Description

Self Hypnosis Without Trance is a short teaching programme (based around 3 live audio webinars and a Q&A session) on transforming your life with ‘everyday hypnosis’.Taught by James Tripp and Facilitated by Judy ReesThe webinars took place during April & May 2014In these Self Hypnosis Without Trance webinars we will be covering many of the same ideas and skills, specifically focusing on the following 10 areas:1. Hypnosis is a Dynamic Natural ProcessDue to it’s history and popular image, many people mistake hypnosis for something it is not — a special altered state that renders people open to suggestion. Modern research has shown this not to be so. Yet modern research also verifies the phenomenon of hypnosis… So what is it?Well, formal hypnosis (the type you might see happening in a hypnotherapists office or at a stage show) is a process. It’s a process of harnessing a persons natural deeper neuro-cognitive processes through which they shape our everyday experience. Here is a definition that serves:“Hypnosis is the use of language and communication to direct attention, lead cognition and seed ideas for the purpose of leading a person into an altered perception of reality.”So this is what a hypnotist really does through their rituals and suggestions.But what is really useful to know is that we are doing this to ourselves, all day everyday. Shaping our own perception and experience through our internal communication and processing. Understand this and harness it and you can transform your life for the better in so many ways.Be careful what you say to yourself… you might just be listening!2. We Co-create our Experience of RealityThere is an old Zen Koan hat asks “Who is the great magician that makes the grass green?”What we perceive as the world around us is not really the world around us, it is the world as it occurs to us. Sure there is something out there — an erratically ambiguous and ceaselessly flowing quantum soup — but we do not get to experience or ‘know’ it directly.Through our senses and meaning making processes we take the raw data presented to our senses and shape it into experience. WE do this (albeit unconsciously). WE are the magicians that make the grass green as without our acts of perception, there are no images or sounds, only light waves and sound waves.If this seems a little abstract, remember our perceptions inform (drive even) our behaviour and responses, and that it is not just our perception of the physical world we are are co-creating, it is also our perceptions of our social world.Think about your emotions — they are driven by your perceptions. Think about your reactions — they are driven by your perceptions. Think about the choices you see in life — they are driven by your perceptions.By coming to understand HOW you are perceiving, you can get begin to re pattern your habits of perception, leading to new emotional and behavioural responses and new options and choices.3. You are not who you think you are (you are who you are becoming)People are patterned — they walk the way they walk, talk the way they talk and think the way they think. Now, we end up patterned for a reason — so that we can get on with being and doing in the world without having to think too much or expend too much time and energy on everyday living. So mostly, our patterns serve us.The problem comes about when we find that we have developed patterns of behaviour and response that are undermining us in living our lives as we would like to. Phobias, anxieties, overwhelming emotional responses, fears etc. And we all do this… We all end up having unconsciously (through our process of learning and growing through our ‘formative years’).Many people get hobbled in the process of re-patterning themselves because the fall for the trap of thinking that now they are adults, they’re ‘cooked’ — they’re process of development is over. It isn’t! Modern research is showing that the brain continues to retain high levels of neuroplasticity:“Our brains can continue to grow at any age. One of the startling revelations of the 21st century is the improvement in our knowledge of nerve cell development among older adults. Known as neurogenesis or brain plasticity, this new knowledge is showing us that the brain has the ability to CHANGE throughout life by forming new connections between brain cells, and to alter function. For a long time, it was assumed that as we become older, the connections in the brain became fixed, and then it was just a matter of time that we started “losing” brain cells. However this assumption is being aggressively challenged by recent studies showing that the brain never stops changing.”Brain Plasticity in Older Adults, Mario D. Garrett, PhD.Realising this, it doesn’t really make sense to carry an ‘I am what I am’ or a ‘leopard can’t change it’s spots’ attitude. You are not a leopard and spots are not perceptual or behavioural patterns. And you are not who you are, you are who you are becoming.One important aspect here, to free yourself up to change, is to STOP identifying with your personality and patterns — no more ‘I am depressed/stupid/quick to anger/a slow learner or whatever — and start identifying with the ‘I’ that owns and chooses. The ‘I’ of consciousness.This means shifting to become the owner of your patterns and responses rather than a victim to them. This means becoming The Hypnotist in your own life, rather than the hypnotised. As the mystic Osho put it.“The mind is a wonderful servant but a terrible master.”4. Elevate Consciousness — Become a Better Witness to Your Own ProcessingThe first step in becoming the master of your mind through Hypnosis Without Trance is to ‘switch up’ and start better utilising your gift of consciousness.Most of the time, in everyday life, we bring very low levels of consciousness to what we do. We carry out our habitual patterning without even realising it or only being aware that it is happening but knowing nothing of how it is happening. Often we find ourselves totally unaware even as to what mood we might be in (feeling grumpy but not realising so until someone asks “are you in a bad mood?”)We are, in essence, very poor witnesses to our own processes of perception, cognition and behaviour. What happens here is that our consciousness gets ‘swept up and swept along’ by our patterns. Pulled into our hypnotic loops. What we want to master is the skill of disembedding from our patterns and loops so as we can shine our torch of consciousness upon them.This way, we can become better witnesses to our own processes and for the first time move ourselves into a position where we can begin to re-pattern them.5. Use Your Inner Dialogue to InfluenceOur cognitive processes are like an ongoing cascade of words, pictures, sounds, feelings, emotions etc. Much of the time this cascade is cascading outside of consciousness, and when we do become conscious of it, we are limited in how much of it we can be conscious of (our flashlight of consciousness has a relatively narrow beam).Whilst the linguistic elements of this cascade are only part of it, they are a very powerful and useful part of it for us as they are a part that is most easy for us to consciously utilise.This is because we are used to using words with volition in our everyday communications… And we are deeply conditioned to respond to them.The words we speak to ourselves as part of our cognitive cascade are powerful self-hypnotising tools, whether we choose to utilise them or not. If we allow them to just flow unconsciously, they will be spoken on autopilot from our unconscious assumptions, and they will serve to reinforce those assumptions. Patterns will persist… And we’ll get more of what we have always got (whatever than may be).Through taking charge of our internal dialogue and using it with consciousness and intent, we find ourselves with a means to steer the flow of our cognitive cascade in more useful directions, as well as a means to bring our own consciousness and cognition back to bare upon our assumptions, and thus a means to re-write them.6. Develop a High Quality Transformative Engine (Organic Transformation beats Magical Transformation)When people want to change, they often look for the quick fix. This is quite natural, but the quickest way to get change happening is to engage our natural and innate learning and change faculties — this means eschewing Magical Transformation in favour of Organic Transformation (OT is faster than MT because MT is no transformation at all)Effective, efficient OT is driven by what I call a High Quality Learning and Change Engine. This is a metaphor for a collection and integration of mental faculties and skills — essentially the ability to direct consciousness, make cognitive adjustments and pay quality attention to feedback.This last aspect is enormously important. In making change it is essential to be attuned to change — to be able to filter for it and bring it to the fore. Indeed, difference is the ‘essence of change’ — no difference, no change. Setting consciousness to seek out difference creates feedback loops that drive further change. Most people who have trouble changing do exactly the opposite — they sort for sameness. This means they diminish and erase difference and amplify what is not different. How we pay attention to difference and utilise feedback is essential.7. Become a Semantic EngineerBecoming a semantic engineer means becoming aware of the key operational concepts, beliefs, values, ego stories, and ‘power arrangements’ that sit within your semantic base, and underpin your thinking and responding.To become a semantic engineer you must first become a semantic detective. This is a skill — a way of using consciousness to ‘see/feel’ into the semantic base, as well as ‘see/feel’ into the implications of the semantic structures.This skill is one of the most valuable you can ever develop in terms of taking charge of your life. It is also a deep skill — you could spend a lifetime making it your art and still be learning and developing. Here, we will be making a solid start.8. Make Use of Emergency HacksEmergency hacks are techniques and tools that can make a difference now. They are imperfect but often powerful in-the-moment interruptions to get change happening as and when needed. What you get is rapid but not usually necessarily deep or lasting change — just something to get you through a tough spot. We have 3 categories:InterruptionsManipulationsCollapsesWhilst these interventions are aimed at getting quick change now, they can also lead into deeper change when combined with semantic work.9. The 7 Step Self Transformation ProtocolWe will be unpacking the following framework for self transformation through self hypnosis:IdentificationDissociationEvaluationExplorationRe-creationAdaptation and MaturationTranscension10. Engage with The Path of MasteryDeveloping high level skills in these methods means walking a path of mastery. Note here a path OF mastery not a path TO mastery. If you make this your art you will develop high levels of skill. Of course, you can just read through and cherry pick the bits you can use easily — this is one choice, but as with so much in life, you ‘get out what you put in’.