It's a State of Mind

How the Mind Works

Below is a visual example of the theory of hypnosis for behavior modification. The small sphere is the conscious mind. It is active during hypnotic states, though less active in the mental processing. The grey area is the critical faculty. It can limit information that is shared between conscious and subconscious minds. It fluctuates in this capacity depending on the current situation and existing behaviors. In the following graphics, the darker the critical faculty is, the less information is allowed to impact the subconscious mind. Like when tinted glass blocks light.

Critical Mind

The 'critical mind' is unlikely to be influenced. An Example of this is listening to someone talk whom you do not trust. You hear them in a very analytical way and tend to not remember what they say, unless something they say causes a strong emotional reaction within you. The critical faculty acts to keep the information away from your subconscious mind and long term memory.

Analytical Mind

The 'analytical mind' is less easily influenced, and also less aware of emotional states. The analytical state is not as "shut down" as the critical mind. It is active, maybe like when you are doing math.

Typical Mind

The 'typical mind' is what most people experience at least 75% of the day. Examples are; driving to and from work, day dreaming, planning (worrying) for possible outcomes, doing your job in a 'zoned-out' state, reading a good book, watching TV. It would be easy to call this a 'relaxed' state of mind, but that would be incorrect. This state of mind is also experienced when a person is highly stressed, worried, angry, and more emotionally reactive. People in this state of mind have more 'critical faculty bypass'. They are a little more on 'auto-pilot' and more behavioral. People can experience a sense of dissociation, hyper-focus, suspended disbelief and/or time distortion (the sense that time has passed more quickly or more slowly).

Receptive Mind

The 'receptive mind' is very similar to the typical mind. There is increased critical faculty bypass and very little conscious mind analysis. There can be an increased sense of time-distortion, dissociation, hyper-focus, and suspended disbelief. When deeply emerged in the TV, a person tends to filter out things like; background noise from traffic, they don't 'see' the wall and carpet around the TV, etc.. Pleasurable events as well as traumatic events can create a receptive mind. Some medications can create this state. This state is very receptive of suggestions. It is more likely to take suggestions as beliefs and therefore more likely to create a dominant neural pathway. This does NOT mean the mind is open to all suggestions. The suggestions must be allowed by, and fit in with, the currently held beliefs.

Medications and Behavior

People using prescription anti-depressant, anti-anxiety, and/or pain medications generally require more effort to gain control of behaviors than those who are not using these medications.

Depending on the person, medication and dosage, the client will be in a more 'Receptive Mind' state more of their waking day. This can allow hypnosis efforts to be weakened and counter-acted.

I compare it to a person trying to control their behavior after having one too many alcoholic drinks. While not completely the same, it describes the concept.

Working on behaviors in these situations requires more sessions, more effort and more persistence by the client and hypnotist in order to create sustainable results.

This is in addition to the common medication side-effects of weight gain, and reduced energy.

As a side-note, it is relatively common for clients to reduce and eliminate medications with their doctor after working through several hypnosis sessions.

* I have not been able to find 3rd party studies confirming the above information. Only my own observations and confirmation by others observing the same response.