The Secrets Of Hypnotism
Graphic Source: Public Domain All my life I have heard that the power of suggestion can accomplish miracles. I guess for this to happen, the person that receives the suggestion had to either believe it is true, even if it is a lie, or have such faith that they believe that they can alter their physical condition by believing in a particular thing so thoroughly that it will come true. I recently saw this in action myself. A relative of mine was in the hospital and their blood pressure shot up to 185 over 90. They wanted me to tell them their pressure and I didn't want to alarm them so I said it was high but 165 over 80. Immediately as I was watching the pressure fell to 165 over 82. If that wasn't the power of suggestion, I don't know what is. Are we really creatures that are controlled more by what we think than what our physical conditions are? I have always wondered that if this was true, why couldn't everyone that was sick just be hypnotized and then given a suggestion that they were really well? Could curing sick people really be that easy? I read an article that claims that cancer was cured in some people by using hypnosis, but it is not perfect in curing it in everyone that has cancer. The article went on to say that neither is any other treatment and suggests that maybe hypnosis should be included in the regimen of cures that are tried on people. The article went on to say that if the cancerous tumor disappears right after hypnosis the medical profession always credits something else with the cure. The article cited the case of an oncologist in psychoneuroimmunology who worked with a group of people that had incurable diseases. I do not know how big the group was. It said that after 4 years, over 20% were disease free, another 20% had their tumors regressing and in almost 30% the disease was stable. There is no doubt that in some cases suggestion can cure sick people. It is a question however on how to get the people to believe the suggestion. If you believed that I was completely honest in what I said, even when it came to telling people painful things, then you might just believe me if I made some sort of comment that your disease looks like it is beginning to clear up. If you believed this completely with your whole heart and without reservation, there is a good chance that it would begin to clear up. There has been thousands and maybe hundreds of thousands of cases throughout history that have to do with putting a curse on people. Have you ever wonder about curses? Surely you have heard how some curses have come true and wondered about how that could be? The answer is likely to be the power of suggestion. After all, in ancient times when people believed that someone was a witch what was really going on? They were opening themselves up to the power of suggestion. It was a form of self hypnotism. If someone they thought was a witch and she told him or her that they were going to die from a heart attack in three days, these ignorant people from say the middle ages would believe this entirely and worry so much about their end that they would make the prophesy come true. When it comes to curing people using things like hypnotism, we have something in our arsenal that was not available years ago and that is drugs that make us more susceptible to suggestion. It has been estimated that even though most people do not think that they can be hypnotized, they are wrong and it has been estimated that over 90% of the population is susceptible to hypnosis A different report that I read said that the figure was only 25%. The easiest people to hypnotize are those with an imbalance in the efficiency of their brain's two hemispheres. As far as comparing hypnosis and drugs in their effects, it is said that hypnosis can make changes in the brain that no drug can accomplish. Its my theory that some people that seemed very powerful in ancient times, maybe some high priests and such were so powerful because they knew the power of suggestion and were skilled in the art of hypnosis. Maybe that's one of the ways that the Egyptian priests maintained their power? They were very mysterious and aside from the pharaoh himself they were the power. Why is it that the art of hypnosis has been around for many thousands of years and yet here we are in the 21st century and little is known about it by most people. The only way many people are even exposed to it is in a magic act of some sort. Many of us do not even believe that it is possible to hypnotize and that the whole idea is a fraud. The Egyptians were great record keepers and they left us some papyruses that tell the story of how priests dressed in special magical robes in sleep temples cured the sick by the way they talked to them. Most agree this is a reference to hypnotism. Even further back hypnosis was being performed in ancient India and ancient Sanskrit writings talk about how healing trances were used. One thing that I should clear up is the fact that contrary to what most people believe, those that are hypnotized are not asleep, but rather in a state of focused attention and heightened suggestibility. This state has diminished peripheral awareness. Also I should mention that it is possible to hypnotize one's self, but certainly is not recommended and could become very dangerous. It is said that hypnosis was tried on soldiers to get information from them and also to protect information that they had by causing them to only remember and release that information when a secret password was used. While hypnotism is a fascinating subject there is still so much that we do not know about the way that it works. |
