Is the Drug Experience Real?
Public release date: 7-September-2008
Sean Gately
Is the Drug Experience Real? Hypnosis may say different…
Hypnosis has a long and often varied history of medicinal purposes and entertainment value. For generations people were not quite sure what to make out of it, from an extremist view of mind manipulation, to legitimate scientific studies offering benefits to positive suggestion, Hypnosis has worn many hats.
Many people believe that the induced person actually wants to see, hear, and experience the Hypnotic induction, and so strongly wants to believe the suggestions are true that they make them true, which I believe is accurate.
This brings me to the title asking the question, is the drug experience a real experience or something caused and stimulated by the expectation of the drug? I think it’s a little of both, let me explain.
A drug experience carries with it expectations of what will happen once it is consumed, so therefore expectation is built up, suggestion is added about (what the drug will do) and mixed with the actual drug chemical makeup can produce Hypnotic phenomenon.
Recent Brain studies have shown that people who are suggestible to Hypnotic suggestion show that when they act on the suggestions given, their brain shows profound changes. The suggestions researchers reported changes what people see, hear, feel and believe.
I have some personal insight into this phenomenon as I am a certified hypnotherapist who induces a Hypnotic state of mind on a daily basis. Although not everyone will go to the depths of actually seeing or hearing what is not there, a great number of people can and do.
A person can experience a wide variety of Hypnotic and mind altering experiences that include: Taste, Smell, Vision, Amnesia, Touch, Sound, and more. The one caveat to this seems to be the person must accept the suggestion when it is given as they always have the ability to deny as they are still in full control over their decision process.
By now everyone has heard of the placebo effect and it’s amazing benefits. A typical placebo study involves a control placebo group, and the actual medication group. Each group is told what to expect when taking the medication, and results are watched and analyzed. Amazingly often times the placebo group will have positive impacts on non existing medication just because they believed it to be so.
If the power of the mind is such that a placebo can supply amazing positive results, then it is therefore possible to experience the entire drug experience by value of suggestion. These suggestions have been building in us through intense news coverage, parents, friends, and everything else we have seen or heard. Most people do not ingest random drugs, and require explanation of effect, therefore suggestion has been placed on (what to expect) when ingested, and we then experience it.
Under Hypnosis, if a person would really like to experience flying, you can create a visual experience and add suggestions that once they are awakened and hear the word “flight” they will believe they are a bird flying high above the earth, experiencing everything a bird would experience. When they awaken and are told this they will actually believe and feel as though they are flying.
Is it then impossible to believe that the idea of drug / effect is created wholly or partially from the depth of the subconscious mind where the same flight experience is created? I believe that drugs do have a chemical makeup, but belief in the effect, habit, withdrawal is so strong that the experience actually is created.
It is hard to quantify the difference between what is chemically real, and what are only experienced expectations to justify either if the drug experience is “all in the mind”, solely chemical reaction from the drug, or a bit of both. What we do understand is that the power of the mind is so powerfull it can literally create experiences based on suggestion and belief
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