Self Suggestion -- Chapter
3
Mesmerism
may be said to be as old as the serpent, and hypnotism as old as Dr. Braid, for
he coined the name for it.
Self-suggestion--called
also autosuggestion and auto conditioning--had an obscure beginning in France
around the time of World War 1. Experimenters had been playing with the
mechanism long before that, but the first real attempt to describe the process
and the results to be obtained through its use came at this period.
Dr.
Freud, of Vienna, had already partly identified the low self of Huna under the
name of the "id" and had discovered the "complex".
Then
came the first real advance. Dr. Frederick Pierce, a professor in one of the
leading New England universities, and a psychologist, chanced to be vacationing
in Switzerland. While bowling, he made the discovery that when attention was
withdrawn from his hand and the ball it held during a period when his attention
was attracted to something other than the game, the strength left the hand and
it relaxed. With the attention again turned to the hand, the strength and
muscular tenseness returned. This set him to thinking. He had been puzzling
over the obscurities and empty spots in the writings of a French experimenter,
and had come to realize that self-suggestion was difficult to administer to the
inner and hidden self. He guessed that in a state of physical relaxation (this
substituting for the "sleep" suggested to a relaxed patient in
hypnosis) the suggestion might be administered much better.
There
followed a series of experiments which resulted in the invention of a special
relaxation method. He named it "Decubitus", and when back at the
university, began teaching some of his pupils to use the relaxation method as a
part of self-suggestion. He found that about nine out of ten of the students
learned the method easily, and that all were much benefited. Soon he set to
work writing a book about it.
Dr.
Pierce called his book, "Mobilizing the Mid-Brain", for he accepted
the theory of the day which dictated the belief that all consciousness must be
resident in the brain tissues. It was published and attracted much attention in
psychological circles before it was eventually allowed to go out of print--and
was more or less forgotten in the fury of the battles which were developing
between the several schools of psychological thought. Behaviorists did battle
with Freudians. Dr. Emile Coue rose into the limelight and faded out of it with
his version of self-suggestion and his formula, "Every day in every way, I
am growing better and better." True, everyone tried the formula and hoped
to get results similar to those produced by Dr. Coue. But they had not been
taught how to construct a powerful suggestion or to relax physically in order
to administer it. Psychology drifted into the doldrums and remained there.
Meantime,
at Duke University, Dr. J. B. Rhine was waging a war of his own on Materialism.
Basing his work on the mathematics of chance happenings, he enlisted his
students in the work of experimenting with extrasensory perception. "E. S.
P." became a byword in many circles, and his books, while limited in their
coverage of a subject already more fully explored in Psychical Research,
carried the weight of the use of an accepted research method. He convinced many
open-minded people that there was such a thing as telepathy, also that
clairvoyance was a fact and that it could be demonstrated. His demonstrations
of the power of "mind over matter", (or psychokinesis--"P.
K.") were hard to ignore. The Materialists gradually learned to handle him
with care. He wrote books, and he had the expectant ear of the public. Duke
University became a monument to the open and inquiring mind.
To
this university came Dr. Hornell Hart, and it was he who was destined to revive
public interest in self-suggestion after a period of dormancy lasting over two
decades.
Dr.
Hart, surprisingly enough, was not a member of the faculty in the department of
psychology. He headed the department of sociology, and it may be that his main
interest was, at least at first, in finding some way to help students to fit
more smoothly into the social structure of the class room and of the life
flowing around the university outside its gates. The students were of both
sexes, the men often married, with families to support, while some were fresh
from military service. Many found it very hard to fit into the new
circumstances in which they found themselves.
The
daily change in moods of the students was great. Some days they were happy and
cheerful. On other days they might be deeply sunk in a mood of discouragement,
fear, resentment or anger. Often they had the "blues" for no
ascertainable reason.
Dr.
Hart set about finding a remedy in autoconditioning for this painful
up-and-down changing of moods from day to day. He asked the help of his
students to work out a remedy, taught them the few simple things they needed to
know, and set them to testing out autoconditioning.
He
had the students keep and chart records of their ups-and-downs in the matter of
moods. The moods were roughly classified from the blackest up to the lightest,
most pleasant and most helpful. The "Mood-Meter" was developed,
consisting of a chart of moods and a method of recording changes in mood, both
when using autoconditioning and when failing to do so.
The
success of this series of experiments was so marked that there could be no
question of the validity of the results or of the outstanding benefits gained.
It was found that almost all of the students could learn to autocondition
quickly and with little trouble. This fact made almost every reader of Dr.
Hart's book, "Autoconditioning", wish to use the method and share its
benefits. These were surprisingly great considering how little time or effort
needed to be expended.
By
the summer of 1957, Dr. Hart was in demand as a lecturer and teacher, traveling
as far as Los Angeles to teach his method and explain its value. His main
effort may have been to convince his audiences that autoconditioning is so
beneficial that it should be learned by almost everyone, and that it is easy to
learn as well as perfectly safe.
The
theory which he advances in his writings is based on a belief in the
"id" or subconscious as propounded by the late Dr. Freud and as
accepted by all psychiatrists who hope to get employment in our government
hospitals.
The
middle self of Huna--popularly known as the conscious mind--he often calls the
"real self" while the low self or subconscious he calls the
"id", the "inner receptive mind" or the "unconscious
mind".
Dr.
Hart describes autoconditioning as a form of post-hypnotic suggestion in which
the individual, standing as the real self, gives the suggestions to the inner
receptive self. There is no recognition of the fact that these two selves are
separate individuals. Hypnosis has the basic meaning of "sleep
causing", and it is pointed out that while the general mechanisms of
hypnosis are used to some extent, sleep is not at all a part of autoconditioning.
If one goes to sleep, he warns, no results are obtained.
No
attempt is made to present a theory to explain hypnosis. It is presented as
something we now have come to accept as explored in full and proven out in so
far as the suggestive phenomena are concerned, even if what lies behind them,
hidden in consciousness, remains a mystery, a tangle, or a starting point for
controversy.
With
interest in autosuggestion and hypnosis beginning to grow as early as the year
1948, there had been offered several correspondence courses, some of them of
the inexpensive "catch penny" kind, and a few laid out most , often
with the coining of a new vocabulary of psychological terms. Some one of the
several popular theories purporting to explain suggestion was usually given
with arguments to support it.
Where
interest is found awakening in a special field, there are usually those who
appear to offer a new theory purporting to explain everything, and, as in the
case of the book, "Many Wonderful Things", which gave its variation
on hypnotic regression into past lives, a book by Dr. Rolf Alexander came into
the self-suggestion field in 1954.
His
book is titled, "Creative Realism", and in it he goes well beyond the
boundaries of ordinary suggestion, venturing into the realms of metaphysics at
times.
He
considers autosuggestion to be a form of suggestion which we can give to the
subconscious while fully awake and not in even the lightest state of hypnotic
trance. Autohypnosis, on the other hand, he describes as the giving of
suggestion to the subconscious when it is in a state of trance, be it ever so
light, or even very deep. He adds the information that one can often learn to
use autohypnosis more easily if one first allows a hypnotist to administer
hypnosis, throw one into a state of trance, and give one post-hypnotic
suggestion to the effect that, at any later time, one need only speak a
"trigger word" of command to cause one's subconscious to bring about
the state of trance needed to make it receptive to new suggestion.
Going
still farther, Dr. Alexander offers the theory that we are all hypnotized to a
considerable degree by what has happened to or around us in our lives. He seems
to blame many of our personality troubles on this form of hypnosis-without-a-hypnotist,
and he offers a method which he calls "self-realization" to be used
to dehypnotize ourselves. The use of this method is urged as a preliminary to
the administering of autosuggestion. It is also to be used as an antidote to
remaining in a suggestible trance to some extent after the use of autohypnosis.
Mention
must be made of another writer of this general period when autosuggestion was
once more attracting interest. Alfred Korzybski, in his book, "Science and
Sanity", wrote at length about what false meanings attached to words can
do to throw individuals off the line of normal mental and emotional balance. He
pointed to many instances in which a misunderstanding of the true meaning of a
word has caused an emotional disturbance. Reasoning, being based on a correctly
understood set of word meanings in many instances, has been found to be faulty,
and faulty reasoning can bring on emotional troubles to match. His reasoning is
sound and his thinking has colored much in the realms of psychological
conjecture, but he has added little to our knowledge of the theory or mechanics
of suggestion itself.
One
of the latest books to enter the general field, is "Hypnotism
Handbook", by Cooke and Van Vogt. It is a careful digest of the standard
methods used in administering hypnosis in professional circles. Init the
authors discuss the several schools of psychological thought and their
theories, but state candidly that as yet we do not know what hypnosis actually
is. However, they are quick to add that we can classify rather well the things
which suggestion can bring about, and know enough of the practical application
of the mysterious mind force to use it very well.
They
question the theory that all is "conditioning" (forming new reaction
habits by repetition). They call attention to what follows when a hypnotized
subject is commanded to be alert and normal in every way except that he will
remain open to suggestion. The subject, under such circumstances, appears to think,
reason, perform his usual work, and in every way to give evidence of being in a
normal condition, except that he responds instantly to the orders of the
hypnotist. It must be agreed that the theory of conditioning would have to be
stretched to the breaking point to account for this type of reaction.
While
"Hypnotism Handbook" is intended for the use of professionals, it can
be read with profit by anyone wishing to know what the generally accepted ideas
are concerning self-suggestion, and what methods are proposed for the use of
the professional hypnotist desiring to help a subject learn to activate in
himself suggestions given beforehand by the therapist.
The
authors appear to have little enthusiasm for the use of self-suggestion when
the professional is not first consulted and allowed to earn his fee. They admit
that while there are methods which can be used to learn the use of autohypnosis
without the help of a hypnotist, these methods "require prolonged
training". Yoga practices are mentioned as examples of one long and
difficult method of learning to use the art. This conclusion is sharply
contradicted by the statements of Dr. Pierce and Dr. Hart, both of whom found
that their students learned to use self-suggestion with ease in a matter of a few
days, becoming almost expert inside a period of a month or two.
In
concluding this short summary of conditions surrounding self-suggestion, it may
be said that the system is so simple that all of the methods of use which have
been advocated outside of professional circles are effective and practical. It
is in understanding what one is doing and why, that a lack may be felt. Almost
anyone can learn to write his name by patient practice, but if he can first
learn to recognize the letters and learn the sounds for which they stand, the
setting down of the signature will have vastly more meaning and significance.
Coming
to know Huna, is like coming to know the alphabet of psychology and learning to
read the sounds of the letters. We do anything better after we have learned why
each step is to be taken.
SELF-SUGGESTION
AND THE NEW HUNA THEORY OF MESMERISM AND HYPNOSIS – chapter-1, BY- MAX FREEDOM
LONG
VISHNU
PURAN-BOOK I - CHAPTER 11-22
VISHNU
PURANA. - BOOK I. CHAP. 1. to 10
THE ROLE OF PRAYER.
= THOUGHT: CREATIVE AND EXHAUSTIVE. MEDITATION EXERCISE.
HIGHER REASON AND
JUDGMENT= CONQUEST OF FEAR.
QUEEN CHUNDALAI, THE
GREAT YOGIN
THE POWER OF
DHARANA, DHIYANA, AND SAMYAMA YOGA.
THE POWER OF THE
PRANAYAMA YOGA.
KUNDALINI,
THE MOTHER OF THE UNIVERSE.
TO THE KUNDALINI—THE
MOTHER OF THE UNIVERSE.
Yoga Vashist part-1
-or- Heaven Found by Rishi Singh Gherwal
Shakti and Shâkta
-by Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe),
Mahanirvana Tantra-
All- Chapter -1 Questions relating to
the Liberation of Beings
Tantra
of the Great Liberation
श्वेतकेतु और
उद्दालक, उपनिषद की कहानी, छान्द्योग्यापनिषद,
GVB THE UNIVERSITY OF VEDA
यजुर्वेद
मंत्रा हिन्दी व्याख्या सहित, प्रथम अध्याय 1-10,
GVB THE UIVERSITY OF VEDA
उषस्ति की
कठिनाई, उपनिषद की कहानी, आपदकालेमर्यादानास्ति,
_4 -GVB the uiversity of veda
वैराग्यशतकम्, योगी
भर्तृहरिकृत, संस्कृत काव्य, हिन्दी
व्याख्या, भाग-1, gvb the university of Veda
G.V.B. THE
UNIVERSITY OF VEDA ON YOU TUBE
इसे भी पढ़े-
इन्द्र औ वृत्त युद्ध- भिष्म का युधिष्ठिर को उपदेश
इसे भी पढ़े
- भाग- ब्रह्मचर्य वैभव
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वैदिक ऋषियों
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विद्वान वैज्ञानिक विश्वामित्र के द्वारा अन्तरिक्ष में स्वर्ग की स्थापना
राजकुमार और
उसके पुत्र के बलिदान की कहानीः-
पुरुषार्थ और विद्या- ब्रह्मज्ञान
संस्कृत के अद्भुत सार गर्भित विद्या श्लोक हिन्दी अर्थ सहित
श्रेष्ट
मनुष्य समझ बूझकर चलता है"
पंचतंत्र- कहानि क्षुद्रवुद्धि गिदण की
कनफ्यूशियस के शिष्य चीनी विद्वान के शब्द। लियोटालस्टा
कहानी माधो चमार की-लियोटलस्टाय
पर्मार्थ कि यात्रा के सुक्ष्म सोपान
जीवन संग्राम -1, मिर्जापुर का परिचय
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