Highway Hypnosis: What Is It And What Can It Do For You?
Wendy Lapidus-Saltz
January 26, 2008
When a client arrives for a first hypnosis session, I ask if she (or he) has been hypnotized before. Often the answer is no. I say I beg to differ. Although she has never had a formal hypnosis session, or participated in a hypnosis stage show, she has likely experienced a phenomenon called "highway hypnosis." I ask if she recalls it.
"Oh, I really don´t think so" is the usual reply.
Then I ask if she has ever driven herself home from a place she has been many times before, and without thinking about it, ended up in front of her house—often without recalling what she passed along the way.
"You mean like I just remember getting into the car and then—bam!— I´m home?"
Exactly.
"Happens all the time," she says.
"There´s a name for that," I say, "Highway hypnosis."
When effortlessness is good for you-
Highway hypnosis is an interesting phenomenon, and you don´t need to be traveling on a highway to experience it. One reason it´s linked to hypnosis is the feeling of just going along, without conscious thought or effort, and ending up exactly where you intended, without much effort.
Another link to hypnosis is the reliance on the subconscious mind.
If you have experienced this natural phenomenon, you are likely to do well with hypnosis itself (the kind you intentionally seek), assuming you´re willing to participate.
"Really? But I´m so logical," my client says.
"Logical is great, intelligent is great, and willing is the most important," I tell her.
She´s surprised that intelligence isn´t a barrier to hypnosis, because she was afraid that you needed to be dumb to be hypnotized. I laugh, and she doesn´t seem to mind. I tell her that smart is particularly useful because it would be useful to follow up our sessions with self hypnosis, and that takes some smarts to learn. She seems encouraged.
"So, as smart as you are, are you willing to take in and accept the hypnotic suggestions I give you, every one of them created to help you achieve the goal you came here for?"
She smiles and says yes. And we´re off.
A very familiar feeling-
Most people have experienced highway hypnosis, and the familiarity of that feeling helps them realize that hypnosis can be easy for them—without much trying.
In fact, sometimes trying too hard is a barrier to being hypnotized. A client comes with an idea of how hypnosis should feel, look, and seem, and if that´s not what happens, they say plaintively, "I´m not good at this!"
Often their expectation is that they won´t remember anything after it´s over, that it would be something like their idea of a coma: not seeing, feeling, hearing or being aware of anything. But the hypnotic state is rarely coma-like. Who would want it to be?
And frankly, how many of us really know what a coma is like on the inside?
The naturalness and effortlessness of that highway-hypnosis feeling is more like creativity expert Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi´s flow state, prized for its help in originating works of art, scholarship, and scientific discovery.
As he says in Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience," ´Flow´ is the way people describe their state of mind when the conscious is harmoniously ordered, and they want to pursue whatever they are doing for its own sake."
Is it surprising that personal change work is often more easilyaccomplished through a few hypnosis sessions rather than years of struggle? Not when you consider that creating a new perspective can happen instantaneously, when you feel you´re not trying.
Many artists, writers, inventors and architects have described a strikingly similar phenomenon in the process of creating.
Chicago playwright Cheri Coons describes it well: "The rules of time bend when I'm in this state—sometimes large creative ideas come through me fully formed with incredible speed. I can't believe what has been accomplished so quickly."
Did Edison use hypnosis to invent?-
Many accounts of Thomas Edison describe his long working hours punctuated by scheduled catnaps. Often he awoke with an answer, or at least a new insight, into a problem he was struggling with. This process is sometimes claimed to include what may have been Edison´s personal version of self hypnosis.
He is said to have put a bowl or bucket of water beside his sleep couch. In his hand he held a coin. As he slipped into a deeper and deeper rest, his hand slowly opened. When he was fully asleep, it opened completely, and the coin fell into the bowl of water, awakening him.
But he may not have awakened himself simply to get on with his work.
If he was knowledgeable about hypnosis, he would be able to sense the differences between the state of hypnosis and ordinary sleep. He would know that the hypnotic state is creative and receptive to suggestion in ways that deep sleep is not.
Efficient Edison would want to make the most of his subconscious inventing, and choose his most optimal mental state for the purpose. That state is not quite sleep but the hypnotic state.
Of course this is conjecture, but the principle is useful to us today. Fortunately there are ways to self-hypnotize without the messiness of water.
What puts you in Flow—or unleashes your inner inventor/problem solver?-
Many say they spontaneously solve dilemmas, or simply bring forth new ideas, while in a car. Some like riding as a passenger, undistracted by the need to watch the road. Others prefer to be behind the wheel, paying just enough conscious attention, while another part of the mind dreams in the background.
Often the trip ends with a useful insight.
Is this intentional highway hypnosis at work? A brainstorming technique? Or simply coincidence?
And what of those who claim that repetitive, mindless activities such as knitting, folding clothes, ironing, or fishing do the same? My grad-school colleague used to say she began her most successful writing projects standing at the sink, washing dishes. There, with rhythmic hand movements and rainbow bubbles, ideas burst into her mind.
Some would say that washing dishes, a mindless activity using repetitive motion, literally puts one in a kind of hypnotic state.
So next time you want to create a positive new habit like eating more veggies or exercising, perhaps you´ll consider washing the dishes as you repeat "I enjoy crisp, sweet carrots, fresh string beans, and refreshing lettuce…." And I´m actually not kidding. ©2008 by Wendy Lapidus-Saltz. All rights reserved.
"Oh, I really don´t think so" is the usual reply.
Then I ask if she has ever driven herself home from a place she has been many times before, and without thinking about it, ended up in front of her house—often without recalling what she passed along the way.
"You mean like I just remember getting into the car and then—bam!— I´m home?"
Exactly.
"Happens all the time," she says.
"There´s a name for that," I say, "Highway hypnosis."
When effortlessness is good for you-
Highway hypnosis is an interesting phenomenon, and you don´t need to be traveling on a highway to experience it. One reason it´s linked to hypnosis is the feeling of just going along, without conscious thought or effort, and ending up exactly where you intended, without much effort.
Another link to hypnosis is the reliance on the subconscious mind.
If you have experienced this natural phenomenon, you are likely to do well with hypnosis itself (the kind you intentionally seek), assuming you´re willing to participate.
"Really? But I´m so logical," my client says.
"Logical is great, intelligent is great, and willing is the most important," I tell her.
She´s surprised that intelligence isn´t a barrier to hypnosis, because she was afraid that you needed to be dumb to be hypnotized. I laugh, and she doesn´t seem to mind. I tell her that smart is particularly useful because it would be useful to follow up our sessions with self hypnosis, and that takes some smarts to learn. She seems encouraged.
"So, as smart as you are, are you willing to take in and accept the hypnotic suggestions I give you, every one of them created to help you achieve the goal you came here for?"
She smiles and says yes. And we´re off.
A very familiar feeling-
Most people have experienced highway hypnosis, and the familiarity of that feeling helps them realize that hypnosis can be easy for them—without much trying.
In fact, sometimes trying too hard is a barrier to being hypnotized. A client comes with an idea of how hypnosis should feel, look, and seem, and if that´s not what happens, they say plaintively, "I´m not good at this!"
Often their expectation is that they won´t remember anything after it´s over, that it would be something like their idea of a coma: not seeing, feeling, hearing or being aware of anything. But the hypnotic state is rarely coma-like. Who would want it to be?
And frankly, how many of us really know what a coma is like on the inside?
The naturalness and effortlessness of that highway-hypnosis feeling is more like creativity expert Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi´s flow state, prized for its help in originating works of art, scholarship, and scientific discovery.
As he says in Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience," ´Flow´ is the way people describe their state of mind when the conscious is harmoniously ordered, and they want to pursue whatever they are doing for its own sake."
Is it surprising that personal change work is often more easilyaccomplished through a few hypnosis sessions rather than years of struggle? Not when you consider that creating a new perspective can happen instantaneously, when you feel you´re not trying.
Many artists, writers, inventors and architects have described a strikingly similar phenomenon in the process of creating.
Chicago playwright Cheri Coons describes it well: "The rules of time bend when I'm in this state—sometimes large creative ideas come through me fully formed with incredible speed. I can't believe what has been accomplished so quickly."
Did Edison use hypnosis to invent?-
Many accounts of Thomas Edison describe his long working hours punctuated by scheduled catnaps. Often he awoke with an answer, or at least a new insight, into a problem he was struggling with. This process is sometimes claimed to include what may have been Edison´s personal version of self hypnosis.
He is said to have put a bowl or bucket of water beside his sleep couch. In his hand he held a coin. As he slipped into a deeper and deeper rest, his hand slowly opened. When he was fully asleep, it opened completely, and the coin fell into the bowl of water, awakening him.
But he may not have awakened himself simply to get on with his work.
If he was knowledgeable about hypnosis, he would be able to sense the differences between the state of hypnosis and ordinary sleep. He would know that the hypnotic state is creative and receptive to suggestion in ways that deep sleep is not.
Efficient Edison would want to make the most of his subconscious inventing, and choose his most optimal mental state for the purpose. That state is not quite sleep but the hypnotic state.
Of course this is conjecture, but the principle is useful to us today. Fortunately there are ways to self-hypnotize without the messiness of water.
What puts you in Flow—or unleashes your inner inventor/problem solver?-
Many say they spontaneously solve dilemmas, or simply bring forth new ideas, while in a car. Some like riding as a passenger, undistracted by the need to watch the road. Others prefer to be behind the wheel, paying just enough conscious attention, while another part of the mind dreams in the background.
Often the trip ends with a useful insight.
Is this intentional highway hypnosis at work? A brainstorming technique? Or simply coincidence?
And what of those who claim that repetitive, mindless activities such as knitting, folding clothes, ironing, or fishing do the same? My grad-school colleague used to say she began her most successful writing projects standing at the sink, washing dishes. There, with rhythmic hand movements and rainbow bubbles, ideas burst into her mind.
Some would say that washing dishes, a mindless activity using repetitive motion, literally puts one in a kind of hypnotic state.
So next time you want to create a positive new habit like eating more veggies or exercising, perhaps you´ll consider washing the dishes as you repeat "I enjoy crisp, sweet carrots, fresh string beans, and refreshing lettuce…." And I´m actually not kidding. ©2008 by Wendy Lapidus-Saltz. All rights reserved.