Betty Erickson’s Self Hypnosis Method:

Here's an interesting technique guaranteed to put you into an hypnotic state. It doesn't appear to be anything more than just that - a way to put yourself into a hypnotic, suggestable state. What you do once you get there is entirely up to you, and I'd love it if you'd share your experiences and ideas about this - if you actually try it, that is.


The fundamental principles:

All are thoughts are in the form of pictures, full of audio and emotions.

When visualizing pictorial images of our thoughts we think about the all possible scenarios, i.e. how it is now, how you want it to be and how will it look in future. It is a mix of what images are already stored in our brain and what we want it to be.

Similarly, our thoughts are associated with sounds and are also a result of what is stored in our mind, like a pop song, and sounds we imagine, speak or hear. These sounds also include the dialogue that we have with ourselves and others, and background noise as well.

Emotions are the third form in which we think. These could be feelings we have felt earlier or anything we wish to experience and feel.

Although our thinking mind uses all three of these forms, most often just one of these components is dominant. Hence, a person who pictures up his thoughts as sound won’t be as successful if he primarily uses visual aids.

The Steps:

Step 1: Find a comfortable place and position so that you can relax. The posture you choose should allow you be in that position till the time you are done with the hypnosis. You could sit or sleep, although when sleeping there is a risk of you dozing off. Breathe slowly and focus in front. Relax and let your body loose.

Step 2: Decide how long you want to practice hypnosis. When you tell yourself, “I want to practice hypnosis for (your choice of time)”, you will realize that you need no external aids to keep track. Your internal biological clock will alert you about it.

Step 3: You also decide the aim behind you practicing hypnosis. Make a statement about the results you want to reap after hypnosis. Doing this will help your subconscious mind to focus on that issue, instead of evaluating suggestions. One possible way to frame the sentence to yourself is, “I am practicing hypnosis so that my subconscious mind can focus on issues like _________.”

The blank is for you to fill in. Remember you should derive some benefit from hypnosis. Hence choose your result area carefully. Speaking the sentence to yourself helps you to tune your subconscious mind towards the results you want to achieve.

Step 4: Focus on three things in front of you. Give each of them a considerable amount of your focus. Small things like a dot, a photo etc will be good to focus on. Some people even speak out the object they are focusing on to help the mind tune into that mode and mood.

Step 5: Now focus on what you hear. Try to segregate three things that you hear. This will help you accept the sounds from the surrounding rather than getting out of focus because of them.

Step 6: Feelings are the next thing you would notice. Feel each of them for a sufficiently long time. Subtle feelings like the weight of your wrist watch, the ring you wear etc would useful for your sensations.

Step 7: Add images to this process, begin with two then add two sound and continue at a comfortable pace.

This brings to end the “external” components that you need to take care of to hypnotize yourself. Now beings the internal hypnosis.

Step 8: Shut your eyes. Remember an image. Never make this process too much of work, hypnosis is for relaxation, not to bring in stress. Accept whatever image comes to your mind. Don’t be judgmental to accept or reject an image. If no images comes up, then try putting in some into your mind.

Step 9: Next, let your mind acknowledge some sound and pin a name to it. Though the hypnosis is internal, you are allowed to hear sounds that are external to your body. The point is to accept whatever comes to you.

Step 10: Same thing with feeling. Feel a feeling and name it. Use you visualization to do this. It could be a sensory experience, like feeling the breeze of wind, or it could be an emotion that arises. Accept whatever you can feel.

Continue the same way as external hypnosis. Use two images, two sound and two feelings and maintain this cycle.

When you are done or your biological clock alerts you, open your eyes. You might feel out of place and bit hazed. But you will come back soon into the real world as per the time you had decided. Believe me, it was not your sleep, you were commanding your unconscious mind to do things.

You may not succeed the first time. Don’t despair at this. If you complete the process before time, continue adding pictures, sounds and emotions. This is perhaps the simplest of all means available to acquaint you to hypnosis.

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