Exploration of the conscious mind.

What is the conscious mind? Is it something physical like the brain? Is it something nonphysical, like a computer program, but operating within the brain's biological-computer?

There is another perplexing question. If the mind is non-physical, like a computer program, how is the mind related to the soul?

The conscious mind defined.

First, let's establish that there are two parts of the mind. The human mind is bicameral, that is, it is composed of two elements: the conscious mind and the subconscious mind.

The conscious mind is responsible for processing everyday thoughts. It is responsible for our conscious movements, thoughts, ideas and communications. Most of our waking time is under the control of our conscious mind.

The subconscious mind, which we will discuss in detail in the next section, is far more complex. Part of the subconscious mind, called the autonomic nervous system, is responsible for all of those things that we don't think about, yet our brain continues to manage. For example, regulation of body temperature, digestion of food, even the act of getting hungry, vision, breathing. These are all under the control of the autonomic nervous system. It's a brain system that, if it's working correctly, we rarely think about.

Similarities to a Computer System

A computer system has two types of memory: A). Short term or random access memory; B). Long-term random access memory. Short-term memory is where computer programs are stored when the execute and where data used in computations is temporarily stored. This memory is only active while a particular program is running. As you read this webpage, the words on the page are stored in short-term memory and then overwritten, in whole or in part, when a new page is read. Long-term memory, or random-access memory includes disk drives, thumb drives, memory cards, external hard disk and all those forms of memory that we used to permanently store data and programs. Short-term memory is statically attached directly to the central processor while everything else is outside it.

The brain works in much the same way. Art imitates life. Our brains stores the information we need to operate on a daily basis in short term memory. This memory is both imperfect and occasionally overridden. Have you ever heard the saying, "Use a word three times and it's yours." That means that if you learn a new word, and make use of it in a sentence at least three times within a day or so, that word will be permanently added to your vocabulary. It is unlikely that you will forget the word or its meaning over time. Using the word three times moves it from short-term memory, the brain's computer buffer, to long-term memory, the brain's permanent storage.

This doesn't answer the question of the location of the brains permanent vs. temporary storage. Everyone is relatively certain that short-term memory is actually stored in the brain. The problem, however, is the location of the brain's long-term/permanent storage. Clearly, some of the permanent storage is hardwired, such as reflexes. However, under certain conditions such as hypnosis, an individual can have almost perfect recall of events as early as infancy and early childhood. If one thinks about it, the amount of data storage for this type of memory recall is massive!

In some instances, under hypnosis, people are believed to recall, from memory, events which happened before they were born! This process is often called past life. Where are these memories stored? Can they be stored in the brain? The brain didn't even exist before you were born or incarnated. If these memories are real, where are they stored? How are they accessed?

Exploration of the subconscious mind.

For many years, the subconscious mine was an enigma. How and why it worked were a riddle. Modern science, however, has begun to offers some insight into the working of the subconscious.

The first part of the subconscious mind is the autonomic system which we discussed in the last chapter. This controls automatic functions such as breathing, heart rate, etc. The other part of the subconscious mind is even more mysterious. It is responsible for our dreams, long-term memory, and occasional flashes of inspiration.

Did you ever hear the phrase, "I'll sleep on it," meaning "I'll push the problem to the back of my mind and wait for some flash of inspiration." That flash of inspiration is the subconscious mind communicating with the conscious mind to say "I found the solution.". Oddly enough, those flashes of inspiration, those insights, often come when our subconscious mind is most active... when our conscious mind sleeps.

The subconscious and memory.

It is uncanny, but under the correct controlled conditions that human mind exhibits almost perfect recall. Conscious, waking memory is flawed. We constantly forget things. Our recall of events is imperfect. This can be seen in the case of criminal investigations, where multiple witnesses can give different descriptions of the same person or event. Didn't they all see the same thing? They did. However, their short-term memory was corrupted. That corruption is due to the conscious mind's filtering of sensory inputs. The brain doesn't need perfect recall in short-term memory to do most daily functions. The amount of data required to actually live your daily life is only a fraction of the data actually absorbed by your senses in the course of a waking day.

Is it really necessary to remember the color of the shirt that each person wore in the office today? Is it really essential to remember the exact height, shoe size, or birthday for each one of your friends and family members?

The conscious mind filters everything it takes in, storing what it thinks is important and essentially discarding details that it deems unimportant. As we shall see, however,it doesn't really discard them. It stores them in a buffer, or holding area, to be sorted out later. That sorting process generally occurs when we sleep, which is when the conscious mind sleeps and the subconscious is most active.

Moving Memories: Changing Locations.

You just bought a new type of frozen dinner at the store. Perhaps you bought a few of them. The first time, you read the cooking instructions. The second time, you probably don't remember them, so you read the instructions again! By the third time, the instructions are stuck in your head. You have moved the memory of the cooking instructions from short-term to long-term memory through repetition.

This process of repetition is how the conscious mind sorts important from on important information.

Of course, there are other methods that the mind use to shift information from short-term to long-term memory. Repetition is only one. For example, the conscious mind tends to more rapidly store music, rhymes and pictures. That's why we remember our ABCs when they are song to us, rather than just repeated verbally. Our mind much more easily remembers the ABC jingle. The music is a key to move the information from short-term to long-term memory.

  

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.