Deep hypnosis: What are the stages of hypnosis and what can you do with it?
Hypnotherapy works best when a person is in deep hypnosis. To get someone there, it is important to know what stages of hypnosis there are and what you can do in certain stages of hypnosis
Light hypnosis
Let's start at the first stage, which is light hypnosis. This is also the brain activity of alpha, your brain activity drops to 14 herz and more and more down to deeper alpha. So you close your eyes and start relaxing. It is also the state of meditation.
Light hypnosis, then, is a relaxed state in which you are slightly open to suggestions[1]. The more relaxed you are, the more is possible.
You can then visualize more easily. You can imagine things better.
In that state, you can change things faster.
When you are in the beta state, the critical mind, that comes in children only from about 8 years old, which is a little higher in the herz such as over 14 herz. This state is also more about pressure and stress, but we call it the critical mind for now.
When you’re more relaxed, you’re less critical. This makes you more open to suggestions. You’re still critical, but less so than “normal.” This is also a state that young children often find themselves in[2].
In this state, hypnosis techniques and NLP techniques work better.
We test the first state through eye-lock. You are then unable to open your eyes. People who pass this test well can also make a change faster.
So this is light hypnosis.
A person may therefore already be deep in hypnosis, but we have another test for that.
In a light hypnotic state, you can use the techniques from our training program. After all, not everyone can go into a very deep state of hypnosis right away, and when you have a client, you want to be able to help them effectively and guide them into a hypnotic state. It’s especially helpful to know these techniques if your client has difficulty entering hypnosis.
Then you are often more relaxed. This is not higher math, anyone can do it.
Deep Hypnosis
The second state is deep hypnosis. This requires a bit more training. This is also called somnambulism. Then we get more into the theta state of brain activity[3]. Which is between 4 and 7 hertz. This is more the state of REM sleep and daydreaming.
Also, the state you are in just before you wake up or just before you fall asleep.
Children ages 0-5 are in that theta state, making it very easy for them to learn. They are open to suggestions. Fantasy and reality are fully intermingled. They can also empathize tremendously with movies. Then they are that person, they are also you as a parent (when they imitate you). This has all kinds of effects, because if they are you and you break up, this is an identity crisis for your child.
This is why divorce is very intense for children.
That deep state of hypnosis, you can do super interesting things with that. For example, you can go right back to the moment when a problem arose. You can sedate people on suggestion.
This can even be more powerful than chemical anesthesia. In 2020, a study even compared a group of patients who were scheduled to undergo thyroid surgery. One group received local anesthesia and hypnotic sedation, while another group underwent general anesthesia, meaning they were completely unconscious. This study showed that the group that had received only local anesthesia and hypnotic anesthesia achieved more positive outcomes than the group that had undergone general anesthesia, allowing them to go home sooner as well. The researchers considered this a good alternative to general anesthesia[4].
In addition, hypnosis can also be used during childbirth. Research shows that this can be beneficial for both the mother and the child. The mother often requires little or no pain relief, experiences less blood loss, and the babies often have a higher Apgar score. This is a kind of initial overall assessment that doctors or midwives make of the newborn’s health[5].
You can get people to identify, you can help them become a new person.
You can help people change faster[6].
There are all kinds of issues you can address using the first two levels of hypnosis, namely: headaches, migraines, stomachaches, anxiety, depression, sadness, grief, phobias, sleep problems, stress caused by family, and much more[7].
The deeper the hypnosis, the less the word does not matter. For example, in light hypnosis the suggestion "You are no longer afraid of heights" is not a helpful suggestion, but in deep hypnosis it is a fine suggestion. In fact, they then just accept it.
You can work much more directly with people who are in deep hypnosis. You can just tell them what to do. You don't have to learn complicated language patterns to do that.
The deeper someone is in hypnosis, the more direct you can work. This is also much more convenient at the time. This is because a complicated suggestion that does come in well in light hypnosis, such as stories, is often of little use in deep hypnosis.
For example, there’s Ericksonian hypnosis, where the use of evocative language is key. These techniques are perfect for light hypnosis, perfect for a presentation, perfect for a speech, and perfect for a conversation.
In deep hypnosis, none of that is necessary.
One test of deep hypnosis is amnesia. If someone can forget something, such as their name or whatever, that person is in deep hypnosis. This is the second state.
We work with this a lot in the master’s program. You can also do wonderful things with it. For example, you can let go of emotions without feeling them. That’s ideal if you’ve been carrying around sadness for twenty years.
These types of techniques are possible in deep hypnosis. Also other phenomena such as astral travel, next or past lives, sedating people, seeing colors and paranormal phenomena. All of these can be done on suggestion.
Deep hypnosis (hypnotic coma)
Then there is a third state. Esdaile state[8]. Hypnotic coma. In it you can work with the subconscious mind. You can think of the unconscious as unconscious behaviors, habits and programs, then you can think of the subconscious as the functioning of your organs, the liver, kidneys, pancreas and things like that. You can influence those.
For example, I once helped someone with an inoperable brain tumor because it was adherent. I gave that person one session in which we asked his unconscious if he could become operable again by removing that adhesion. This was possible a week later. Then surgery was possible again.
Thus, I have experienced more such extraordinary things with hypnosis. I am convinced that the body can heal itself and hypnosis can play a role in this.
Before modern medicine, hypnosis was also used for this purpose. People in hypnosis then gave themselves a diagnosis and indicated how long it would take and how they would get better again.
Even today, hypnosis is still used to treat symptoms of illness, such as pain. Hypnosis and giving suggestions are also being increasingly researched for neurological problems[9].
Scientists even now indicate that hypnosis can be good for your physical health[10].
Hypnosis Sleep
It is difficult to bring someone into hypnosis from sleep. This state is difficult to use for therapy purposes. But in a hospital - in the dormitory - an mp3 with suggestions about self-healing can be interesting to speed up the healing process.
Hypnosis is already known to promote wound healing after surgery.
These are the four states of hypnosis and the deeper you go, the lower the brain activity. Do you want to learn this? Then it is helpful to take a training course.
Also listen to the podcast:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/195236/1613896-de-verschillende-stadia-van-hypnose?play=true
Would you like to learn more about hypnosis and how to guide people into light and deep hypnosis to help them? Then join the free online masterclass. You’ll learn right away how to hypnotize people.
Would you like to get started right away and learn the techniques to actually help people? Then sign up for one of the courses offered by the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands. The courses are taught online from a professional studio and, when possible, in person in Wormerveer or Zwolle.
[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053810009001834
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3164825/
[3] http://heanoti.com/index.php/hn/article/view/hn20115/91
[4] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00405-019-05754-5
[5] http://www.hypnosisaustralia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/journal/AJCEH_Vol25_No1_MAY97.pdf#page=80
[6] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00207144.2017.1276360
[7] https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9067/4/4/19/htm?id=4081011
[8] https://www.jstor.org/stable/24619969
[9] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128017722000473
[10] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00029157.2018.1506636