared more accurately to a pleasant bout of daydreaming. It’s not like going to sleep and you do not become unconscious.
You are still aware of your surroundings to some extent and are still in charge of all your faculties so no-one can make you bark like a dog if you don’t want to!
Instead you feel pleasantly relaxed but mentally alert. Hypnosis is a very pleasant, relaxing state to be in because your consciousness is directed inwards so you become comfortably detached from the outside world.
You could say it’s a ‘shift’ in consciousness, where the inner imaginary world comes more to the fore and the everyday reality of life is relegated to the back of your mind.
It is in this state that the subconscious mind becomes much more susceptible to either negative or positive suggestion. It makes no distinction between the two.
Why? Because hypnosis bypasses our conscious, reasoning, sceptical, disbelieving mind set and speaks directly to the non-judgemental, easily fooled, all trusting subconscious. Here’s what the Encyclopaedia Britannica has to say on the subject.
“Hypnosis is defined as a special psychological state with certain physiological attributes resembling sleep only superficially and marked by a functioning of the individual at a level of awareness other than the ordinary conscious state.
This state is characterised by a degree of increased receptiveness and responsiveness in which inner perceptions are given as much significance as is generally given only to external reality”.
A Little bit of History
The word ‘hypnosis’ was coined in the 19th century but it is a very ancient form of behavioural therapy. The ancient Sumerian civilization which existed about 4000 years BCE were using hypnosis as a therapeutic tool as did Hindu Fakirs, Persian Magi, Indian Yogis, the physicians of ancient Egypt and healers of the middle ages.
Perhaps one of the most famous practitioners of the art was a German physician called Franz Anton Mesmer who lived from 1784 to 1815. Although his strange techniques were in pseudo mystery and amateur dramatics, he never realized that when he transfixed his patients into a kind of trance, he was using a form of hypnosis. His legacy lives on to this day in the word ‘Mesmerized’ which is still used to describe a form of hypnotic influence.
But it wasn’t until the 18th century that an English optometrist called James Braid observed that a trance-like state could be achieved when a person fixed their gaze on a shining object for a few minutes and coined the term ‘hypnosis’, which comes from the Greek word ‘hypnos’ for sleep. As we have seen, during hypnosis you don’t really fall asleep so the name is somewhat inaccurate but, for better or worse, it has stuck.
Today, all over the world, professional hypnotherapists are helping people overcome physical problems or modify their thinking and behaviour, and transforming lives for the better using this truly ancient form of therapy.
The great news is that you don’t have to go and visit a therapist (and pay their high fees) to benefit from this remarkable self-help system, you can transform your life from the comfort of your own armchair or bed.
If life is too busy even to squeeze in 30 minutes of uninterrupted relaxation, listening to subliminal suggestions while driving to work, at the gym, or doing the household chores works equally as well.
These subliminal suggestions are commonly masked under some pleasant music or natural sounds such as crashing waves. The great thing about this is that you can go about your daily business just listening to the music in the background but all the time your subconscious is absorbing those positive suggestions.
It is also a great way for sceptics to enjoy the benefits of self-hypnosis, even if they don’t believe it works. Self-hypnosis works in spite of your beliefs to the contrary.
You don’t have to try and ‘make’ it work. Your subconscious believes whatever you tell it. It’s the perfect ‘no effort’ way to change you for the better.
If, on the other hand, you like the idea of having a quiet and relaxing 30 minutes to yourself, use the auditory version of those same suggestions either when your are drifting off to sleep or when you feel like a relaxing break.
In the beginning, you might be asked to use your imagination to conjure up a relaxing visualization exercise that will help you drift off into a pleasant daydream-like state while the positive suggestions are repeated over and over to you on a conscious level.
There’s nothing magical or occult about this, just one of the most relaxing, pleasant and comfortable experiences you can have that gives you control over your mind and body not normally available in your normal, conscious state.
In this relaxed frame of mind the suggestions are more readily accepted because the critical faculties of the conscious mind are partially suspended, allowing the suggestions to be delivered to the non-judgemental subconscious mind for storage.
There are potentially huge benefits for you if you use hypnosis as part of your everyday life. When you understand hypnosis you start to see its potential to improve human performance physically, emotionally and intellectually.
So you see, it’s not outer space that poses some of the greatest challenges we have ever faced, it’s inner space. Your mind is the ‘final frontier’ just waiting to be explored and exploited for your ultimate benefit.
How Can Hypnosis Help Me Look and Feel Younger?
There definitely arethings you can do with hypnosis that will help you reduce the effects of ageing. For example, when you relax very deeply, you can alter the blood flow to different areas of the body, relax muscles at will, decrease your blood pressure, boost your immune system and change deep-seated attitudes. And all this without a needle in sight!
Old fashioned self hypnosis cassette tapes have been around for many years. I’ve been using them since the 1970’s to great effect but recent technological breakthroughs have taken this wonderful method of self-transformation to a whole new level with CD’s and MP3 downloads.
These anti-aging hypnosis downloads will help give you the best chance of staying fit and trim and healthy and young at heart.
How to Cope Confidently With Hair Loss
Hair loss is a common consequence of aging and there are plenty of products and businesses out there offering you life-like wigs, hair transplants or chemicals you massage into your scalp that are supposed to stimulate hair growth.
Whilst hypnosis may not be able to make your hair grow back overnight, it can help you with worries about your receding hair line, make you feel less self-conscious about your hair, and revive your self-confidence about the way you look.
Accepting hair loss is an audio hypnosis session prepared by experienced psychologists that will help you really relax around the idea that you are losing your hair.
Learn more about this program at here.
Set Your Unconscious Mind to Live Longer
Although diet, exercise and genetics play a big role in how long you live and how healthy you are, many studies have shown that your attitude toward aging is also a key factor in longevity.
We’ve all heard of stories where an authority figure such as a doctor has given a patient six months to live. The patient goes away and their belief in this prognosis is so strong, they expire exactly six months later, not because the outcome was certain (the doctor may only have been estimating the time they had left), but because the patient’s belief in the outcome was so strong.
The mind made it come true for them. But suggestion of this kind can work in the opposite direction too.
Research conducted at Hull University in the UK demonstrated that cancer patients who received hypnotherapy appeared to live significantly longer than those who didn’t have the hypnosis.
The ‘placebo effect’ is well known in the healing arts. A placebo is something that has no effect on the body, such as a sugar pill, but the patient is told it is a new wonder drug that can cure their illness.
Because the patient believes what he or she has been told, the placebo sometimes has the same or even greater effect than the drug.
Dr John Hagelin, a quantum physicist and public policy expert has also recognized the link between mind and body: “Our body is really the product of our thoughts. We’re beginning to understand in medical science the degree to which the nature of thoughts and emotions actually determines the physical substance and structure and function of our bodies.”
And there are many other pieces of research showing the impact of optimism on health. The ‘Set your mind to live longer‘ MP3 will help you develop a positive, energetic attitude to life as you age, making sure that your mind has the right blueprint for an active healthy later life.
Learn more about this program here.
Get a Natural Anti-Aging Attitude
The thought of getting older can be depressing, especially if you associate it with negative images such as slowing down, getting weaker, feeling more frail and over the hill. Trouble is, the more we think these things and focus on them, the more they will come into our life because the subconscious mind will simply deliver to you that which you always think about.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Research shows that having positive ideas about aging can affect the rate at which you age and how you age. There are many examples of men in their 70’s, 80’s and older who are still as active, fit and sharp as guys half their age and who still has a great sense of humor and zest for life.
Our society is obsessed with youth but ‘youth’ is a concept that can be separated from how many years you happen to have clocked up! ‘Youth’ is an attitude, a state of mind and you can continue to develop socially, physically and in all ways as you grow older.
Learn more here.
Get a Non-Surgical Face Lift Using Hypnosis
Considering a face-lift? Before you go under the knife or reach for the syringe, consider what both The Five Minute Face Lift Workout and a non-surgical face lift using hypnosis could do for you. Did you know that stress and tension is one of the major causes of lines and wrinkles?
Stress, tension and worry cause frequent frowning which, over time, cause the muscles in the face to conform to that movement thanks to ‘muscle memory’. That’s why they call those forehead wrinkles ‘worry lines’.
Hypnotherapists have noticed for years that after a session of deep hypnosis people invariably look fresher and younger with smoother skin. In the ‘Non-Surgical Face Lift‘ hypnosis download session you’ll experience a kind of natural lift and rejuvenation as your sub-conscious mind is encouraged to relax all the muscles of your face and circulation is encouraged into the skin of the face. You will also be given powerful suggestions to do more of what helps your skin such as drinking more water and eating good foods.
Find out more about this program here.
Photo by Kelvin Valerio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-wearing-black-cap-with-eyes-closed-under-cloudy-sky-810775/
