The Paradox of the Unconscious Mind

Hypnosis means "Sleep" but refers to a state of sleep where the person although being asleep to the outside world, has the mind totally focused on something in their inside world. To an onlooker this person looks asleep but the person himself/herself will tell you that they experience being on some internal journey within their thoughts; they will tell you they felt more awake, more alive and in control of themselves than they have in a long long time...

Ever been told to "snap out of it!" or "stop your reflection!" ? Does it feel to you that you are coming from a long state of absence to the outside world but somehow the thoughts and images you were experiencing were more vivid and alive than ever and you defend yourself by exclaiming "I wasn't daydreaming!" Well, you are right, you were in a slight state of trance!! Trance state occurs when the conscious mind feels asleep but the unconscious mind is fully focused and ready to work for us.

Once occupied, the conscious mind permits the unconscious mind to provide it with information. Roughly two million bits of information per second come into the human nervous system. To maintain sanity, our mind filters out most of the stimuli and Miller (1956) discovered we can only handle seven plus or minus two bits of information at a time.

If we imagine the whole mind as a darkened room in our house 'conscious' mind represents a flashlight shining in this dark room. As you shin eon things you see and bring to awareness different objects and their meanings to yourself. But that does not mean the room contains only those objects you see. What we cannot see but know is around is the 'preconscious' mind, the part of the brain that feels it can remember something but not with clarity. But there will also be objects that you had forgotten were there until the flashlight shine on them- those bits of information were just not in your awareness; that is 'unconscious' mind.

As neurologists probed the brain with electrodes people have reported recalling events that happened very early in their childhood. In describing these memories they may even talk as children. This implies that they had stored those memories in some unconscious part of their brain and the probing activated the memory and brought it to consciousness.

This should not surprise us really. Our unconscious mind takes care of us all the time! We do not run our heart, lungs, kidneys, immune system etc… consciously do we? We have been given two nervous systems- a central and autonomic nervous system and the latter's function is to keep us breathing, sleeping, waking and thinking.

A Hypnotherapist will seek to accomplish various changes to create long-term and lasting changes at these unconscious levels.