Pay attention, or else

"Sleepnosis" is a way of doing hypnosis where the hypnotist simply repeats suggestions over and over while the subject is asleep. There's some discussion about just how effective this really is, but for the most part, people studying this seem to agree that there is some effect. They also show that the more often the suggestions are repeated, and the more nights they are presented, the more effective they can be.

This makes me wonder about the people who go to sleep with a TV on.

If you don't actively pay attention to the information and opinions that are being presented to you, then those "facts" and opinions get to sneak in past your filters and take up residence in your brain.

As we wander through our day, our senses report an incredible amount of information to our brains. So much information, in fact, that we can't actively process all of it. Our brains just don't have the bandwidth available to consciously sort through it all. So we end up tending to ignore most of what's going on in the background around us... consciously, anyway.

But the subsconscious part of our minds is always listening and always paying attention to everything that our senses report. Part of it's job is to alert our conscious to things of interest that we might not be actively paying attention to. Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night because you heard a weird, out of place noise, even though you were sleeping when you heard it? Ever been in a crowded room, carrying on a conversation, and suddenly picked out someone saying your name through all of the background chatter?

That's your subconscious, doing it's job. It's perfectly capable of taking in massive amounts of sensory input, making sense of it, and sorting it, all without the slightest bit of input from your conscious. It's always on and always listening, even if you're not paying attention. And that's where the problem starts.

The conscious part of your mind is what you use to "pay attention" to something, and is the part of your mind where your logic exists. It's the part where you'd think something like "That guy is certainly passionate about this topic, but if you actually listen to what he's saying, he's full of shit." When you do that, your subconscious can classify that information as "fulla shit" and file it appropriately. Things can get more interesting if you're not actually paying attention to what's being presented.

When that happens, your subconscious gets to make the classification decisions on its own, and it doesn't have access to logic. All it has to make judgements with are your memories and your emotions. Without access to logic, it can only judge the validity of incoming information by comparing it to your past experiences and the emotional states you were in at those times. It's the part of your mind that might think "That guy is certainly passionate about this topic. The last time I felt like that, it was something that was pretty important, so this information must be pretty important too!"

So suddenly, anyone on TV, from douchebags on the news spouting hate and bile, to the advertizers trying desperately to get you to buy something, have a way to get their messages into your head unfiltered and unedited. And that's not a Good Thing.

It's also works to a certain extent if you're awake, but not paying direct attention. Again, repetition and repeated exposure reinforce the message.

So if you're going to watch TV, watch it and then turn it off. Don't just leave the thing on in the background, and whatever you do, don't fall asleep in front of it.

Hypnotic Ethics

Ranting. I guess that's a good way to start as any, eh?

I've worked myself up into a good rant on a couple of issues of late, but really haven't had the time, or the opportunity to put pen to e-paper and codify any of them. So here we go.

I've been involved with hypnosis for a long time now, mostly as an interest, and then as a hobby. But recently I've taken it to a whole new level, and am about to take the plunge and do this professionally. (Wish me luck!) So I'm looking at some things from a new frame of mind.

Anyhow, one of the things that has really angried up my blood of late, has been the issue of hypnotic "locks" or "seals" used by those who would use them to abuse others.

Hypnotic locks, or seals, are suggestions given by a hypnotist that no other hypnotist will be able to put the subject into trance, or be able to remove the suggestions that this hypnotist has implanted. It used to be a pretty common practice, back in the day, for Dentists to use hypnotic seals on their patients to "protect" them from the influence of lay hypnotists, who might take advantage of the patient's newly acquired hypnotizability. They're also used by therapists and hypnotists who don't want a valuable income stream wandering off to the competition. Think of it as mental "vendor lock-in".

I think of it as unethical.

For example... what happens when the subject, for whatever reason, no longer has or chooses to have access to the original seal-placer? Are they then doomed to an existence of un-hypnotizability, with the previous hypnotists suggestions stuck in their head for the rest of their lives? Well, no, quite frankly. But it's still a pain in the ass, or even dangerous, for the sealed subject and for anyone they go to for help later. Especially when the original hypnotist was a power-hungry abusive asshole.

But breaking hypnotic seals is not impossible, no matter how strong, how deeply buried, or how unpleasantly anchored they are. Humans are wired to be trance machines, and go in and out of trance every day. You can’t stop that from happening, no matter how hard you try. We’re just wired that way. And because of the way we’re wired, putting a hypnotic lock on someone is like trying to seal up the door to Canada. Can’t get in that one way? Go in another.

If the seal placer has specified that no other hypnotist will ever be able to put the subject into trance, then don’t “put them into trance.” Use waking trance to remove the blocks without ever doing a formal trance induction. Or have them remember a time when the previous hypnotist was putting them under, and have them imagine a memory of him removing the blocks. Or use an instant induction and don’t give them time to object. Or use hyper-emperia, taking them higher and higher into a more and more sensitive and aware state (of hypnosis) instead of taking them down into a deep trance. Or, just tell them, with 100% confidence, that you are a much more powerful hypnotist and that the locks just don’t work against you.

One particularly inventive seal-breaker had a subject who said that the locks were like a giant wall that couldn’t be broken through. They asked the subject how wide the wall is, and found it went from horizon to horizon, infinitely wide. They asked how tall the wall was, and were told it went all the way up to the sky. So they asked how thick the wall was. The subject couldn’t tell. So he had the subject teleport to the other side of the wall to find out how thick it was. Once they were there, the hypnotist told the subject to put their back against that side of the wall and feel just how thick it was, pressing against their back. The subject reported that it was a hundred feet thick! The hypnotist had them walk forward. :)