by rugbyjockca » June 14th, 2005, 10:05 pm
[quote:b68cba/\[url=(https?:\/\/[^\s\[]+):$uid\](.*?)\[\/url:$uid\]/i4]An abreaction, to my best knowledge, is an emotional crisis that comes up when the trancer hits a *hard* limit, like being told out of the blue to kill someone.[/quote:b68cba/\[url=(https?:\/\/[^\s\[]+):$uid\](.*?)\[\/url:$uid\]/i4]
I'm a newbie to hypnosis, and so I don't have a very dramatic personal experience to share, but after reading your description of abreaction, the one face-to-face hypno session I've had came to mind.
He wasn't a bad guy, and I sensed that he held a strong moral and ethical standard in regards to hypnosis. He'd had some experience and some education, and I feel he did know - for the most part - what he was doing. I did have a hard time trusting him, though: we didn't seem to have much in common, and so our conversation floundered. It was like two guys on opposite sides of a divide trying to build a bridge, but they just keep flailing away with planks that are just too short.
Anyway, I believe I did achieve trance, at least shallowly. He did some deepening stuff, and then we did some "talking with the subconscious" stuff. While I respect those who hold the idea of a subconscious you can have a talk with, it's not something that I put much stock in. Even so, while in trance, he had a genuine conversation with my subconscious, and discovered (or a suggestable me created) a sort of identity for it.
After a short conversation, he took me out of trance and, after ensuring I was okay, suggested we take a quick walk before coming back and continuing. I felt pretty dazed the whole time, but otherwise okay.
When we came back and tried to continue, though, it was nearly impossible to achieve trance, and the few times I did go under were very shallow and short-lived.
We debriefed, and then I sent the tist on his way, but the experience left me with a weird, too-open feeling that lasted for months. I completely turned off the idea of hypnosis of any kind. I didn't listen to EMG's files, and I (unfortunately, because I think he's a nice guy) stopped talking with the tist somewhat abruptly. It's not like I felt anything bad had happened, it was mainly just uncomfortable.
I think that maybe what happened is that he tripped something in me that I wasn't ready to deal with at the moment. It could have been anything, big or small, but it sort of felt like my subconscious had an advanced security system and he'd tripped the laser, so all the walls came up at once. It's made me a little more careful now: when I start searching for a face-to-face tist again, I'm going to make sure that there's a level of trust there before even experimenting with hypnosis. I'm making sure that I understand what I'm doing with myself, and I'm using this not-entirely-negative experience (I know what going under is supposed to feel like, which is pretty much what everyone else has described elsewhere) to help inform the decisions I make in the future.
I do know that using abreaction as a treatment sounds like it could be a lot of difficult and trying work for both the therapist and patient. I wouldn't like to experience it first hand, even if it did turn me into a dumb jock (or whatever).
Anyway, good thread, everyone.