Conscious Choices Podcasts

Hello, this is Scott Schenck. I’m a certified hypnotist. I use hypnosis and other methods to reach the subconscious mind to help people improve themselves. I have been researching hypnosis for 40 years. I have been personally using hypnosis and other altered-state methods since 1978. As a hypnotist, I have many techniques at my disposal to assist people improve themselves. I tell my clients: I have a big tool-kit; if one thing doesn’t work, something else will.

When I use the term “hypnosis”, I mean any method that reaches the subconscious mind, where the real urges and decisions and long-time habits lie. The conscious mind deals with short-term memory, short-term motivation or willpower, evaluating situations and making decisions. When your conscious mind wants to do something, or make a change, but the subconscious mind has made a different decision, the subconscious wins.

For example, if someone wants to get rid of extra weight on their body, but the subconscious self feels comfortable with that weight, or has gotten used to certain ways of eating and certain choices of foods, then it becomes difficult to get rid of the weight. The subconscious self wins out. If a smoker wants to quit, their conscious mind is saying, “This isn’t good for my health.” But the subconscious self, which has that younger self within who began to smoke because he wanted to be “cool” with the other kids, is still there within, and doesn’t want to quit. So, guess who wins again!

When I use hypnosis for performance improvement I use hypnosis in a different way. Most Olympic and professional athletes will tell you that they excel at their sport when they are in the “zone”. They say the zone is an altered state of consciousness that allows them to perform at their best. The “zone” is actually a state of mind that pushes the conscious mind out of the way and allows the unconscious take over. When an athlete is in this state they have stopped their conscious mind from “second guessing” and trying to correct their unconscious actions. Instead, their actions come “automatically” from the unconscious mind.

When I help someone with performance improvement I teach them how to use self-hypnosis to “get into the zone”. This allows their unconscious mind to freely take over. When that happens they are assured that they will perform at their peak. You can see this in action if you do the following experiment. Take a moment and untie one of your shoes. Okay, now tie it. How long did it take you to tie it? A couple of seconds at the most, right? Now, untie it again. Now, as you tie it, say the steps out loud. I’ll bet it took you much longer to tie the shoe. It takes longer because you got your conscious mind to analyze and recite the steps it took to tie it. Your conscious mind was interfering with a learned habit performed by your unconscious.

The same is true for any athletic endeavor. When you swing a golf club or tennis racket; or throw a football or baseball; or kick a football or soccer ball you will always perform best when you get your conscious mind out of the way and allow your unconscious to take over. In fact, you will always do something that requires a high level of mental and physical coordination more effectively without the interference of the conscious mind.

Your subconscious, or unconscious, self wins, because it makes up more than 95 percent of your mind. It has many programs within it that come from imprints made throughout your lifetime. These are imprints of experiences and beliefs that you have received throughout your existence. It takes a Consulting Hypnotist using hypnosis to reach into what I often call that deeper mind, in order to change or improve that programming.

Hypnosis that is used to help people improve their life is known as clinical hypnosis. It is usually performed by a Consulting Hypnotist. This differentiates it from stage and other entertainment-types of hypnosis. Hypnosis has use far beyond being a stage entertainment phenomenon. More and more people are becoming interested in whether the use of hypnosis can help them solve their problems or meet their goals in life. Consulting Hypnotists can help with such things as smoking and chewing tobacco, biting fingernails, pulling hair and other unhelpful habits. They can help you get rid of unwanted weight and maintain your ideal size, in a healthy and easy way. Consulting Hypnotists help people get over their fears and phobias. They can help you improve your golf game, your athletic or stage performance and even your job performance. They help prepare someone for an easy surgery and quick recovery. They can help you heal relationships and change attitudes. They can help you go through difficult interviews or other potentially awkward situations. Hypnosis can ease pain and alleviate headaches. It provides a means to relax and handle stressful and difficult situations. It can free your creativity, including such problems as writer’s block. It helps with study habits, focus, and passing exams. It can help with memory and other learning problems. There are so many issues that Consulting Hypnotists and hypnosis can help with, far beyond most people’s awareness.

Let me explain why hypnosis and other hypnotic methods work so well. The unconscious (or subconscious) mind is responsible not only for running our automatic body systems, but for holding our beliefs about life, love, ourselves, other people, other cultures, religion, ethics, etc. It takes care of everything we ever learned consciously. We’ve had to learn everything since we were born–how to eat, how to walk, how to brush our teeth. All of this began at a conscious level, until it became automatic and was taken over by the subconscious part of the mind. If we had to think through every little action that is required to do every little thing we do, we would go crazy. So it is a most important part of who we are.

The subconscious mind is like a big “melting pot”. In that melting pot is anything that’s ever happened to us, everything ever said to us, everything we ever learned, and everything that done to us, whether real, imagined, or even misunderstood. It houses our emotions, all the various parts of our personality, and all of the roles we play in life.

In my consulting hypnosis practice, I find that using hypnotic or other trance-creating methods makes it possible for me to help people more permanently, than I can by using just personal coaching methods. These methods (or processes) are able to reach into that “melting pot” filled with all our memory and beliefs, and actually change how we perceive and do things. It can even help our bodies work better, thereby helping us become healthier.

Many people are either confused or even fearful of hypnosis. But that is only because they misunderstand it. Some think it means “mesmerism”–that is, controlling someone’s mind. But their negative attitude about it comes from misunderstanding what it is and is not.

Hypnotic states, or trance states, are “states of being” between being awake and being asleep. That is, anything other than being fully awake or fully asleep. The stages you go through from waking to sleeping, and from sleeping to waking, are hypnotic or trance states. These times are called “hypnogogic” states, which mean that at those times of the day and night, you are most receptive to suggestions. What you watch on television before you fall asleep may be impacting you far more than you are aware.

Everyone gets “hypnotized” 7 to 12 times every day. Another way to speak of it is that we go into trance-like states. Such times are natural and normal. There are times when you become entranced. You find yourself in a trance like state. Think about when you’re driving and suddenly realize that you have missed your turn because your mind was somewhere else. For a few seconds, you had been driving without thinking about it at a conscious level. That is a hypnotic state or “trance.” You were focused on something other than your driving. When you’re wrapped up in a book or television program, and someone calls your name, and you don’t hear them, you’re entranced by the story. You’re in a hypnotic state.

When you “day-dream” you are in a trance-state. When you try to fight dozing off at night when driving on a straight-of-way into on coming lights, you are trying to fight off becoming “en-tranced,” Many times in our lives we become en-tranced by something or someone. And if we accept it into our belief system, then we are hypnotized by it. When we’re in that state, we’re more open to suggestion.

Now, regularly we decide whether or not we want to accept suggestions given to us. For example, we can absorb, without conscious thought, the suggestions given to us by advertisers to convince us that we need certain products– We’d be more loveable if we use the right deodorant. We’d have more fun if we drank the right soda. We’d be free if we had the right car. Sometimes we’re hypnotized by inference, rather than words - Women would be more acceptable if we were thin as rails like the actresses and models on television, movies and in magazines. Men would be happier if they were more muscular with great pecs and abs. All of these suggestions can become our beliefs. It just depends upon whether we consciously or unconsciously decide to accept them. If we accept them, they become part of our belief system. In other words we get hypnotized by them.

Deep prayer, or meditation, is a form of “trance,” and therefore a kind of hypnotic state. In this state you can become more aware, receive new insights and directions for your life, and are receptive to the suggestions for your life. This is also what I mean by a “trance” or “hypnotic” state.

Mass healers, such as those on TV, are participating in this when they convince a whole room of people into trusting them, believing them to the point that people are healed. These people became open to suggestion. Research has shown that most of our ills are generated from our mind. What we believe or think or feel causes us to be ill. Since this happens it is important to recognize that to get well our minds must be changed. In other words, getting well requires that we believe, think or feel differently.

Now, let me clear up some frequent misconceptions about hypnosis and hypnotherapy:

1. Can a hypnotist control you and make you do what something you don’t to do?
Stage hypnotists, movies and TV often can give false impressions about hypnosis. Yes, they do remind us of the power of our own minds. But, they often give the impression that a person has some special power over another person, making them do something against their will. Nothing could be further from the truth.

All of us have far more mental and physical ability than we use on a daily basis. The Consulting Hypnotist acts as a kind of “guide” into your own interior to your greater ability, your deeper resources (a greater part of your mind). Hypnosis is a 100% consent state. But a hypnotist can’t MAKE you go where you don’t want to go or use resources you don’t want to use.

A hypnotist can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do, or that goes against your own morality or ethics (despite Mission Impossible and other television and movie stories). If hypnotists could make people do what they don’t want to do, we would be running the world and have all the money we wanted. In 29 years of working with hypnosis, I have never convinced anyone to lay their savings account at my feet!!!

A stage hypnotist may get very receptive people to do the most ridiculous things, because they’re having fun, it’s safe, and they trust him. If he said, “Pretend to take off your clothes,” they might pantomime that action. But if he said, “Now, take off all your clothes in front of these people”; they simply would not do it (unless they are extreme exhibitionists, anyway). They would quit playing the game. The hypnotist would have stepped over the line, by making this suggestion to the participants. So each of those people on stage are actually able to accept or reject any suggestion that makes them feel unsafe, or extremely humiliated.

Being able to accept or reject suggestions is just as true in a Consulting Hypnotist’s office, where people come to get help. We are not out to get people to do silly things for the amusement of others. We want to help you address the issues you bring to us.

2. Is my mind “vacant” and open to anything that comes along, including the devil?
When you are hypnotized, all that is happening is that you are becoming more focused, or en-tranced. You are shutting out all the usual chatter that comes into our conscious minds. Contrary to being vacant, then, the mind is actually “filling up”, bringing all its ability into the moment, to participate in making changes. You are putting all your mental ability at work. Because you are actually “in charge,” you will accept only those things that are right and helpful for you.

3. Will I reveal all my deep, dark secrets?
Hypnosis is not a “truth” serum or other drug that lets Pandora’s Box fly open. You will not reveal all your secrets. The only things that will come out are the things that you need to get your particular issue resolved. Anything else remains “hidden.” In other words, even when you are hypnotized, if I asked you a question that you did not want to answer, you would be just as free to not answer it, as you are when you are NOT hypnotized. In fact, you can even lie when you are hypnotized if that is something you normally would do.

4. Is hypnosis is a form of “brain-washing”?
Brain-washing involves being confined, for long periods, to small spaces with bright lights night or day, or no lights at all, going without sleep or being pulled out of sleep regularly, with little or no food. It is a form of torture and manipulation. It typically involves a combination of lengthy deprivation and overwhelming sensations. It often uses drugs. None of this happens in my office!

As a Consulting Hypnotist, I believe that each person possesses within himself or herself a deeper knowledge of what their problems are, and how to solve them. So, I use methods that help people go into that part of themselves to use more of their mind and capabilities to solve their problems or change their habits. Sometimes I do it with just positive suggestions that can change how they perceive something. Sometimes I help them discover the original cause of their basic attitude or belief that is keeping that problem in their life.

If you would like to know more about this amazing method of change, you can contact my office, Conscious Choices. We believe you can change your life through conscious choices. My office is in Hendersonville, North Carolina right downtown of Main Street on W 4^th Ave. It’s easy to reach from any direction of the county. We offer a FREE 30 minute session so you can decide if Hypnosis is right for you. Please call my office for further information or an appointment. I can be reached at (828) 329-7992. That’s (828) 329-7992. You can also reach me via email. My email is: scott@consciouschoices.com. You can find out more about us at: www.consciouschoices.com Thank you.