Personal Reality, Session 658
Any good
demonstration of hypnosis will clearly show that the point of power is in the
present, and that beliefs dictate your experience.
There is no magic
in hypnosis. Each of you utilize it
constantly. (See the 620th session in Chapter
Four.) Only when particular
procedures are assigned to it, and when it is set aside from normal life, does
hypnotic suggestion seem so esoteric.
Structured hypnosis merely allows the subject to utilize full powers of concentration,
thereby activating unconscious mechanisms.
With the
distortions present in organized procedures, however, and the misunderstandings
of the practitioners, the phenomenon seems to show a different face indeed. The subject agrees to accept the beliefs of
the hypnotist. Since telepathy exists (as described in Chapter Three), the
subject will react not only to verbal commands but to the unspoken beliefs of
the practitioner, thereby “proving”, of course, the hypnotist’s theory of what
his profession is.
Hypnosis clearly
shows in concentrated form the way in which your beliefs affect your behavior
in normal life. The various methods
simply focus all of your concentration upon a specific area, shutting out any
distractions.
Your beliefs act
like a hypnotist, then. As long as the
particular directions are given, so will your “automatic” experience
conform. The one suggestion that can
break this is this: “I create my reality, and the present is my point of power”. If you do not like the effects of a belief
you must alter it, for no manipulation of the exterior conditions themselves
will release you. If you truly
understand your power of action and decision in the present, then you will not
be hypnotized by past events.
Think of the
present as a pool of experience drawn from many sources, fed, in your terms, by
tributaries from both the past and the future.
There are an infinite number of such tributaries (probabilities), and
through your beliefs you choose from these, adjusting their currents. For example: If you constantly focus on the
belief that your early background was damaging and negative, then only such
experiences will flow into your present from the past. It does no good to say, “But my life was
traumatic,” therefore reinforcing the belief.
You must in one way or another modify that conviction, or preferably
change it entirely – or you will never escape from its effects. This does not mean “lying” to yourself; but
if it seems to you that your background held no joys, accomplishments or
pleasures, then you are lying to yourself now. You have concentrated upon the negative to
such a degree that anything else seems invisible. (See
the 644th session in Chapter Eleven.) From the present you have hypnotized
yourself, viewing the past not as it was to your experience, but as it appears
now in the light of your current beliefs.
You have
reconstructed it. So when I tell you to
restructure your past, I am not telling you to do something that you have not
already done. Hypnosis, again, is merely
a state of concentrated attention, in which you focus upon beliefs. Popular demonstrations lead the public to
believe that the subject must fall asleep or be completely relaxed, yet this is
not the case. The one prerequisite is an
intense concentration upon specific incoming data to the exclusion of
everything else. Therefore the orders
given are clear-cut, to the point. No
conflicting information is received, no cross messages.
The shutting out of
superfluous data and the narrowing of focus are the two most important
ingredients. Relaxation can help simply
because the body messages are also quieted, and the mind not concerned with
them.
Many beliefs were
originally accepted as a result of such a situation, without any formal
induction, but when the circumstances were right. A period of panic induces immediate
accelerated concentration. All the forces
of energy are mobilized at once, while little relaxation is usually involved.
On the other hand,
such beliefs can be accepted when it appears that the conscious mind is
asleep, or dulled as in periods of shock, or during operations. The focus of attention is narrowed then, and
intensified. One of the troubles is that
too specific distinctions are made between the conscious and unconscious
minds. They interlap. Hypnosis, used properly without the
mumbo jumbo usually assigned to it, is an excellent method of inserting new
beliefs and getting rid of old ones.
This is only true, however, if you realize the power of your conscious
mind in that moment, and understand the ability of your consciousness to
mobilize unconscious reactions.
It is of greatest
importance that you realize several points before you try the method I suggest.
First of all, the
unconscious is not a sponge, indiscriminately accepting material
regardless of the considerations of your conscious self. All beliefs or suggestions are first sifted
through your conscious mind, and only those that you accept are then permitted
their penetration into the other areas of the self.
No negative beliefs
were thrust upon you, therefore, despite your will. Period.
None can be inflicted upon you that you do not consciously accept. In formal hypnosis, the hypnotist and the subject
play a game. If the hypnotist orders the
subject to forget what happened, the individual will pretend to do so. In that context both hold the belief in the
resulting forgetfulness, and it is the power of belief that is being
demonstrated. But instead this is taken
as an indication that the conscious mind is helpless under such conditions,
generally speaking, and this is not the case.
Quite without any
inductions, you have “hypnotized” yourself into all the beliefs that you
have. This simply means that you have
consciously accepted them, focused upon them, excluded data to the contrary,
narrowed your interests to those specific points, and accordingly activated the
unconscious mechanisms that then materialize those convictions through physical
experience.
Formal hypnosis
merely brings about an accelerated version of what goes on all the time. It is a perfect example of the instantaneous
results possible ideally – but not usually seen practically – as present
beliefs negate past ones.
We are going to
deal with practical methods that will allow you to alter beliefs and change
your experience. Later in the book we’ll
show how your individual beliefs attract you to joys or disasters. We will also discuss the ways in which mass
beliefs will bring many of you together both in great periods of celebration,
or as victims or survivors of disasters that seem to exist apart from
yourselves.
Let us first of all
discuss the nature of hypnosis, quite natural hypnosis, and the ways in which
you use it now. Then you will see how
you can utilize it quite easily and deliberately in your present point of
power.
Chapter 16: Natural Hypnosis: A Trance Is A Trance Is A Trance
What is the reality
behind reality? Is physical life a
hallucination? Is there some definable
concrete reality, of which your own is a mere shadow?
Your reality is
the result of a hallucination, if by this you mean that it is only the picture
shown by your senses. Physically, of
course, your existence is perceived through the senses. In that context corporeal life is an
entranced one, with the focus of attention largely concentrated through the
senses’ belief in the reality of their sensations. Yet that experience is the image that
reality takes for you now, and so in other terms earthly life is one version of
reality – not reality in its entirety, but a part of it. It is in itself an avenue through which you
perceive what reality is. In order to
explore that experience, you direct your attention to it and use all of your
other (nonphysical) abilities as corollaries, adjuncts, additions. You hypnotize your very nerves, and the cells
within your body, for they will react as you expect them to react, and
the beliefs of your conscious mind are followed in degree by all portions of
the self down to the smallest atom and molecule. The large events of your life, your
interactions with others, including the habitual workings of the most minute
physical events within your body – all of this follows your conscious belief.
Again, if you are
ill you may say, “I did not want to be sick”, or if you are poor, “I did not
want to be poor”, of if you are unloved, “I did not want to be lonely”. Yet for your own reasons you began to believe
in illness more than health, in poverty more than abundance, in loneliness rather
than affection.
You may have
accepted some of these ideas from your parents.
Their effects may have surrounded you, or you may have switched beliefs
in one particular area of your life; but each can be changed if you utilize the
power of action in the present. I am not
saying that every one of you must or should be healthy, wealthy and wise. I am only addressing those here now who have
effects in their lives with which they are dissatisfied. In one manner of speaking, then, the suggestions
you give yourselves constantly operate overall as beliefs that are reflected in
your experience.
Each of you will
find habitual thought patterns in your own life backed up by resulting action –
conditional behavior as it were – by which you continually reinforce negative
aspects, concentrate upon them to the exclusion of conflicting data, and so
bring them into experience through natural hypnosis.
Many people assign
great power to a hypnotist, yet whenever you have the undivided attention of
another, you act as a hypnotist to a large degree.
Whenever you have
your own undivided attention you act as a hypnotist and subject simultaneously. You give yourselves post-hypnotic suggestions
all the time, particularly when you project present conditions into the
future. I want to impress upon you the
fact that all of this simply follows the natural function of the mind, and to
dispel any ideas that you have about the “magical” aspects of hypnosis.
For five or ten
minutes a day at the most, then, use natural hypnosis as a method of accepting
desired new beliefs. During that period
concentrate your attention as vividly as possible upon one simple
statement. Repeat it over and over while
focusing upon it for this time.
Try to feel the statement in whatever way is possible – that is, do not
allow distractions, but if your mind insists upon running about then channel
its images in line with your declaration.
The repetition,
verbally or mentally, is important because it activates biological patterns and
reflects them. Do not strain. This exercise should not be done along with
the point of power exercise given earlier.
(See the 657th session
in Chapter Fifteen). One should not
run into the other, but should be carried out on separate occasions during the
day.
During the period,
however, do remember that you are using the present as a moment of power to
insert new beliefs, and that these will indeed be materialized. When the exercise is finished do not dwell
upon it. Put it from your mind. You will have utilized natural hypnosis in a
concentrated form.
You may have to
experiment some for the proper wording of your message, but three days at the
very least are necessary before you can tell, through results, how effective it
has been. A change of wording may be in
order. When you feel right about the statement,
then continue it. Your attention should be completely relaxed otherwise, for
time is needed. You may experience
spectacular results at once. But
continue the exercise even if this happens.
Inner channels must
become repatterned. There will be a feel
to this that will serve as your own individual guideline. There is no need to continue the practice
over ten minutes. In fact, many will
find that difficult to do. Spending a
longer period of time simply reinforces the idea of problems involved.
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