Principles of Hypnosis (Part 1)

Now let us talk about the principle of hypnosis, using the three hypnosis cases from yesterday. In the first case, as soon as the master hypnotist gave the command to sleep, those hypnotized subjects immediately fell asleep leaning against one another. Afterwards, the master gave the command to wake up, and so those people all woke up from deep sleep. After waking up, they had no knowledge of how they had fallen asleep leaning against one another while in the sleep state.

Why does such a situation occur? When we are normally awake, the mind consciousness and the manas are able to trust each other, rely on each other, and guide each other. Normally the manas follows the guidance or control of the mind consciousness, obeys the mind consciousness's commands, and is influenced by the mind consciousness. Now the manas is no longer influenced by one's own mind consciousness—by whom is it influenced? By the master hypnotist. The role of the master hypnotist is equivalent to the role of the hypnotized subject's mind consciousness, and the manas completely obeys and completely believes all of the master hypnotist's commands—whatever he says, it believes—one hundred percent obedience, exceeding its trust in its own mind consciousness; the hypnotist's commands override the commands of one's own mind consciousness.

Therefore, whatever the hypnotist says, the hypnotized subject's manas believes, and once it believes, it can immediately accomplish it. Why can it be accomplished as soon as it is believed? Because the manas is the consciousness that makes decisions and has power; whatever it wants to do, as long as there are no factors influencing it, it can do. When the master hypnotist tells him to sleep, because there is no mind consciousness to control and guide the manas, the manas obeys, immediately decides to sleep, and so lets go of all conditions; with no mind consciousness participating, it falls asleep instantly. And in the state of sleep there are neither the five sense consciousnesses nor the mind consciousness, so when these people fell asleep leaning against one another, their own mind consciousnesses did not know it, and of course after the mind consciousness woke up it still did not know. During sleep the mind consciousness ceases, so one does not know what one's own state of sleep was like during sleep.

Why can one fall asleep so quickly under hypnosis, while normally falling asleep is not so fast? Because when preparing to sleep normally, one must first extinguish the discernment of the five sense consciousnesses, and then extinguish the discernment and mental activity of the mind consciousness; extinguishing the mind consciousness is somewhat more difficult. Under hypnosis, however, the mind consciousness simply ceases to function, and so one falls asleep the moment one is told to sleep.

From this principle it can be seen that as long as the manas believes something—and this belief is not ordinary belief, but an extremely, extremely deep belief, believing without doubt, taking whatever is said as what it is, without any deliberation (manasikāra/manana) in one's own mind, without considering right or wrong, with no mind consciousness to control it—the manas's own ability to discriminate the six sense objects is rather weak, so it does not discriminate. As long as it believes the hypnotist, whatever the hypnotist says is what it is, and whatever he tells it to do it does. If we say the manas's wisdom is inferior, this is where the inferiority lies. If there is a mind consciousness, the mind consciousness can think, can distinguish right from wrong, and can take measures and thereby control the manas. Now the manas has no six consciousnesses as helpers, no mind consciousness as helper, and does not itself possess such strong discriminating ability; when the hypnotist tells it to sleep, the manas does not need to deliberate at all and can fall asleep immediately.

If each of us, in our practice of sitting meditation, enters deep meditative concentration (samādhi), the manas will discover the realms of the six sense objects, discover its own physical body, and discover that all realms feel different from before. Because in deep dhyāna the manas's mind is concentrated and wisdom is developed, it knows that the physical body can be controlled by itself; it knows that realms are illusory and not so real, or it does not take the realms seriously, because in deep dhyāna there is no control by the mind consciousness; whatever the manas wants to do, it can accomplish, and if it wants to manifest supernatural powers, it can bring forth the wondrous functioning of supernatural powers.

For example, in the fourth dhyāna, if the manas thinks: "I want to fly into the sky," at this time there is no interference from the six consciousnesses, the mind consciousness does not interfere with it, it has no concept of the sky, and no obstruction from the physical body, and it can immediately fly into the sky and pass through mountains and over ridges. If the manas thinks: "I want to hear sounds from far away, or sounds in the heavens," because there is no interference from the mind consciousness, as soon as it thinks of it, it can hear sounds from extremely far away. How does the mind consciousness interfere? The mind consciousness keeps telling it that this is impossible and that is impossible; once it says it is impossible, the manas feels it is truly impossible, and the thing cannot be accomplished.

Without interference from the mind consciousness, when the manas says "I want to do such-and-such," it immediately goes and does it, and when it does it, the boss behind the scenes helps it accomplish it; thus the limitless supernatural powers are developed in this way. When there is interference from the mind consciousness, the mind consciousness influences it through its own life experience and the habits of everyday life, saying this cannot be done and that cannot be done; because the mind consciousness has never seen true reality, all of its ideas and thinking are incorrect, and its interference with the manas is very great. In the absence of interference from the mind consciousness, everyone's potential for supernatural powers can be developed.

Now the role of the hypnotist replaces the role of the mind consciousness; whatever the hypnotist says, the manas believes, and whatever it believes, it can accomplish. Supernatural powers arise in this way, and the principle of hypnosis is also like this.