The Myth of ‘Mind Control’

On my FaceBook page ( www.facebook.com/ClearMirrorHealing ) one lady offered an opinion about hypnosis for weight loss that included the statement “I would recommend not letting others play with your brain while you are not aware.”   Her concerns are worth more than a returned comment.  Who, after all would want someone messing around with your brain when they are not aware?! NOT ME!  But the idea that hypnosis is “mind control” is an old and persistent myth.

Let me start by saying, I am not surprised by the persistence of this myth.  The main reason I am not surprised is that a lot of hypnotists use this myth to their advantage and some hypnotists even believe the myth themselves!  Stage/performance hypnotists do need to rely on the idea of mind control to put on a good show.  It’s kind of the way stage magicians do their “magic” Most of us know that card tricks are actually slight of hand.  Magicians don’t have to fight off angry hordes with torches and pitchforks because people admire the stage magician’s ability to make simple “tricks” look like magic.  So why does the myth still persist for hypnotists?

I’ll tell you why!  Because the human mind is nothing short of AMAZING.  You, my friend, are amazing!  In medical school, I studied neuroscience and I’ll tell you one of the biggest things I learned. I learned that the human brain is like a vast storehouse the size of planet earth and what we know about the brain is like the continent of Australia, plus Tasmania, and maybe the Hawaiian Islands altogether. By which I mean, we hardly know anything about our amazing brains AND what we do know is rather widely spaced and disconnected.

Australia, Tasmania & Hawaiian Islands

Now, add to that vast amazing-ness the concept of “the mind”  The functional MIND is even more vast, more amazing, and more unknown in its depths than the physical brain.  So when you see that hypnotist on the stage convince a person from the audience that their body is as strong as steel and then have someone sit on their belly while they are lying suspended across two chairs – your ooo’s and ahhh’s should be at the amazing power of that volunteer’s mind!  This is akin to the amazing, documented phenomena that occurs when a parent, pumped on adrenalin, manages to lift a truck off their child in the heat of passion and danger.  That stuff is REAL!  And it happens more often than we’d like to admit.

Now, imagine what you could do if you could tap into a little of that amazing-ness for yourself!  Think you could eat your vegetables? You bet you could!  Think you could stop cravings for things you know are detrimental?  Without a doubt!  Think you could make daily exercise fun and rewarding?  Piece of cake!  (er, carrot?)  And yes, you can do amazing feats of healing that will blow the minds of medical experts also.  I have seen it happen.

So, is that lil ‘ol me messing with your mind?  Well, I would love to take all the credit.  But, no, that’s not me.  That is YOU!  I am not “controlling” your mind – you are!  You are finally getting control of a part of your mind (unconscious, subconscious) that may have learned ways of behaving that worked as a child but now tend to work against you. You are finally gaining self control.  Honestly, I see it as you partnering with your own sub-conscious or un-conscious self to get the most out of life.

So what is my role?   I am not controlling you or your mind.  (please! I have enough trouble controlling myself! Don’t we all?)  I consider myself your guide and interpreter on the way to tapping into, managing and/or partnering with your own amazing mind.  What I do in a session is first: listen carefully to what your true goals are.  Then: listen to the words you use to get yourself there.  Finally, I figure out your own mind’s strengths and weaknesses.  Some people are visual people, some are feeling people, some are auditory.  I don’t want to paint you a beautiful picture in your mind if you are a person who dreams in black and white.  I don’t want to spend time droning on if you just need things to “click”.  Everyone’s mind is wired a little differently.  I am trained to understand your wiring by listening carefully to your words.

So then I put all my learning about you and your mind together to form a strategy that will get you where you want to go in just the way you need to do it so that it happens smoothly and naturally.  Then, if I’ve done my job right, it feels like magic!  That’s right, I used the “M” word.  It does often feel like magic.  It does sometimes feel like someone else has taken control. But its still all YOU.

Ever fallen asleep in a position that cuts off circulation to your arm? You barely wake up when you become aware of a hand lying by your neck that IS NOT YOURS!! OMG! You snap awake in a panic only to discover that the murderous hand is your own hand that has lost conscious feeling because it is “asleep”.   It is a harmless (actually, helpful) part of yourself that you simply lost conscious control of.  Well, your unconscious mind is a lot like that.  Because, by definition, you are unconscious of it, it may often feel like someone else. So when your magic inner mind kicks in and, say, wakes you one minute before your alarm goes off, or say, makes you crave water when you used to hate it, it may well feel like someone else is in control.  I would like to pretend its me 🙂 but its really not – its all YOU!

amazing strength of mind

P.S. If any of y’all want to tap into some of the even more amazing things your mind can do, talk to me about my specialization in Pain Free Childbirth, enhanced Test Performance and Study Skills, and Turbo-Charged Immune function, to mention a few.  Frankly, if you can put it into words, and the mind can do it, I will work with you to get you there.