In the early days of the Covid Panic-demic Mattias Desmet realised he was witnessing an enormous event of mass hypnosis which he called Mass Formation. He was right and therefore of course swiftly denounced by politicians and fellow academics. Desmet claimed that for mass formation to occur many people must:
· lack social bonds,
· experience life as meaningless,
· suffer free-floating anxiety
and
· experience frustration and aggression.
The fact that these four conditions were met is already cause for concern. But Desmet’s insight gives rise to a further question: what is the exact mechanism of hypnosis?
Hypnosis is happening all around you every day.
Fortunately, many of the trances which we meet, use and pass through are very useful.
Unfortunately, in recent times dangerous and delusional trances have become widespread.
I have been a teacher and practitioner of hypnosis for over thirty years. I helped Paul McKenna start his career as a stage hypnotist and I have created trances and worked with him for more than two decades. Nowadays, more than ever, it is clear that we all need to understand the mechanics and structure of everyday hypnosis.
Many of our trances are useful heuristics for life. For example, when you tie your shoelaces you use a short, automatic sequence of physical movements. If you think about it too hard you will do it less well. This mini motor-trance is very useful. We use thousands of other such automated procedures quite happily.
However we don’t like to think that our thinking uses such automatic sequences. We love to imagine that we are conscious all the time and that we are in charge of our consciousness and our decisions, but much of the time this is not true. The trouble is that it can be as hard to spot your own cognitive trances as it is to see the edge of your field of vision. This is not a new problem. As Jesus asked,
“How wilt thou say to thy brother, ‘Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?’”
Hypnotic trance is one of the topics of my book, The Bug in our Thinking, and therein I very gently offer indirect means to attenuate the impact of hypnosis in your life. It has been reassuring to discover that some of us are willing to tackle the issue more directly. However there are formidable obstacles including but as the lawyers say, not limited to, the following:
The trances from which we suffer are partial, multiple, embedded, overlapping or interlaced and any combination thereof. It is not a matter of simply “waking someone up”, but rather a matter of picking apart a tangle of interlocking trances, some of which are functional and others destructive.
Many trances are comfortable. When the burden of proof has been shouldered by someone else – an expert no less – it relieves you of the responsibility of discovery and decision and the risk of being wrong. Furthermore it is flattering to be reassured that you are right, hence there is little motivation to change.
People in trance are almost always convinced that they are not in trance. Believing they are in control of their thoughts they feel insulted if they are told they are deluded, and often react with hostility.
For those people willing to help others and themselves surmount these obstacles I will be running seminars on The Structure and Mechanics of Hypnosis on the evenings of 2nd and 3rd October in London and on the morning of 5th October in the Welsh Borders.
To sign up, for enquiries and for details of venues, time and price, please email me at h@hughwillbourn.com
Hugh Willbourn is the author of "The Bug in our Thinking and the way to fix it".
According to a recent review, "Willbourn’s book is exceptionally accessibly and clearly written—a marvel of non-professional-academic, or real, philosophy."
If you wish to read the book before attending a seminar or are unable to attend the code “Hypnosis” in the coupon box will get you a £2.00 discount on your order.
It is available by clicking here, and internationally as a paperback, ebook and audiobook at Amazon.