Rules of the Mind

Rule #1: Every thought or idea causes a physical reaction.

Your thoughts can affect all of the functions of your body. Worry triggers changes in the stomach that in time can lead to ulcers. ANGER thoughts stimulate your adrenal glands and increased adrenaline in the blood stream causes many body changes. ANXIETY and FEAR thoughts affect your pulse rate.

Ideas that have a strong emotional content almost always reach the subconscious mind, because it is the feeling mind. Once accepted, these ideas continue to produce the same body reaction over and over again. In order to eliminate or change chronic negative bodily reactions, we must reach the subconscious mind and change the idea responsible for the reaction. This can be done using hypnosis.

Rule #2: What the mind expects to happen tends to be realized.

The brain and nervous system respond only to mental images. It does not matter if the image is self-induced or from the external world. The mental image formed becomes the blueprint, and the subconscious mind uses every means at its disposal to carry out the plan. Worry is a form of programming a picture of what we don't want, but the subconscious mind acts to fulfill the pictures situation. "THE THINGS THAT I HAVE FEARED HAVE COME UPON ME.

Many persons suffer from chronic anxiety, which is simply a subconscious mental expectancy that something terrible will happen to them. On the other hand, we all know people who seem to have the "Magic Touch." What they have is NOT a positive mental attitude but a POSITIVE MENTAL EXPECTANCY. Another way of stating it is WE BECOME WHAT WE THINK ABOUT.

Our physical health is largely dependent upon our mental expectancy. Physicians recognize that if a patient expects to remain sick or even die, the expected condition tends to be realized. Here is where hypnosis can become the tool to remove despondence and negative attitudes and bring about a positive mental expectancy.

Rule #3: Imagination is more powerful than knowledge.

REASON IS EASILY OVERRULED BY IMAGINATION. This is why some persons blindly rush into some unreasonable act or situation. Violent crimes based on jealously are almost always caused by a overactive imagination. Any idea accompanied by a strong emotion such as anger, hatred, love, or our political or religious beliefs usually cannot be modified through the use of reason. Through hypnosis we can form new images in the subconscious feeling mind, and thereby remove, alter or amend old ideas.

Rule #4: Once an idea has been accepted by the subconscious mind, it remains until it is replaced by another idea.

The companion rule to this is THE LONGER AN IDEA REMAINS, THE MORE OPPOSITION THERE IS TO REPLACING IT WITH A NEW IDEA. Once an idea has been accepted, it tends to become a fixed habit of thinking. This is how habits are formed. First there is the thought and then the action. For example, some people believe that at critical times they must have a drink of whisky or a tranquilizer to steady their nerves so they can perform effectively. This is not correct, but the idea is there and it is a fixed habit of thought. There will always be opposition to replacing it with a correct idea. However, no matter how fixed the ideas may be or how long they have remained, they can be changed using hypnosis.

Rule #5: Each suggestion acted upon creates less opposition to successive similar suggestions.

A mental habit is easier to follow the longer it lasts unbroken. Once a habit is formed it becomes easier to follow and more difficult to break. In other words, once a suggestion has been accepted by your subconscious mind, it becomes easier for additional similar suggestions to be accepted and acted upon. This is why compounding similar suggestions while in hypnosis is very effective. Stage hypnotists have known this rule for a long time.

Rule #6: An emotionally induced symptom tends to cause organic change if persisted in long enough.

It has been acknowledged by many reputable medical men and women that more than seventy percent of human ailments are functional rather than organic. This means the function, of an organ or other part of the body has been disrupted by a reaction of the nervous system to negative ideas held in the subconscious mind. We are a mind in a body and the two cannot be separated. Therefore, if you continue to fear ill health, constantly talk about your "nervous stomach" or "tension headaches," in time organic changes must occur.

Rule #7: When dealing with the subconscious mind and its functions, the greater the conscious effort, the less the subconscious response.

This proves why "will power" does not really exist. If you had insomnia, you've learned the law of reverse effect. This means, the harder you try the more difficult it becomes. The harder you try to go to sleep, the more wide awake you become.

The rule is, "When dealing with the subconscious mind, TAKE IT EASY." As your faith in your subconscious mind increases, you learn to "let it happen" rather than trying to "force it to happen." Some people want hypnosis so badly that they try to help it happen. This keeps the conscious mind active and any workable depth of trance becomes impossible.

Gerald F. Kein
The Omni Hypnosis Training Center
© 1976 Gerald F. Kein. All rights reserved.