This is S02E15. This is the final installment in our mini series, Conscious Self Persuasion - Beyond Hypnosis and the Waking Sleep. 

Well, so far we've seen that hypnosis, whether we consider the clinical evidence of hetero-hypnosis or autohypnosis, or the mass effects, or indeed demonstrations of paranormal phenomena, it's all documented and it's all accepted as a real thing. But no one seems to be able to explain it.

Merely by suggestion, a subject is, for example, unable to perceive a person who is standing right in front of them, and is able to read a newspaper looking straight through that person. Even if we accepted the standard explanation, which is that the subject is in some sort of hysteria, whatever that is supposed to mean, it doesn't explain how the laws of physics are canceled. The light rays reflected off of the newspaper should be prevented from reaching the subject's optic nerve. 

What has always struck me as odd is that no one seems to find this strange or curious. People seem to just take it for granted that you could hypnotize someone and then all of a sudden they break the laws of physics. 

So I guess I'm not the only one to be puzzled. The researcher that I had mentioned last time, Esther Bartlett, when she published her paperack in 1968, she said, ‘possibly the reason there is no universally accepted definition of hypnosis is because to define anything is to be bound by the limits of that definition. And known phenomena of hypnosis are so varied and extensive as to appear limitless.’ 

Well, there she intuited the same conclusion that Neville had already articulated, which is the human imagination, as far as he knows, has no limitations. 

I think the only hope we really had to get a coherent explanation was to follow what Rolf Alexander was expressing back in 1952, and that is that it has to do with the quantum reality. Somehow quantum physics will one day explain these paranormal phenomena. The trouble there is, although quantum mechanics apparently works, i.e. functions well as a set of equations, it doesn't explain conscious experience. 

But it looks like I don't have to go to my grave not understanding this after all! because we benefit from the possibilities that Neville's worldview really opens up. So let's now summarize the whole argument based on everything that we covered in the first two parts of this series. 

The popular distinction between consciousness and hypnotic trance does not exist. So keep in mind we don't accept the use of the word consciousness as it's normally understood. People are not conscious. Humanity is generally in a state of sleep, meaning susceptible either en masse or individually to suggestions of all types. 

While people can maintain focused attention which is needed to perform tasks, this does not constitute consciousness, properly speaking. Self awareness, if not taken on as a deliberate study, is rare and accidental. 

The [average] mental state is continually shifting within a morass of emotions, thoughts, attitudes, all conditioned by personal psychological type, background, established beliefs - and all of this is subconscious. Moreover, the wide variety of crazy things that people display in the so called waking state is scarcely distinguishable from what they display in the so called hypnotic trance. 

Now, I have heard it said that hypnotic subjects hypnotize themselves, and this would align very well with the research findings that we cited earlier. The researchers identify a voluntary element in the response of hypnotic subjects. But how can that be? A, voluntary response would imply a conscious mind. But let's not forget the condition of consciousness. According to the esoteric explanation, the conscious stratum of the mind is erratic. Numerous sub identities take turns surfacing in the mental economy. It's only a relatively conscious momentary identity that is speaking at any given time.

Consciousness is weak and undisciplined, and in a given moment it will commit the whole person to accept the direction of the hypnotist, or the cleverest suggestion of the sociopath, or the alarmist demands of the propagandist, or the promises of the politicians, and so on. 

Attitudes and beliefs may be more or less open to change. The significance of one's prevailing belief system is the conceptualizations people accept and deeply hold to be true of themselves determine the manifest world they live in. 

Now we get that precept from Neville's worldview, and it turns out to have explanatory power. How else would you be able to produce red marks and blisters and pain by touching a person with a room temperature object? 

Of course, belief systems, belief structures are all over the map now. This accounts for the varied results in clinical hypnosis as well as the strange mix of order and confusion that is reflected in the life of humanity. 

Since the life of man is nothing but mentation, we are unbound by conventional physical laws. This precept, again, we get from Neville's worldview. If we live in a world of mentation, then the physical laws no longer apply in a strict sense. If people believe that they can contravene them, then they can be contravened. 

The power of human imagination appears limitless. Paranormal effects, once believed, manifest. The esoteric assessment really holds. The conscious function is only embryonic. It is merely a seed awaiting the influences, the right teaching or system of ideas that will prompt and support its awakening.

So now let's return to the question that we posed at the outset of this series. If we truly desire a new concept of ourselves, why not just hire a hypnotherapist? After all, we've already determined, following Claude Bristol and also Neville in his explanation of the creative process, that the key to materialize a desirable state is not consciousness itself, but rather the belief system. It is your belief that produces the reality that you live in.

Now, both hypnosis and auto hypnosis are effective in establishing new beliefs, as we've already discussed. Well, the point here is to clearly realize one's position with regard to self change: The mind is in constant flux, whereby one relatively aware aspect of the personality comes into view for a while, identifies with one or another state and its associated beliefs, and then it disappears again as the mind is dominated by yet another sub identity that pops up and that will have different identifications, different aims, different predilections. This impaired and fragmented mode of being is the usual waking state, and it's hardly distinguishable, as we have seen, from the trance state under hypnosis. 

I think this explains why Gurdjieff did not emphasize the creative aspect of the mind. He emphasized discipline. Get your mental act together, try to create one solid consciousness that is unified, then you can pursue a goal in a meaningful way. 

Now, the authors that I had mentioned, that is the representative group in the autohypnosis genre – they talk about self suggestion or autohypnosis in a conventional sense. So, for example, Lee Pulos talks about engaging the imagined senses in a whole brain method of visualization. Maxwell Maltz, for example, in his famous book Psychos Cybernetics, describes how to create a positive self image. Now, these authors seem to have stumbled upon the creative law and they express it in the language of modern psychology. And there's no question that using their methods can give results. 

However, the conventional authors do not have the esoteric perspective. So what that means is they do not see or explain the deep sleep of the masses or of the individual. They operate under the popular misconception that everyone in the normal waking state is conscious. They do not understand or give instructions in awareness of being, like Neville does, Alexander does, and Gurchev does. 

They do not stress the importance of recognizing the fragmentation of the psyche as a fundamental barrier to growth. 

Well, let's turn our attention to conscious self persuasion. Among all of those authors in autohypnosis that I had mentioned, Dr. Rolf Alexander is unique. He's the only one who makes the permanent state of objective consciousness as a supreme goal. He's the only one who even has the concept. Here's a quote from Alexander: ‘At the present time, most of us pass our lives in a state of hypnotic trance. To escape the slavery imposed by our own subconsciousness, we must become conscious. There's no escape from sleep save through awakening. This may be accomplished through a natural process of self evolution.’ 

Now his erstwhile mentor Gurdev similarly emphasized the imperative of gaining a constant sense of identity. Here's a quote from Gurdjieff (he had asked his students, by the way, to name their various goals and aims). So he remarks: ‘the one desire that is the most right is the desire to be master of oneself. Because without this nothing else is possible.’ 

So as far as Neville is concerned, he differentiates the sleeping passive mind from the deliberately conscious one. He distinguishes between unconscious subjection to the law of manifestation versus its conscious use. So in the first case, the individual is at the mercy of a belief pattern that is unwittingly internalized. In the second case, the individual uses the imaginative power to realize a deliberately conceived aim. 

Notice, however, that self awareness, as we discussed back in episode one, and self observation, as Neville recommends in his article fundamentals, are both needed for a formulation of aim to make significant change of being. 

The reason for this is that self change is not easy. Consciousness is continually overwhelmed by archaic subconscious attitudes that surface, take over and limit one's conceptions for growth. Now a person, especially working on his own or on her own, who does not have awareness of being and so is not in possession of himself, so to speak, risks being the plaything of various influences. His impetus for growth can also be distracted or stifled by the demands of ordinary life. He will therefore find it difficult to stay on track and reach the goal of conscious fulfillment. 

Neville frames the whole matter as follows: ‘the purpose of true metaphysics is to bring about a, rebirth or radical psychological change in the individual.’ 

Gurdjieff claims that the only freedom that we have is to obey the will of another who sees and breaks the complex of our automatic physical and mental habits; in other words, a conscious teacher. Well, the way Neville puts it, we do not have freedom of action because we act under compulsion of the state in which we are immersed. So in both cases, the freedom needed to extricate oneself from the subconscious state of mind is found only by increasing personal consciousness.

Neville places the faith in the progression of psychological states and associated desires in the individual. So he doesn't insist on the need for a teacher. He asks people to turn within. Now this can evolve to the point where one is consumed by a famine. That's the biblical term, a famine, to hear truth and eventually to strive for the end state personified in scripture as Christ. This is the whole point of the technique for conscious self persuasion. 

Over the course of the last three episodes, what we've done is to actually cracked the problem. We've understood exactly what hypnosis and all its remarkable effects are all about. We had to go to the esoteric side. We had to bring in special precepts from the worldview of Neville Goddard and Gurdjieff in order to get there. Keep in mind the analysis: G. said scientists are trying to define consciousness where it doesn't exist, because they just don't have the idea. Similarly, the researchers in hypnosis are trying to define hypnosis while being immersed in the subconscious state. 

I think it means that we can use all of the favorite texts, Maxwell Maltz, Lee Pulos and Neville himself, to realize our heartfelt desires, but we're going to use them consciously. We're going to use them with the specific information for awareness of being that we learned back in S01E01. The whole discussion was recaptured and presented in greater detail both in S02E07, ‘What is Consciousness? – a Journey to Neville Goddard’ and S02E08, ‘Beyond Intellect, Neville's living Consciousness’. 

Well, thank you for your attention in listening to the three episodes of this series. I think you'll be much better equipped now to recognize hypnosis when you see it before you; happening in another person; happening among the masses and happening in yourself. So I pass on to you the instructions that I got. This is for self remembering. Remember yourself until you remember a self that you cannot forget.