Psychoanalytic Theory and Regression Theory through Hypnosis: The Soul Contract

Hypnosis

Although I know that therapists have used hypnosis in on- going therapy, for several hundreds of years, this is NOT a tool that I wish to add to my tool box in clinical therapy resolution.  Not only do I think it is very hokey, as no one cannot predict, measure or tabulate the outcomes, but it is also much too risky a practice to consider or become a protocol in my very science- based, results oriented practice. This is the major limitation for me in using hypnotherapy in practice.

“The lack of conscious control is largely dependent on an amnesic barrier or process that relegates ideas, imaginings and fantasies to the unconsciousness.  Diminished executive control in turn is responsible for the subjective impression of no volition that typically accompanies hypnotic responses. “( Contemporary theories and Research” .Pg. 19)  The empirical roots of the neoassociation theory can be traced to Hilgard’s introduction of the metaphor of the hidden observer to describe this phenomenon by which a person registers and stores information in memory, without being aware that the information had been processed.

Hilgard and his associate’s initial research on the hidden observer phenomenon involved experimental studies on pain and hearing. Behavior of the hidden observer depends on cues given in the instructions used to illicit the phenomenon. (Contemporary Theories and Research, Pg. 19). When I read this passage I wondered if it was the hidden observer that speaks so clearly when the subconscious mind is accessed with a Body-talk active memory protocol which recalls these memories locked in the body that can carry the codes of the presenting disease, often memories that the person cannot access in the conscious world.

From 2004-2008 one of my mentors, Robert Allen had a hypnotherapist attend his seminars to assist in training, and educating the audience on what is possible in hypnosis.   It was all great fun, when by autosuggestion, people rode imaginary horses up and down the aisles, cheered, “ Hi Hoa Silver, “ ran around the room shouting  off color phrases, raised their arms being held up by imaginary balloons, and fell asleep at certain commands.” Your hand is getting lighter and lighter:  it will soon rise by itself,” was a frequent command. Marshall Silver was the hypnotist and created several hundreds of thousands in income for himself in his Las Vegas performances pulling off his mesmerizing stunts.   For fun, for audience entertainment, sure.

For therapy, I personally would not use this technique even after being trained and I take a wide berth of hypnotherapists who approach me with the self- serving comment,  “ HI, I am a hypnotherapist, we do similar work “ . I think NOT!  “For TX Barber (1985), many suggestions, relaxation, guided imagery and imagery rehearsal that are commonly used in clinical practice do not require special hypnotic ability. “These suggestions are the language to which I speak.

The lesson in the Robert Allen training was really not about hypnosis, it was about the power of influence, his influence and training throughout the world.  The great psychologist, Cialldini, PHD wrote the book, “The Power of Influence.”  From which Robert Allen frequently quoted. In this book he cites the ways that audiences are swayed to purchase mass quantities of products from a speaker or TV presenter through the power of autosuggestion and influence.  There are people who made billions selling their products on HSN.

As manipulative as this may sound, many top selling speakers took lessons from Marshall Silver and bought Cialldini’s book to learn how to sell more products or sell their services from the platform.  Millions of dollars in sales resulted for Michael Gerber, “The E Myth”, Robert Kyosacky and many famous authors. The mansion in Rancho Santé Fe, California where Robert Allen lives and teaches his international students was built on these principles of persuasion.   His beautiful estate of 12 million dollars was built on the power of persuading others to give him money in exchange for learning what Allen knows in real estate and in business.  Mitt Romney was one of these, trainees.

“Response expectations are anticipations of automatic subjective and behavioral responses to particular situational cues and may elicit automatic responses in the forms of self- fulfilling prophecy. “ (Pg. 25 Contemporary Theories and Research) Coca-Cola as a corporation elicits the response of salivation every time it airs a person drinking a Coke. Very manipulative and direct way of creating a response in the human body. Coca Cola houses a secret ingredient.  Coca Cola is not patented by the way, as this would require giving away their secret ingredient.  How many millions of Cokes are sold daily, just from the sound of a bottle cap opening?

So persuasion is one technique, autosuggestion is another that was espoused by Napoleon Hill, and the Mindscape course by Body talk is yet another off shoot of the Silva Mind course.  In Mindscape, you create an imaginary office, with an imaginary phone and have imaginary conversations with people who call you to create your business. One of my daughters is a senior instructor for Body talk in this modality. She has recently created a new course for corporations using Mindscape techniques. I know how successful she has been in her own career using these suggestion techniques.

Although I wish to differentiate these techniques of autosuggestion, mind control and imagination in relationship to hypnosis, I would use ALL of them before using hypnosis as a technique in therapy, as I have negative subjective views towards hypnosis.  “Trusting the determinants of hypnotic responding as well as trusting the accuracy of the memories that surface in an age regression are all red flags to treatments that have no control mechanisms for either therapist or client.  ‘(Theories in Contemporary Theory and Research, pg.29). If you have no control mechanisms in treatment and cannot measure result, why do this?

I use the techniques of Access Consciousness which moves the neuron pathways of the clients and we see permanent change in one session. The clients are not riding imaginary horses around my office like 6 year old children. I am doubtful these results happen so quickly  with hypnosis. I like to see people get on their way and be successful, or well in a few sessions, not over several years using hypnosis.

The changes I had in my conceptions about hypnosis were that it does have its usefulness in autosuggestion, especially in resulting outcomes. I found the Silva mind self-  hypnosis exercise very helpful and quite interesting. I will do it again. I was persuaded by the level of relaxation and ease in the exercise.

For uses and applications, I see the following benefits:  group relaxation exercises, mediation and clearing negative energy exercises  before a training or business application, or  guiding the individual client to imagine new and exciting possibilities rather than their current “ Story” , hearing the outcomes of a new job, marriage or relationship change through autosuggestion and imagination as is done in Mindscape. As received in the Silva mind control exercise, I believe very much in the control of the mind to produce new and exciting outcomes.

One of the best, briefest conversations I ever had with Robert Allen showed up in a dream once. He asked me, “How did you get all this? “  I invented something, “ I responded.  For almost two years I asked my brain every night before I went to sleep, “What did you invent? “

I found the statement, “In the mind’s eye virtually anything is possible, and what can be imagined can at least some of the time, be realized into actuality.” (Pg. 29 Contemporary Theories and Research.) The opportunity to create the formulas finally showed up about six months ago. I have been organizing my life around this principle ever since. Was I hypnotized? No. Was my subconscious mind influenced, excited and woken up? Yes. “How?”,  I still do not know. I doubt I will ever know except to observe the outcomes and results of my dreams creating my new home, my new door and my new way of life.

Beyond past Lives and into Soul Memories between Lives: Application of Hypnosis

This was an interesting article. “Memories obtained through past life regression are not infallible, but such cases cannot seem to prove that they cannot be dismissed en masse. The client study of past life regression was very interesting showing the client the need for spiritual guides in this life to achieve her goals and recognizing her spirit guides as real. Meeting of the soul group or what I call “base camp “in this life is paramount in achieving the goals of the present or current life.

Of interest to me also was the comment” Many traditional religions report that in afterlife we face judgment from various Gods or angels. But inner life regression shows that there is no judgment from on high, only assistance and compassion. (European Journal of Clinical Hypnosis 2006, volumes 7 issue 2, Pg. 22)  “The job of the guides was to assist the person with the review process of their lives to stop these souls from being too hard on them.”

It is this constant judgment, and negative contrast of the client’s deeper commitment to live out their soul contract and purpose of being in this universe at this time, against the wishes of both family and friends where I see more of the soul’s anguish than any other cause of disease.

The work we do as therapists is sacred. It overlaps spiritually to help people believe in the on-goingness of life, dissolving the fear of death, and work left undone in this lifetime. In understanding our inner spiritual world we lose the grip of materialism and link these states of awareness to Divine Will creating true and real harmony. That is why doing this work on this planet, at this time,  is priceless for me, and most divinely, my soul contract, but HYPNOSIS will have little or nothing to do with it.