As a preliminary to deciding what to do to change things for the better this very important chapter builds on the analysis of cybernetic processes to emphasise a general and very central technique of Hypnotherapy. We start from the general principle that amplification is involved and the observation that organic systems are typically provided with a multitude of increasing positive feedback loops which act precisely like amplifiers. Many Hypnotic phenomena are shown to centre around the principle of deliberately creating and activating such loops. As a secondary but still important principle we note that in many other cases a pre-existent loop of this nature is present but is held in check by the activity of another system. In such cases it is enough to inactivate the controlling system in order to tap into the activating power of the loop. But even then the inactivation is likely to be achievable by means of establishing a positive feedback loop.
THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER led us up to the point in the therapeutic process at which we have a particular change in mind. It is now necessary to spend a little time looking in more detail at some rather important principles underlying the creation of change in the fields of Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy.
In previous chapters we have touched on the importance of positive feedback loops in Hypnotherapy in creating problems and of negative feedback loops which prevent the problems from disappearing. In this chapter we will be looking at the other side of the coin: we are looking at the ways in which these feedback loops and their manipulation is CENTRAL TO UNDERSTANDING HOW VERY MANY HYPNOTIC TECHNIQUES WORK.
It is worth remembering that our primary tool is sound waves of minimal energy. (The power involved in ordinary conversation is around 10 microwatts, i.e. one millionth of the power of a ten-watt bulb. Most of that acoustic energy goes into imperceptibly heating up the room, and only a very small fraction will hit an ear-drum. An ear can in fact respond to about one million millionth of
the acoustic power of typical conversation: one million million millionth of the power of a ten-watt bulb! Remember that when anyone says of a remark, "How illuminating!") Somehow we have to use this minute amount of energy to create large-scale changes in the functioning of a human being.
This can only be done in one way: by amplification. Consequently we are, in the field of Hypnosis, dealing constantly and at many levels with the problem of amplifying changes.
We will see in this chapter that the primary mechanism for amplification is the creation of a positive feedback loop. Closely related to this is the removal of a negative feedback mechanism that is limiting an existing positive feedback loop.
Let us start by emphasising the extent to which we can power a change by introducing increasing positive feedback loops.
The atom bomb works because the greater the number of neutrons flying about in a lump of uranium, the greater the number of uranium atoms which disintegrate as a result of a collision with a neutron. But the greater the number of disintegrations, the greater the number of neutrons flying about, since each of these uranium atoms (of the rare 235-isotope variety) releases several neutrons as it decays. In shorthand:
Ê {neutrons} Æ Ê {splitting of uranium atoms} Æ Ê {neutrons}.
[For meaning of symbols see Symbols.]
This simple process forms a powerful increasing feedback loop which leads to the well-known mushroom cloud, provided only that the lump of uranium is not so small that too many of the neutrons escape from it before they get a chance to hit an atom.
Anyone familiar with the workings of a laser (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) will realise that there is a similar process at work there. Without explaining the terms in detail: the greater the number of photons of light in the laser, the greater the number of excited atoms which are stimulated into emitting further photons, which in turn leads to the stimulation of yet more atoms until nearly all of the atoms have decayed from their initial excited state, and all the photons emerge in step. In shorthand this is:
Ê {photons} Æ Ê {emissions} Æ Ê {photons}.
In common parlance we may call such increasing positive feedback loops the "bandwagon effect": the more people who get on the bandwagon, the more other people are drawn to get on, and so on.
It is sometimes also called the "snowball effect": you picture a large snowball rolling down a snowy hill, growing larger and larger as it collects the snow it passes over. The bigger it gets the more snow it collects, which makes it still bigger, and so on. (People tend to use "vicious circle"
when they do not like the result and "bandwagon effect" when they do: but both are positive feedback loops, and may be either increasing or decreasing in terms of activity.)
The bandwagon or snowball effect can be seen at all levels of the universe. We have seen it in lasers and atom bombs. We may also see it in the condensation of intragalactic dust to form stars: the more dust collects into one place, the greater its gravitational force to attract more dust, which increases the combined mass, making it possible to attract more dust, and so on.
In economics the more successful a product is, the cheaper the unit cost, which makes it possible to advertise more widely and sell at a lower price and attract more customers, which allows a further reduction of the unit cost and so on until the market saturates. We have the increasing positive feedback loop for sales:
Ê {Sales} Æ Ì{Cost} Æ Ê {Sales}.
Once you see the pattern, it becomes visible all around you at all levels.
In our field we have already seen increasing positive feedback loops being involved in the creation of problems such as blushing:
Ê {expectation of blushing} Æ Ê {blushing}Æ Ê {expectation}.
Now we are going to emphasise the fact that the active creation and utilisation of such loops in order to amplify change is one of the primary techniques of Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy.
An example that has been cited already is the simple Hypnotic phenomenon of hand levitation.
From the moment that there is the slightest movement in the hand, the feedback is clear: the perception of movement leads to an increase in the expectation of movement, which in turn leads to more movement:
Ê {movement} Æ Ê {expectation} Æ Ê {movement}.
In a similar way a slight sleepiness in the Subject can be amplified by the Hypnotist who creates a loop:
Ì{arousal} Æ Ê {thought, "I am sleepy"} Æ Ì{arousal}
which, as long as it is maintained, will lead to decreasing arousal or increasing sleepiness. I have written this in terms of arousal rather than sleepiness firstly because it is closer to our principles of working as closely as possible with the notions of activation. The second reason for this example is to demonstrate a decreasing positive feedback loop, to revise the fact that it is the adjective positive which is the key one when we are trying to amplify a change. The primary difference between a decreasing and an increasing positive loop for a given system is merely that in the former the change is limited by the fact that the activity of the system cannot be less than zero. In the latter case any limits will be imposed by other considerations, such as the effects of other systems.
An "induction" routine will often contain repetitions, such as, "Your legs will feel heavier and heavier ... heavier and heavier ... heavier and heavier", to be followed a few minutes later by,
"Your legs are now still heavier ... heavier and heavier." Here again we have a procedure which has been found empirically to be effective in producing the required effect, but the mechanism passes without explicit comment in most books. This is not to say that practitioners are not aware of what they are doing: it is more that there is no established theoretical framework in which to express it. With the language and notation we have developed we can throw into high relief the fact that the repetition is part of the process of establishing a feedback loop. The first mention of heaviness will establish an expectation of heaviness; after a while a slight heaviness will normally be perceived; once this happens, it will increase the expectation, which will in turn increase the perception. The task of the Hypnotist is simply to draw attention repeatedly to these two systems while they build each other up systematically.
If you were to turn back to look at the list of characteristic Hypnotic phenomena in Chapter 2, you would find many simple phenomena that can be produced in a great number of people with no other "induction" than the establishment of a direct feedback loop between the phenomenon and the expectation of the phenomenon.
It is really a very worthwhile practice for anyone training in Hypnosis to attempt to create these phenomena with no preamble or induction by simply establishing positive feedback loops in a fully alert and conscious individual. Such groundwork gives an excellent insight into what a great part of our subject is about.
As another example, the question, "I wonder if there is a small grain of sand in your shoe at this moment?" establishes a mild expectation that there might be. This tends to amplify the response of any nerves in the sole of the foot. If we keep on asking the question there will generally come a time when one small group of nerves happen to fire more than average. This will reinforce the expectation that there might be something there. This leads in turn to a greater amplification of the messages from those nerves, relative to the others, in an attempt to find out if there really is a grain there. But this makes it seem as if there is something there, and so the expectation is amplified still further. Within a few minutes this feedback loop will increase to the point where there is a clearly "hallucinated" grain in the shoe. It is perhaps even easier to create an itch in the nose in a similar way.
We may note en passant that the above process is very similar to that which is current in the hypochondriac, whereby the expectation of a symptom leads to small signs of the symptom, which build up the expectation and so on.
The common form of loop which we are meeting here is the simple:
Ê {expectation} Æ Ê {perception} Æ Ê {expectation}.
Note that the idea that belief is an important factor in Hypnosis is common. What this normally fails to take into account is the fact that a belief which is not accompanied by some evidence confirming the belief will tend to wither away: only those which seem to be confirmed by experience are retained and strengthened. In shorthand we have:
Ê {confirmation} Æ Ê {belief}, Ì{confirmation} Æ Ì{belief}.
It is mainly when we have a situation in which a belief produces its own confirmation that a positive feedback loop is established which leads to a deeply entrenched belief. We have the phrase, "a self-fulfilling prophecy" to describe such beliefs. Once they are fairly established they become unshakeable.
So, to put things in another way, ANY of the simple phenomena we have listed may be produced with absolutely nothing in the way of "induction" other than creating a self-fulfilling prophecy by the fixing of attention on an appropriate loop involving the phenomenon and the expectation of the phenomenon for long enough for the loop to become established.
In cases where they cannot be established, the most likely cause is one of the following. a) The attention of the person has wandered. b) The person has been able actively to entertain the belief that nothing will happen; when nothing happens, that belief becomes stronger; this ensures that the phenomenon is less likely to happen and we have a positive feedback loop - but of the
opposite kind to that desired. c) There is simply not enough amplification as we go around the loop to produce a significant effect.
We have already seen that the traditional tests of "Hypnotic responsiveness" are far better understood as a way of testing how easily one system may activate another. But it is very often the case that one system will not naturally activate another enough for our purposes, so that the effect has to be amplified. In this chapter we see HOW a typical Hypnotic procedure of creating a positive feedback loop is used to amplify a small effect into a large one to create the dramatic effects we associate with our field.
In the chapter on tests, feedback loops were not emphasised, because at that stage in Part A such things had not been described. It should now be possible to understand why a professional Hypnotist or Hypnotherapist may get far more dramatic effects than are readily achieved in a laboratory test under "standard" conditions. The former can tune a feedback loop far more accurately to the individual Subject. The latter, who is using the same tape-recorded approach for each potential Subject, will be less likely to activate the strongest form of feedback loop in each.
It should also be clear now that the simple idea that it is straightforward to establish how easily one system acts on another was a little naïve. We can now distinguish the ease with which one system can activate another directly from the ease with which it can do it when an increasing positive feedback loop has been called into play.
In an abstract form we now distinguish between the case in which we are merely examining, for two systems A and B, the strength of:
Ê A Æ Ê B
and the case in which B also acts on A and so we are examining:
Ê A Æ Ê B Æ Ê A.
Even if at times it may be hard in practice to distinguish between the two, it is important to bear the distinction in mind.
In the practical context of Hypnotherapy the advantage of thinking about and working towards the creation of increasing positive feedback loops to amplify our efforts leads to a great increase in efficiency. IT IS EQUIVALENT TO THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN USING POWER TOOLS (WHICH AMPLIFY EFFORT) AND HAND TOOLS.
You may now be beginning to understand why the Hypnotherapist has more power to change a person than other therapists. It is through having learned skills which can now be more clearly seen as highly rational, scientific and practical: skills in using the intrinsic systems of mind and body to create positive feedback loops to power change.
Next we will take a look at the other side of amplification: the elimination of negative feedback elements which prevent a positive feedback loop from taking off. In a nuclear reactor an explosion is prevented by the introduction of rods of a moderating material which absorbs neutrons. If there is the slightest danger of over-heating, these rods are pushed in a little further to absorb some of the extra neutrons and the reactor is dampened down a bit. We have the negative feedback loop:
Ê {neutrons} Æ Ê {moderator} Æ Ì{neutrons}.
The brain relies very heavily on the use of such negative feedback loops to inhibit activity. The action of an enormous number of the neurons in our brains is to inhibit the action of the thousands of neurons that they are in contact with. If it were not for this fact, every neuron in the brain would soon be firing in an orgy of unco-ordinated activity as a chain reaction of mutual excitation took place. There would be massive hallucinations of all kinds: visual and sensory, ecstatic or agonising; frenetic activity of the muscles, and so on. I suppose that to experience such a thing would be not unlike feeling an atom bomb exploding in the brain.
Most of the peripheral nerves of our bodies are continuously sending messages inwards towards the brain. But most of them fail to activate any conscious response most of the time. Somewhere along the line they pass through a subsystem which at that time prevents the message from being passed on.
An exactly analogous process is visible in human organisations. At any given time many customers may be complaining about a product to salespersons. In many cases the complaint is actively prevented from going further. In the rarer case it gets passed on to a manager, where it may again end. If it happens to be a particularly serious complaint it may get up to the Managing Director's Assistant, or even, but only very rarely indeed, to the Managing Director. At each level we are seeing an active process of preventing the message getting any further. This is, in fact, necessary to the good organisation, since if the MD had to handle every complaint in person he or she would have no time for anything else.
In the task of picking up a pencil, the action is a result of the amplification of the minute amounts of energy involved in thinking of the task into the much larger amounts involved in contracting the muscles of the fingers. But there has also to be a continuous process of monitoring the contraction and limiting or controlling it to make it a useful one.
These simple examples illustrate the principles which run through the organisation of our whole bodies and nervous systems. On the one hand we need processes of amplification, and on the other hand we have to be able to prevent them getting out of hand. The eye can multiply the effect of a few photons of light falling onto a few cells in the retina until a very large proportion of the entire cortex is activated. (Suppose that you are lost at sea in a small boat and have just seen the merest flicker of light from a lighthouse.) But on the other hand we need to be able to control these amplification processes or they will get out of hand. If every few photons were enough to trigger off activity in the entire cortex it would be totally overwhelming.
The important ideas that we want to emerge from these examples are first the general one, of the complex and extensive network of amplification and control systems which is involved in all our thoughts and actions, which is the essence of cybernetics. The second, and specific, idea is that amplification can be achieved not merely by creating some form of increasing positive feedback loops but also by reducing the activity of a process which is limiting the action of an already existing amplifying loop.
As some further simple examples of this consider first a simplistic picture of rabbit numbers in the
As some further simple examples of this consider first a simplistic picture of rabbit numbers in the