Suggestion plays a tremendously important role in our daily lives. It begins from naming the baby with an appropriate name to securing a suitable place for interment. I would like to call your attention to a fascinating book dealing with the unconscious reasons why we do many of the things that we do. You will be intrigued with every page of the book. It is called Underground Hypnosis.
I think is that we are all suggestible and, therefore, being hypnotized or hypnotizing ourselves is just a matter of increasing the suggestibility that we already possess. Doesn’t the hypnotist begin by suggesting relaxation? Doesn’t she usually begin by requesting the subject to fix his attention on a particular object? Next, she suggests to the subject that his eyes are becoming heavy and tired. As soon as the subject closes his eyes, she suggests that he will be in a deep hypnotic state. I am sure that you are familiar with this procedure.
With each step, the hypnotist is guiding the subject along directed lines to get him to accept further suggestions without question or doubt. When the subject achieves the ultimate state in this procedure, he has been hypnotized. He then accepts suggestions without hesitating.
Let us continue with this same thought. Suppose I say to you, “I’m going to stick you with this pin. It won’t hurt.” Would you let me stick you with the pin? Obviously not. Let us suppose that you have been hypnotized and I repeat the same suggestion. What happens then? You readily accept the suggestion as being factual. Should I proceed to stick you with the pin, you do not even flinch. In fact, you do not even feel the pain. Does this sound incredible? Isn’t this exactly the same procedure that the dentist uses with his patient when she has hypnotized him for the purpose of painless dental work?