1.1 Overview
The medical model places an emphasis on illness management, surgical intervention and control or suppression of symptoms. This model sees disease as something that can be cured or managed from outside, with little or no input from the individual. This discounts the role each person plays in creating his or her own disease or health.
The holistic approach to health care looks at the total person, and interaction between three components of mind, body and spirit. This approach does not focus on symptoms, or managing illness, but rather on rooting out cause of disease and illness, and on removing blocks to the natural innate healing force so that healing is restored. Blocks may be at many levels, with disrupted, negative thought patterns translating into corresponding physical changes at the deepest cellular levels. Healing force is the intelligence that regulates all of our body functions, directs healing on all levels, and restores and maintains homeostasis. This healing force cannot be imposed from outside, as it resides within each individual at the level of subconscious. Hypnosis is one of the most powerful tools available that allows direct access to subconscious mind and healing force, facilitating healing at all levels of the mind, body and spirit.
Hypnosis is an educative communication process that allows a person’s conscious and subconscious minds to believe the message imparted. This is also referred to as whole brain thinking. The process of hypnosis bypasses conscious mind, which is the seat of rational thinking, logic, judgment, will power and temporary memory. When conscious mind is quieted, we come in contact with subconscious mind, which is the seat of emotions, habits, permanent memory and imagination, and serves to protect us from danger, real or imagined. The subconscious mind works very much like a super computer. Just as a computer does not judge information fed into its memory. Subconscious mind accepts all information, it receives, as truth. Subconscious mind does not distinguish between an actual event and imagination and accepts imagination as true. Many athletes make use of this function of subconscious mind, knowing that practicing and perfecting their skills mentally using creative force of their imagination is as powerful (if not more powerful!) as an actual practice session. Another function of the subconscious mind is that it is goal directed. Hence, the subconscious mind is called the single most powerful goal-achieving agency known to man.
This information then becomes a part of the operating system of the subconscious mind. There is even powerful evidence that the subconscious mind is programmed with goal directed messages (both health oriented and disease orientated) while we are still in the womb. Most people, when asked, would say they want to be healthy. Yet their subconscious mind may be operating from a very different program, one that says “you don’t deserve to be healthy”. The possible scripts are infinite, and very specific to each individual and one’s life experiences. While memories, thoughts and emotions that promote disease may be long forgotten at conscious level, they are very much alive at the level of the subconscious. Every experience taken in by the senses is recorded in perfect detail in subconscious. When this dormant memory is stimulated, the experience may be relived in perfect detail. Herein lies the power of hypnosis. Once at the level of the subconscious, a therapist is able to gain access to lifetime thought processes and emotions.
Regression therapy is one technique therapists use to help an individual to return to the thoughts, emotions and experiences directly linked to specific disease, or illness. Once these thoughts and emotions are identified through successive sessions of hypnosis, they can be dispelled and rooted out and subconscious mind can be reprogrammed with positive, productive thought processes, which will be played out on all levels. Once subconscious is reprogrammed, the healing force can be directed to return the individual to a state of homeostasis and health.
Hypnosis is not a diagnostic tool but it provides useful information to find out cause of disease, destroy the seeds of disease and reprogram subconscious mind to return to a state of health, thus restoring perfect balance between mind, body and spirit.
Hypnosis is in developing stage across the globe, and is merely at infancy stage in India. However, it is expanding very rapidly for healing a number of issues. Application of hypnosis is not limited to the psychological issues like depression, anxiety, phobia, delusions, etc., but being used for hypno- birthing and anesthesia purposes as well.