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Everyday Life as Hypnotic Trance: Insights from Stephen Wolinsky · Gabriel Ellis, PhD | The Curious Mind Podcast

0:02
Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Curious Mind
0:05
Podcast. Today I want to introduce you to
0:08
the psychological work of Steven Bolinsky, especially to his book
0:14
Trans's People Live, and I'll explore with you how our mind
0:20
creates states of trance that influence our behavior,
0:24
emotions, and identities. This is a big one, so stick
0:27
around. Bolinsky wrote in the 90s
0:30
psychological books and then he focused more on spiritual
0:34
teachings, which are his bigger calling.
0:38
He spent a lot of time in India and he was a psychologist before
0:43
that. When he started writing and
0:47
expanding on his teachings then he first focused more on
0:51
psychological content and then went on to integrate psychology
0:56
and spirituality much more, which is still doing today.
1:00
Nonetheless, his psychological works are quite original and I
1:04
do recommend to go back to them to find fresh inspiration.
1:08
So in 1991 the book came out Trans's people live Healing
1:14
approaches in quantum psychology.
1:16
This is what he called his approach Quantum psychology in
1:20
1993, Quantum Consciousness, a guide to experiencing quantum
1:24
psychology and also in 1993, the dark side of the inner child.
1:30
As I said, my focus today is on Trans's People live.
1:35
So what exactly does he mean by trans states?
1:39
When we think of trans's, we often imagine someone getting
1:42
hypnotized, for example, in shows or in stages, and getting
1:47
into an exotic state of consciousness.
1:51
But Wolinski understands trans in a much deeper way.
1:54
He argues that our experience, our behaviors and our identities
2:00
are held together, but by what he calls deep trans phenomena.
2:06
And these are states of mind on autopilot.
2:09
We get triggered and then we get thrown into ready made
2:14
experiences, moods, feelings, thoughts and actions.
2:18
They do feel fresh and real, but actually they're just copies of
2:25
what we often experienced in the past.
2:28
And this is what for him the trance is now.
2:33
Later on he goes on because it's a psychological and basically
2:37
therapeutic book. He goes on about therapeutic
2:39
examples, but he really extends it to everyday life situations.
2:44
And to give you an example of that, for example, we might see
2:48
a cute puppy on our way when we visit friends and then we fall
2:54
into a cute puppy trance. This is nothing clinical.
2:58
There is nothing wrong with that.
2:59
That's an everyday experience and yet we fall into a certain
3:03
pattern that is on autopilot. We started speak in cutesy
3:07
language, our heart feels opening up, we touch the
3:12
puppies, we pet them and we're playful with them and we get
3:16
into a positive mood. So this is an example of a
3:19
positive trans that we experience on an everyday level.
3:24
Generally they are for the Lewinsky 3 general
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characteristics of trans. 1 is a narrowing, shrinking or a
3:33
fixating of attention, and this is very important.
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When we are in a trance, we feel narrowed down in our
3:41
consciousness. Something pops up in our mind
3:44
and takes prominence. It takes over and we are
3:49
filtering out the other information.
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And this happens much more dramatically in deeper trances
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and deeper states of hypnosis, for example in clinical
3:59
hypnosis. But this is also true in so many
4:02
everyday life situations. So the first general aspect is a
4:07
narrowing or shrinking of attention.
4:10
The second aspect is that people in a trance usually experience
4:16
that things are happening to them.
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Not that they are the free agents, but they are kind of
4:24
sucked into emotion where things are happening to them, which is
4:29
there is an experienced limited or reduced sense of freedom.
4:34
It's a sense of being on autopilot, As I mentioned, while
4:41
Volinsky develops the general view that our normal life is
4:44
full of trans phenomena, he then focuses on mental health issues
4:49
and symptoms. He sees this symptoms as
4:52
patterns which have mostly started as survival mechanisms
4:56
in childhood, but later manifest as problems in adulthood as
5:01
well. So when we experience
5:05
overwhelming emotions or trauma as children, we create,
5:09
according to Valinsky, trance like states to cope.
5:14
These early defence or coping mechanisms become so ingrained
5:19
that by the time we're adults, they function automatically on
5:23
autopilot. They throw us into the
5:26
experience. It's like our mind is running a
5:29
script in the background and without us even knowing it or
5:33
consciously managing or steering it.
5:39
Before I get into some examples that Wolinski discusses, I want
5:43
to describe how I differ from his perspective.
5:46
Bolinski in his book, is still rooted in the view of the human
5:51
potential movement, largely coming up in the 60s and 70s of
5:56
the 20th century. And this human potential
5:59
movement states that trance States and childhood or symptoms
6:05
of traumas in childhood are the result of difficult or traumatic
6:09
experiences, extraordinary experiences, negative
6:13
experiences, which then translate into a repetition in
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later years and adulthood. This view is still at the root
6:21
of today's trauma discourse. You probably are aware that the
6:26
understanding of trauma has become much more generalized.
6:29
I have some content on my channel about this.
6:32
It has been diluted and the idea of trauma has become so
6:37
omnipresent that people trace back even small problems they
6:43
have in the present to traumatic experiences in the past.
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So this is something, this is an understanding that started to
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form in the Sixties, 70s and 80s.
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And in my view, Wolinski is a little bit too narrow in
7:00
understanding trans as connected with traumatic experiences.
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To me this view is based on a fallacy, which is the fallacy to
7:11
over emphasize extreme events because they stick out so much
7:15
and to neglect normal events. To me, it's clear that it must
7:21
be the case that babies and children are constantly in
7:25
states of mind that have to exaggerate views,
7:29
interpretations and emotions. Why this must be so?
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Because of the fundamental problem that minds have to
7:37
predict a future that isn't there.
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There is barely a few. Getting a little bit deeper.
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I will discuss this more in the next episode, but to get a
7:50
little bit deeper into phenomenology, what we
7:54
experience is in the moment is a prediction.
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That's a calculation based on experiences and calculations
8:04
that we have done in the past. For example, we don't have when
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I look into my room and I look at the chair and the door in
8:12
front of me, I don't have to think about.
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I don't perceive this as a calculation.
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I my immediate experience is that I see a chair, I see a
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door, I see my girlfriend, I see my parent.
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When they start to open their mouth, I experience as if I
8:30
exactly know what they are currently thinking or which mood
8:36
they are in, and so on. Not because I recognize and I
8:39
come to this conclusion because of a complex calculation.
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This is only true in very ambiguous situations where I
8:46
have to think and consider what is actually going on.
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For example, when I wake up at night and I have to find my way
8:53
through the living room in very dim or darkness, then I'm
8:57
consciously processing. Then I'm much slower in the
9:00
movement because I have to understand what I'm seeing in
9:04
front of me. I very limited information and I
9:07
have to consciously interpret. This is usually not the case in
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everyday life. Things are immediately present
9:13
to us and we are confronted with a seeming reality.
9:19
This is nonetheless the result of a calculation.
9:24
We as adults have made innumerable calculations of this
9:30
in the past, and so we are confronted with a very solid
9:33
reality. Babies and children don't have
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this archive of experiences. For them, calculations are still
9:41
fresh and for complex reasons of how the mind develops.
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I at least in my mind, it's clear to me that they have to
9:51
exaggerate what they see. Exaggerate in the sense that
9:56
they don't have much to fall back to.
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They have to interpret something that they see on its face value,
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thereby to exaggerate. And this is how this is the
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climate in which the mind develops, a climate in which the
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interpretations and emotions are mostly, in most of the
10:19
situations, really off, really inaccurate, at least in contrast
10:24
to our adult, more experienced position.
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So the young minds with little experience can base the
10:34
projection of the future only on very little information they
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have. And so they will exaggerate the
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meaning of situations, which leads to exaggerated emotions
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and all this exaggeration to not to be right and so on.
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This is what we then we see the results of these.
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We'll see kind of the traces of these also in adulthoods.
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We can see when people are adults, we see the inertia of
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those ideas coming from childhood and young age.
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And this again, will the exaggerated interpretation, the
11:16
exaggerated emotion. This will lead to triggers and
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inadequate reactions in the future.
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And what my point is, regardless if there were traumas or not
11:27
right as a child, we have nothing else to fall back to
11:32
then our interpretations of the moment.
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Our interpretations cannot be true.
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The cannot be good approximations of what the
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reality is because we lack experiences as children.
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And so if we stick to these interpretations up until
11:50
adulthood, then we display phenomena that are close to
11:59
trans phenomena of daily life, but they're not based on
12:03
traumatic experiences. They're just based on, so to
12:07
speak, the building material of the minds that was accessible to
12:11
us as children, which were inaccurate.
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OK, to give an example of what I mean, it's very common when you
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observe children in the house environments.
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Now, adults have the parents have complex interactions,
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right? Sometimes they argue and adults
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have the parents have quite a refined understanding of what
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the argument means. Do they just raise their voice?
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Do they get heated? Maybe they're passionate.
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They are discussing about budget, about where to go on
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vacation and so on. Now children and a much stronger
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and a much stronger way, for example, pets.
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If you have arguing parents, then you have little child in
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the family and then you have the pet dog and the family children
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and much more. The dogs, they of course don't
13:01
understand the words. They interpret the energy that
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is there. And so the puppy, you know, that
13:08
gets excited and gets anxious because there's tension in the
13:12
air. In a similar way, even though
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not as simple, the child gets anxious and gets worried that
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something is on and it's not unusual for children after the
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argument of the parents to ask them if they split up.
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And then you know, parents often they laugh at off like half.
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How do you come to the systatic world because you were fighting
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so seriously. You had this argument and then
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parents have to describe no, this is not a serious argument.
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Sometimes mommy and daddy are loud.
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When this occurs, this interpretation occurs.
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Children, because they lack the experience, they are very
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self-centered, self-centered in the sense that they relate
14:01
things that are happening to them.
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And often enough, in situations where an argument, for example,
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between parents have occurred, and let's say it was a serious
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argument and you know, many couples break up and separate
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and so on, children have the tendency to think that they are
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somehow responsible for that. Why?
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Because they are encapsulated in their minds and they have not
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yet made all the experiences that let them approximate and
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interpret the situation in a more accurate way.
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They have what they have and what they have is themselves.
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Everything relates to them. It's a quasi paranoic kind of
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state of mind that children often have.
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And so they will be worried and feel bad because they think that
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the parents kind of start to separate because of them.
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And this is an example of the exaggerated state of mind that
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even without traumas is very ready to create trans like
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states that can translate into adulthood.
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OK. But back to the Linsky and some
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of the negative trans phenomena that he's talking about.
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One is age regression. This is very common.
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We use this in therapeutic work quite a bit.
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When we analyze situations in which our clients kind of get
15:29
worried, get very stressed, they often age regress.
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When we regress in age, our thinking becomes less
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differentiated. We have absolute convictions
15:42
about what the other is up to. We think like a child.
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We might even throw a tantrum. The aggression that we display
15:50
can be childlike. So this are all experiences of
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age regression. Regression is just a Latin word
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for going back, going back in time to a childlike way of
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experiencing. This is often triggered by
16:04
events and then in therapies we work on identifying those
16:08
triggers and differentiating the experience to bring people back
16:11
into a more adult mode. So age regression, very common
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trans phenomenon that is connected with symptoms and
16:20
mental health issues. A second one is more trans
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Pacific and this is the pseudo orientation in time.
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This is what it's called. This is when we imagine
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catastrophic outcomes in the future or relive painful
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memories from the past, meaning we are not in the present in our
16:40
minds. We're going to the future as if
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we're witnessing what will happen to the future and have
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the according emotions or we're going back to the past.
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So in this sense, so the orientation and time might be a
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specific aspect of age regression.
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And then we relive the memories from the past.
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And again, we have the emotions from the past, which are so real
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that the effect our environment, the effect the people around us,
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the effect the way that we are able to work and to function in
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normal life. And this is how we get really
17:12
restricted and affected by this trans phenomenon.
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The next one is post hypnotic suggestions.
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So when you look up YouTube videos or see documentaries
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about hypnosis and specifically stage hypnosis, those
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hypnotists, they kind of make quirky fun of it.
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So they put people into an hypnotic state of mind and then
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they tell them, OK, and a few seconds I will count back and
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we'll bring you back into everyday awareness.
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But when someone in the audience sneezes, you will feel a
17:52
headache for example. So this is a post hypnotic
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suggestion. The hypnotist implants an idea
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about the future and tells people how to react when
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something in the future happens. This is of course a stage act,
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but it's based on this trans phenomenon.
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A little bit more generally, post hypnotic suggestions are in
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the context of symptoms and mental health issues are
18:19
negative beliefs we carry with us that we recreate in the
18:24
future as if we programmed them ourselves to produce negative
18:30
outcomes. An example, the believe nothing
18:35
will ever work out or the believe I'm not good enough if
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I'm implanting this idea in someone.
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So let's just assume for the sake of simplicity, I'll put
18:47
someone in a trance and I tell them, OK, when I snap my finger,
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you will come out of it, but you will walk, you will walk around.
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You will have your everyday life with a firm belief that you're
18:57
not good enough. Then this person will create
19:02
situations, will manifest situations, will bring about
19:07
situations through the actions, through the interpretations, as
19:11
if they're not good enough. And especially in interaction
19:15
with other people, they surely will come with, come out with a
19:20
conclusion with the experiences that they were not good enough.
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They interpret what they did in a negative light.
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They will feel very uncomfortable, for example, with
19:28
themselves, to which then the other person reacts.
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Imagine a work situation where you feel very insecure.
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You've done a PowerPoint presentation and you presented
19:39
with a low voice. You will have kind of
19:41
questioning gestures, you will make breaks, you will stutter
19:47
and stumble and so on. This will create in the audience
19:53
the impression that you don't know what you're talking about
19:55
and they will reflect it to you by not making eye contact, by
19:59
turning off looking at the phone and so on.
20:01
So it will have created a situation where the presenter
20:05
who got this post hypnotic suggestion implanted.
20:09
Will come out with the conclusion obviously I was not
20:11
good enough, I knew it. I'm not good enough now, I will
20:15
never be good enough. Post hypnotic suggestion that
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leads into serious mental health issues.
20:22
The next one is negative hallucinations.
20:25
Negative not in the sense of bad.
20:27
Often in clinical and psychiatric contexts, negative
20:32
means that something is too little.
20:36
So a negative hallucination is when we block out something when
20:40
there is a loud clock in the room that is ticking and we stop
20:46
to hear it. That is in the sense a negative
20:49
hallucination. In clinical contexts and
20:53
psychological contexts, this is not really relevant.
20:55
It's a everyday phenomenon. What is psychologically relevant
21:00
is when we block out our positive resources.
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We as adults have made so many experiences, most people, It's
21:10
difficult to imagine that any person did not successfully cope
21:15
with negative difficult situations.
21:19
And yet there are many people who reduce themselves in their
21:22
own mind to the insufficiency. So they're blocking out the
21:26
positive experiences that they're made, and thus they're
21:29
displaying the symptoms of negative hallucinations that
21:34
focus only on what is wrong. Bolinsky, he names and details
21:40
many more of these examples of transphenomena.
21:45
So you can, I encourage you to go back to the book and to read
21:48
them up. These trances, and this is what
21:51
I want to emphasize, they're not just mental tricks.
21:54
They manifest physically and emotionally.
21:56
They feel very, very real. When you're in a trance, your
22:01
attention is again narrowed and fixated on those certain
22:06
thoughts and convictions and emotions, and often it feels
22:10
like it's happening to you. Your mind is on autopilot.
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You are not in control. Instead, the trance that is
22:20
managed by your unconscious, it takes you on a ride, and this
22:24
ride disconnects you from reality.
22:27
It disconnects you from really what is going on, what people
22:31
really want in the social interaction, and it throws you
22:34
into your inner world of exaggerated interpretation, the
22:38
inner world of the child that had no other way than to
22:42
exaggerate the interpretations of what is going on.
22:48
OK, let's take a look again at how Wolinski thinks that this
22:53
these transits transits form. As I mentioned, Wolinski
22:56
explains that these transits thought in childhood, especially
23:01
when we feel threatened and overwhelmed.
23:03
I already critique that a bit. According to him, as kids we
23:08
create transits to survive, but as adults, those solutions that
23:13
were there in childhood, they become a problem.
23:17
And here again, I deviate a little bit in my clinical
23:20
practice when I work with people and they would like, for
23:24
example, a tool, an exercise to deal with a current difficult
23:31
situation. I'm happy to give them tools.
23:34
But I often I, I make this remark, be careful of the
23:39
consequences. This tool will help you now.
23:42
If you stick to it too rigidly, this solution will become a
23:46
problem in the future. Why does it become a problem
23:51
now? As you're learning this tool,
23:53
you're very aware you're trying to figure it out.
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And then you do figure it out and you see that oh, the tool
24:01
works. This is so good.
24:03
The next time you apply it, you only look for specific markers.
24:06
Basically the predictive mind. It wants to see if it can apply
24:10
the past tool to the next situation.
24:13
Let's say it works again 1-2 years in the future.
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I'm looking only for very small Marks and as soon as it somehow
24:22
fits my mind because it wants to be quick, it will slap the past
24:29
solution on the current situation, but it will be more
24:32
and more out of place. I have changed the situation of
24:36
change, the circumstances have changed.
24:38
So my solution of the past will be more and more inadequate.
24:44
And this inadequacy will result in me not solving the solution,
24:50
having still a problem. And yet I have developed this
24:54
inertia, I have developed this habit of doing the same again
24:58
and again, which is to apply this previously successful tool.
25:03
And by doing that I'll 'cause I'm causing again frustration
25:07
and in worst case a problem of helplessness and so on.
25:11
I might slip into symptoms. I might slip again into mental
25:16
health issues. If, and this is what I tried to
25:19
warn my clients again, if I'm taking this tool too rigidly,
25:23
assuming that it will work further.
25:26
OK, so something like this is what Bolinsky mentioned.
25:31
As kids, we create trances to survive, but as adults, they
25:34
become part of the problem. They develop into intricate
25:39
defense mechanisms that operate autonomously on autopilot.
25:45
And soon enough, we're living in these trances without even
25:49
realizing it. And if I asked you before
25:54
listening to my content now, would you have thought that you
25:58
were living in many kinds of trances throughout your day?
26:02
You would probably say no. It would feel very real and
26:05
accurate what you were going through.
26:07
Now, I hope that I could raise some doubt in your mind that
26:13
maybe we'll lead after you have listened to this content, to you
26:19
understanding and analyzing a little bit more what actually in
26:22
your experience is really fresh. An expression of a real contact
26:27
with the circumstance, with the persons around you.
26:30
And how much of it is a repetition of past patterns of
26:34
you being on autopilot in everyday transits.
26:39
And in worst cases, this can lead to mental health issues.
26:44
So think about it. When you feel under stress,
26:48
probably you will get stuck in a mental loop of negative
26:52
thinking, repeating situations again and again, blaming
26:56
yourself again and again for not having said this, for not having
27:00
done that. You might dissociate from your
27:02
body, or you might feel a heavy state of no energy, lack of
27:08
energy. All of these are examples of
27:11
negative trance states in action.
27:15
This is how they feel real. OK, so how do we get out of
27:20
these trances? According to Bilinski, the first
27:22
step is awareness. We need to recognize that we are
27:28
the creators of these trances. And with we, he means the bigger
27:33
Organism, the spirit, the mind. And in a maybe more normal
27:39
psychological way we can say we is the unconscious plus the
27:43
conscious. We as mental organisms.
27:47
So we need to recognize that we are the creators of these
27:49
trances and as creators we have the power to create them and to
27:54
change them. We can dis identify from the
27:59
trance States and see it for what it is, which is a mental
28:03
pattern, not your true self. And here's the good news, you
28:08
can learn to de hypnotize yourself.
28:12
This involves expanding your awareness, grounding yourself in
28:15
the present moment, and reconnecting with your body and
28:20
the world around you. To give you a simplified,
28:26
condensed version of what you will find in much more detail in
28:31
Wolinski's book, you could start in step one to notice any
28:36
physical sensations tied to the trend.
28:39
So first of all, you become aware of I'm again, we're living
28:42
a trance state, and then you can go into your body.
28:46
What does it feel like in the body to be in this trance state?
28:51
Where's the tension? Is it in the neck?
28:54
Is it in the chest? Is it in the upper arms?
28:59
Is it in the jaws? How is my breathing?
29:03
Usually when I'm in a negative trance state, my breathing is
29:07
tight. Where do I feel this
29:09
constriction to recognize those physiological, those bodily
29:15
representations of the negative strands state and to look at
29:19
them without just judgement, just noticing.
29:22
Again, our main tool is expanding awareness.
29:27
As a second step, you can ask yourself how am I relating to my
29:32
current state? So here we'll leave the
29:35
observation where it is in the constrained narrow state, and we
29:41
zoom out. And by zooming out, I'm already
29:45
enhancing my degrees of freedom. And I can do this by asking
29:50
myself, how do I relate to my current state, to this trance
29:55
state? Am I OK with being stuck here?
30:00
Do I agree with the reaction of my autopilot system that my mind
30:05
wants me to make with my automated behavior, behaviors or
30:11
emotions? Or in other words, and to be a
30:16
little bit polemic. But it's good to pull myself out
30:19
with this question. Am I OK being a robot?
30:24
Am I OK being a slave to the trans of course direction?
30:30
The answer is no. It will help me to zoom out, to
30:34
get out of the autopilot mode. As a third step, reconnect with
30:42
the people and the things around you.
30:44
It's like awakening a little bit from a slumber.
30:47
It's like, where am I really? What are the objects around me
30:51
to look at? The people that you're
30:52
interacting with, the people that have triggered you?
30:55
What is the reality of the moment?
30:57
What are they really saying? And not to get lost in my
31:00
interpretation of what they mean.
31:04
So reconnect and this is one of the most important parts.
31:07
Reconnect with things and the people around you.
31:12
Remember the trans is often pull us away from the world to pull
31:18
us away from the people with the real complex motivations and we
31:22
make them really simple, right? So a trance thought would be
31:25
this person is out there to get me.
31:29
They just want to dominate me, right?
31:32
If I'm triggered in my relationship, I will make the
31:36
mind and the tensions of my partner really, really small.
31:40
As if they're not a real human being.
31:42
As if they are simply programmed machines.
31:45
Oh, they just want to get revenge right now and nothing
31:47
else is going on in their mind. And I can assure you this is not
31:52
true. So when I find myself and having
31:55
such a simple and oversimplified interpretation of what is going
31:59
on in the other's mind, you can be sure that this is the result
32:04
of a of a trance. And then I can remind myself,
32:07
OK, wait a minute, wait, what is going on right here?
32:11
What might be other possibilities of what the other
32:16
person is going through? To give you another example that
32:19
I often use in my therapeutic work, don't imagine that people
32:25
are driven by 1 singular focus. Understand that what you see is
32:31
usually the result of an ambivalence.
32:34
Every imagine or understand that people are in a conflict and
32:39
what you see is the result of that conflict.
32:41
On the one hand, they want to stay in the relationship, on the
32:44
other hand, they hate to feel dependent on you.
32:49
So what you see will be a compromise in of that conflict
32:53
of that ambiguity in their words and their actions and so on.
32:57
So this is already a differentiation from the
33:00
oversimplified projections that I make onto what I think is
33:04
going on in their mind. So this is the third step, which
33:08
obviously involves many kind of thoughts and techniques
33:13
reconnect with a real person in front of you with a real
33:17
complexity of the situation. And in step four, and this is
33:22
more general observation, a conclusion, a conviction,
33:28
recognize that you are the creator of these states.
33:33
You have choices. You can differentiate your
33:36
experience both in your body and with the other person, with the
33:42
body. How when I look inside myself in
33:46
a trance state and I analyze what is going on in the body,
33:51
often it starts with a very undifferentiated fog and mood, a
33:58
darkness, some mist. And then I can ask this
34:04
physiological, this bodily sensation.
34:06
I can ask it questions. OK, Are you rather colorful or
34:12
are you rather monochromatic? Are you static or are you
34:16
moving? What shape are you in?
34:20
What other characteristics are there?
34:22
So I'm asking differentiating questions to make this BLOB of
34:26
an experience more differentiated, and thus to
34:30
actively combat one of the main features of Transis, which is
34:36
this narrowness, this rigidity, the undifferentiatedness of it,
34:41
and directed directly combating, going against this aspect by
34:47
asking it differentiating questions.
34:52
When I get out of the focus of the body and deal with another
34:57
person, I can ask myself what might go on in their mind again,
35:05
what are their conflicts, what are their motivations?
35:08
What do they feel, what do they want?
35:12
All of this for the purpose of enhancing my differentiated
35:18
understanding of the situation and in the big picture, to
35:22
understand that I am the creator of the trances.
35:26
And with more and more examples that I gather, it will help me
35:30
to snap out of it quicker. I just have to remind myself,
35:33
oh, there's a real person there. I created the state of mind.
35:37
I was triggered. I was age regressing.
35:40
I was trapped in a oversimplified negative
35:44
interpretation of myself or the other in that situation.
35:48
OK, now Volinsky goes through many of the different types of
35:52
trances. As I said, he describes them in
35:55
detail and he recommends specific treatments for those
36:01
problems, often rooted in hypnotherapy.
36:06
To give you just one example, one example is the treatment for
36:10
post hypnotic suggestion which I described earlier.
36:15
One of these treatments could be to write down your visions of
36:21
negative future scenarios. Again, awareness is one of the
36:25
key elements in our treatment. When you become aware of it,
36:31
when you write down your visions of the negative future
36:34
scenarios, this is how you are setting yourself up with those
36:38
visions into fear and anxiety. For example, if you
36:42
insufficiency, let's say I write down what I have in my mind.
36:45
What is in my mind is the conviction I will never be able
36:48
to, for example, find a partner, have a career, be satisfied with
36:54
myself. These might be real thoughts and
36:57
convictions in my mind, right? And this will create and shape
37:02
future situations. And I'm reacting now to my image
37:07
of the future. I think about the future and I
37:11
feel so terribly exhausted. Why?
37:13
Because I'm I'm facing a problem that will never go away.
37:16
My insufficiency. I can also have convictions not
37:21
about me, but about life in general.
37:22
For example, life is a never ending cycle of frustration.
37:27
This is a post hypnotic suggestion.
37:29
Because it will color, it will shape and frame.
37:35
In every situation that I'm engaging with, there is the
37:40
possibility of a new job. Oh no, this will be frustrating
37:43
as well. The possibility of getting into
37:47
a relationship when I was single, Oh no, this will be
37:49
frustrating. Or should I end the currently
37:53
super dissatisfying relationship that I'm in?
37:55
But then being single will be frustrating as well.
37:58
So this is how such a conviction can color and frame every image,
38:04
every vision of the future and thus hold me back from doing the
38:08
right thing. And so it will manifest into
38:12
mental health issues. So I write it down and I become
38:17
aware of those specific programs of post hypnotic suggestion.
38:24
The next step is I turn this outcome.
38:28
I turn this finding this conviction into question instead
38:33
of I will never be able to find a partner.
38:36
I will put it in the question Will I be never be able to find
38:40
a partner instead of the conviction.
38:44
Life is a never ending cycle of frustration.
38:47
I put it as a question. Is life another ending cycle of
38:51
frustration? And so by turning it into a
38:55
question, I already introduce the possibility that this is not
38:59
true. I introduce the possibility of
39:04
more degrees of freedom than this very narrow interpretation
39:08
that I have. The next step is my variation.
39:12
So, so far, this was what Bolinsky recommended.
39:15
My variation or continuation in this process is to differentiate
39:21
the question by, for example, saying under which
39:26
circumstances. So not only to ask the question
39:30
will I never be able to have a relationship, but to turn it
39:34
into Under which circumstances will I never be able to have a
39:40
relationship? To change the question of is
39:44
life a never ending cycle of frustration?
39:47
To change it into Under which circumstances is life a never
39:51
ending cycle of frustration? And by asking this question and
39:56
in the final step to give an honest and serious answer to
40:00
this question, I become the scientist of my own conviction.
40:05
Under which circumstances is life a never ending cycle of
40:09
frustration? Simple answer.
40:12
For example, when I deal with the wrong people, when I deal
40:15
with people that don't understand me, have not shown in
40:18
the past that they could understand me and still do.
40:21
So yes, if I'm surrounding myself with these people, then.
40:27
I can create a situation where life is another ending cycle of
40:31
frustration, or when I'm fascinated by life goals that
40:38
I'm totally out of my reach because I'm not qualified, I
40:43
don't have the energy, I have not prepared myself for it, and
40:46
so on. So I want to become an astronaut
40:49
and I'm sending 100 letters to the European Space Agency or to
40:53
NASA or whatever. And of course I will get
40:57
rejections all the time. Well, under such a circumstance,
41:00
yes, life is a never ending cycle of frustration.
41:04
When is it not? When I'm picking, for example,
41:08
goals that I'm qualified for, or I'm picking a goal that I don't
41:11
have the qualifications yet and I'm getting those
41:14
qualifications, those skills, then life might not be a never
41:19
ending cycle of frustrations. So this is how I would approach
41:25
a differentiation, bringing a conviction into reality by
41:29
directly engaging it with the circumstances that create a
41:33
negative outcome and a positive outcome.
41:37
And again, there are many more examples in the book for the
41:39
different kinds of trances that Bolinsky describes.
41:43
One of the most powerful ideas in Bolinsky's book is the
41:46
concept of trans identities. Trans identities.
41:51
These are identities refused with and goes in the direction
41:55
that we had already before. Like I'm a failure or I'm always
41:59
anxious when I build my identity myself view on convictions like
42:05
these, then I have a trans identity.
42:07
Then this is what defines each and every interaction with other
42:11
people. For example, when we fully
42:15
identify with these states, they become our reality and it
42:19
becomes so tangible, almost irrefutable when other people
42:22
tell us no, you are able to achieve something.
42:25
And this goes counter our build up habitual identity.
42:29
We will say you have no idea what you talk about you, you
42:31
don't live my life if only you knew.
42:35
And so these realities will create situations that seemingly
42:39
force me to believe again, because repeating the autopilot,
42:45
that I'm a failure. Transfers are very powerful.
42:48
Don't underestimate them. But here's the thing.
42:53
These identities have boundaries.
42:55
And you as a human being with your soul, with the spirit, you
42:59
do not. You can step outside of these
43:02
identities and recognize that they are convictions, very
43:07
powerful and chanting convictions, but nonetheless,
43:10
they are only in, quote convictions.
43:12
They are not the essence of who you are.
43:16
So the next time you feel stuck, stressed, overwhelmed, as a
43:20
first step, remind yourself that you are in a powerful trance.
43:24
Get this awareness and disconnect from this narrow
43:29
state of mind. Get an outside perspective, for
43:34
example by speaking through a friend to a friend or getting
43:39
into an environment that is not poisoned by your habitual
43:43
trance. A very simple example is just
43:45
take a walk in the neighborhood where if you would you have
43:48
never been in. You will immediately get more
43:50
attentive. You will immediately connect
43:53
more with your surrounding, what shops are here, what kind of
43:56
people are walking around here and so on.
43:59
Or talk to a friend, have kinds of conversations that you
44:02
haven't had for a long time. This will help you to snap out
44:07
of it, as is the common expression today.
44:11
OK, All in all, again, I can really recommend Wolinski's book
44:15
and his content in general. If you are more spiritually
44:19
inclined, you will find the interest in his later works, The
44:24
things that Are on the website. I will leave a link in the
44:27
description. I think he's a creative thinker.
44:30
He's deeply rooted in spiritual psychology and not at all
44:32
interested in fame or success. A lot of his content is just
44:36
free on his website. He's also a quirky character
44:41
when he describes things, but many individual thinkers are, so
44:44
his style in the end is a matter of taste.
44:48
Next time, in the next episode, I will investigate in detail how
44:52
on a technical level, how these transits form in consciousness
44:57
and why we can get rid of them completely, but how we can at
45:00
least limit their power over our lives on a more general,
45:05
fundamental basis. I will connect it with Buddhist
45:08
psychology as well. Thanks for watching.
45:12
If you found this video helpful, give it a thumbs up.
45:15
Subscribe to more content like this if you like.
45:18
Below. You can also find a link to a
45:20
free 30 minute consultation with me if you're interested to work
45:23
with me and you want to check it out and let me know in the
45:26
comments. Have you lately noticed yourself
45:28
in a trance like state? How did you snap out of it?
45:32
I would love to hear your thoughts and I would love to see
45:35
you next time. Take care.