Is hypnosis mind control? Do I really have power over your mind? If you’re one of those people that is worried or has anxiety about doing hypnosis because you’re concerned that somehow hypnotists have some kind of strange power to change or alter your mind in a fundamental way and you will not be able to change it back this post is for you. We are going to answer all of those questions and concerns, and if you read to the end of this post I will give you a powerful demonstration of your unconscious mind, how it’s always present, and how powerful it is.  

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Let’s hop in. The very first thing we have to do is we just have to understand a little bit about the mind before we can tackle the answer to the question. So, the first thing I want you to understand is you only have one mind. You’ll often hear us talking about your mind especially those of us who explain the neuroscience about your mind. It sounds as if it has different parts or different pieces, or you have more than one. You don’t. We just talk that way because it helps explain. You have one mind. You only have one.

You have an unconscious mind and you have a conscious mind. What do I really mean by an unconscious mind in a conscious mind? Well, I don’t mean mind. What I really mean is thoughts. You have conscious thoughts and unconscious thoughts. You only have one mind.

We can hook your brain to an MRI machine, and we can measure the neurological activity in your mind, in your brain. We can see an unconscious thought. We can see a conscious thought. We can see that. We can measure them scientifically. We know what is going on when we have a conscious thought or an unconscious one.  So, that’s all we mean. You have one mind. We know that we have different types of thoughts that happen in different areas of our brain, because we can see the neural activity lighting up when you have them.

There is a ton we don’t know about the mind, but there is a ton we do know, and when it comes to our conscious thoughts our unconscious thoughts we know a tremendous amount.

So we just need to understand to answer the question about hypnosis and mind control. We just need to have a really basic understanding about our conscious thoughts and our unconscious thoughts. We’re to go into that in a second, but first I need you to understand the golden rule in neuroscience about how our mind works. Here it is. The golden rule is: What our conscious mind does the unconscious mind cannot do, and vice versa.

The conscious mind and unconscious mind are highly specialized. They do very specific things, and do them really well. Conscious thoughts are our mind doing very specific practical things. When we have unconscious thoughts it’s our mind doing very specific things.

Our mind is what we call bifurcated, and I don’t mean physically I mean operationally. What is our mind practically doing? Our conscious mind does certain things, and it does them very well. Our unconscious mind does certain things, and it does them very well. We are highly specialized. This why we are so successful as a species.

Our unconscious mind and conscious mind are separated by something called the critical faculty. What is the critical faculty? It regulates the difference between these two types of thoughts. That’s all we need to know. That’s it. We don’t need to know anything more. We just need to know that whatever happens in our conscious mind cannot be done in our unconscious, and vice versa.

This is a mind map. This is just a way of explaining what’s actually going on.

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Now we’re going to look very briefly at what is actually happening in our conscious and our unconscious mind. So our conscious mind is the red area. What’s going on here, what it is specialized in, and is actually doing is our will. When we say, “will” we don’t mean will power. Really what we mean is the ability to make a decision.

When we make a decision we weigh the pros and cons. It happens in our conscious thoughts. You know this intuitively. You do it all the time.

“Hmm. Do I want Mexican, or do I want Chinese for dinner?”

We weigh it. We think about it consciously. Our thinking thing is a conscious thought process.     It makes decisions.

The other main thing that our conscious mind does is it’s an interpreter. It takes in the outside world with all five of our senses. Those are its main functions.

Our unconscious mind is the blue area. What does it actually do? It’s our memories and our imagination. It’s where our fantasy is and our habit and emotion. You can go back and watch my video What is Hypnosis and it will explain this to you in more detail. We’re not going to go into the details here. All I want you to understand is what actually is happening inside our unconscious mind.

You’ll know this by the simple thing of asking somebody to remember something. If you ask somebody remember something that’s really easy like their own name it’s very surface in the unconscious mind. It feels like it’s almost instantaneous. Ask somebody something more difficult for them to recall. Ask them something where they have to search their memories for. What do they do? They go look up to the right.

What are they doing? They’re quieting their conscious mind so they can access their unconscious mind to find the memory. Why? It is because of the golden rule. We have no memory in our conscious mind. It’s physically impossible. It defies the laws of physics. What the conscious mind does the unconscious mind cannot do, and vice versa. They are separated by something that regulates it called the critical faculty.

That’s what I need you to understand, because to answer the question, “Is hypnosis mind control?” we have to understand what hypnosis is actually doing to our conscious and unconscious thoughts.

What’s really going on? We just have to understand what different types of thoughts actually happen. This is it. It’s not a big secret. We’ve known this for thirty years in neuroscience. So what is really going on in hypnosis is we’re trying to bring the unconscious mind forward because we’re trying to change a habit, like smoking. That’s what’ really going on.

How do we do that? We have to engage the unconscious mind. To engage the unconscious mind you have to engage the things that it does. It does habit, memories, and imagination. Those are easy things to engage, because if we engage those things the unconscious mind comes forward it starts to participate more actively, and what happens when the unconscious mind is more active is we become more suggestible.

So, what’s really going on here is in hypnosis we’re bringing the unconscious mind forward so we can become more suggestible by focusing the mind, engaging the imagination, and relaxing. That’s all we’re doing in hypnosis. We are focusing the conscious mind. The more your conscious mind becomes focused, for survival reasons, the unconscious mind has to participate.

It’s the same as when you’re driving home from work, and your conscious mind becomes focused on a problem or issue at work. You’ve driven this way thousand times. You get in your driveway, and you’re like, “Oh, I don’t even remember driving home.”

That’s a hypnotic trance! You focused your mind to solve a problem, and make a decision which is what your conscious mind does. It weighs things.

The unconscious mind had to come forward and do the habit. It drove you home. Try doing that when you’re driving somewhere you’ve never ever been before. Try focusing on a problem from work and getting lost in thought. You won’t get to where you’re going! The unconscious mind needs the habit of having been there a thousand times before. That’s what’s going on.

We do hypnosis by focusing the mind, engaging the imagination, and relaxing.

Hypnosis cannot make anybody do anything they don’t want to. Why? It’s because your conscious mind is still there. It’s still listening. Hypnosis cannot get anyone to do anything they don’t want to.

Sometimes people think it can because they go to hypnosis show and see people barking like a dog or quacking like a duck. It’s a misunderstanding. Here’s what’s actually happening. Who goes to a hypnosis show? People that want to see hypnosis. I have 50 chairs or 25 chairs behind me, and I say to the audience, “Who wants to get hypnotized?”

I don’t say, “You come up. You come up. You come up.”

I say, “Who wants to be hypnotized?”

I invite them up. They come up of their own free will. Who comes running up on stage on a hypnosis show? People who want to get hypnotized! People who want to quack like a duck and bark like a dog! That’s what’s actually happening here. Why I am sitting people back down is because some people respond more quickly, and I don’t want to keep somebody on my stage that’s going to take me 20 minutes to put into hypnotic trance. I just keep someone who’s going to take me two minutes. I basically just keep the cream of the crop. The people that are reacting the quickest. It’s not that I can’t hypnotize the people I’m sitting down. It’s that either they’re not willing and are just up there to see if you could actually do it, they don’t really want to be doing it, or it just takes longer to get them into hypnotic trance.

You cannot get anyone to do anything they don’t want to do through hypnosis.  It’s impossible. Hypnosis is not mind control. I cannot reach in your mind and change something. I can barely control my own mind let alone someone else’s mind. That’s not what hypnosis is. It’s a myth that has been perpetuated by the media and by magicians for magical effect, but it’s just not real. Hypnosis is not mind control. It’s just relaxing, focusing the conscious mind, and engaging the unconscious mind by using your imagination.

That’s why hypnotists often say, “Imagine this.”

It brings the unconscious mind forward. That’s all that’s going on here.

What we as smokers are really doing is our conscious mind says, “I don’t want to smoke.” while the unconscious mind has a habit, “Smoke feel good.”

They’re incongruent. They’re going in two different directions. All that’s going on here is we want to bring the unconscious mind forth so we can tell it, “No. Smoke don’t feel good.”

That way we can align the two in the same direction, but you have to want to.

Remember hypnosis is natural we do it all the time. You do it all the time every day. Look at a five-year-old watching the cartoons. They are zoned out. You can tell them to come to dinner, but they’re just staring at the TV. Their conscious mind can hear you saying to turn the TV off, but they’re just in a hypnotic trance.  So, you just clap your hands or do something to bring them out of it. That’s all it is.

You cannot hypnotize someone to do something they don’t already want to do. It’s impossible. You’re always in control, and it’s really about reasserting that control so that you can consciously get what you already want. That’s all that’s really going on here in hypnosis. It’s bringing the unconscious mind forward so that you’re more suggestible, and we can align it with your conscious desires. That’s all hypnosis is. That’s it.

So, is it hypnosis mind control? No, it is not mind control. I cannot reach in your mind and change it in some way that you don’t want, but I can help you learn to relax. That can help you focus your mind, and I can help bring your unconscious mind forward so that you become more suggestible, and we can line it up with what you consciously want. That’s all we can do. It is not mind control. We cannot change your mind in some fundamental way. All we can do is when your conscious thoughts and unconscious thoughts are incongruent we help you by making you become more suggestible to get them both going in the same direction so that you get what you want in your life. That’s it. It’s totally harmless.

Hypnosis is totally harmless and it’s an incredibly effective way to align your conscious thoughts and your unconscious thoughts. That’s it. It’s simply a tool that allows you to get the desired change you want in your life.

If you have any concerns about hypnosis it’s okay. It’s natural to be concerned, but just know hypnosis is totally natural. Nobody, no hypnotist, no matter how good they are can get you to do anything you don’t want to do. Nobody can control your mind. Only you can. That’s why the best definition of hypnosis is all hypnosis is self-hypnosis.

Remember, I told you if you read to the end of this post I would give you a powerful demonstration of your unconscious mind, how it’s always present, and how powerful it is. It is very simple.

Here’s all I want you to do. I want you to stretch out your arms in front of you. Take your two hands and interlock your fingers. Leave your index fingers pointed. Now, pull your index fingers apart and keep them apart. Hold them. Keep your fingers apart. See how easy that is.

That’s easy because your conscious mind has made a decision to do that, but what happens if we engage your unconscious mind, bring it forward, and make suggestions like your fingers are going to want to go together?

How we going to do that? We’re going to get your conscious mind to focus. Then we’re going to ask you to use your imagination, and watch how hard you have to work to keep your fingers apart. Right now you can do it easy-peasy no problem, but we haven’t really engaged your unconscious mind. Let’s do that.

Here’s what you do. I’m going to get you to stare at the space between your fingers, but not yet. Here’s all I want you to do.  Take a deep breath in and out. Just start to relax. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath in and out and relax. Just start letting go, because you choose to have an experience. You can have an experience by just allowing yourself to start to relax as you breathe in and breathe out. Good. Now, I want you to take a deep breath in and bring your eyes up. All you need to do is squeeze your hands, pull your fingers apart, and stare at the space between your fingers. Don’t look at the screen anymore. Stare at the space between your fingers.

Notice your unconscious mind. Use your imagination to imagine two magnets, one on each finger. Use your imagination, and imagine those magnets pulling together. Use your imagination while you stare at the space between your fingers. Stare and focus all of your attention. Focus. Imagine those magnets pulling together, and notice how hard you have to work to keep your fingers apart. Squeeze your hands together. Focus on all of your tension between your two fingers and imagine those magnets pulling together.

Just notice how it gets harder, and the more you try to keep your fingers apart the more they want to go together. Good.

Now, stop.

So what you’ll notice is originally when I said to keep your fingers apart it was easy, but when you stared in the space between your fingers and focused your attention there while imagining magnets on the tips of your fingers they want to go together.

What you’re noticing is your unconscious mind is coming forward. Your unconscious mind doesn’t have a will, remember. It has to follow. So what’s happening is, as you use your imagination, your unconscious mind wants to follow and have your fingers go together.

All we’re doing here is we’re bringing your unconscious mind forward. We’re putting you in a state of being more suggestible. That’s it. That’s all hypnosis is. It is bringing your unconscious mind forward so that you can have an experience of the power and see how hypnosis actually works.

That’s all we’re doing here. That’s all hypnosis is, and that is, essentially, how you can learn to hack your own brain to get what it is you consciously want and desire.

Thank you so much for reading this post. Please, follow my posts, like and subscribe to my YouTube channel, and join my Facebook page. Thank you so much for your time and attention.