I am feeling a bit poetic today...

In my psychology class this week we talked quite a bit about hypnosis. I've never been hypnotized or present at a demonstration, but I've always been intrigued by the idea. Basically my professor totally demystified it for me, explaining that it is hardly the alternate state of consciousness that many perceive it to be. It's really more of a relaxation technique, designed to help people calm down through breathing exercises and focused meditative thoughts. Once relaxed, the idea is that the hypnotized person is able/willing to access thoughts or feelings that they would otherwise leave alone. My textbook and my professor agree that the hypnotist does not hold any power over the patient, and isn't controlling them in any way--basically the patient does all the work by the power of suggestion. What it really seems to come down to are our own defense systems, so intricately built up to protect us--even from ourselves--to the point of needing someone else to calm us down and tell us it's ok to feel and to think and to let go. I haven't been able to stop thinking about this since, I think because I find it simultaneously beautiful and sad. Sad because we live in a world where we must build up defenses, or at least we think that we do, often to our own detriment. And beautiful because the truth is there is someone there to tell us it's ok to feel and to think and to be who we really are. May the walls fall down.