Feeling relaxed and drowsy?

Perhaps you have been hypnotized:

by Panchamee Hewavissenti

When a person is hypnotised, he's not in the normal awakening state of the mind. The state of mind is altered, and is highly susceptible to outside suggestions. When the hypnotist, (the person who hypnotises) suggests something to the person who is being hypnotised, the person is more likely to listen to the other person's voice.

For example the hypnotist may say some words such as " You are feeling relaxed and drowsy , you are getting sleepier and sleepier. Your body is becoming limp. Now you are starting to become warm, at ease, more comfortable. Your eyelids are feeling heavier and heavier.

Your eyes are closing. You can't keep them open any more.

You are totally relaxed. Now you listen to my voice", ("Understanding Psychology") and the person being hypnotized may tend to do what the hypnotist says.

If you happen to observe someone being hypnotized, you will be curious to know what's happening. The person who listens to the above voice will gradually drop his or her arms to their sides.

It's true that the person who is being hypnotized may do what's being suggested. But the hypnotist shouldn't make any destructive or anti-social suggestions. Because it's not ethical. Perhaps the person may not come out with all the hidden and personal things, on his mind. This is because the person would have determined not to reveal any hidden things. They are capable of lying for their defence.

People can't be hypnotized against their will. Similarly everyone in the world can't be hypnotized. According to the research done by psychologists, they have found about five to twenty percent of the population can't be hypnotized at all, while some fifteen percent are very easily hypnotized. Others fall in-between.

Psychologists have found that people who are very easily hypnotised are also easily absorbed while reading books or listening to a lecture. They are unaware of what's happening around them.

They tend to daydream a lot. In a nutshell, those who are really hypnotized show the ability to concentrate more than others and absorb what they study and become completely aware of what they do.

When a person is hypnotized his ability to recall and construct images increase. It's easy to recount visual memories from early childhood. Hypnotized people tend to accept what's being said uncritically. If the person, while he's being hypnotized said that he won't be able to walk, subsequently the person may show immobility.

Hypnosis can be used to solve some practical problems. Psychologists who work in different fields have found hypnosis to be a reliable effective tool.

When hypnosis is used to control pain, for example, someone who is suffering from chronic pain may be told while he is being hypnotized, that the pain has been eliminated or reduced. They are taught to feel that the painful area is hot, cold or numb.

Hypnosis had been used before the advent of anaesthesia, for surgical patients, but, with the advent of anaesthetic drugs, hypnosis was no longer used. It has also been used in the past to reduce the pain during child birth.

One of the most important uses of hypnosis is to control everyday behaviour problems such as smoking and liquor addiction. By suggesting that smoking and eating too much is bad for health and encouraging a positive self- image, the hypnotists can help people to get rid of their bad habits.

Hypnosis is used to treat people who have phobias. They are hypnotized and the fear for a particular thing is removed from their subconscious. In that process, the person is taught to relax at the subconscious level and get over their fear.

People tend to remember past events when they are hypnotized. Psychologists have hypnotized criminals to solve crimes. Witnesses and victims are sometimes better able to recount details of a crime when hypnotized. Even when memory is imbalanced, the hypnotized tell whatever they think they could remember.

Hypnosis can also be used to improve memory power and improve productivity of a person. People are taught to modify their thoughts toward their successes and to get rid of self defeating thoughts.

However psychologists don't believe that hypnosis is invariably effective because it has little use for those who can't be hypnotized. Otherwise hypnosis has a wide range of use.

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