Note: this is the third post in a five part series looking at this topic. The entire series is also available as one post. I recommend reading the posts in order as they refer back to one another regarding information covered already.
In the beginning of this I noted that "we have to understand a bit about hypnosis, particularly the use of confusion and contradictions," and had quoted Jon Atack writing "Scientology itself is a two-terminal structure, where almost every assertion has a contradiction (as we saw in my piece on double binds). This induces cognitive dissonance — confusion — where the individual becomes unable to decide, so must ask for direction from the outside. The implants of Scientology tend to follow this pattern. Confusion technique is the most basic method of hypnosis. In the blank, while the mind hunts for sense, a positive suggestion (or command) can be quickly inserted." Jon Atack
And I will quote directly from an email: "I realized that throughout DMSMH he contradicts himself. I'd read it three times and never noticed. Presumably because the 'blank' that he relates to the mu actually occurs during the cognitive dissonance. Once you have confused someone, you insert the suggestions that will put them under your control ('if you knew what was wrong with your mind it, it wouldn't be wrong' is a favorite). Jon Atack
(DMSHMH is Dianetics the Modern Science of Mental Health and obviously "himself" and "he" refer to the author of Dianetics, Ronald Hubbard)
Okay, now we turn to the topic of hypnosis and what exactly is the confusion technique in hypnosis?
Here is a quote from cult expert Margaret Singer. Professor Singer interviewed over four thousand ex cult members and in my opinion along with Robert Jay Lifton described cults extremely well.
Hypnosis is classed as a psychological rather than a physiological method because it is essentially a form of highly focused mental concentration in which one person allows another to structure the object of the concentration and simultaneously suspends critical judgment and peripheral awareness. When this method is used in a cultic environment, it becomes a form of psychological manipulation and coercion because the cult leader implants suggestions aimed at his own agenda while the person is in a vulnerable state. (page 151 Cults In Our Midst by Margaret Singer)
I am going to use some excerpts from my article Basic Introduction to Hypnosis in Scientology to look at hypnosis and the confusion technique itself.
First I want to bring up one of the most basic and to me truest ideas about hypnosis: HOW to cause it.
First I'll use a basic:
hyp·no·sis
hipˈnōsis/
noun
noun: hypnosis
the induction of a state of consciousness in which a person apparently loses the power of voluntary action and is highly responsive to suggestion or direction. Its use in therapy, typically to recover suppressed memories or to allow modification of behavior by suggestion, has been revived but is still controversial.
- the state of consciousness produced by hypnosis.
Okay, that's from Google and seems simple enough. Induction just means causes, in the case of hypnosis. It's this state and has very, very little to do with will, intention or anything like that. THOSE ideas are distractions and have so little bearing on this that you should just say they, if they exist at all, do so in other contexts of analyzing thought.
Now causing hypnotic states does not require willingness, cooperation or even any understanding of what hypnosis is. I cannot state that strongly enough. It also does not require enormous charisma or personal power or charm.
Those things can help in some situations but are not mandatory.
Altitude, or transference can help tremendously in some cases and applications but also are not always needed, at least not to be acknowledged by that name. Altitude can be called rapport or authority or prestige and is a fundamental for hypnosis to work. It has been said that hypnosis is suggestion plus imagination. But authority is the key. Lots of people suggest things to you which you imagine. But when they have authority then they can command and that makes it possible for hypnosis to occur.
- BUT I cannot stress strongly enough that the shutting down or off of the critical factor (which I extensively discuss in it's own thread) is paramount to understanding the EFFECT of ANY hypnosis.
- Regarding trance logic here is a quote from Psychweb on trance logic: "Words, in trance logic, are interpreted much more literally, communication being conveyed by focusing on words themselves rather than ideas. There is also an associated decrease in critical judgement of language being processed, and an increased tolerance for incongruity."
Trance logic is a state in hypnosis in which a person has their attention absorbed or focused so strongly that they don't exercise critical and independent thinking, they lose judgment regarding the information they take in and do not CONSCIOUSLY notice contradictions. They experience age regression and like a young child submit to authority and are willing to engage in magical thinking.
This has tremendous importance in Scientology regarding cognitive dissonance as noticing contradiction is a way cognitive dissonance is created, but by making cognitive dissonance serve to create confusion which he uses to create hypnotic trances, Hubbard inspires dissonance then "solves" it by negating the contradiction inspired dissonance by knocking out the critical factor (the capacity for critical and independent thinking, including noticing contradiction) !!
Now for confusion, probably Hubbard's true love in tech and his own mind:
I will start with a quote from Mark Tyrrell at the website Uncommon Knowledge:
Using confusion for hypnosis may sound like a strange idea – even a confusing one! But the notion of pur-posefully and knowingly using confu-sion as a tool to elicit hypnotic re-sponses from the unconscious mind has a good pedigree.
No less an authority then Dr Milton Erickson, perhaps the greatest hypnotist who ever lived, believed that few things could capture the attention so well as confusion. And he was right. Think about it for a moment.
If someone whose opinion you respect usually makes sense when they’re talking, then you’ll pay attention to them. When on occasion they seem to be saying something important to you, but the meaning isn’t immediately clear, you’ll assume you need to pay more attention in order to grasp what they are saying.
And if a point is not logically clear, you’ll focus more and more of your at-tention in the hope of understanding it eventually. And remember, focusing the attention is a key component of hypnosis. We are all dependent on our ability to decipher meaning from what happens to us and from what people say. When people are confused, their awareness turns inwards in a search for understanding – or escape.
It’s ironic in a way that so many people work on their communication in an attempt to make it more clear, yet the best hypnotists work on making (at least some of) their communication more confusing.If you look at people when they are confused, you’ll see they are highly focused. And strong focus is akin to hypnotic trance. When you can’t quite figure something out, but it seems really important that you do figure it out, you have an activated expectation.
Focus and expectation are at the heart of the confusional technique. But why should being confused make you more suggestible?Being confused is like drowning in a sea of communication. You will grab onto anything that will keep you afloat. Any words or phrases that you can make sense of in the maelstrom are likely to affect you more strongly than usual – so if these words can be inter-preted as suggestions, this is probably how you will respond to them.
This is a rule of human nature. If something is scarce we value it more highly and when we get it, we grab hold of it and we use it. When water is scarce it becomes more valuable to us and we don’t waste a drop when we get it. It’s the same with clear meaning if it sud-denly becomes scarce. Consider the confusion elicited when a stage show hypnotist tips back a subject unexpectedly.Confusion is followed by clarity when the unequivocal command to ‘sleep’ is uttered.We like puzzles and riddles because we expect clarity to eventually emerge from the confusion. People watch and read mystery thrillers for the same reason. This confusion as entertainment is an excellent tool for locking people’s attention.
Okay, That is from a regular old hypnotist; who does not have my experiences as a Scientologist OR my status as a critic.
Simple enough right ? Things that confuse CAN cause hypnosis, vague statements, unclear commands and many other things we'll go into soon.
(note: I examined several hypnotic techniques used in the article Basic Introduction to Hypnosis in Scientology and recommend that anyone interested read the full article to read about mimicry, attention fixation, and repetition and repetition-with-variation, in addition to the confusion technique)
First up confusion: this has as many variations as there are ways to confuse or become confused ! That is a lot, but we can break it up into BROAD categories that pertain to Scientology, and hopefully chop this monster down to size.
Now it is also known as paradox or contradiction for good reason: if something seems paradoxical or to contradict itself in a way you can not quite figure out or get right then that is CONFUSION. I once read an interview with a class XII auditor who remarked that Hubbard's writings can appear "paradoxical and contrary" to people !
See, she studied IT ALL and bought into the idea that buried in that HYPNOTIC, ATTENTION HOLDING mess was some DEEP profound wisdom - just UNDER the surface needing an insightful mind to plumb the depths !
I will let you in on a little secret...confidentially...HE FOOLED HER !!
Yeah, I am sure, yeah sucks to be her and waste fifteen or so years studying and slaving for him, BUT that does not change the FACTS as I see them in the slightest. See, data or info comes in PATTERNS and when it comes from a trusted source we expect it to align or agree, far more often than not with old or similar patterns or ESPECIALLY data from the exact same source !
When it does not agree we can be confused, and try to grab onto data to REALIGN our confused mind. WE want uncertainty and doubt to go away, by our nature.
It is a weakness that Hubbard was only too happy to magnify and exploit MERCILESSLY. He gave patterns that very frequently contradicted one another BUT - BRILLIANTLY had many of the contradictions SPREAD OUT to not make it too obvious, Scientology is often spread out over decades, so you don't easily see that terms and concepts get redefined to be quite different and in fact at times the exact OPPOSITE ! He claimed this was due to high level research and other BS, but it was INTENTIONAL from the start !
Alright, another variation on the confusion method that Hubbard had so deeply ingrained as to be first nature was the offensive defensive technique. I have covered it in other threads but cannot overstate that to understand Hubbard or his tech you must understand that he was COMPELLED by his nature as a megalomaniacal, narcissistic pathological liar to think, write and speak in this technique WHENEVER possible. PERIOD. case closed.
Of course he pioneered confusion in indoctrination as he has a student CONFUSE their own mind with contradictory info, as they can understand what they read - BUT convince THEMSELF they must have "MUs", as he taught them the "phenomena ALWAYS show" ! When really they are the symptoms of hypnosis and the STRESS of forced covert cognitive restructuring !
Plainly it screws up your mind to have it broken down and rebuilt without your knowledge or consent ! So, when you sense or display signs from a subconscious level - he had to come up with excuses - and so the barriers to study were born !
The names are just anything YOU could believe sounded studious, the PHENOMENA and more importantly YOUR new beliefs and behavior when encountering them are the key to understanding Scientology "Study Technology" ! YOU become a self-hypnotizer ! Doing HIS work for him, like a good slave.
He divides your mind against itself by misinforming you about its nature AND how to "help", er CONFUSE it.
I will close with another quote with several informative definitions of hypnosis from the online artic; Hypnotic Advancements by Dr Frank Valente:
In Krasner’s “The Wizard Within”, pg. 2, 1999, he states:
“I believe hypnosis to be a process which produces relaxation, distraction of the conscious mind, heightened suggestibility, and increased awareness, allowing access to the subconscious mind through the imagination. It also produces the ability to experience thoughts and images as real.”
In Ormond McGill’s, “The New Encyclopedia of Stage Hypnotism”, pg. 12, 1996, one finds:
“Basically, hypnosis can be regarded as a state of mind produced by the transference from one level of consciousness to another; a state with capacities for mental activities distinctly its own directly keyed to the automatic nervous system rather than the sympathetic (central nervous system) productive of the state of mind of somnambulism, i.e. subconscious behavior.”
And we couldn’t possibly leave out Dave Elman’s, “Hypnotherapy”, pg. 26, 1964:
“Hypnosis is a state of mind in which the critical faculty of the human is bypassed, and selective thinking established.” Continuing that, “the critical faculty of your mind is that part which passes judgment.”
Personally I must add that I far prefer Topher Morrison’s (Instructor for the Accelerated Hypnotherapy Certification Weekend Seminar put on by APU) interpretation of the critical faculty as “the part of you that cares to distinguish between reality and fantasy.”
And finally from our dearly beloved Dr. Milton H. Erickson
In “The Collected Papers of Milton H. Erickson, Volume I" page 113, Dr. Erickson is quoted as stating:
“The hypnotic state is an experience that belongs to the subject, derives from the subject’s own accumulated learning's and memories, not necessarily consciously recognized, but possible of manifestations in a special state of non waking awareness”. And one of my favorite explanations can be found within The Collected Papers of Milton H. Erickson, Volume IV of the same series, page 224, “It is a state of consciousness – not unconsciousness or sleep – a state of consciousness or awareness in which there is a marked receptiveness to ideas and understandings and an increased willingness to respond either positively or negatively to those ideas. It derives from processes and functioning within the subject. And is not some mystical procedure, but rather a systematic utilization of experiential learning's– that is, the extensive learning's acquired through the process of living itself.”End quote
In Krasner’s “The Wizard Within”, pg. 2, 1999, he states:
“I believe hypnosis to be a process which produces relaxation, distraction of the conscious mind, heightened suggestibility, and increased awareness, allowing access to the subconscious mind through the imagination. It also produces the ability to experience thoughts and images as real.”
In Ormond McGill’s, “The New Encyclopedia of Stage Hypnotism”, pg. 12, 1996, one finds:
“Basically, hypnosis can be regarded as a state of mind produced by the transference from one level of consciousness to another; a state with capacities for mental activities distinctly its own directly keyed to the automatic nervous system rather than the sympathetic (central nervous system) productive of the state of mind of somnambulism, i.e. subconscious behavior.”
And we couldn’t possibly leave out Dave Elman’s, “Hypnotherapy”, pg. 26, 1964:
“Hypnosis is a state of mind in which the critical faculty of the human is bypassed, and selective thinking established.” Continuing that, “the critical faculty of your mind is that part which passes judgment.”
Personally I must add that I far prefer Topher Morrison’s (Instructor for the Accelerated Hypnotherapy Certification Weekend Seminar put on by APU) interpretation of the critical faculty as “the part of you that cares to distinguish between reality and fantasy.”
In Stephen Gilligan’s “Therapeutic Trances” he states:
“Hypnosis is conceptualized as an experientially absorbing interactional sequence that produces an altered state of consciousness wherein self-expressions begin to happen automatically, without conscious mediation." (Gilligan, Stephen, G., 1987)
“Hypnosis is conceptualized as an experientially absorbing interactional sequence that produces an altered state of consciousness wherein self-expressions begin to happen automatically, without conscious mediation." (Gilligan, Stephen, G., 1987)
In “The Collected Papers of Milton H. Erickson, Volume I" page 113, Dr. Erickson is quoted as stating:
“The hypnotic state is an experience that belongs to the subject, derives from the subject’s own accumulated learning's and memories, not necessarily consciously recognized, but possible of manifestations in a special state of non waking awareness”. And one of my favorite explanations can be found within The Collected Papers of Milton H. Erickson, Volume IV of the same series, page 224, “It is a state of consciousness – not unconsciousness or sleep – a state of consciousness or awareness in which there is a marked receptiveness to ideas and understandings and an increased willingness to respond either positively or negatively to those ideas. It derives from processes and functioning within the subject. And is not some mystical procedure, but rather a systematic utilization of experiential learning's– that is, the extensive learning's acquired through the process of living itself.”End quote
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