Your Brain In Hypnosis

“The brains of the whole operation”, “The brain behind the brawn”, or simply, “The brain”, are just a few of the allusions used to refer to somebody who controls everyone else, somebody who makes everyone do what they are expected to do or perform their functions the way they should. In essence, the human brain is really like that. In hypnosis it even has a “life of its own”.

Anatomically, the brain is nothing more but a glob of gray matter divided into the medulla oblongata, the cerebellum, and the cerebrum.  The medulla oblongata controls the body’s automatic functions, like making our heart beat, while the cerebellum controls our movement and coordination as well as our nervous system. On the other hand, the cerebrum does all higher level thinking.

To the non-scientifically inclined layman, there are just two sections of the brain, the right half and the left half. To a hypnotherapist, the brain, in particular the thinking part of it or the cerebrum is further divided into our conscious mind and our subconscious mind.

The conscious mind is that part that is mentally aware and consciously thinking about whatever is going on in front of us. The subconscious mind is the repository of neural pathways, memories and thoughts that are recorded and catalogued randomly.

Our subconscious mind records every activity as it happens to us, whether we are conscious of the activity as having happened or not. This is why we have a vague recollection or impressions about activities or attitudes about tasks that we don’t remember doing or cannot explain the reason for.

Our conscious mind is what we use each and every waking moment to make decisions. But behind it is our subconscious mind, advising it on all decisions, and pulling on past habits and patterns to influence those decisions. As a matter of fact, we can often see some of what our subconscious mind is “thinking” through our dreams, which is when our brain is organizing the randomly stored memories and thoughts.

While all memories and thoughts are being recorded, some get lost in the shuffle of neural pathways. This is where professional hypnosis, or even self-hypnosis, can be used to exert some control over what our subconscious mind is thinking, as well as cause the reorganization of the shuffled neural pathways.

Hypnosis can also be used to remove some negative thought patterns and habits embedded deep in our subconscious mind.

While meditation is often associated with hypnosis, they are actually very different from each other although both tap the subconscious mind. This has been proven by studies done where brain activity during hypnosis and meditation were measured through brain scans such as EKGs.

The difference lies in the desired effect, where meditation aims to bring about relaxation and introspection while hypnosis seeks to achieve a specific goal by entering the hypnotic state and using the power of suggestion.