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Emotional Freedom Starts Here |
Dr. John J. Murphy Psychologist and Hypnotherapist | Beverly Hills, CA |
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Now that we've cleared some of the misconceptions about hypnosis, we have one last important topic to explore briefly before we can get to what the sub-conscious is and how it can be affected through hypnosis. Actually, due to our rather limited understanding about the human brain and the human mind, no one really knows for sure what the sub-conscious is or how it interacts with our conscious awareness, or even if the two are completely distinct. All we have now are models that seems to match the data and the observations. The particular model I use that works well for my clients and myself (individual results may vary) can best be explained through a concept known as evolutionary psychology. Bear with me: I promise to keep the jargon and psycho-babble to a minimum.
In biological evolution, the eye develops first as a bunch of cells that can detect light. A few organisms develop this ability, they can then detect a predator better than the organisms who lack these light-detecting cells, and they are eaten less than those who don't have the light-detecting cells. They go on to have more offspring, some of whom have even better light-detecting cells who then are even better at survival and having offspring. As this progresses through the years, the light-detecting cells become more and more advanced through incremental, accumulative steps until they become the eyes and vision system we have today.
Likewise, in evolutionary psychology, there are behaviors that evolve that still exist today. Eons ago the ancestors to today's modern dog/wolf learned that by working as a team, they could catch much larger prey, and everyone wins. The wolves that worked together the best were the most likely to survive and the most likely to have wolf cubs, who then inherited their parent's ability to work together. The wolf cubs in turn grew up to have cubs of their own, some of whom were even more able to work together. This process repeats itself until you have complicated and hierarchical wolf packs.
The same goes for humans. Ancient primates learned that by working together, they can have a group protection. When one ape runs out of food, the others will take care of him. You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours (or even search for tics). Millions of years later, we're now all the product of pack mentality with a social order not very different from wolf packs and monkey tribes (which explains our current state of world politics). So this is how we humans developed a sense of society and social instincts.
Now, consider this: cigarettes, red meat, cars, and guns all combined kill millions of people every year. Yet what are people most afraid of? From what I've seen, snakes, spiders, fear of flying, heights, and performance. Very, very few people die of spiders bites, there are very few plane crashes, and no one is going to die from a botched graduation speech. Shouldn't a person fear lighting a cigarette or eating a hamburger much more than handling a harmless spider or addressing a large audience?
As we see, this doesn't make sense except in light of evolutionary psychology. Humans have been around for between 100 to 200 hundred thousand years. For most of this time, it made perfect sense to fear tall cliffs, wild animals, and being kicked out of a tribe (where you'd have to hunt on your own and would probably die). But there is something else. It would be very important to listen to your parents and develop any phobias that your tribe might have. It would also make sense to be more fearful than necessary.
Let's say there are two caveman tribes. In the Eastern tribe, children develop all the phobias their parents have. If the adults fear a particular snake, the children fear a particular snake. If adults are concerned about being accepted by everyone in the tribe, so are the children. In the Western tribe, the children don't have such concerns at all. They happily touch any snake they find. They do whatever they want, even if it means being kicked out of the tribe. Eventually, the Eastern tribe thrives and the Western tribe flounders. Kids in the Western tribe would be bitten by venomous snakes, eaten by bears, and run out of town. The Western tribe would slowly lose its population and become extinct. The Eastern tribe, meanwhile, has kids who are safe and conservative. They will grow up to have children of their own, who inherit their safe and conservative nature.
We are all the result of the Eastern tribe. The humans in the past who were the most fearful, anxious, and conservative were often the ones who didn't touch the rattlesnake, run after a bear, or make a fool out of themselves in public. Consequently, they weren't bitten, eaten, or run out of town. They were able to have children, who carried on their genes and behaviors. Behaviors that, ultimately, are geared towards survival[1].
Researchers have conducted studies on young monkeys to see which ones develop a fear of snakes. They took a number of monkeys cubs and showed them adult monkeys terrified by the sight of a snake. All of the young monkeys watching the adult became very fearful of snakes themselves. The researchers then took another group of monkeys and showed them an adult monkey acting very conformably and casually around a snake, maybe even ignoring it. All of the young monkeys in the second group grew up to be very comfortable themselves around snakes[2]. Interestingly enough, they took a third group of young monkeys and showed them a doctored presentation so that it appeared the older monkeys were afraid of a bouquet of roses. None of the young monkeys developed a fear of flowers.
From an evolutionary perspective, this makes a lot of sense. Things in the outside world could be 1) completely non-threatening 2) completely threatening and 3) possibly threatening. With the first two categories, generations and generations of evolution has hard-wired certain things and events as either threatening or non-threatening. That's why each and every one of us becomes scared if, while hiking, we run into a mountain lion. It's also why, try as they might, researchers couldn't bring monkeys to be afraid of roses. In the third category, objects that could be threatening, it makes the most sense from a biological or evolutionary standpoint to judge the danger of an object based upon either a) what happens to your parents and society and also b) events in your past. That is why most people who come to me with a fear of snakes or spiders either had a) a parent who was afraid of snakes or b) had a bad childhood experience with snakes.
Now, compared to heights, wild animals, and social situations, humans have only been around cigarettes, processed foods, and cars for a very short amount of time. Deep down inside, they generally see these things as completely non-threatning. I've never seen a person start to sweat and panic whenever he or she handled a cigarette or a crispy-creme donut. Ah, but what about the fear of flying and the less common fear of driving? Those fears are generally a mix of fears over losing control (an ancient, passed-down concern) and exposure to adults who show a fear of flying. As an aside, as we've spent most of our history living in small huts or villages, we've learned to associate fear with any terrifying accident, no matter how remote. When we lived in villages of no more than 100, seeing a person attacked by a bear means there's a good chance that might happen to you. We developed a rule that if-it-happens-to-one-it-can-happen-to-me. Now, when we live in a global community, one airplane crash is constantly in the news. Our ancient psyche believes: If a few people died in an airplane crash, it can happen to me! Even though the chances of actually dying in an airplane crash are very very slim.
So, to reiterate, much of human behavior can be explained as evolved behavior that originates from our ancient history as caveman. John Gray's "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus"[3] explores this concept as it relates to relationships between the sexes. As it turns out, evolutionary psychology can also help explain the concept of the conscious and sub-conscious mind.