Ordinary Hypnosis, in whatever form, as with 99% of psychotherapy approaches, only deals with the Unconscious (deep psyche, emotions, wounds), only affects the Unconscious (inner world of the person) and acts only through the Unconscious (relation with the therapist, hypnotic suggestions, etc.)…

Humanist Hypnosis, with its inverted, transpersonal and systemic technique, acknowledges the environment, the collective, and therefore what is called Capital Consciousness, the life force that animates us and connects us all.
Humanist Hypnosis thus offers to act on the Unconscious, but by freeing itself from its constraints, its limits and the emotional distortions it imposes.
Moreover, being open to the collective (informational, symbolic and archetypal universe), the person in a “State of Heightened Consciousness” has access to a much wider, possibly infinite, field of resources and actions.

More specifically…

What does this mean? Quite simply, the problem with psychotherapy or coaching is that everything goes through the “filters” of the mind and the Unconscious.
Let’s take an example:
– You are immersed in the psychological mechanisms that govern your life on a daily basis and of which you know nothing… To unblock the situation, you can enter a state of hypnosis, and immerse yourself a little further into your Unconscious, in order to overcome your mental barriers and access emotional content.
From there, let’s say you were thinking about your parents. What then comes to your mind is the representation your Unconscious makes of your parents…. Not the real information that lies deep inside you, but the information as it reaches you through the filters of your Unconscious (education, emotions, wounds, beliefs, etc.).

For a better understanding, imagine that life has given you blue glasses… And you have the “blues”!….. Now I ask you to call the light upon you: a sun appears to you… In which color do you see it?….. Yellow + blue filter = GREEN! And here you are with a peculiar green sun in mind…. Pretty depressing, isn’t it?
You will focus all your work on this “finding” (the sun is green)… whereas it is an illusion, a distortion of your deep reality: you have not succeeded in perceiving the “blue” that depresses you and you have not been able to access the true light that could have healed you…

With Humanist Hypnosis, the person, while remaining “themselves”, reconnects to everything that is… to the sun itself! In this state of true consciousness, you could perceive the true light of the sun, golden yellow, as well as what gives you the blues, the blue halo that surrounds you. Only this way, can you work on what your Unconscious really is, without a deforming filter.

Another application

Rather than modifying unconscious symbols, from within the Unconscious, Humanist Hypnosis’s open state of consciousness will allow you to work directly on what is at the origin of the symbols: their informational source, the Information that engenders your deepest thoughts, and also underlies all things. What Socrates, then Plato, described as “the world of Ideas” or “the world of Forms”: Information (from Latin informare: what gives form).

In Humanist Hypnosis, we are referring to the “Master-Symbol”: as the idea, the mold, which gives shape to your thoughts, emotions, etc… By changing it, you change the outcome on you (the structures of your deep mind). For all intents and purposes, you couldn’t get angry if there wasn’t anger, if you didn’t have the “idea” to get angry. This “idea” is the higher information, the informational field on which you will act with consciousness.

Once again, it is quite basic: imagine that you perceive a symbol during an experience of Humanist Hypnosis. This symbol looks like these waves indicating that there are rocks nearby below the surface. There is something that triggers a stir (your emotions, thoughts, etc.)…
This symbol usually remains unconscious: you are unconscious of your deep mechanisms (including in dissociative hypnosis, as it puts you to sleep even more) and the therapist cannot, of course, “see” in you! They will therefore multiply the number of suggestions (metaphors, technical language) to overcome these upheavals. An analyst will help you to become aware of what causes the turmoil (but it may well take years)…
Trying to wipe out the swirls by leaving the rocks below the surface is futile! And only understanding, intellectually, will not change the whole picture (“I know why I wet the bed… but I still wet the bed” as the joke goes).

Understanding” and “acting” are what is needed. Humanist Hypnosis combines the two approaches: when in a state of heightened consciousness, you will “become aware” of the information that causes the turmoil: you will get the intuition of the cause of your emotions, almost always in symbolic form, because the content of your deep mind is too rich to be consciously perceived in any one block.
Let’s imagine that your symbol is a kind of square, which consequently creates… square swirls! (a very rigid, masculine, almost sharp emotion). Being aware of the “true color” of your symbol, its true form (if we use the same wording as the metaphor above, with blue and sun), you are going to change this source form, this true information. For example, you can transform your square into a circle, by softening its angles: immediately, the “whirlwinds” (effects on you) will change and become rounded! (softer emotion, always male in essence, since it is originally a square, but softened by the feminine, the circle).

A real example of therapy

A man wants to quit smoking. In a state of hypnosis (heightened consciousness), he perceives a dragon blowing in his face, and he inhales this “smoke”.
The therapist will assist the person to restore their peace of mind: the patient could have chosen to tame the dragon, make a friend of it, or to make it run away, to get rid of it… After choosing this option, the man decides to grow so tall that the dragon gets scared and runs away. The man is now breathing better and, about ten days later, he will confirm that he has quit smoking.

Without understanding the symbols, the intervention seems very simple and one might wonder where its effectiveness comes from.
There is therefore no need to explain the symbolism to the person, as long as it is “therapy” (solving problems, without changing oneself). It would be different in “psychotherapy” or “coaching” (solving problems because you have made changes yourself, which implies understanding).
To help you understand, as the reader of this article, I will give you the meaning of the symbols for this person (symbolism refers to a particular person, beyond their general characteristics):
– The dragon represents the man’s mother. It is indeed a “negative female” symbol and the patient confirmed that his mother smoked a lot.
– Smoke, as an evanescent symbol, corresponds to “stratum 2” ( limbic) and therefore to emotions (we learn this in training). One could therefore assume a family loyalty (since the man inhales this bond coming from the dragon).
After deciding to “grow”, without realizing what he was really doing (“moving from his mother’s child to an adult man”), the dragon fled (he no longer needed his mother), which broke the bond (the smoke, therefore the cigarette).

This man will probably never understand the miraculous way in which he quit smoking so easily, nor why, without ever talking to his coach or therapist, he now gets along much better with his mother. This is the great benefit of symbolic work in Humanist Hypnosis!

Such a difference in the level of intervention is not very spectacular, subjectively speaking: it does not matter whether the person is in an “Unconscious” or “Conscious” state, they are working on a symbol. And you might ask yourself, “Okay, so what’s the difference?”
– In the first case, we are dealing with an effect, a resultant, with the imprint of a higher cause on the unconscious (“the cake made by the mold”). And as an unconscious material linked to unconscious mechanisms, if we only work at this level, we will have to repeat the intervention several times (metaprograms of repetition, validation, in NLP), work with resistance (normal homeostasis of any system), working blindly (non-specific language, suggestions, etc.). A technique that exists in Ericksonian Hypnosis or New Hypnosis, but which can be dispensed with in Humanist Hypnosis, because we work at the higher level (“the mould that makes the cake”).

– In the second case, we work in Humanist Hypnosis on what generates the symbol, the information that our brain decodes (perceived in symbolic form) and which generates our feelings, thoughts, emotions, etc.
This source information (the Master-Symbol) is changed by the person themselves (no need for special language, no resistance, no possible misunderstanding on the part of the therapist, etc.) and from a level of consciousness that frees them from the limits of their Unconscious (homeostasis, negative emotions, etc.) and opens them to their full creativity.
The resulting symbol, deep (unconscious) and consequently its symptomatic fallout (negative emotions, etc.) immediately change: just as the cake changes shape if given a different mould! The difference is obvious and instantaneous, the person feels it and it is also what indicates the success of the change intervention.

The coach or humanist therapist provides the technique, explains and guides, however, the person acts on it, at their own pace, in their own way, until they have found their solution (which the therapist would not have thought of).

A universe of resources

Another feature of Humanist Hypnosis, and not the least: change work is done in connection (and not in separation) with the world around, life, the collective.

An unconscious symbol comes from a person’s understanding, education, culture, etc. A whole world in which they grew up.
Ordinary, dissociating Hypnosis isolates the person from this world of information. They immerse into themselves and as a result, the mechanisms affected or activated by coaching or therapy are those that belong to the person, what they have internalized.
In Humanist Hypnosis, the person is “open” to the world around them, with more sensory acuity, more consciousness, of themselves and others, they become more aware, “sensitive” and intuitive as a result. Their deep symbols therefore reveal their archetypal origin (ancient symbols, mythological symbols, etc.) at the root of our whole psyche. Thus, in Advanced Symbolic Therapy, we will work on the archetypes of the “Female”, the “Male”, etc. (since we live on a planet where almost all living creatures are either male or female, our minds have been built in accordance with these external ” flows “…).

A practical impact

The person in Humanist Hypnosis has access to a universe of resources (and not only their own)! They benefit from forces that transcend them and are at their origin (for example, our brain is formed according to the language we speak: the world around us therefore has a strong impact, even physical!).

In therapy, the person is usually like a surfer learning to tame the wave of their life. It is perfect and often necessary… But imagine that what is causing the problem is not your personal abilities, but the direction of the wave itself? Imagine that your wave, as good a surfer as you are, is heading straight for the rocks and cliffs?…
Ordinary Hypnosis assists the person in recovering their spontaneity and unconscious resources, such as restoring freedom to nature, to our instincts, to put our physical and psychological machine back on the right path. This is sufficient in many cases, and is what is called “therapy” (treating the person without changing them).

In these rather “mechanical” cases, in which the surfer has lost control of their life, the therapist will assist them to regain a solid contact with the wave (the Unconscious) and get them out of trouble: this is what “allowing Life to return to its natural course” is all about. The patient has nothing to do, nothing to understand, and everything is back in place.

Now imagine that you are a woman in search of Prince Charming: 90% of you (your Unconscious) “call” a man who corresponds to a pattern you made for yourself as a little girl. By example of whom? The only man who has proven to you that he can ” conceive children “: Dad! The evidence is there! You’re here!
Your deep unconscious (reptilian), very practical and pragmatic, even before the limbic brain (emotions, feelings) will not look any further: you need a ” breeder “, and so it ” invites ” to you the type of man who has already proven himself, a man who looks like… your father!

Everything would be perfect if Dad hadn’t been hitting Mom all through your childhood… Indeed, you only meet (quite unintentionally) men who hit you! Since you were a teenager, you don’t know why and although you do everything to avoid them, you inevitably only meet violent men, or men who become violent…
Through the subliminal signals that we constantly emit, our Unconscious acknowledges the Unconscious that are in tune with us, and we feel “good vibrations” for this or that person, by affinity (similarity)… Dear Unconscious!

You know how to surf very well, but your wave is loaded with “Dad”…. Placing yourself in a state of hypnosis to ask your Unconscious to ” do even better ” or even ” differently ” (implicitly ” do the same thing differently “) would be catastrophic.
The only thing we should do is “change the wave”: change the star that guides your life. However, the Unconscious cannot change what it is all by itself: the wave cannot change its direction, even if it wanted to! A therapist, even a benevolent one, cannot choose for you what your life is all about…

If we want to change the direction of an unconscious wave, we must be “what generates the wave”: the Ocean! We must not separate from life but, on the contrary, act in union with the Whole.
The hypnotic inductions “in opening” of Humanist Hypnosis will put you in the state of union of consciousness, a small drop of water united to all the others, the only one able to transform What You Are, when it doesn’t suit you.
As the Ocean, you can more easily “move” in a new way (change what you are made of) and thus create new waves, totally different, that will go in the direction of your choice. In this way, without doing anything else, you will start meeting different people. Magical, isn’t it?

Change in conscience

Finally, another characteristic of Humanist Hypnosis is that it maintains the “contribution of the conscious ego”, as Jungian therapists say. Indeed, Hypnosis, like other techniques for exploring the Unconscious, including drugs, is sometimes criticized for opening the way to the Unconscious only to the detriment of the conscious mind.

In Ericksonian Hypnosis, for example, we learn to eradicate the contribution of the conscious. We learn to saturate and confuse the person, in order to “depotentialize the conscious”. It says it all… However, the “conscious” is “we” in the common sense of the word. It is the only part of us that we are… conscious of, precisely!
Think about it: the conscious, your mind, is the only part of you that will evolve. If we are to understand the expressions “to grow in consciousness” or “to reach a level of consciousness”: most logically, what will ” grow in consciousness” is not the Unconscious – nor can it be the Consciousness (the infinite field of information), already conscious by definition (since it is what makes us conscious, according to Humanist Hypnosis).
This means that it is necessarily always our “little conscious”, the mind, which understands, grows and gains in wisdom, immersing itself more and more consciously in the Unconscious (Un-Conscious: united to our Unconscious) and in the higher Consciousness.

In this perspective, accessing the Unconscious and changing without realizing it (for example, with the use of hallucinogens or traditional hypnotherapy) will never serve our evolution. Eating shamanic mushrooms, for example, opens us wide to our Unconscious – and perhaps even to the Collective Unconscious – but nothing subsists in us enough to benefit from it, no more conscious mind: nothing that learns, except our Consciousness, the only one that remains, such as when we know we dream… except that our Consciousness does not have to grow!

When you are dreaming, the only two parties involved in these conditions are: 1/ the Unconscious (who dreams); 2/ Consciousness (the “you” who knows that you are dreaming). The conscious is either asleep, hypnotized or drugged – in any case, it is deactivated enough for the unconscious to begin dreaming. So it is never there to learn and enjoy the experience…
It is only by being well aware, in the usual sense of the word, lucid and aware of what is happening in us, that we can truly ” increase our level of consciousness “, and heal ourselves permanently, deeply, “in our soul and conscience”, without relapse or symptom drift (message carrier). This is how we humanely grow up.

This personal evolution is not to be taken lightly, because it is the only way to find peace and harmony, personal, marital, relational…
This is why, in Humanist Hypnosis, there is no “conscious / Unconscious” dissociation as in ordinary Hypnosis, nor even “conscious / Consciousness” dissociation (in the way of “going out of the body, expansion of consciousness”).
In Humanist Hypnosis, we always take the “little conscious” on a journey with us (Consciousness) to the unconscious depths, to discover our hidden automatic mechanisms, as in the heights of Consciousness.

In Summary

• Humanist Hypnosis makes it possible to work in Consciousness over unconscious wounds, freeing oneself from the limits of the mechanisms of the Unconscious.
• Humanist Hypnosis empowers the person to act on themselves at a higher level, informational, in their own way and at their own pace.
• Working on symbols allows a deep holistic action (wounds, emotions) without the resistance of the mind.
• Humanist Hypnosis connects the person to a universe of resources, transpersonal, in addition to their own personal resources.
• Humanist Hypnosis preserves the conscious mind, in order to help it grow. In this way, the person becomes more conscious and autonomous.

For more information, read:
« Humanist Hypnosis: changing through States of Heightened Consciousness » – « Consciousness, it exists! » – « The Great History of Life » –  Questions and Answers…