Exploring hypnosis and hypnotherapy.

Hypnosis is the act of intentionally repressing the conscious mind and bringing the subconscious mind to the forefront. Most people can be hypnotized by others, and almost anyone can hypnotize themselves -- called self-hypnosis or auto-suggestion.

You have, undoubtedly, seen a hypnotist making someone quack like a duck on stage for its entertainment value. While that is certainly possible, it is not the form of hypnosis which we approve, or which we recommend. That type of entertainment hypnosis, in our opinion, is a bit like giving a loaded gun to a child to play with. It has also tainted the entire practice of hypnosis.

We view hypnosis as a healing art and a method of expanding our consciousness and our awareness. Therapeutic hypnosis also known as Naturopathic hypnosis, can be used for weight loss, smoking cessation, pain management, elimination of irrational fears, called phobias, elimination of disease causing mental conditions, and much more. Naturopathic hypnosis also has many more consciousness expanding functions.

Hypnosis is real.

The human mind has two states -- conscious and subconscious. There are those functions of the mind and body which we control through our will such as reading, walking, and talking. There are also those functions of the body which happen automatically. We breathe, we blink our eyes, our heart beats, we digest food without consciously thinking about it.

Some of these subconscious function occur in the brain. Creamy and breathing are examples. Some of subconscious functions occur locally or in the spinal column. The reflex to remove a finger from a flame occurs in the spinal column. Our body moves the finger even before the brain registers the pain. Our heart beats its particular rhythm as a result of localized electrical impulses. This is not to say that messages are not sent to the brain, and even to the conscious mind while these things are occurring.

There is also ample evidence to suggest that the brain or the mind can exert influence and control over otherwise automatic, subconscious bodily functions. With proper training, we can exert some control over the automatic and beating of our heart. Although we breath automatically, almost anyone can consciously regulate the rate at which they breath.

There is clearly a link between the subconscious or autonomic bodily and mental functions and those which are volitional. Through hypnosis we can intentionally control both conscious and subconscious function.

A Brief History of Hypnosis.

Fritz Anton Mesmer (1783 to 1815) was the originator of what we call today, hypnosis or hypnotism. It is his name which gives us the term mesmerism. Interestingly enough, Mesmer was a medical doctor and his original application of mesmerism was used to treat illnesses, believing that most, if not all illness was the result of an imbalance in the body's electrical fields which manifested themselves as disease.

Despite conventional medicine, there is still a substantial population which believes that a proper balance of energy within the body can eliminate the symptoms of organic disease. There is certainly some evidence that one’s state of mind can directly affect one’s health.

Mesmer's work was followed up on and expanded by James Braid (1795 to 1860), a Scottish medical doctor who coined the term hypnotism which was actually a shortened version of the term neuro-hypnotism which meant "sleep of the nerves."

It is interesting to note that hypnotherapy and hypnosis in general was originally developed as a medical therapeutic process. It wasn't until much later that hypnosis became a carnival sideshow attraction and a form of entertainment.

Today, both the allopathic (MD) and osteopathic (DO) medical professions recognize hypnosis as a valid form of therapy. Hypnotherapy is used for such objectives as smoking cessation, weight control, and pain management. In the many instances, hypnosis has been seen as defective as drugs for pain management and relief.

Even today, some practitioners credit the balancing of bodily energies through hypnosis as a way to ameliorate the effects of disease caused by microorganisms, viruses and injury. We must date however that there is insufficient clinical evidence to state that conclusively. However, there is substantial anecdotal evidence to support the position.

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending upon your point of view, hypnotism and hypnotherapy are largely unregulated in the United States and Canada. There are a few sanctioning bodies for hypnotherapy practitioners. And still, there seems to be no prohibition on using hypnosis as a carnival sideshow act. As a result, the efficacy of hypnotherapy is, all too often, discounted by some physicians and certainly some, if not a majority of, medical patients.

Astronomy, Astrology, Chemistry and Alchemy - I

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

-- Arthur C. Clarke

A progression is the evolution of an idea or set of ideas. The first progression we list is the evolution of an idea or concept from myth to philosophical idea to science or technology. We express this as: Myth :: Philosophy :: Science & Technology, read as Myth to Philosophy to Science and Technology.

Another major model for a progression, into which many instances fit, is Hypothesis :: Theory :: Law or Reality. The hypothesis is the idea. One might state a hypothesis as, "It appears that A. is the way it is because of B." A hypothesis is simply an idea or concept based on observation or, as Albert Einstein liked practice, thought experiments. A theory, on the other hand, is an internally testable and consistent set of rules that describe the behavior. Reality, on the other hand, is the way things are. It may or may not prove to be consistent with the theory. At some point, current convention in science is to call a theory, proven correct over time, a law -- such as the law of gravity.

Some interesting Progressions:

• Myth :: Philosophy to Science :: Technology
• Hypothesis :: Theory :: Law or Reality
• Alchemy :: Chemistry :: Quantum Mechanics (Physics of subatomic particles)
• Astrology :: Astronomy :: Cosmology (Physics of space & the universe)

It is interesting that physics tells us that the universe progresses from order to disorder through a process known as entropy. Why is it that we, as humans, view a progression of reality that is counter to entropy? We see the progression from myth to science. We see the progression from viruses to single celled plants and animals to very large, complex beings such as humans. We see the progression from rocks containing iron to steel to millions of components to a finished automobile. How is it that our perception of the universe, our perception of reality stands in such stark contrast to entropy and physics?

Specific Programs.

Now that we understand the concept of a progression, there are two particular progressions that are fascinating. The first is the progression Alchemy :: Chemistry :: Quantum Mechanics(Physics of subatomic particles) and the second is the progression Astrology :: Astronomy :: Cosmology (Physics of stars, planets and galaxies).

Believe it or not, the evolution from alchemy or astrology to physics has not relegated either alchemy or astrology to extinction. In fact, even in the 21st century, both alchemy and astrology continued to be practiced. Alchemy is largely underground, hidden from public view. Astrology, on the other hand, has its popular conception such as those daily newspapers snippets with which we are all familiar, which largely obscure the practice of astrology as a serious, semi-scientific practice.

Both alchemy and astrology are alive and well. However, the general public has very little understanding of these ancient studies. Many organizations today still exist which study alchemy. However, what we have discovered is that at one time alchemy was described as the science of turning lead into gold.

What we have learned in the years since is that alchemy evolved from a science, with its own language, to a language unto itself, a code, a cipher to express concepts and ideas that were persecuted by the population at large. The same can be said for astrology.

For many years I studied the modern implications of alchemy. It is only recently that I've learned that astrology has a similar, parallel history. Studying these histories and the evolution of these quasi-sciences, or perhaps better described as philosophies, gives us some interesting glimpses into reality. For when we look at reality through the lens of the branches of physics called cosmology and quantum mechanics, the science of physics becomes as strange, as weird and as unbelievable as the general concepts of astrology and alchemy.

The world, reality, science is stranger than we could ever possibly believe!

Astronomy, Astrology, Chemistry and Alchemy - II

(referred to Robert Heinlein’s book Job: A Comedy of Justice here)

There seems to be a natural progression in the sciences, from supposition and myth to hard, sustainable truth.

For example, there is a branch of physics dealing with very small, subatomic particles, which is known as quantum mechanics. This particular branch of physics was ultimately an evolution in thinking from chemistry. We knew there was complex stuff in the world around us, compounds that could be broken down. For example, we knew that water could be broken down into two gases -- hydrogen and oxygen (hence, the familiar chemical symbol for water, H2O). We also knew that hydrogen (the H) and oxygen (the O) were as simple as it could get in terms of observable, physical stuff.

Chemistry was the science of mixing together and breaking apart elements and compounds. It was the science of examining the reactions that occurred between these elements and compounds. It wasn't until much later that scientists figured out that atoms of an element could themselves be broken down. Atoms could be broken into electrons, protons and neutrons. That's about as far as we can get in conventional chemistry. Chemistry understands that compounds like water (H2O) are combinations of elements that are held together, glued together, by sharing electrons. From its chemical formula, we understand that water is composed of two atoms of hydrogen as noted by the H2 and one atom of oxygen denoted by the O, glued together by their electrons forming a single water molecule. that molecule of three atoms is the smallest component to water you can possibly get before it breaks down. It's from there that chemistry evolves into physics.

How did these atomic components stick together? What mysterious properties bound atoms together? And, if we discovered that an atom could be broken in parts, could those parts be further subdivided? That was the birth of the area of physics known as quantum mechanics.

The world becomes a very strange place as we entered the world of quantum mechanics. It is a little bit like being Alice and traveling to Wonderland through the looking glass. As we enter the world of quantum mechanics, the rules of reality as we know them twist and turn in strange ways.

We have long known about atoms, protons, neutrons and electrons. What, until recently, we had a very dim understanding of was the nature of those objects, once thought to be elementary and indivisible. We now know that those components of an atom are made up of even smaller components called quarks.

We have now conclusively proven that there are six types of quarks called, somewhat whimsically, by their scientist discoverers as: up, down, strange, charmed, top, and bottom. These six types of quarks also have anti-quarks, which have the same properties but the opposite electrical charge.

Shining a Light on Stuff.

Before we move on, and talk more about matter, let's take a look at light. Now be prepared to have the world get even stranger. Scientists have long known that under certain conditions photons, the smallest units of light, behave as a particle. You can smash a photon into and object, breaking that object. On the other hand, if you look at a photon through a different lens, it appears to be a wave, not a particle. there is even an experiment you can do at home with nothing more than scissors, cardboard and a light bulb, which we will describe later, which allows you to view a photons of light as particles and as waves! This dual existence was certainly very strange, and thought to be a property of only light. Scientists believed light was unique.

Fooled again!

Very recently, scientists have discovered that quarks also seem to exhibit the same duality. Quarks, in fact, are very much like photons. Generally, they look like particles -- little tiny specks of matter. However, when viewed another way quarks, like photons, exhibit behaviors that only could be the behavioral of a wave.

Further through the looking glass!

Now, try to wrap your brain around this. It gets really strange when you think of your coffee cup, your pen, your automobile, even you, is made up of a series of waves instead of a series of particles! We see each other, and the world around us, as particles. However, this weird duality also means that we are made up of waves and extend in all directions. Seeing me as me just happens to be the way the human mind works. What I see with my eyes bears only a passing, partial and incomplete relationship to reality! What we see is apparently an illusion. This is enough to make your head hurt.