In this article we will continue to discuss the psychology of the Mind. We will now look at the mind in relation to hypnotism and suggestion.
Self-Hypnosis
“You hypnotize yourself constantly with your own conscious thoughts and suggestions.
Here hypnosis merely applies to a quite normal state in which you concentrate your attention, narrowing your focus to a particular area of thought or belief.
You concentrate with great vigor upon one idea, usually to the exclusion of others.
It is a quite conscious performance.
As such it also portrays the importance of belief, for using hypnosis you “force-feed” a belief to yourself; you concentrate all of your attention upon the idea presented.
Hypnosis is simply an exercise in the alternation of beliefs, and only too clearly shows that sense experience follows expectations.
Quite without any inductions you have “hypnotized” yourself into all the beliefs that you have.
This simply means that you have consciously accepted them, focused upon them, excluded data to the contrary, narrowed your interest to those specific points, and accordingly activated the unconscious mechanisms that then materialize those convictions through physical experience.”1
Inner Sounds
“Your thoughts have a very definite vital reality.
Beliefs are thoughts reinforced by imagination and emotion concerning the nature of your reality.
Remember, thoughts in general possess an electromagnetic reality. They also have an inner sound value.
Inner sounds have an even greater effect than exterior ones upon your body. They affect the atoms and molecules that compose your cells.
Inner sounds are extremely important.
Each of the atoms and molecules that compose your body has its own reality in sound values that you do not hear physically.
Each organ of your body then has its own unique sound value too.
When there is something wrong the inner sounds are discordant.
The inharmonious sounds have become a part of that portion of the body as a result of the inner sound of your own thought-beliefs.
That is why it is vital that you not reinforce these inner sounds through repeating the same negative suggestions to yourself.
Verbal suggestions are translated into inner sound. This passes through your body in somewhat the same way that some kinds of light do.”2
Suggestions from Yourself Form your Body and State of Health
“You constantly give yourself suggestions about your body, your health or ill health.
You send a barrage of beliefs and instructions to the inner self that affect your physical image.
It does not matter in which language you are addressing yourself. The sound is formed by your intent. The same intent will have the same sound effect upon the body regardless of the words used.
Usually you think in your own language, and so in quite practical terms the words and the intent merge. For all practical purposes then the two are one.
When you say, “I am tired,” mentally you are not only giving silent messages to yourself – but beside this the inner sound value of the messages automatically affects the body in just that way.
What should you do, then, if you find yourself feeling tired? This is your conscious assessment of your body’s reality at a given time. You want to change it so you do not reinforce it. Instead you say mentally that the body can now begin to rest and refresh itself.
You take your initial judgment for granted without restating it, and instead suggest the remedy be carried out.
You can, if the conditions warrant, physically rest by lying down or making whatever adjustments seem appropriate. If none are possible then several such suggestions – that the body can refresh itself – will give you benefit.
To tell yourself over and over that you are tired, however, reinforces the condition.
You hypnotize your very nerves, and the cells within your body, for they will react as you expect them to react, and the beliefs of your conscious mind are followed in degree by all portions of the self, down to the smallest atom and molecule.
Again, if you are ill you may say, “I did not want to be sick,” or if you are poor, “I did not want to be poor,” or if you are unloved, “I did not want to be lonely.”
Yet for your own reasons you began to believe in illness more than health, in poverty more than abundance, in loneliness rather than affection.
You may have accepted some of these ideas from your parents. Their effects may have surrounded you, or you may have switched beliefs in one particular area of your life; but each can be changed if you utilize the power of action in the present.
I am not saying that every one of you must or should be healthy, wealthy and wise. I am only addressing those here now who have effects in their lives with which they are dissatisfied.
The suggestions you give yourselves constantly operate overall as beliefs that are reflected in your experience.
In quiet moments the word “O-O-O-O-O-M-M-M-M,” said slowly, mentally or aloud, will be of benefit in toning up your general physical condition.”3
Suggestion from Others
“You are not at the mercy of suggestions from others unless that suggestion fits in with your current belief system.
Much has been written about the nature and importance of suggestion. One of the current ideas in vogue holds that you are constantly at the mercy of suggestion.
Your own conscious beliefs are the most important suggestions that you receive.
All other ideas are rejected or accepted according to whether or not you believe they are true, in line with the steady conscious chattering that goes on within your mind most of the day – the suggestions given to you by yourself.
You will accept a suggestion given by another only if it fits in with your own ideas about the nature of reality in general, and your concepts about yourself in particular.
If you use your conscious mind properly, you examine those beliefs that come to you. You do not accept them willy-nilly.
If you use your conscious mind properly, you are also aware of intuitive ideas that come to you from within.
You are only half conscious when you do not examine the information that comes to you from without, and when you ignore the data that comes to you from within.
All beliefs or suggestions are first sifted through your conscious mind, and only those that you accept are then permitted their penetration into the other areas of the self.
No negative beliefs were thrust upon you, despite your will.
None can be inflicted upon you that you do consciously accept.
Many who make a practice of “denying” negative suggestions from others, asserting positive affirmations instead, actually do so because they are so fully convinced that the power of negative beliefs is stronger than that of beneficial ones.”4
Hypnosis
“Hypnosis is merely a state of concentrated attention in which you focus upon beliefs.
Popular demonstrations lead the public to believe that the subject must fall asleep or be completely relaxed, yet this is not the case.
The one prerequisite is an intense concentration upon specific incoming data to the exclusion of everything else. Therefore the orders given are clear-cut, to the point. No conflicting information is received, no cross messages.
The shutting out of superfluous data and the narrowing of course are the two most important ingredients.
Relaxation can help simply because the body messages are also quieted, and the mind not concerned with them.
Any good demonstration of hypnosis will clearly show that the point of power is in the present, and that beliefs dictate your experience.
There is no magic in hypnosis. Each of you utilize it constantly.
Only when particular procedures are assigned to it, and when it is set aside from normal life, does hypnotic suggestion seem so esoteric.
Structured hypnosis merely allows the subject to utilize full powers of concentration, thereby activating unconscious mechanisms.
Hypnosis clearly shows in concentrated form the way in which your beliefs affect your behavior in normal life.
The various methods simply focus all of your concentration upon a specific area, shutting out any distractions.
Your beliefs act like a hypnotist, then.
As long as the particular directions are given, so will your “automatic” experience conform.
The one suggestion that can break through is this: “I create my reality, and the present is my point of power.”
If you do not like the effects of a belief you must alter it, for no manipulation of the exterior conditions themselves will release you.
If you truly understand your power of action and decision in the present, then you will not be hypnotized by past events.”5
Hypnotism by a Hypnotist
“With the distortions present in organized procedures and the misunderstandings of the practitioners, the phenomenon [of hypnotism] seems to show a different face indeed.
The subject agrees to accept the beliefs of the hypnotist.
Since telepathy exists the subject will react not only to verbal commands but to the unspoken beliefs of the practitioner, thereby “proving” of course, the hypnotist’s theory of what his profession is.
Hypnosis, used properly without the mumbo jumbo usually assigned to it, is an excellent method of inserting new beliefs and getting rid of old ones.
This is only true, however, if you realize the power of your conscious mind in that moment, and understand the ability of your consciousness to mobilize unconscious reactions.”6
Re-structuring the Past through Hypnotism
“Think of the present as a pool of experience drawn from many sources, fed, in your terms, by tributaries from both the past and the future.
There are an infinite number of such tributaries (probabilities), and through your beliefs you choose from these, adjusting their currents.
For example, if you constantly focus on the belief that your early background was damaging and negative, then only such experiences will flow into your present life from the past.
It does no good to say “But my life was traumatic,” therefore reinforcing the belief. You must in one way or another modify that conviction, or preferably change it entirely – or you will never escape from its effects.
This does not mean “lying” to yourself; but if it seems to you that your background held no joys, accomplishments or pleasures, then you are lying to yourself now.
You have concentrated upon the negative to such a degree that anything else seems invisible.
From the present you have hypnotized yourself, viewing the past not as it was to your experience, but as it appears now in the light of your current beliefs.
You have reconstructed it. So when I tell you to restructure your past, I am not telling you to do something that you have not already done.”7
Natural Self Hypnotism
“Natural hypnosis is the acquiescence of the unconscious to conscious belief.
In periods of concentrated focus, with all distractions cut out, the desired ideas are then implanted.
The same processes occur in normal life, however; areas of primary concentration then regulate your experience both biologically and mentally, and generate similar conditions.
Your beliefs are like hypnotic focuses. You reinforce them constantly through the normal inner talking in which you all indulge.
This inner communication acts like the constant repetition of a hypnotist.
In this case, however, you are your own hypnotist.
The individual who takes it for granted that he is worthwhile does not need to belabor the point. His ensuing experiences come naturally to him.
In many areas of your own life those in which you are satisfied, you need make no effort.
Your conscious thoughts and concentrations bring about results with which you are pleased.
It is only in those compartments of your life that confound you that you suddenly begin to wonder what is happening.
In those areas in which you are dissatisfied, you feel that you are powerless, or that your will is paralyzed, or that conditions continue despite what you think of as your intent.
Yet if you pay attention to your own quite conscious thoughts, you will find that you are concentrating upon precisely those negative aspects that so appall you.
You are hypnotizing yourself quite effectively and so reinforcing the situation.
You may say, horrified, “What can I do? I am hypnotizing myself into my overweight condition (or my loneliness, or my poor health).”
Yet in other facets of your life you may be hypnotizing yourself into wealth, accomplishment, satisfaction – and here you do not complain.
The same issues are involved. The same principles are operating.
In those positive life situations you are certain of your initiative. There is no doubt.
Your beliefs become reality.”8
Conclusion
In this article we have pointed out the power of suggestion and self-hypnotism. It is seen that not only how you talk to others, but how you talk to yourself is of the utmost importance.
In a universe where consciousness forms reality, your thoughts, verbal or nonverbal are the directions of creation. We must learn to examine our thoughts and to change the directions if certain aspects of life are unsatisfactory. We should not wail and moan that we are a victim, that we are unhappy and powerless to change. It is up to each and every person to get a grip on their own minds and learn how to create the life and world that they want to see and experience.
The power resides in the mind. We all must learn to examine and know our own minds. We all must learn what our beliefs are and not be too proud or fearful to change those beliefs if they are not working for us.
The Consciousness and Human Life sections in Cosmic Core give all the directions needed in order to examine your mind and use the power of your own consciousness to rise to your highest potential for the greatest good. If nothing else, these concepts should be read and contemplated upon. If one finds truth to this information then one needs to do the work on their own minds. As The Law of One says, it is both a duty and an honor to do this work. It is both our duty and our honor to learn how to rise to our highest potential for the greatest good of all.
- Roberts, Jane, The Nature of Personal Reality, Amber-Allen Publishing, 1974
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