The idea of a movement called up in a subject in or out of hypnosis has a tendency to induce the movement.
But in waking life this idea is neutralized by other ideas.
Materializing idea = attention.
Psychologically speaking what we mean by attention is the power of fixing certain ideas in the mind and of working with them.
Attention may be reflex or spontaneous (though only apparently).
In hypnosis the spontaneous attention is altered while reflex attention is undisturbed, and it is through this last that a suggested idea, the choice of which has not, however, been left to the subject, comes into prominence.
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It is truly amusing to see how people concede the main substance to their opponents and still cling to the empty shell of their own creeds.
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“In normal consciousness every formulated idea is
questioned by mind. After being perceived by the cortical centres the impression extends to the cells of the adjacent convolutions”.
Cortical centres are, then, the battle-field of various ideas.
The Hypnotizing Process is like breaking into a fort. We distract and divide the mental forces already operating in the mind and then let in the strong suggestion to occupy the citadel. The strongest will survive. This struggle is continuously going on just as the struggle between bacilli and bacteria and the outside microbe germs.
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As when the garrison is awake, the besieger succeeds in as much as he is indirect, circumspecting and dodgeful.
So, in wakefulness the suggestion succeeds inversely as its directness.
On the other hand, in abnormal suggestibility the garrison being asleep, the success is directly proportional to the plainness and preciseness of the suggestion. Enter quick, prompt!
Abnormal = S, d = direct suggestion.
Normal = S1, i = Indirect suggestion.
S = d/i
S1 = i/d
S1/S = i2/d2
If we put i = l, we have S1: S = l:d2, i.e. as we retreat from the normal state and advance into the abnormal suggestibility, the efficacy or the force of direct suggestion increases as the square of its magnitude increasing faster than the magnitude of advance into the state of abnormal suggestibility etc., etc.
Let other folks spend thousands of years at Bhajan, but one day of a man of true knowledge at God-consciousness like Rama or Shankar counts by far the much more. The arrow shooting of Indians is a very effective practice displaying physical strength but gunfire defeats arrow-hunting in as much as it combines physical strength with wisdom.