The Uses and Abuses of Hypnosis

The Uses and Abuses of Hypnosis

Osho,
I have heard you say, ”For spiritual growth I don’t think there is anything more important than hypnosis.” Can you say more about it?

“In the old days, particularly in the East, hypnosis was used in every ashram.

The master used it in every way to help you, because consciously you may take years to do a particular thing but in hypnosis, through hypnosis, within seconds it can be done.

“Unnecessary effort can be saved. But only masters were allowed to hypnotize. Hypnosis remained a secret science in the East; it was not used publicly because there are possibilities of misusing it.

“In the West Mesmer brought hypnosis into the market, and then everything which was associated with it became condemned. But now again the wheel is turning. In the West also universities are studying it; there are scientific projects to study hypnosis, and new research is again bringing hypnosis to the status of a science. It can be used now, it is already used, in hospitals in surgery – because there is no need to give an anesthetic; that is destructive to the body, it unnecessarily harms the body. There is no need, simple hypnosis can make you unconscious. There is no need for chloroform or any poison, any gas, to make you unconscious; only your cooperation is needed. And any operation is possible under hypnosis. Even if it takes hours, even if many hours are needed, hypnosis is enough, no anesthetic is needed.”

To continue reading this OSHO Talk, visit: The Means Is the End

How does hypnosis work?

In hypnosis you reach to your unconscious mind, where all conditionings exist. You are in a volcanic state… because you may remember your childhood, and all that has happened to you since your childhood, which you have repressed. Remember, nobody represses any pleasant experience.”

To continue reading this OSHO Talk, visit: The Body Does Not Have Beliefs

“If you have ever witnessed an experiment in hypnosis, there are a few things about it worth keeping in mind. A hypnotized person is simply one whose conscious mind is asleep and whose unconscious mind is awake. When the conscious mind goes to sleep, the person stops doubting, because all doubts and misgivings are limited to the conscious mind.

“If we divide the human mind into ten parts, it will appear that one part of it is conscious while the remaining nine are unconscious. Nine parts are in the dark unconscious; only a small portion – one-tenth of the mind – is awake. It is this conscious mind that doubts, thinks, ponders. If this conscious mind were to sleep, then the remaining nine parts below would stay totally receptive. There, no questions are asked, no doubts are raised.

In the state of hypnosis, the doubting mind is put to sleep and the undoubting, receptive mind comes into effect.

“In that state, if you were to place a small piece of rock on the hand of the hypnotized person and tell him it is a hot coal, he will cry out in pain as if his hand had been burned. He will at once throw the rock away – just as he would if a real hot coal had been placed on his hand.”

To continue reading this OSHO Talk, visit: The Art of Suchness

Is it possible to avoid being hypnotized by the world around us? 

“We are already hypnotized, although we are not aware how we became hypnotized and what kind of tricks we have used to create this hypnosis. We have lived the major part of our lives under the influence of hypnosis. And when we want to be hypnotized, we don’t realize what we are doing. We live throughout our lives like this. If this becomes clear, the hypnotic spell will break – and once this hypnosis breaks, entering within will become possible, because hypnosis, basically, is a world of non-reality….

“As we live, as we are, it is a deep hypnosis. Whatsoever we feel, whatsoever we think, is based on hypnotic projections. In some face I see beauty; that beauty doesn’t belong to the face, because someone else may not feel it as beautiful at all. It belongs to my projection…

And unless this whole mechanism stops, you cannot enter meditation, because meditation means only one thing: a non-projective mind, a non-projecting mind, a non-hypnotic mind – a mind which is not hypnotized by itself – a mind which is absolutely devoid of the hypnotic process.

“We can hypnotize ourselves. And the whole culture, civilization, society, education – everything; politics, the so-called religions – they all use this weakness. They all use it. For example, business uses it. What is advertising? It is simply going on repeating a particular thing so that it becomes hypnotic. Someone goes on saying that this cigarette is the ultimate in cigarettes – goes on repeating. You go on listening, you go on reading. By every possible media, by every possible method, this thought is being put into your mind: ‘This cigarette is the ultimate in cigarettes.’…

“Your hypnotic mechanism has been used and exploited, but you will think that you are choosing it, that you are the chooser – you are not. Whatsoever you are choosing, ninety-nine out of one hundred times you are not the chooser – you cannot be. Unless the whole mechanism stops, you cannot choose. You are being forced, manipulated to choose something.”

The audio of this OSHO talk is available here: That Art Thou, Talk #27

It seems that all our “beliefs” are just hypnotic trances. A trance of a lifetime? 

 “Preachers go on convincing people about Christianity, about Hinduism, about Mohammedanism – they are doing the same. They are the businessmen of the market of religion. They go on convincing people, ‘This will do, this will do, this will do – all else is worthless.’ They go on repeating the idea. That’s why every religious sect is very much interested in keeping children, because they are the most innocent, and their projective mechanism is very powerful, alive. So whatsoever you put in them, they will have to run their whole life accordingly….

“This happens not only with individuals, this happens with societies also, – this happens with nations also. For example, this is happening now. The East has hypnotized itself that materialism is useless, only spiritualism is meaningful. This has been the Eastern hypnosis. Now they are bored so they are absolutely, absolutely going to the other extreme. Now the East is becoming every moment more and more materialistic.

“The West tries to hypnotize itself to the other extreme: materialism became so significant that spiritualism is just a Sunday affair, mm? Not significant, not meaningful – just a social thing; not deep, not individual, not concerned with the inner being, but just a social phenomenon, just symbolic. Too much materialism in the West now creates a reaction, and the West is moving towards spiritualism – to the other extreme. Sooner or later, East will become West, and West will become East. It is going on; the process is there….

Everybody is trying hypnosis on you – I say everybody! They may not be doing it knowingly, but everybody is trying.

“There are different ways, methods. The whole world is filled with hypnotic tricks: the same advertisement in the newspaper, on the television and on the radio. It goes on hammering, it becomes a hypnotic thing….

“Those advertisements have to be repeated continuously. Repetition is the way. Then there is imprint, and you become unconscious about it; then suddenly it comes out of your mouth, ‘Lux Toilet Soap.’ And you think that you are choosing. You are not the chooser.

“The whole education system is hypnotic. That’s why for the teacher a higher place is needed. It must be measured scientifically because there is a particular point… your eyes should be in a tension… in much tension, not relaxed – then you are easily hypnotized.”

To continue reading this OSHO Talk, visit: A Buddha Is a Nobody

Can hypnosis be used to undo this hypnotic conditioning by society? 

“Man lives in a deep hypnosis. I have been working on hypnosis, because that is the only way to bring man out of hypnosis, to understand it.

All awakening is a sort of de-hypnotization, so the process of hypnosis has to be understood very, very clearly. Only then can you move out of it.

“A disease has to be understood, diagnosed; only then can it be treated. Hypnosis is the disease of man, and de-hypnosis will be the way.”

To continue reading this OSHO Talk, visit: Being Aware You Are Not the Body

“The real thing is to come to a point of de-hypnotizing yourself, because every society has already hypnotized you.

“The real thing is: how to go beyond hypnosis. From one hypnosis to another it is easy, it is nature, the way of things – how they work. But how to go beyond, how to go beyond this hypnotic process? How to dissolve this whole mechanism?

“This sutra says that all our happiness and all our miseries are part of our hypnosis. They are. A person who has no hypnosis in him is beyond both. He is neither happy nor unhappy; he simply is. And that “is-ness” is bliss; it is not happiness, it is bliss.

Never, never think of bliss in terms of happiness; it is not. Happiness is related to unhappiness, not to bliss.

“If you desire happiness you will create unhappiness.

“If you desire bliss, then let happiness and unhappiness both dissolve.

“But how can they dissolve unless your mind is de-hypnotized? Meditation means de-hypnotization. The process looks just the same.

“Many people come to me and they say, ‘Whatsoever is being done here, is it not hypnosis?’ It is Hypnosis. The process is the same, but the dimension is reversed. You can hypnotize yourself – that is going further from yourself towards the object. You can de-hypnotize yourself – that is going back from the object towards oneself. When you are centered in some object, you are hypnotized. When you are centered in yourself, you are de-hypnotized. When you are yourself, you are beyond hypnosis.

Hypnosis, or meditation means: how to bring your consciousness – which has become projected on to the object – back home.

“Although the process looks like hypnosis… it is, but hypnosis; the process is the same. If you have gone far away from your home, you have traveled a path, you have used your legs. Now if you want to come back, you will have to use the same legs, and you will have to travel the same road, only in the reverse order. That will be the only difference. We have gone deep into the world. If we want to come back, the process is going to be the same, only in reverse order.

“So hypnosis has to be used in the reverse order, and every meditation is hypnosis in the reverse order – every meditation. The only question is whether you are coming back or going away. If you are coming back, then it is meditation; if you are going away, then it is hypnosis. If something brings you to yourself it is meditation; if something takes you away from yourself, then it is hypnosis – the process is the same.”

The audio of this OSHO talk is available here: That Art Thou, Talk #27

So, hypnosis, or de-hypnosis, seems to be a critically important part of understanding meditation? 

“As far as I’m concerned, hypnosis is going to be one of the significant parts of the mystery school.  Such a simple method, which only demands a little trust, a little innocence, can bring miraculous changes in your life – and not in ordinary things only. Slowly it can become the path of your meditation.

“You meditate but you don’t succeed. You don’t succeed in watching; you get mixed up with thoughts, you forget watching. You remember later on, “I was going to watch, but I am thinking.’ Hypnosis can help you; it can make the watcher and the thoughts separate.


Ah, that’s why you are saying….

For spiritual growth I don’t think there is anything more important than hypnosis.”

To continue reading this OSHO Talk, visit: Watchfulness Is the Greatest Magic

 

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