Power Of Your Imagination
The power of mind over body is indeed astonishing.
In the Psychology Department of a London experimental hospital a woman had been hypnotised. The hypnotist touched her arm with his fingers and said quietly, “That’s a red hot poker” Not only did she flinch with pain, but her lymphatic system caused an immediate red weal to appear on her arm.
In another experiment an all-in heavy-weight wrestler was seated at a table. The red light of the T.V. camera was on and the whole scene was video taped. The hypnotist told the wrestler that the pencil in front of him was stuck to the table and that he would not be able to lift it. The wrestler, who could lift 300 lbs in a straight overhead lift, strained and the muscles of his neck stood out – but he literally could not lift the pencil. The suggestion had caused his muscles to contract, and there was no strength available in his arm.
In a directly opposite experiment the gripping strength of an athlete had been measured on a dynometer and registered as 100 lbs. In test after test this was his maximum. Under hypnosis he was told “You are much stronger than you have ever been. You are surprised at how much stronger you have become”.
Again he was tested, and now the needle swung smoothly through the 100 Ibs `barrier’ and registered at 125 lbs.
This time the hypnotist had removed the athlete’s mental block that his strength was limited to 100 lbs. The hypnosis worked not by adding actual strength, but by removing a self imposed and limiting belief about himself.
Norris McWhirter, editor of the world famous Guinness Book of Records, states that there never was a 4 minute mile ‘barrier’. It was all in the minds of the athletes and when it was eventually smashed, scores of athletes quickly followed Roger Bannister’s breakthrough. The real limit, says McWhirter would come at around 3.36 when the runners’ body would overheat so much that the brain would automatically cut off all forms of physical effort.
In this sense many `cures’ under hypnosis are really the effect of ‘dehypnotising’. They work by taking away the self suggestion that something cannot be done. When a stammerer is cured, an arithmetical `dunce’ multiplies two three figure numbers in his head, it is all because the hypnotist has removed a negative expectation from their mind.
In a long series of experiments Prescott Lecky, an American educational psychologist, who had previously worked as a full time teacher, became convinced that a negative self image was the key reason why individual students learnt slowly. For such students to learn quickly, Lecky theorised would be contrary to their self image. But if you changed the self image, you could change the learning ability.
It worked. A student with an average of 55 misspelt words out of 100 improved to 91 % within six months. A Latin student with 30% grades, achieved 84% after just three positive talks with a sympathetic teacher. A student who had been written off in his end of term report as having “no aptitude for English” won the literary prize the very next term!
None of these students, or the hundreds of others whom Lecky counselled, had any lack of intrinsic ability. What they did lack was positive self image.
They were told by comment or by their early works that they were poor spellers or poor mathematicians; and they came to believe it.
Instead of accepting that they had failed a test, or made a mistake, they had come to generalise that one failure into the overall subconscious conclusion that “I am a failure”. All too quickly a failure in one or two early arithmetical tests can become internalised into “I am no good at maths”.
What is the difference between Suggestion and Hypnotism?
The last few examples have, quite deliberately, been mixed between suggestion (the four minute mile “barrier”) and hypnotism (the wrestler who could not lift a pencil).
Where does suggestion end and hypnotism begin or are they quite different?
Suggestion is an integral part of every single piece of day to day communication. If a Nobel prize winner, dressed in a sober suit, announced an amazing new technical breakthrough at a scientific conference, you would be more inclined to believe it than if you were told by a scruffily dressed stranger in a pub. The medium, to paraphrase Marshall McLuhan, is part of the message.
In all communication, the tone of voice of the speaker, the movement of his hands, his dress, your knowledge of his background, all suggest information to you over and above the content of his message. Sometimes the subconscious or subliminal impressions or suggestions reinforce your understanding and memory of the content upon which your conscious attention is focused. At other times subliminal, or peripheral suggestions contradict the message.
Patricia Durovy of the American Society for Training and Development estimates “90% of all communication is subconscious”. It could be an underestimate.
Although suggestion works very powerfully indeed at the subconscious level, the conscious mind generally continues to act as a censor. It will normally reject suggestions that do not accord with our moral values, or with logic, or that threaten our sense of confidence and security.
The key difference between suggestion and hypnotism is that suggestion, can and does, bring the power of the subconscious to bear, but without relinquishing the censor role of the conscious mind. Under hypnotism you are partially relinquishing control of both your conscious and unconscious mind to someone else. Moreover, suggestion can bring about permanent changes in ability and behaviour, whereas, hypnotism is normally intended to focus on a temporary state – though it can, of course, have excellent long term therapeutic results.
Interestingly, hypnotism has great similarities with sleep. Many of the brain-wave patterns are very similar, and both involve reduced conscious control.
Suggestion can have very positive and measurable results. An Oklahoma anaethetist Mrs Jean Mabry regularly waits until her patients are under anaethesia and whispers encouraging and positive instructions to them. Consultant surgeons working in her report markedly improved recovery rates.
