Just about 5 years ago, in a breakout during my Hypnotherapy training, I experienced a deeper trance, letting go more than I ever had before, and the process was just happening for me, to me. I was playing with dolphins in the ocean and then out in space and they were laughing as they always do, finding it so amusing that we had to work at healing, something that for them was natural and playful, just a part of who they are.
I realized that all of the guided meditations, and earlier hypnosis experiences had been created by my conscious mind. Listening to the instructions it then produced the appropriate pictures or other experiences to the best of its ability. Playing with the dolphins the experience simply unfolded, happening before I could think it, arising from some place other than my conscious mind.
This to me is the intention of “hypnosis”, to allow other aspects of our full self; the subconscious associative memory, or the super-conscious higher self, guides or Spirit, to assist in our process and teach us, heal us, create an experience for us. It may be a dialogue with aspects of self, family, friends, or spiritual helpers. It may be a journey, with dreamlike realism, or more abstract symbology. The journey itself may be your process, or just a path along which things happen, or an exploration of your inner world. It might be in present time, or the past or the future even.
Inviting the conscious mind to step out of the loop for a while, allows many other resources to show up to support you, co-create with you, communicate and give to you. Any surrendering in the process is not to the therapist, but to these aspects of Self. The therapist is a facilitator and guide, holder of a safe container, another strand in the co-creation, not a controller or puppet-master fixing you like a broken machine.
Over the years I have noticed that many people expect their experience to be like mine, where everything is happening for/to them, and they sit back for the ride. While this may happen for you, more often you develop a co-creative process where you are also in the picture, interacting, and making choices. If you are imagining a place its form may appear, or you might just feel that it should be a certain way. There are lots of ways that things can show up, and some of them may be as conscious thoughts, feeling, preferences.
It is the part of the mind that operates in shoulds and shouldn’ts, that wants to figure it all out as you go along that we are asking to step aside so your process can unfold. There is great wisdom in the rest of you. Mixed in with the issues and pain there is the wisdom for how to release and complete, so you can move forward and create.
Your waking life is like this also. We may try to figure things out, consciously create what we think is right, or best for us, but when we make space for our intuition, higher self, and the Divine to co-create with us we can relax into their support and find the flow. Co-creation in waking life, as in trance space, however does not mean checking out and expecting it all to just show up. It is a balance of presence and allowing, active and receptive, masculine and feminine which are always necessary for any creative act in this universe.
One of the meta benefits for people working in trance states is realizing this process of co-creation, of letting the different aspects of Self weave together to create a stronger tapestry with less effort, in our inner world, and in our outer world. May you find joy in deepening the awareness and experience of co-creation in your life.
(© 11/2010)
