HYPNOTHERAPY
WHAT WE ARE LED TO BELIEVE
The fact is we are all in some level of trance all day every day. You might think is rubbish. But no, it's true.
Do we not, each and every one of us spend most of our days absorbed by thoughts, planning events, and picturing the outcome? How sad it is that at school as children we are told, "Wakey wakey, come on, stop daydreaming!" Children are especially susceptible to going into a quite deep trance, (daydreaming), and it is at this level of mind new ideas, inventions, and intuition come into play.
Many activities in life are so hypnotic. Driving a car for 
instance. In this country lorry drivers call it "autopilot", and in the USA it's called "highway hypnosis". The classic is motorway driving, and presumably you'll be aware of this if you are a driver. You are travelling a long distance on the motorway and before you know it you've reached your destination, or you are aware you've passed Junction 3 only to notice the next one is Junction 6, and you have no recall of missing the services. Or even travelling from A to B and then forgetting which route you took. All drivers have experienced this. We have all noticed how on a long journey the return trip seems shorter. (From Article Below)
I have always found this interesting and I thought this related to how we sometimes see, but do not know what we are seeing at the time. I thought of driving, say on a highway. I know I've caught myself driving (even today) in total control, but thinking of other things as well. Then I'll "wake up" from this "day dream" and question how I was driving in total control without really knowing it. Is it because I may know the path? So how does our brain work this way? While driving, we are seeing, but not knowing how we are driving because we are blinded by the "day dreams" we are having. This relates to Elkins' chapter 2, The Object Stares Back. He states, "The world is filled with things we do not see, even though they are right in front of us" (54). When driving, many things are in front of you, but when stuck in the "day dream" we are blinded and cannot see.
Great example. I've been on the road countless times, just drifting away to some music and realized that 40 minutes has passed me by and I have no recollection of anything that has happened. It's actually pretty scary. I would imagine it scares most of us (the other drivers on that same highway are doing the exact same thing!). That state of hypnosis is an interesting, tiresome state to be in, and our ability to multitask during that time is definitely something that shouldn't go unnoticed. Buckle Up..
ReplyDeleteHaha this is so funny because I just got done with a three hour car drive, and was amazed at how fast it went by. This was a great example, and one that is easily relatable to. It's weird to think that when our vision doesn't change too much, how time seems to blur by at a fast speed.
ReplyDeleteI find the state of hypnosis that we daze into very intriguing. As I think about it I experience it when I am driving or even when I am sitting in a comfy chair. If I am a passenger in a car I can feel it most. As I start to look at trees as we drive by them I begin to lose focus on the details in the branches and the leaves. But as i slowly slip into a daze the details get lost as my eyes glaze over and I become hypnotized. This happens to every person at some point regardless of where they may be. To me, this state of 'hypnosis' is a form of meditation, where one can temporarily block out hectic activities and zone out to a clear mental state not having to worry about the details of things around them.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Marlon on this; it's happened to me more times than I can count and it's not any less scary the more it happens. Driving home from school is the worst. It's the longest drive I make on a regular basis and I find myself skipping exits on the Jersey Tpke (and for those of you who are ever on the Jersey Tpke, you know how far apart those exits are, which makes this all the more frightening) all the time. Fortunately for me, and a bunch of my friends who have mentioned this happening to them as well, I've never gotten into an accident as a result of this "auto-pilot" state, which makes me wonder, while it is scary, is it really that dangerous?
ReplyDeleteI agree it is amazing how many times I have been driving and I when I get to where I need to be I do not even remember how I actually got there. It is almost as if I was just a passenger in the car, like it was completely automatic. I feel that this happens a lot to me too when I am reading. Sometimes when I am not concentrated at all I will read pages and pages (actually see the letters) but not remember at all. It is as if for a second I forget how to read and all the letters in from of me are just like symbols I skim through.
ReplyDeleteThis really made me think of how uninvolved I sometimes am with my vision because I do tend to be daydreaming a LOT.
great post!
Great post. I think this directly links to Mike's June 8th post on Periphery. The reality of highway hypnosis is scary, and it only become scarier when we read about how unreliable our peripheral vision is compared to attentive and focused sight. Although the point on peripheral vision can be nil if you wholeheartedly buy into what Elkins says about not being able to see what's right in front of us even when we are trying to look!
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