Spiritual HypnotherapyY

WHAT IS HYPNOTHERAPY?
Hypnosis is a term used to describe a process that creates a non-ordinary state of consciousness. This state of consciousness allows clients to respond to suggestion with higher than normal receptivity. Hypnotic consciousness is a state that can spontaneously come about for a person, or it is a state that can be self-induced or induced with the help of a facilitator or hypnotherapist. All hypnosis is self-hypnosis because the hypnotic state of consciousness is generated within the hypnotee. The hypnotee allows herself to actively engage in the process. In some situations, the hypnotee may even choose to not respond.

Hypnotherapy is the practice of therapy that takes place in the non-ordinary state of hypnotic consciousness. Hypnotherapy directly engages the client’s conscious and subconscious mind in the process of doing therapy. The hypnotherapy process is usually interactive and involves verbal and non-verbal communications between the client and hypnotherapist while the client is in the non-ordinary state of consciousness. Most therapeutic work is greatly enhanced while clients are in a hypnotic state because they are able to access information, healing, creativity, memories and insight that is not normally available when in the waking conscious state. Change is facilitated from within the clients in hypnotherapy; it is inwardly generated and intrinsic to the clients, themselves. The hypnotherapist is responsible for having the tools and skills to assist the clients in helping themselves, which minimizes the often incorrectly perceived “power” the therapist has over the client.
By engaging a transpersonal or spiritual focus in hypnotherapy, the client’s personal transformation can be supported even further. By invoking and accessing the client’s higher Self or the wisest transcendent aspect of consciousness, clients are also able to access expanded states of consciousness similar to those experienced in meditation or in profound states of presence: states when the egoic or self- involved consciousness is transcended or simply out of the way. Through these transpersonal states of consciousness, healing and profound change can take place, often fairly effortlessly. Clients report that these expanded states of consciousness change them in lasting positive ways. Clients realize that, for instance, they have pain, but are not the pain. They can potentially experience themselves as spiritual in essence: as a spiritual being having a human experience of pain. From these hypnotically accessed transcendent states, clients begin to have a new sense of self and a new way of relating to the challenges of their lives. They become dis-identified from their stories and the previously perceived roles they have played in their lives. Their consciousness is expanded along with an expanded sense of Self.

HYPNOTHERAPY AS A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
I became a transpersonal psychotherapist because of my passion for work that engages people’s consciousness to promote change, healing, and transformation. As a client of hypnotherapy, a long-time practitioner of self-hypnosis, and as a hypnotherapist who has facilitated over 20,000 hypnotic sessions, I have years and years of experience of directly knowing the profound and lasting effects of hypnotherapeutic work. I have discovered over and over that facilitating a transpersonal form of hypnotherapy is a mystical and spiritual practice for both the client and the hypnotherapist. In hypnotherapy we can learn to access and utilize expanded states of consciousness directly, at will, and for a variety of personal goals and purposes. The process of being in an expanded state is just as healing and significant in supporting change as is directing the state of consciousness towards a therapeutic personal goal or outcome.

For the client in the hypnotic state, accessing awareness of the higher Self becomes a profound teacher of how our consciousness works to create our realities. These hypnotic states also become vehicles through which we can re-create our realities. Additionally, the hypnotherapist is often in an expanded state of profound presence entrained and aligned with the client’s state of consciousness. The art of guiding a client’s process involves being so present that the hypnotherapist is out of her own way and accessing her own higher Self as the hypnotic guide. The practice of hypnotherapy, both as a client and as a hypnotherapist, then, becomes another form of spiritual practice that puts us directly in touch with our spiritual nature and how our consciousness creates the forms and structures of our lives.


THE HIGHER SELF
Throughout the history of hypnosis, and since the first psychological theories of Sigmund Freud, we have understood that there are two aspects of consciousness that come into play in the hypnotic process: the conscious and the subconscious (or unconscious mind, as Jung referred to it ). With the work of Roberto Assiogoli and the birth of transpersonal psychology, however, there emerged an acknowledgement of a third aspect of consciousness: the higher Self, or the transcendent aspect of consciousness.
The higher Self, a spiritual, wise, and infinite aspect of our consciousness, can be directly accessed and engaged as the inner therapist/healer in the hypnotherapy process. It is an aspect of human consciousness that goes beyond our waking, ordinary ego consciousness that embodies, presents, or can access certain wisdom not experienced in normal consciousness. (Alexander, 11)
Arthur Hastings, a professor of transpersonal psychology states:
…the higher Self is said to be a distinct part or function of the individual. It is an entity in itself, with consciousness or awareness like the ego, and it is assumed to be a part of everyone. It witnesses the person’s experiences. It is non-punitive, objective, and non-judgmental. Its orientation is towards higher values, life
purpose, healthy emotional and mental development, and spiritual qualities. (Hastings, 180)

Willis Harman believes that in all major religious and mystical traditions there is a parallel wisdom that is a necessary component of being human and is an impetus for the inner search of higher Self:
In studies of comparative religion it appears that, besides the many exoteric forms, there is within any of the major traditions an esoteric or “inner circle” form, which is essentially the same for all traditions. This “perennial wisdom” seems to recommend an inner search involving some sort of meditative or yogic discipline, and discovery and identification with, a “higher” or “true” Self. (Harman, 34)

ACCESSING THE HIGHER SELF IN HYNOTHERAPY
Now that we understand the concept of the higher Self, how do we access it and utilize its resources in the hypnotherapy process? By directly invoking the higher Self and by facilitating a technique of voice dialogue, the higher Self can become a resource for inner guidance and self- healing in the hypnotherapy process.

Learning to distinguish the higher Self from the egoic self is crucial when in hypnosis. How does a client know which “voices” to listen to and which ones to trust? Many years ago a friend gave me a simple diagram, which follows, that categorizes the differences between the higher Self and the egoic consciousness. I have been unable to find the source of the diagram, but I know that it was created by author Rowena Pattee Kryder.
The diagram follows:

Diagram: THE REAL VOICE OF SPIRIT

If voices or thoughts other than your own seek your attention or try to come through you, use the following chart comparing energies from different levels as a guide before you decide to accept or reject what is happening.

LESSER MIND GREATER MIND
The Voice of Ego The Voice of Spirit
Personality Level Soul Level
___________________________ _______________________

flatters informs
commands suggests
demands guides
tests nudges
chooses for you leaves choices to you
imprisons empowers
promotes dependency promotes independence
intrudes respects
pushes supports
excludes includes
is status oriented is free and open
insists on obedience encourages growth and development
often claims ultimate authority recognizes a greater power or God
offers short cuts offers integration
seeks personal gratification affirms divine order along with the good of the whole

By studying this diagram, and by becoming familiar with the different tone and qualities of the voice of ego and the voice of spirit, one has a tool with which to access the source of inner and outer guidance or teaching. With practice, we can know from which state the information or guidance is coming, and which guidance is empowering and supportive of our own highest good. Clarity and empowerment come from the practice of choosing the wisdom and guidance of the higher Self, as does a growing experience of knowing and accessing our intuition, our deepest inner wisdom.

In the hypnotherapy session, the facilitator or hypnotherapist can ask the client’s higher Self or voice of spirit to be the inner guide and director for the client. The hypnotherapist aligns with this part of the client through direct dialogue and verbal exchange. In self-hypnosis processes, the higher Self becomes the inner hypnotist.
Listen to the podcast on the HCH web site of a self-guided hypnotic process to meet with and dialogue with one’s higher
Self, enabling the reader to have a direct and personal experience of the impact of his or her own higher Self’s wisdom and guidance.

Bibliography

Alexander, Karen, Defining the Higher Self: A Theoretical Model and Techniques.Ph.D. dissertation, Rosebridge Graduate School of Integrative Psychology, 1994.

Harman, Willis, A Re-examination of the Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science. Sausalito, CA: Institute of Noetic Sciences, 1991.

Hastings, Arthur, With the Tongues of Men and Angels. San Francisco: Holt, Rinehart &Winston, 1991.

Patee Kryder, Rowena,”The Real Voice of Spirit”. Publication source is unknown.


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