See Suggestion and Hypnosis for the first part of this article.
In the first part of this article we discussed brief definitions of suggestion and hypnosis and explored the meaning of hypnosis a bit.
Let’s look further at suggestion…
Suggestion: Introducing or conveying an idea.
In a therapuetic setting, suggestion is used to get across an idea that (hopefully) will be beneficial to the client. But in “real life” all sorts of ideas are introduced to us – and not all of them are good for us.
This raises several questions. Are these non-helpful suggestions dangerous to us? Will they affect us even if we are not in hypnosis? If so, how do we protect ourselves from them?
The truth is yes, there are many suggestions out in the world which can be harmful to us, especially if our critical factors are not up and running at the moment. These suggestions can affect us, even if we are not in formal hypnosis. In fact, formal hypnosis (in a hypnotherapists office) is just about the safest place to be in hypnosis. The reason? You know you are getting suggestions given to you. If you don’t like a suggestion, you can bring your critical factor to bear on it and reject it!
It’s when we don’t know a suggestion is being given to us or when we accept an idea based on some other factor that can trip us up.
Next time: How to protect yourself against negative suggestions
Suggested Resource: Home Study Hypnosis Course
“Suggestion: Introducing or conveying an idea.”
Hi Keith, I’m Dorian. Are you suggesting that suggestion is a suggestion? Because it would appear that you are trying to give people the idea that one could be influenced through suggestion. And if that’s the case, then to avoid being influenced (especially by bad suggestions) one only needs to have you suggest that suggestions are not really suggestions but symbolic word patterns that attach themselves to the ideas we already have. Serious question.
PS: If you have a one dollar bill and the devil gets everyone to see it as a $1000 dollar bill, aren’t you $999 richer? And that being the case, couldn’t you cure all desease with hypnosis? Just get everyone to think you’re healthy!
Dorian.
Hi Dorian,
Of course a suggestion is a suggestion. We can influence people by all sorts of suggestions (and people can influence us too). When our critical factor is not engaged and the imagination is excited then those suggestions lean more toward hypnotic. Even when the critical factor is active we still might follow the suggestion and therefore it has influenced us.
It’s generally better to confront and reject an unwanted suggestion directly rather than get all philosophical about symbolic word patterns.
I like your comment about convincing someone that a dollar bill is a thousand dollar bill. Most people don’t realize that monetary systems and stock markets are based on a group of people deciding how much the money is worth. A dollar is worth a dollar only because people set it’s worth. It doesn’t really have any intrinsic value. Periodically, people decide dollars or stocks are worth significantly more or less than they were yesterday.
Of course you can not cure all disease with hypnosis. Hypnosis is not all-powerful. Just because we believe we can fly doesn’t mean we can do it. However, belief and suggestion play major roles in helping us accomplish what we want to accomplish. A belief in health and hypnotic suggestions leading toward improved health can make a big difference.
Sincerely,
Keith Livingston