Pot And Hypnosis

[RaGeX]

I Have Found A That Pot Relaxs And Puts You In A Near Trance-Like State. If Taken It Can Make It Easier To Clear Your Mind Of All Thoughts And Puts You Into A Near Trance-Like State. I Am Wondering If Taking This Is A Good Idea Right Before Listenning To One Of The Files Because A Year Or So Ago I Read That I Should Do Drugs Or Drink Before Hypnosis. Do You Think It's A Good Idea To Do Some Pot Right Before Hynosis???

[bubblebutt]

Ouch, the all caps burn my eyes 8O. I don't really know if they are such a good idea considering the effects are not so predictable.

[Diapered_Cherub]

Other than treating a medical condition, I do not agree that drugs should be used for anything, to include hypnosis.

[Kalendaine]

One, Cherub - why not? Is not food, or drink, or even *air*, just a socially acceptable "drug"? Granted, one you need to survive, and filled with a wide mixture of different chemicals - with the exception of McDonalds, a rather dubious mixture of fats, oils, and artery-clogging things - but still, it's a "drug." *Anything* you put into your body has effect, whether that be to give you the munchies, sustain your life by various cellular processes, or give you a beer belly or heart attack.

I would agree with bubblebutt's assesment, however. Pot is too variable to use in this way. I would suggest finding something with a more specific effect.

[Blink]

I Have Found A That Pot Relaxs And Puts You In A Near Trance-Like State.

It puts you in a near trance-like state. Pot and paranoia go hand-in-hand. Paranoia makes most normal trance work very, very difficult.

That said, if you're ready to accept the risks, there's no reason for it not to work. Erickson experimented with alcohol as an aid to trance induction and there's a class of pharmaceuticals called "sedative hypnotics" for a reason.

My preference is that the minds I play with be crystal clear. That's just me, though.

You could also get a drowsy, heavy feeling from a hit of Benadryl. OTC, legal, cheap. Plan on your session taking a long time, though.

Cheers.

-- Blink

[PotHeadChick]

I used to wonder / think the same things about pot and meditation. Over the past year or so, I've tried mixing the two occasionally and have found - for the most part - that even though I feel like I'm going deeper with meditation when I'm a bit buzzed, the session itself was usually less useful / productive / intense when I had that sort of "enhancement". I'm a big fan of mixing pot with anything that comes to mind but there are some things that just do better separately. Can't say whether or not hypnosis will follow suit - this is all really new to me - but I've been trying it with a clear head to start out with and already I'm finding my brain making all sorts of connections between this and meditation.

Just my .02

[aeroue]

I smoke everyday I will invariably have a joint before I go to bed, incidentally I listen to hypnosis before and as I go to sleep.

I get hypnotised.

Lying in your bed going to sleep I would say for most people the paranoia would be negligible, in my experience, but I rarely get it at all anyway. The worst effect is the racing mind when your imagination is going at a million miles per hour, however even in this state i think (though I am not sure) my subconscious is at work because I still feel trancelike.

Ultimately i would not recommend smoking pot just for hypnosis but if you happen to smoke pot it is not much of a hurdle and will help as much as it hurts your attempts. In my opinion and experience at least.

[Jack]

When will people learn that with this type of question the response must invariably be some form of "Your mileage may vary.. but in my personal experience [some positive or negative anecdote]."?

[PotHeadChick]

I'd imagine most people probably DO know it, but it can still be nice to get some reassurance.

Humans can be strange that way.

[rugbyjockca]

I'm going to de-lurk and suggest that pot isn't necessarily a hindrance to hypnosis, but that it changes how hypnosis can be achieved. I'm just guessing (and I'm a bit of a pot-head, myself, so YMMV and {pos. or neg. anecdote here}), but it could explain why you'll find the occasional person who swears by pot as a trance-inducing drug, and a lot of people who say it hurts the process.

I expect most/all of the files here, and elsewhere, are intended for people who aren't using pot, and further that in person 'tists are using techniques that were practiced and perfected on sober-minded (in the loosest sense of the word) subjects. Since drugs change the way our brains and thoughts work, they likely change the best techniques needed to have a good/successful hypnosis experience.

I imagine that if a 'tist were to spend a LOT of time working with willing, stoned subjects, the 'tist could probably develop a technique that works better. But with all the time and effort that would take, and throw in the variability of effects pot has on each individual user, it would be a lot easier to just have the subjects smoke up after the session, instead.

I will add, though, that to date, the most startling and powerful experience I've ever had with a Grock file was when I was stoned to the gills. The effects have yet to be repeated, and not for lack of trying.

[Noctifer]

Hmm.. actually this makes me very curious. Keep in mind, I am so inexperienced that the chances of me providing good evidence of anything are nill. That said, the only person (out of four) who I could not put either in a trance or actually under has ADHD. He smokes pot regularly and the really interesting part is that the pot actually helps him function normally because it slows him down to socially-normal levels. (He tried 'legal medication' and the side affects were worst then the symptoms).

Anyways, the reason this post brought that to mind is because in retrospect I think having him smoke up before I try again may make a positive difference, but he's leaving town now. If any of you have any luck with this let me know!

As for non-special-cases? I know on mushrooms it feels like I have much better luck with energy work and I can do much more interesting things, but when I am off of them I am right back where I started. I didn't make any significant progress until I just practiced without the mushrooms. So I am guessing that perhaps pot would make the experience easier and deeper, but not as long lasting?

[Jack]

Noctifer: It seems to me that you need to work on bridging states. I mean that there are many many altered states of awareness/reality. A lot of the time the information from one altered state is not used in another altered state because there has been no work done to bridge the gap or make it so that the choices from one altered state is available in another altered state. In fact this seems to be one of the most abundant problem that humans face.

[gregi696]

I'm surprised that this wasn't brought up, but the idea of state based learning comes into play here. If you aren't familiar, basically if you are drunk or high as it were, and something happens where you learn something, or are trained, you won't necessarily remember it when you are sober, but upon getting to that state again, the effects come back.
I had a personal experience with that and actually had to stop because the addictive nature of the file intermingled and created an addiction to what I was doing. Also, when I would do that, the affects of the file would become much more pronounced, almost exagerated even. Don't ask what was being done or the file. I've got my secrets. :twisted: