The Power Of Waking Hypnosis

Melvin Powers first used the term waking hypnosis in 1955. This phenomenon involves the altering of one’s behavior without a trance being induced in any way. The phenomenon of waking hypnosis is closely related to the placebo effect.

In a state of waking hypnosis the subject is lead to become totally convinced that whatever is told to them at that point is the truth. Even if this is completely ridiculous or illogical, the individual in the state of waking hypnosis will believe in it and consider it absolutely correct, such as the fact that the air in the room will cause him or her to swallow.

To induce waking hypnosis successfully, the subject needs to totally trust the source first or be suggested by a calm and authoritative voice in a state of hypnosis. In this case they can even be convinced that a completely harmless substance is a drug which has potent effects. This is where the placebo effect comes in – waking hypnosis is induced in order to cure many patients simply by making them believe that a placebo drug will cure them.

Needless to point out or overtly emphasize, waking hypnosis has immense power. Another example of waking hypnosis is the "forgetting syndrome" in which selective memory is used. This happens when someone is interrupted before saying something he or she was about to, and then forgetting what it was.

The three main elements of waking hypnosis include rapport, representational system alignment and directed thought patterns. Waking hypnosis may be used in group as well as individual experiments. Suggestibility is greatly enhanced in a state of waking hypnosis, and multiple variable induce the mind into the waking hypnosis state, in order for the mind to escape the extreme input.

Everyday activities can induce waking hypnosis – a mother humming a lullaby is actually often times inducing it onto her child, just like some soft tunes on the radio can induce you to fall asleep. People get affected by stimuli from various sources, inducing them into waking hypnosis states. When the human mind has been conditioned through suggestion to accept something as the truth even though it may not be so, it will recognize reality is per what it is conditioned to believe through waking hypnosis.

A trance is not induced but the message is still deeply embedded in the subconscious mind of the subject. The use of waking hypnosis in a session can make or break the session, depending upon how effectively or otherwise the waking hypnosis state has been induced by the practitioner onto the subject. These suggestions are given in a relaxed state that is not a trance; nevertheless they have a potent effect on the subconscious mind of the patient or subject being hypnotized.

Waking hypnosis has been used in medicine with tremendous results, in contact with the placebo effect when really serious diseases have been cured merely by the patient’s ability to believe that it can be cured or by taking a pill which has no actual effect but believing that it is a miracle drug that will cure them merely by inducing waking hypnosis.