Hypnotherapy is a healing process not Mesmerism

 

Self-Hypnosis: How Is It Different From Mesmerism?

 

People do not understand why they need to invest energies on self-hypnosis or systematic meditation when they can just ignore problems by staying thoughtless. However, as discussed above, you cannot keep your mind thoughtless or emotionless because life-force releases through feelings. Metaphorically, if your body is like a car, staying thoughtless is like being in neutral gear. You cannot move ahead if you hold your car in neutral gear all the time. The car has to either move ahead or backwards. Staying negative amounts to moving backwards or going reverse of where you want to go; whereas focusing on feeling positive means moving forwards.

Hypnosis was first explored by Franz Mesmer. He introduced the concept of Animal Magnetism. Mesmer believed that he had the power to magnetize people under his control. He published his theories of mesmerism in 1765. Most people thought it was black magic or witch-craft.

Hypnosis as is used today, is called Clinical Hypnosis which is not the same as mesmerism. Clinical Hypnosis was developed by Dr. James Braid in the 1840`s, who was a British physician. The state of hypnosis is different from mesmerism or a non-thinking, deep trance state. The mesmerized trance state is more like a delta state where the person is in deep sleep and does not remember anything upon awakening.

Under clinical hypnosis, the person remains awake and in self-control while the mind is induced to a state of peaceful calmness away from the hustle of a busy life.

Clinical hypnosis is the reverse of mesmerism as you are put more in command of your life by a connection to your inner self. When you are using hypnosis for healing, you feel safe as your conscience cannot be tampered with, unlike in mesmerism where you are used as a puppet and forget everything upon waking up.

The mesmerized state can be used against the person’s free will to harm his/her body or self -interest by using him like a toy under command of the magician. On the other hand, hypnosis puts responsibility of healing on the self.

Dr. Kappas, a renowned hypnotherapist, found that people are influenced by suggestions given in the Hypnotic state, only after the suggestions are accepted by the conscious mind, and not if the suggestions are given in mesmerized state of absent recall.

E.g. If you want to exercise and are unable to get into a routine, hypnosis can help you get in a routine of exercising but it will work only if you are willing to exercise at the conscious level. If your values and beliefs contradict the concept at the conscious level, the suggestion given under hypnosis does not work.

Though the process of clinical hypnosis uses a meditative trance to quieten the mind chatter, the person remains in control when the suggestions are given and healing works only if the person agrees with the process and allows the healing to take place,

This is an excerpt from the book _ Emotional Energy Management

(www.shivaswati.com)