Are There Any Specific Tools For Hypnosis?

Hypnosis is a state of internal focus, that allows one to connect with what is relevant in a moment. In a therapeutic context, this particular state of focus is paired with deep state of relaxation.

Anyone who can internally focus, get absorbed (like a child in a game) and follow instructions, while temporarily suspending their consensus reality can experience deep and profound state of hypnosis.

Key Elements Activated of Hypnosis

1. Breathing

2. Internal Vision (expanded perception)

3. Bodily states (enhanced physical sensations)

4. Directed mental focus

Neurobiology of Hypnosis

There are 3 major processes that occur when we enter a hypnotic state:

Firstly, there is a turning down activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (DACC), which is a rejoin in your region that sub-serves cognition and motor control. The DACC is like a salience Network or Conflict detector. DACC signals you to pay attention to a potential danger. It helps you make decisions. Turning down activity in the DACC makes it less likely that you’ll be distracted during your treatment.

Secondly, there is a higher connectivity between the DLPFC (Left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex - key region in executive control functions-) with the Insula (mind-body control system, involved in emotion processing and arousal, including awareness of one’s own bodily states as well as decision-making and other executive processes).

Thirdly, there is an inverse functional connectivity between DLPFC and the posterior cingulate cortex (area that decreases in meditation). In other words, under hypnosis you are able to process things outside of your regular conscious awareness. You are initiating complex internal processes with ease, like a super-computer, you are able to create new, heuristic connections, but not thinking about what it means in a moment (which slows things down), you are not analyzing them.

Paradoxically, hypnosis can feel both like a form of dissociation, while at the same time it is a safe space to feel more, initiate somatic experiencing in order to amplify what happens with hypnosis.

In order to experience hypnosis, you need a guide, a hypnotist/hypnotherapist whom you feel secure with, and allow your inhibitions to subside. There are plenty of guided hypnosis recording available, but they will not assist you beyond general relaxation, sleep induction. We are all wired differently and unless you work with an experienced practitioner, or an advanced meditator, you will not be able to successfully sustain low alfa or theta brain frequency, which is necessary to access deep layers of your mind, remove imprints and up-regulate your emotions.