Hypnosis Extravaganza!

Well, I said I'd share impressions from the hypnosis conference I attended last Saturday for those of you who I call "seekers of the key" (i.e. those, like me, who are searching for the key to the enormous powers of the mind).

There was so much of interest to hypnotherapists, but I do realise that my audience is predominantly non-hypnotherapists and so I'm just going to give you a few things to think about and turn over in your mind that arose from the topics in the conference.

So let's first talk about hypnosurgery and pain control. Dr. John Butler regularly uses hypnosis to induce anaesthesia in surgery - very successfully, and here are some other ways research evidence has shown hypnosis to be effective:
reduces pre-operative anxiety and stress and post-operative nausea and discomfort;
improves the ability to cope with surgery;
reduces the need for chemical anaesthetic and all its side effects;
reduces infection, improve healing and speed recovery;
reduces pain;
reduces blood flow.

In addition, hypnosis can help in chronic pain, burn healing, cancer and the effects of its treatment, high blood pressure, IBS, back pain, childbirth, etc. etc.

Interestingly, hypnosis isn't always the deep state of relaxation we automatically associate with the word. Hypnosis is a state of mind whereby your subconscious mind willingly and completely accepts a suggestion. That state of mind can be achieved through active means such as chanting, tribal dance, healing ceremonies, rituals, walking on hot coals, etc. or simply by the acceptance of a statement by an authority figure! I can vouch for the truth of the last one, as evidenced in my own recovery from debilitating back pain! I have also personally experienced the effects of "waking hypnosis" on the healing of burns. And it's always worth being aware of what to say and what not to say in an emergency, when the mind is in shock, because that can make a difference to recovery!

Employing the power of the mind in a physical process makes absolute sense. Isn't it your mind that keeps everything functioning in your body? Placebos can frequently create the same effects as pharmaceuticals and I'll leave this topic with one of Dr. Butler's observations at the conference:
"The efficacy of 75% of drugs can be replicated by placebo."

And so to the thought-provoking and challenging presentation by Prof. Susan Blackmore! This certainly kept us on our toes and ended up with many of us questioning whether we were conscious or not!

Her talk centred around "Consciousness is an illusion" and I'm not even going to try and summarise it here. However, here's a link to her lecture on "The Grand Illusion of Consciousness" and I'll leave you to work it out for yourself!

I'm still puzzling over the question of whether something exists if I don't see it at the first look. For example, you go into a room and look around - some things you notice, some you don't. Suppose there's a bottle of water on the table. At the first look, you don't "see" it. Does that mean it's not there? If you have looked round the room when you first entered and didn't "see" the bottle, was there a "bottle-shaped space" where you didn't see it? Or did it not exist because it hadn't been "seen"?

If you work out the answer, do let me know so I can move on!

And finally, just to support the hypnosurgery theme, here is a link to a complimentary download of an audio "Successful Surgery" that I made for a client about to undergo surgery. It is designed to prepare the mind for a successful procedure and outcome, and to speed the healing and recovery process. Please share it with anyone who may benefit. The link will be available here until 4 July.

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