Jsparrow made a great observation here that I will address in more detail in the coming

days, here is a first installment for those that want a deeper undrestanding.

Quote:
c) If find myself argue mentally against some of the affirmations. It is like my mind is
actively trying to block the information

Obviously by now it should be apparrent that there is an agenda to the thread beyond
picking up chicks. The most important thing a person can do in life is to get an
understanding of how the Conscious and Subconscious mind work together. This was and is
one of the goals of the thread, to make people aware of why they behave why they do, and
how to change it. This awareness is not limited to chicks, but to every aspect of life.

Meet The Critical Factor

There is a mechanism that operates to filter what gets programmed into the Subconscious
mind. The Subconscious mind IS what determines your reality, your external experience. For
those that are seeking real and lasting change, this info is valuable regarding the mechanisms
at play that affect your reality.

Think of the mind as two minds, one Conscious, one Subconscious. When the two minds work
together, you can do anything. When they work against each other, thats when problems
develop.

The first of the two minds, the Conscious Mind, houses the analytical mind, the rational
mind, will power, and temporary memory. Where as the Subconscious mind houses permanent
memory, habits, and emotions. Just briefly, the analytical mind looks for problems, analyses
the information, them figures out how to solve it. The rational mind must have a reason for
things to turn out the way they do. It must be logical, making sense to itself, even if no

one else agrees. If the reasons are deemed by the self to be illogical, long enough, it can lead
to mental illness. The fix that takes care of the illogical situation may not cure the issue,
but it sounds good. In other words, -excuses. The third part of the Conscious mind is
willpower. Willpower could be equated to adrenaline for the mind. It gives short bursts of
energy, but it fades away. And lastly, temporary memory. This is the memory we need in
our everyday life; where we live, how to get to work, names of family and friends and so on.

Now, you could think of the Subconscious mind as a computer. It does not analyze what
programs are installed. It doesnt judge the programs as good or bad, right or wrong. It does
not determine if it can run the programs with any other programs that have been previously
installed. It just accepts the information. The Subconscious mind also holds all permanent
memory. It never forgets what happens to us, and remembers to do such things as breath
when we are sleeping, controls digestion, body temperature, etc. It also forms habits, both
good and bad. Most of our habits are utilitarian in nature, meaning we automatically respond
in a certain way to the world around us. And finally, emotions, where would we be without
them?

However, the main programming of the Subconscious mind is for protection. It must protect
us from danger -real or imagined. Now hear is the catch. This is why it is so hard to get a
new idea, or concept into the Subconscious mind. It is rather lazy. The acceptance of a
positive thought or concept requires work. However, a negative thought or idea cuts into the
Subconscious mind like a hot knife into soft butter, because it requires no extra effort to
accept the information.

There are many other things the Subconscious mind does, but for our purposes here, this is
good enough explanation.

There is one more part of the Conscious mind that we have not talked about yet, and this
will tie it all together. This other part is called the Critical Factor. Think of Critical Factor
as an employee of the Subconscious mind. Every week it gets paid to perform only one job.
Its job is to block any suggestion, concept or idea from getting into the Subconscious mind
that might require it to do things differently than the way it has been doing things.

When a new idea or concept knocks, asking if it can come in, Critical Factor tells it to take a
hike. It explains something to the effect of my boss doesnt want any new information.
So, the concept takes a hikes over to willpower. When the adrenaline wanes, it hears the
Critical Factor yell over, I told you, you couldnt do it. Unfortunately, each perceived
failure simply reinforces the next. Willpower knows it is going to fail; its just a matter of
time.

So, how do we get a suggestion, concept or idea into the Subconscious mind? We use
hypnosis, self-hypnosis actually, because all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. What hypnosis is, is
simply this; the by-pass of the Critical Factor of the Conscious mind. Using the example
above, we give Critical Factor a couple of bucks and send it to lunch. Then we tell it when
to come back from lunch. This is the process of being hypnotized. When Critical Factor is
out, acceptable suggestions are placed into the Subconscious mind so it can run this new
program. None the wiser, Critical Factor comes back from lunch and continues on with its job
as if nothing has changed. Hypnosis is simply a bypassing of the blocking portion of the mind
and establishing acceptable suggestions in the inner mind.

There are five components necessary to achieve hypnosis, and the hypnotic state is based
solely on the relationship between the conscious mind and the subconscious mind.

Motivation - You must want to be hypnotized

Relaxation - Hypnosis is a deep state of relaxation
Imagination - You will actively use your imagination
Concentration - You will use your ability to concentrate
Suggestion - You will hear and respond to suggestions

The subconscious mind has no power to reason. It simply accepts and acts upon any fact or
suggestion given it by the conscious mind. Advertisers understand this. They use television
programs to induce a hypnotic trance, then provide you with hypnotic suggestions called
commercials.

WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE CONSCIOUS AND SUBCONSCIOUS MINDS?

It is important for you to understand the relationship between your conscious mind and your
subconscious mind. The conscious mind (about 10% of your mind) is working right now as you
are reading this. It is that part of you that is aware of what is going on right now.
Decisions and choices are made by the conscious mind.

The subconscious mind (about 90% of your mind) can be compared to a computer in that it
stores the data for all the experiences that we have ever had. It also automatically controls
our bodily functions such as heart beating, breathing, eyes blinking, organs functioning, the
immune system, muscles, bones and tissues from the cellular level to whole-body functioning.

The subconscious mind is creative, intuitive, irrational, and emotional. Because it's illogical, it
can make you into anything you want to be: slender, rich, happy, famous. It can also keep
you stuck in negative or limiting behavior. It contains your core beliefs about yourself, your
values, as well as everything you've ever thought, every word you've ever heard or spoken,
every experience you've ever had. And the subconscious mind must act on those beliefs. In
other words, it can only create in your life what you believe, what has been suggested to
you as the truth, whether it was REALLY the truth or not.

Your subconscious mind operates only on its programming, just like a computer. And just like
a computer, your subconscious mind can be reprogrammed. The programming you are
currently operating on has been placed there from many sources throughout your life,
whether they were positive or negative. If your parents taught that you could achieve

anything in life, that is the programming you are acting out now. If they taught you that
life is hard and attaining money is a struggle, then you are making THAT programming come
true.

In contrast, the conscious mind is logical and analytical and it is where we spend most of our
time. It basically performs these functions:

1. The conscious mind analyzes and problem-solves, by evaluating whatever concern, situation
or issue you are thinking of;
2. The conscious mind makes decisions that we may think are automatic, but are actually
made by engaging a part of our subconscious mind;
3. The conscious mind uses what we call will power. But will power doesn't last, does it? You
may mean well, but the new intention fails, and the old behavior returns;
4. The conscious mind also holds our working memory, the part of our mind we use every
day in order to function.

However, all conscious decisions are influenced by the data stored in our subconscious mind.

SO HOW DO WE REPROGRAM OUR SUBCONSCIOUS MIND?

By bypassing what scientists call the "critical factor." The critical factor is like a guard at the
gate between the conscious mind and the subconscious mind. It has the power to accept or
reject suggestions coming into the subconscious mind. And it has the very best intentions. Its
job is to protect us. Because change is viewed as a threat, any suggestion that does not
match the existing programming automatically gets rejected. That's how it's accomplishing the
goal of protecting us.

So the only way a real change can take place is to get the new programming into our
subconscious mind. Three ways to get to the subconscious mind and bypass the critical factor
is through our memories, habits and emotions. But this takes time, sometimes a lifetime.

The faster, easier way to bypass the critical factor is through hypnosis. Through the
experience of relaxation, the critical factor seems to go to sleep for awhile. The conscious
mind stays awake and can still make decisions. So now you're in control while your
subconscious mind is receptive to any suggestion that your conscious mind wants to allow in.

The function of The Audio is for self hypnosis. I don't use the word hypnosis ever when I
speak about this stuff, as it is shrouded in m y s tery and misunderstanding, media has
created false impressons of hypnosis, the thought of it alonhe can deter people from
exploring it. This will be a rare discussion and use of the term.

Some Tips for Autohypnosis

A formal hypnosis session has at a bare minimum these 3 stages: Induction (then the
Deepening stage if you like), Suggestion (Post-Hypnotic Suggestion too, sometimes as its
own stage), and Re-Alerting. Gotta get a firm grasp on these if you're serious about this
stuff.

In Induction, you want something to be a point of focus. This can be anything from a spot
where the wall meets the ceiling in a room to a particular and unique crystal (doesn't
matter). Eventually you most likely want to suggest eye closure, though this isn't necessary.
It helps if you're using alpha waves however. Also these are visual, but it can be kinesthetic
(or anything else) too: I personally use my breath and close my eyes from the outset.

Key points of hypnotic language use, all stages:

Use positive language. Rather than "Don't be nervous", say "Relax", and so on. The
unconscious mind does not understand negation (negation sucks in general, but it's easier and
sometimes necessary to use in daily life). As has been said before on this board, you have to
think about something before you can negate it, and either way you're not really negating
that thought, as in eliminating the thought entirely from your mind. Instead, you're just
reinforcing the images of the thought and tacking on words like "not" which have no image
("don't think of a purple elephant taking a big rainbow shit from the top of the Eiffel
Tower"). The solution is to use positive language as much as you can, to create positive
images in your mind. If you can't think of a way to phrase something positively, then negate
very carefully so that the negation is tacked on to a positive image. The only thing I can
think of right now is with hypnotizing someone else: If they say "Smoking's hard to quit",
say "You're right, smoking's not [easy to quit]".

Seed commands/suggestions. Seeding is giving only parts and hints of what the full-blown
suggestion will be. This is done in the earlier stages of formal hypnosis. Then bring the
concept back in, more and more fully, as the hypnotic session goes on. For example, if you
were going for glove anesthesia, you would focus lots on the feeling of the hands during
induction, times when they have felt different, on through deepening (removing your glove in
the snow, picking up ice to make a drink, tingling and numbness when your hand falls asleep
beginning in e.g. the pinky and ring fingers). Then afterwards, at the beginning of the
suggestion stage, you start with the feeling draining from the pinky and move on to a more
and more blatant suggestion of glove anesthesia, once you're fully in the suggestion phase.

Marking. Gotta mark each suggestion with something: a change in tonality, a pause right
before the verb, slowing down after the pause, changing your tonality, etc. Preferably more
than one thing is used to mark. Audacity has a nice feature that allows you to echo your
voice, which I do ever so slightly. The unconscious mind recognizes these things as something
different from your normal speech, and so when your attention is highly focused, pays
attention when you mark the same way in all the commands you want to give it. This is
supposed to be subtle, not blatant or aping.

One suggestion at a time, in simple language. When it comes to the language used for
suggestion, the simpler and clearer/easier to follow, the better (even with yourself: when you
ain't usin werds that make you sound edumacated, you have far less cognitive load, much

more of a gut-level response). Inception's (1:14--1:40) concept is similar to this: a whole

lotta stuff can be distilled down to a much more basic principle which then steers the rest
of the stuff into whatever direction you want it to go. It's easy to see how this general idea
can be reworked for confidence and so on.

Note that simple language is for suggestions only. Very often at first (especially if like me,
you once had or still have an aversion to the whole hypnothing) you want to use confusional
techniques and keep the suggestion itself very simple within that confusional technique (..see
Milton Erickson). A confusional technique is something that cognitively overloads the conscious
mind. It gives you lots and lots to think about to try to untangle the logic of what has just
been said (quadruple negatives, right/left-hand/leg being heavy/light/warm/cold confusion,
etc).

Use present tense only, as if it's happening now. The unconscious has no concept of time.

In the Realterting stage, give yourself suggestions that it will be easier to fall into trance
next time, then that you can now come out of trance feeling refreshed.

Lots of other things too, but these help in getting started on the right track. CTM and
zylya have lots of experience in hypnosis too. Hope they chime in.

One more thing, re: changing your story. I've found that the best way to do this, with the
suggestions for language above, is to base it on your own reference experiences, starting
during the suggestion stage. These experiences can go backwards and forwards in time. They
can be actual positive ones (mostly from present life), and others that weren't positive
overall but had positive aspects to them. These last ones are the ones to rewrite, even if
they were entirely negative; make them positive all the way. An example from my own life:
when I very, very young, I had an experience with this girl in her room (I had learned the
term "necking", popular back then, and she was very eager to allow me to try it out with
her, no fear for either of us). It was going really well. Then after a while she went
downstairs ..and told the adults what we were doing. Pretty bad reaction on their part:
they just didn't know what to do to make it not matter. Anyway, my hypno-story involves

a vivid description of what was going on, recast this time without the grown-ups finding out:
a few of the senses and the masculine and feminine, all of which are seeded to a more fullblown description (with commands in slightly doubled voice) of all 5 of the senses at a much
later time in my near-present life with another delicious girl, very vivid description of exactly
what we did from my perspective. Yum. There is also exactly what I do in courtship so that
it goes well. This last bit is my Post-Hypnotic Suggestion (imperative tense, I respond really
well to direct suggestions when they are given from me to myself), given throughout, again
voice with a slight echo on the commands. The PHS starts with the suggestion stage, but is
given a more full reprise in its own stage.