Morgan’s “Principles of Hypnosis” is a book that
drastically changed my opinion on hypnosis and
hypnotherapy.
In matter of fact now I want to explore the subject deeper
and deeper ;).
It is a book which is devoted
to presenting a unified theoretical view of the subject. In
this way it is new and unique. It does not present any new
facts, but rather arranges the facts in a new light. It
presents a new paradigm for Hypnosis.
"Hypnotic
inductions" are traditionally thought of as processes that
the Hypnotist goes through in order to "Hypnotise" the
Subject. But they are mostly
presented with little or no
explanation of how they work, or of what is the purpose of
their various parts. Dr. Dylan Morgan is a mathematician and
uses theory of systems (aka Cybernetics).From a systems
point of view it becomes much easier to see what the purpose
of an induction is, and examples are given to illustrate
this way of thinking. The result is a more precise, flexible
and accurate approach to this area within the field of
Hypnotherapy.
There are those subsystems which
interface with the external environment, which can be
classified into active, e.g. muscular, vocal; and
responsive, e.g. vision, hearing. Then there are those
subsystems which deal with the internal environment, e.g.
emotions, internalised speech, visualisation and a variety
of maintenance and defence systems. This elementary
classification is then used to illustrate the principles
along which Hypnotherapy can proceed.
The book
looks at the process of diagnosis by looking at the
presented symptom. It then describes the first step in a
process of diagnosis which involves looking at precursors
and resultants of the presented symptom. A precursor is a
system, a change in the activity of which produces the
symptom. A resultant is a system whose activity changes as a
direct result of the symptom. In this way we build up a
clear picture of the dynamics of the problem. The typical
picture is a chain of systems each affecting the next, with
the problem symptom somewhere in the middle. A situation of
considerable importance arises if the chain forms a loop,
colloquially termed a vicious circle.
As a
preliminary to deciding what to do to change things for the
better this book builds on the analysis of cybernetic
processes to emphasise a general and very central technique
of Hypnotherapy. We start from the general principle that
amplification is involved and the observation that organic
systems are typically provided with a multitude of
increasing positive feedback loops which act precisely like
amplifiers. Many Hypnotic phenomena are shown to centre
around the principle of deliberately creating and activating
such loops. As a secondary but still important principle we
note that in many other cases a pre-existent loop of this
nature is present but is held in check by the activity of
another system. In such cases it is enough to inactivate the
controlling system in order to tap into the activating power
of the loop. But even then the inactivation is likely to be
achievable by means of establishing a positive feedback
loop.
The book is very understandable for
beginners, useful for students and it will give you an
excellent point of view on Hypnosis if you are just curious.