The purpose of this article is not to eliminate what is happening to you, but to raise awareness so that you can take control of it in a positive way instead of allowing it to control you.
The most widely used definition of hypnosis is that of being open to suggestion. Throughout your day you are either open to suggestion or resistant to suggestion. There is no middle way. Suggestion is defined as the process by which a physical or mental state is influenced by a thought or idea (the power of suggestion). Merriam Webster’s Dictionary.
Here is the list of just 13 of the ways most people are being hypnotized every day. As you read them, see how many resonate with you.
1. Signs, advertising and logos are everywhere.
You are continually bombarded with suggestions to act now and buy products from television, radio, junk mail, newspapers, window ads, magazines, department stores, and supermarkets, to name a few. There is practically no place you can go where you are not in contact with some form of advertising suggestion.
2. Shopping at the supermarket.
This can be a battle of resistance to suggestion. There are protesters trying to tempt you with free samples. The aroma of freshly baked goods being prepared in the bakery. Attractive sign and cozy music in the background. Easy-to-prepare meal sales displays at eye level and the list goes on. It seems that many times you go in to buy only two items but leave with fifteen.
3. Everything happens at once.
Known as the confusional method of hypnosis. Similar to doing your taxes while someone is chatting with you at the same time. If you’re focusing on your taxes, everything in the conversation is being sucked into the subconscious mind like a sponge. That is why it is harmful to have the television or radio on while working, eating or sleeping.
4. Daydreaming in classrooms or at work.
Daydreaming is a hypnotic state that is much deeper than most people would realize. It’s actually the same level of hypnosis you’d be at for painless labor or dental work without anesthesia. The dream state is dominated by your imagination and is accompanied by a state of amnesia. That’s why when you daydream in class you don’t remember what was said during the period of time you were daydreaming.
5. Fear of deadlines or loss.
You may have heard the slogan before that fear is a great motivator. Fear is also a powerful tool used in accepting suggestions. It is successfully used in virtually all walks of life such as sales, government, religion, family, school, work, and many other areas.
Call now, we only have two left on hand or the sale ends tomorrow.
Keep the noise down in your room or you will be punished.
Meet the 12:00 deadline or you’re fired!
Buy the best security system or your house will be broken into.
6. Music controls mood.
The music is extremely hypnotic. The effect of music can make you extremely relaxed, agitated, belligerent, excited, patriotic, board, and even romantic.
7. Placebo, the effect of the sugar pill.
A placebo is an ineffective substance or object given to someone by a person in authority (doctor, minister, parent, boss, supervisor) that leads the person to believe that it will cure or resolve their situation. Whatever effect this placebo has is based on the power of suggestion.
An example would be if your doctor gave you a sugar pill thinking it was a cure for asthma and within moments your asthma got better.
8. Nocebo, the sugar pill side effect.
A Nocebo also relies on the power of suggestion. Going back to the example with the placebo, a nocebo would experience the same side effect reaction from the placebo as if it were the real pill.
9. Propaganda, mine is better than yours.
Propaganda is a strong form of hypnotic suggestion that is continually used in the areas of religion, employment, sales, government, education, sports, and even sexual preference. Many times these suggestions cause rivalry, fierce competition and even wars.
Your company develops the best WiDgets available on the market.
Your soccer team is superior to any other team.
Everyone in your country is wonderful, everyone in that country is a terrorist.
This company will save me hundreds of dollars over that company. After all, I heard it on TV!
10. Relax and have a cup of coffee.
This is probably the best known form of suggestibility today. It is widely used in the fields of mental health and medicine to increase suggestibility. It is the basis of meditation and guided imagery. Even parents use these techniques with their children by telling them to take deep breaths to calm down. Once you are relaxed, positive suggestions can be easily given and accepted.
Many companies have also associated their products to mentally group them with relaxation suggestions to sell such as coffee, cigarettes, luxury cars, furniture, chocolate, and vacations. The additional suggestion or conditioning of relaxation makes the article more attractive, even if it is not so attractive.
11. Tell me a story.
Storytelling can be a very effective way to offer suggestions by including messages or metaphors embedded in them. This is most often seen in the writing of fairy tales, nursery rhymes, fables, and parables.
Having your parents tell you stories as a way for you to settle.
Read your children bedtime stories that include a moral.
Start a church sermon with a story or joke with a message.
Listen to a corporate speaker who started with a story that had an embedded message.
12. Repetition, how does it affect you?
Everything that is repeated continuously, without missing a day, for a minimum period of 21 days becomes a permanent habit. Once it becomes a habit, it seems to work on autopilot. This happens without even having to think about the process anymore. Here are some examples:
reciting the alphabet
Typing on the keyboard
answering the phone
Routine of going to work every day.
brushing your teeth
Every morning when you wake up you have a new day ahead of you. This day has yet to be written and you have just as much opportunity as anyone else to achieve greatness or do something absolutely spectacular. Even with this new day ahead, most people will do the exact same thing they did yesterday. They have created a routine, especially during work days. Even something like changing the time of your coffee break or taking a different route to work seems to be the biggest inconvenience.
13. Resist suggestions.
If you realize that you are being given suggestions and immediately resist giving yourself countersuggestions, you are still in a state of hypnosis since you accepted the countersuggestions. When you reject or replace any suggestion, you are still accepting the new or opposing suggestion.
These are just thirteen of the many forms of hypnotic conditioning in use today. How many affect you over the course of a day and how many times are each used? It is amazing to see how much our lives are really controlled or on autopilot.
As mentioned above, awareness that it is happening is the first step, but awareness is required to be in control of your own conditioning.
“If it happens every day, why not be in control instead of having it control you by default?”
