I was recently in a new age bookstore for the third time in my life, which is three more times than I ever thought I would be in a new age bookstore. The first 2,000 times I'd passed that place I missed the sign in the window that said, "CRYSTALS", and it turns out that this store is a great source for inexpensive glittery eye fixation objects.
Since I was in there, I had a hunch that that might have some hypno-themed books, and asked the proprietor, "Where might I find the books on, um, expanding the potential of the human mind?" After not seeing much in that section that looked promising, I had another inspiration: "What about books on trance?" and he went, "Oh! Trance is over here!"
Since I come to hypnosis from the hypnofetish side, a land of gifs of anime catgirls with swirley eyes, it was surprising to me to realize that probably the vast majority of hypnosis material out there is in the category of personal growth: at best self-help advice, and at worst what is referred to as "woo" (short for "woo woo", aka pseudoscience and mysticism).
Looking at a shelf of book titles, I was a little stunned by that much malarkey in one place. The formula seems to be a spoonful of misunderstood physics and eastern mysticism, stirred into a tall glass of American-style positive thinking and hucksterism. And sometimes there's aliens. And yet it was worth my time. I don't believe that trances can put you in touch with your past life selves, or beings from other dimensions, but when it comes to changing yourself and having profound and enriching experiences, maybe I can learn something. A book that has a lot of parts that are silly and annoying (not to mention dated), like Mind Games: The Guide to Inner Space, can still have inspiring ideas.
I believe that literally all of the benefits you can get from things in that book store are due to the placebo effect, but I don't scoff at the placebo effect (which now seems like a very dismissive term), now that I have concrete, firsthand evidence of the power of the unconscious.
I know from things I have done in my own hypnotic sessions that the unconscious, with the aid of a hypnotist, can produce: vivid sensory experiences including the sensation of being in another place and time; hands-free orgasms; illusions of paralysis or uncontrollable movement; a profound sense of peacefulness; an unbelievable focus and lack of self-consciousness; and mental compulsions. It is really not a stretch from there to think that the unconscious can create many other powerful changes. Maybe what the new age bookstore people have to offer, with their crystals, mandalas, and appeals to the authority of ancient cultures, is strategies for eliciting the strongest possible placebo effects. After all, if they weren't successful at creating, at a minimum, the impression that *something* had happened, then they wouldn't be in business. You may think of it as a collection of confidence tricks, but sometimes confidence is what someone's unconscious needs for a helpful suggestion to really stick.
A few months ago I was contacted out of the blue on Fetlife by someone involved in the shamanism community in Boston, and we had a fascinating coffee talking about the differences and similarities between hypnosis and shamanic ritual. I can now easily see a function for every part of a ritual, starting from the painstaking work that the recipient does with the shaman to craft it. It all is directed towards the unconscious. Another thing that got me thinking along those lines was just this week, when due to a missed flight I was having dinner in an airport hotel with a middle aged native craftsman and an elderly catholic priest. They began discussing their respective spiritual practices, with the native guy talking about how the Great Spirit had helped him overcome alcoholism, and the priest discussing how he uses a brief ritual with daubing annointed oil on people at the hospital and rehab clinics he works at in Brockton - accompanied by a lot of compassionate talk I'll bet. All this would have seemed quite incomprehensible and uninteresting without my new understanding of how the unconscious mind "thinks".
These experiences and others have made me think about how many of the things that plague us in life are at root spiritual problems, rather than problems with our bodies or situations. I think the word "spiritual" is valuable here rather than "psychological": I use it without assuming any "spirit", but specifically to mean a whole range of deeply human concerns. How we feel about the future. How much the past weighs on us. Whether we feel aligned with our surroundings, including the physical environment and the community of people around us. How in control of our lives and minds we feel. Whether we feel a sense of growth and progression. How we deal with anger and various types of frustration. Whether we feel that we are a good person, and putting our energy into the right place. How we feel about the way the world is going. How much of the time we are free of distress. I really believe now that spiritual health is directly tied to other types of health. I know that when I'm lonely, or hopeless, or freaking out about something, all my other problems seem worse, and actually do get worse. When I feel cared for, hopeful, and calm, it's the opposite.
Is hypnosis spiritual? From my own experience being hypnotized, and from what my partners have said, it can be a profoundly moving experience just to have a period of peaceful relaxation. Giving up executive control and vigilance feels wonderful. And it can be so powerful to not feel like yourself for a while - that's what Being John Malkovich is about (and so are S&M, D/s and various types of kinky roleplay).
But like I've talked about, I'm extremely averse to attempting to fix people's problems with hypnosis, especially since I have no therapeutic training. However, I believe there's room for exploring positive spiritual experiences. Without planning it that way, I've already been involved in two experiences that I don't think the hypnotee would hesitate to call spiritual - one in an art gallery, and one in a cemetary. While hypnosis is not risk free, it is certainly safer than going out into the desert to take peyote, and yet could possibly give similar feelings of activation of fresh parts of the mind, and release from everyday constrictions, with at least temporary effects. I don't know what a feeling of transcendence really signifies, but I do think it's important in some way.
But I'm not so interested in spirituality through hypnosis - for me it's about fun and sexiness, almost exclusively. However, the arrow goes in the other direction: what I am learning about in hypnosis, the power of the unconscious mind, is making me so much more interested in spiritual practices. I want to learn about meditation and ritual, not to mention therapy and having more community and nature in my life. Anything that can help influence my unconscious mind for the better. I expect that I will remain a rock solid materialist and atheist for the rest of my life. But, especially as I get older, I appreciate the infinite complexity of the mind and the spirit, including all the ways they can go out of whack. I feel the need to be so much better equipped for the challenges that are bound to come.
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