13 Jul 2013
Quick and dirty notes from scanning
It took me many months of consideration to accept that there were indeed great similarity between Brahma Kumari practises and hypnosis. When I first was first faced with confront the idea, I wanted to deny it. Eventually, after reading a few books and scientific papers, I had to accept that there were undoubted parallels. So close it was undeniable ... even if there was still some "added extra bonus" going on in BKism. It was therefore an even greater surprise to discover that allegations of cultism and hypnosis had bedevilled the Om Mandli, along with the splitting up of families, right from its earliest days.
The question of suggestibility is far clearer and it's a wonder that have not discussed it more. Whether or not BKism is hypnotism is almost beside the point. Human suggestibility to the spoken word and group pressures is undeniable.
I am not making any conclusions here, merely opening doors of inquiry. One thing that does stand out for me though is the heightened state of adolescents in this area and how closely that matches the demographics and descriptions of the original Om Mandli and its activities.
It has been written that Lekhraj Kirpalani paid some Saddhu in the East of India a very large sum of money to learn some mystic art and that his kohl laden eyes were deeply hypnotic. One has to wonder what it was he studied and learned.
- 'Hypnosis: Developments in Research and New Perspectives' edited by Erika Fromm, Ronald E. Shor,
'The Oxford Handbook of Hypnosis:Theory, Research, and Practice' edited by Michael R. Nash, Amanda J. Barnie, and
'Multiple Personality, Allied Disorders, and Hypnosis' by Eugene L. Bliss, and elsewhere.
It took me many months of consideration to accept that there were indeed great similarity between Brahma Kumari practises and hypnosis. When I first was first faced with confront the idea, I wanted to deny it. Eventually, after reading a few books and scientific papers, I had to accept that there were undoubted parallels. So close it was undeniable ... even if there was still some "added extra bonus" going on in BKism. It was therefore an even greater surprise to discover that allegations of cultism and hypnosis had bedevilled the Om Mandli, along with the splitting up of families, right from its earliest days.
The question of suggestibility is far clearer and it's a wonder that have not discussed it more. Whether or not BKism is hypnotism is almost beside the point. Human suggestibility to the spoken word and group pressures is undeniable.
I am not making any conclusions here, merely opening doors of inquiry. One thing that does stand out for me though is the heightened state of adolescents in this area and how closely that matches the demographics and descriptions of the original Om Mandli and its activities.
It has been written that Lekhraj Kirpalani paid some Saddhu in the East of India a very large sum of money to learn some mystic art and that his kohl laden eyes were deeply hypnotic. One has to wonder what it was he studied and learned.
The word "suggestibility" has been associated with hypnotisability since the early 1800s and researched by psychologist for over 100 years. Experimental studies since have divided it between suggestibility (hypnosis) and social suggestibility (gullibility). There are various ways of measuring hypnotic susceptibility such as, the Stanford Hypnotic Suggestibility Scale and the Barber Suggestibility Scale.
The first spontaneous mode is a peaceful hypnotic repose, a calm reverie while awake.
In one test, 12% of subjects show a high level of suggestibility, 36% show a moderately high suggestibility under instructions. In another 26% of the subjects were identified as excellent hypnotic subjects. No difference was found between the sexes, males were just as susceptible or not as females. Suggestibility is unrelated to either intelligence or the potential for mental illness.
Children have an increased ability which generally slowly fades but remains in some as a tendency to self-hypnosis (drifting off or floating?). It peaks in adolescence (think Om Mandli girls), 50% of adolescents are at risk of self-hypnosis including amnesia and hallucinations if other influences such as abuse and stress are imposed as are 20% of the adult population. (20% of the adult population are instantly predisposed to the effects of hypnotism if one uses a hypnotic tonality).
Hypnosis and sleep can exist as distinct but simultaneous states just as calmness and alertness (e.g. animal resting in the wild). Deep hypnosis is a world of realistic fantasies. There is evidence to discount alleged transcendental properties (subjects cannot exceed their normal capacities).
Catalepsy is a natural state and response (e.g. animals playing dead to avoid predators) and possibly related to responses by victims of abuse "disappearing internally" in a spontaneous hypnotic state which is ultimately destructive in humans.
Traditional "trance induction procedure" comprises of repetitive suggestions of relaxation. Hypnotists do not create a trance but merely facilitate its emergence. The capacity to enter trance is probably genetically endowed although practise may improve it. There are two basic forms of induction, the relaxed induction and spontaneous hypnosis induced by a fear response.
Heightened suggestibility as indicated by greater responsiveness to hypnotic suggestions is found after sensory deprivation.
Similarities have been noted between brainwashing procedures and those used in sensory deprivation and hypnosis.
Suggestibility and hypnosis are two separate things neither related to sleep.
Suggestibility is seen to result from a temporary weakening of the usual critical faculties.
About 10% of the population can create realistic auditory or visual hallucinations.
In posthypnotic suggestion, instructions which are forgotten will still produce particular behaviour after the individual has come out of trance.
Meditation has been linked to increased adverse effects such as suggestibility, neuroticism, depression, suicidal impulses and dysphoria (general feeling of being unwell).
