Please do not get me wrong. I am not here to preach or to expound on the Faith of the lord or even to debunk it. I am here because I have a nagging urge to write about our Faith and hypnotherapy. What is the link? How dare I put these two realms together side by side in this article! Well behold....
Hypnosis as a definition, by the National Guild of Hypnotists, is a state of that allows the client to be highly responsive to suggestions. It is a highly relaxing state that enhances our senses and allows us to focus our attention better. It is a very natural state and in the words of my mentor Dr Casey Chua, " We do it all the time!". When we drive down the highway, when we watch a movie, when we attend a captivating talk, even when we brush our teeth or go through every day routines. The easiest sign of being under a state of hypnosis is when we have no concrete awareness of time. For example, ever felt a 2hr long movie only felt like half an hour long? or while you day dream time seems to just fly by? This phenomena is known to us hypnotists as Time Distortion.
Now that we are aware of how often we frequently enter the hypnotic states, let us shift our attention to our practice of Faith. Buddhists monks meditate on their sutras, Christians pray to the lord and give praise, Muslims perform the as-Salaah. In all these practices they share something in common. The believers all enter a state of what we call,focused attention, onto their faith. They empty their mind of thoughts temporarily to zoom in on their practice of faith. During these episodes, time seems to fly by as a bird through the window.
Even though some faiths did not agree with the practice of hypnotherapy, for example hypnosis was considered witchcraft in the past and practitioners were crucified and burnt on the cross, hypnotism was still practiced nonetheless under the guise of a different name. Hypnotism itself has been as old as civilization.
Evidence has been found of Sleep Temples originating in Ancient Greece and Egypt. Indigenous religions such as shamanism and celtic druidism practiced trance induction with similar methods such as those methods adopted by us modern day hypnotists. Now I am not promoting paganism with this article. I am trying to create an awareness of how closely connected we are with hypnosis in our every day lives.
As I have described, and if we were to reflect on our practices in our faiths, we would find many similarities between hypnosis and faith. So why would we have to fear hypnosis? Faith aims to allow us spiritual healing, gives us enlightenment. Hypnosis aims to give us mental and physical healing, giving us insight onto our body's capabilities. The two paths run almost parallel and both strive for our personal well being. In this time and age, we seek for answers with rational reasoning. If my reasoning is sound, would you take my word for hypnosis?
As I mentioned from the beginning, I am not here to promote any faith or religion or hypnosis as a faith. I am here to point out the similarities that we tend to overlook because of our biased perception on a topic that we know little about. Have faith, believe.
*For an excellent article on Christianity and hypnosis visit this website*
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