A Journey Through the Subconscious--From the Hypnosis Craze to Zen Mediation

Since the Chinese-language publication here two years ago of Brian L. Weiss's Many Lives, Many Masters, which describes his experiences as a psychiatrist using hypnosis in therapy, there has been great interest in Taiwan about using hypnosis in therapy and in bringing back memories of past lives.

The book is remarkable sheerly as a publishing phenomenon. In only two years, sales here have exceeded the 40,000 copies sold in America over six years. Its publishers, who hadn't thought much on the book to begin with, were flabbergasted. "When taking population into account, the book is already ten times more popular here than in America," says doctor and writer Wang Yi-chia. "This book probably made a bigger splash in Taiwan than anywhere else."

But Many Lives, Many Masters was just the beginning of Taiwan's passion for hypnosis. On its heels came a follow-up volume by Weiss, Through Time into Healing, and it too sold well. In November of last year, in the midst of this hypnosis hubbub, entertainment entrepreneurs invited the Australian hypnotist Martin St. James to perform in Taiwan. In his five-show tour of the island, 95% of the tickets were sold. And when he did shows for television, the advertising spots sold out, and the shows had the highest ratings for their time slot. Under hypnosis, Shih Wen-pin, the prince of Taiwanese-language crooners, who has an image of gentleness and modesty, suddenly became bold and high-flying Superman, startling and delighting the audience.

The positive audience response sparked a "hypnosis war" on the airwaves. A hypnotist from America, Tom Silver, went on television to "get people to relive their past lives." When the show's producer put a small notice in a newspaper about looking for volunteers to be hypnotized, all the places were filled within just two days, and many people expressed regret about having missed the train.

Up on the screen the singer Jay Miao, a returned overseas Chinese from America, said that in his past life he was a American Indian brave. Besides shouting in "what could have been an Indian language," in an excited state he proclaimed with tears running down his face, "Hate can't solve problems; love and tolerance are the lessons I must learn in this life." It made a big impression on people.

Martin St. James's hypnosis stage shows took Taiwan by storm. On the one hand audiences betrayed a desire to see the bizarre, and on the other they displayed curiosity about the paranormal. （photo by John Yang）

A psycho-spiritual riddle?

While hypnosis was creating excitement among the general public, psychiatrists' skeptical comments kept turning up in the papers. They warned that it was best to leave hypnosis for the psychiatrist's couch, that hypnotizing people on stage could cause emotional problems afterwards and should be prohibited. But society was deaf to these warnings until they bore out. A vocational college student became depressed after reliving her past life traumas under Silver's direction, and was brought to the psychiatric ward at National Taiwan University Hospital.

This put a damper on things. Amid curious and suspicious whispering, Silver left Taiwan. The plug was pulled on televised performances, and the real face of hypnosis was obscured in a dark and mysterious fog.

Yet pulling hypnosis off the airwaves didn't mean the end of Taiwanese interest in it. The Taiwanese psychiatrist Edwin Chen, who had practiced in America for 20 years, published To Lives, with Love, billed as "the first book by a Taiwanese psychiatrist about past-life therapy." He became a popular speaker on college campuses, invited by curious students to perform "group therapy" to help them unleash their hidden potential. What's more, every summer the psychology department at National Taiwan University holds a "psychology camp" to help recruit students. This year, "Hypnosis and Developing Potential" was included in the curriculum for the first time. When news got out, 160 students enrolled for the camp whereas only 100 were expected. And as Chen spoke in the lecture hall, the enthusiastic questions asked by the students showed the depth of their interest in this field.

"The paranormal poses the greatest challenge to human wisdom," Wang Yi-chia says.

The paranormal is pervasive in Taiwanese folk beliefs, seen in fortune telling, the calling up of spirits, the use of divination blocks to ask questions of the gods, and the respect and fear people show for ghosts. Two years ago, when Chen had just opened his hypnosis therapy clinic after returning to Taiwan, word got out quickly, and his waiting room was always full. Besides those with psychological and physical ailments, some people were even coming as "part two of a fortune-telling or communication with the spirits." Some came to see "about my relationship with my boyfriend in our past lives." Those who felt hounded by ghosts wanted to go back and find the source of the bad blood. One guy even wanted to know the winning number to the Mark Six Hong Kong lottery. There wasn't a strange request that Chen didn't get. In America, only those who are really ill visit psychiatrists. Under the influence of Christianity and scientific positivism, the attitudes there toward former-life phenomena contrast sharply with those of Taiwan.

With the craze for hypnosis overtaking Taiwan, they've even been exploring this spiritual realm on college campuses. The photo shows Edwin Chen lecturing on "hypnosis and uncovering potential" at the National Taiwan University "psychology camp.".

Probing the subconscious

Although many Taiwanese are fascinated by hypnosis, many more don't know what to make of it. In Western horror movies and novels, it is portrayed as a tool of black-clad schemers that allows them to control other people's minds. In entertainment variety shows, hypnosis is just presented as Western magic. To entertain the audience, the hypnotized are directed to do funny things or achieve some sort of acrobatic pose like standing on one hand.

But the truth is that hypnosis is a secondary form of therapy in Western medicine. For depression, psychosomatic illness and pain and other emotional problems that could lead to psychological or physical problems, hypnosis can be used to probe the cause of the problem and to provide therapy. Many doctors used hypnosis to stop pain when there was a shortage of anesthetics in past wars. Even today a few doctors and dentists use hypnosis to induce a painless state before delivering a baby or pulling a tooth. Some doctors even use suggestion during hypnosis to help people to stop smoking or stick to a diet.

The English word "hypnosis" comes from the Greek name for the god of sleep, Hypnos. Though it superficially resembles sleep, "in reality it's when a person's mind goes from consciousness to a deeper state within the subconscious," notes Edwin Chen.

One scientific theory is that in this state the right hemisphere of the brain, which controls imagination, memory, creativity, and sensibility, is active, whereas the left hemisphere of the brain, which controls analytical thought, value judgments, and logical thinking, is suppressed. Someone who is hypnotized enters a trance-like state controlled by the right hemisphere.

Because the general public's impressions of hypnosis come from the Western media, many believe that hypnosis is an "import." Wang Wu-shih, the head of psychiatric therapy at Kaohsiung's Municipal Mingsheng Hospital, says that "hypnotic states" are in fact psycho-spiritual states found among all of the world's peoples.

In fact, no one is a stranger to hypnotic states. Listening to the sound of water, monotonous music or watching the white lines on a highway can all bring the mind to a trance-like state. It's just that most people are likely to get drowsy and go to sleep. But with direction, one's mind can still maintain "focus" and high sensitivity in this state of extreme relaxation.

Shamans around the world use "self-induced" hypnosis. Taoist jitongs are the best example of such practitioners in Chinese folk culture. （photo by Liu Wei-chun）

Are electromagnetic waves merry pranksters?

One can see repeated use of hypnosis from ancient times to the present in both Chinese and Western history--most often to cure diseases.

In primitive tribal villages, witch doctors would often make use of ceremonies and spells to get the ill into a trance-like state, before inviting gods to enter and eliminate the pain or disease. In the murals of the ancient civilizations of Egypt and Assyria, there are depictions of hypnotizing patients for pulling teeth, setting bones or performing surgery. People could also slowly enter trance-like states during collective religious ceremonies and tribal rites. Chieftains and high priests would then often use the power of suggestion to impart a teaching or reinforce their own authority. Today, hypnosis is largely used in the West in stage shows or psychiatric therapy; whereas in the East it is used in folk medicine and among religious devotees.

Zhenjiu Dacheng, a classic book about acupuncture, describes the use of the "Zhu You Ke," a kind of spell. Spells are also used as therapy in the Orient, such as when traditional Chinese doctors write out characters in a trance-like state, burn them and have the patient drink water containing the ashes--all the while chanting. "This has the effect of hypnotizing or calming down patients. By then adding suggestion, one can strengthen the therapeutic effects," says Chen Chao-ming, head of the department of traditional medicine at Taipei's Veterans General Hospital.

What seem like "strange powers obtained through invoking the gods" are not that difficult to explain using modern science. "Spells are a kind of sound wave vibration. The body's organs and brain functions also create electric waves. If waves from an outside power source are in harmony with the waves created within a person's body, it can help to increase the effectiveness of acupuncture or medicines." Chen says that patients should first be brought into a hypnotic state in order to open up their channels for accepting energy waves. The various spells and incantations used to calm those who have seen ghosts are most effective with small children, because their nervous systems' electro-mag-netic waves are relatively free from the interference of civilization and the environment, and so children are more receptive to outside magnetic fields.

Hypnosis in psychotherapy can also be applied to groups, but it requires accredited psychiatrists and nurses to provide care according to individual circumstances.

Channels between men and gods

Besides "inducing hypnotism from the outside," the shamans of all the world's traditional societies have always been skilled at carrying out "self-imposed hypnosis." In trance-like states they can "see" the future and the past, make prophecies and serve as mediums.

Jitongs, or Taoist shamans, are the self-induced hypnotists with whom the Chinese are most familiar. They enter a trance-like state while peacefully seated, open up their channels of spiritual sensitivity, and then serve as bridges between people and the spirits.

A Mr. Lin, who drives a cab in Taipei and on the weekend "volunteers" to be a jitong, says that the process of his training began with sitting peacefully. Then a zhoutou (a Taoist priest who works in front of the altar at a temple) would say a spell at his side. At this time his concentration would focus on the sound of the spell. Thus was he trained to allow his mental state to enter a state of "self emptiness." It took him two years to accomplish. Because there is an absence of self in such a state, it is easy for the electro-magnetic waves of the outside universe to enter the brain and the body, allowing him to utter incomprehensible "mysterious truths" or to walk around making strange motions. "When I'm in that trance I'm just like a radio, opening up a channel between people and the gods. When I wake up, I don't know what I've said or what I've done."

Western psychiatry has long held that hypnosis entails "changing mental channels"--moving from the conscious to the subconscious. But what happens after the channel is changed? What kind of mental states do the hypnotized enter? How deep and expansive is the subconscious? With little clinical experience or research, opinions differ vastly. Just mentioning "past life experiences" is enough to draw forth warring theories. And the idea of a medium calling up spirits is regarded as even farther out there in the realm of shadows and mystery.

Wang Wu-shih, who has researched hypnosis therapy for two years, holds that some Eastern spiritual practices such as yoga and different forms of meditation are, in fact, kinds of self-induced hypnotic-like states, wherein a person directs his own inner force to transform consciousness and reach a state of both relaxation and high concentration. Western hypnosis uses outside forces--such as the lights and sounds used in therapy and hypnotism stage shows. Droning music and repeated chants can help to induce a deeper state of consciousness. In contrast, many of the practitioners of Eastern forms of self-induced hypnosis "focus on the feelings of their own bodies" to enter hypnotic-like states, by concentrating their mind on being aware of the body's physical position, by counting breaths, or by feeling the diaphragm rise and fall. Such states help them to eliminate "unwanted desires" and achieve a unity of mind.

The human subconscious is like a multi-layered treasure box. How many memories of past lives does it hold? It's a riddle still awaiting an answer. （black-and-white photos courtesy of Hu Chen-hsiung）

For oneself or through others

Up to now, hypnosis in the Western world has been induced by someone else, largely in therapy or for entertainment purposes. In the East, "self-induced hypnosis" has been practiced by Eastern religious devotees uninterrupted for more than 1000 years. This makes for an interesting contrast.

Psychologist Yu Chien-kuei believes that it all stems from basic cultural differences. "The East has largely been influenced by Buddhism, which believes that at heart everyone has a Buddha-like nature, and that one must rely on searching one's own soul to come to a clear understanding. People can not be helped spiritually by outsiders, and so they must 'cure themselves.' The West, on the other hand, has been influenced by Judeo-Christian ideas about the will of God, and puts more stock in the assistance and guidance of authority figures. Westerners are more apt to accept someone else's cure." And because self-induced therapy cannot be quantified and objectively recorded, "personal experience remains personal experience." Yet in the West, where someone else gets involved, a typical set of objective measures can be deduced. And so in "the art of hypnosis" there are basic models to follow.

Such "objective methods" may make hypnosis more acceptable to the general public, but they also limit it to shallower depths. Wang Wu-shih pays special attention to the depth to which Eastern religious devotees delve "to awaken to the truth": "When people repeatedly enter the subconscious to explore, their quest goes beyond the level of treating emotional problems and disease to probing at the very nature of life."

"But self-induced hypnosis is not the same thing as the Buddhist concept of 'awakening to the truth.' It merely constitutes the first steps that devotees must take. It can help to eliminate such negative emotions as psychological conflicts and contradictory impulses. But what's principally guiding the devotees is 'true knowledge and true vision'-- which is precisely the meaning behind Buddhism," says Huang Wen-hsiang, a psychiatrist with a clinical Pingtung who has many years of experience as a Buddhist devotee.

Lin Ku-fang, a scholar of folk music with much experience in Zen practices, points out that while Western hypnosis and Eastern Zen meditation are both concerned with "getting to a relaxed state and controlling the mind," they are--because of the "self-examination" stressed in Zen techniques--quite different in their essence.

"In hypnosis, 'I' am an object, taking the suggestions of the hypnotist; there is a division between the realm of the mind and the outside world. Whereas in Zen practices, "I" am both subject and object. In a deep Zen state, the mind becomes totally clear. While very discerning of any outside movements, one is entirely unmoved by them. It is a state of high self-realization. Attaining such self-understanding makes a tremendous difference in one's person and thoughts.

In the East, Buddhists "awaken to the truth" of the characteristics of the Buddha, whereas Confutianists and Taoists speak of a union of heaven and man, which involves a realm where the individual merges with the universal. "If a person's mind can be so free from worry and doubt, what kind of mental difficulties could possibly remain?" asks Wang Wu-shih.

The methods employed by Eastern religious devotees are similar in conception to self-induced hypnosis, but they take them a step farther to a higher realm of "awakening to the truth.".

Medical suppression?

Turning from the exalted state of saints and philosophers, let's come back to look at some of the methods commonly used in Chinese society, such as the possession of jitongs and the calming of those shocked by ghosts. These are all folk methods. Few Taiwanese psychiatrists use hypnosis. If hypnotic states are mental psycho-spiritual phenomena shared by all of humanity, then why is hypnosis almost never used in modern Chinese medicine, whereas in the West, which puts so much stock on scientific proof, hypnosis has already become an established secondary treatment?

In the West, hypnosis goes back to the middle of the 18th century, when an Austrian doctor named Franz Anton Mesmer developed a theory about "animal magnetic force." He believed that all beasts had a fluid with magnetic force flowing around the body, and that even some inanimate objects such as wood, metal and water were magnetic. People got ill, he reasoned, because somewhere in their bodies the flow of their magnetic fluid was being blocked. Different metals, he thought, would have different kinds of therapeutic effects. He once carried out a rather funny "group therapy," for which he filled a large bucket with electrical conductors like glass, water, and magnetized iron. Amid them he erected an iron bar, upon which was tied a needle. He then pulled out a lot of wire and guided the magnetic flux to the sick areas of his patients' bodies. The patients held onto the wire while sitting in a circle around the bucket. The doctor would appear in a black silk robe, solemnly walking around the bucket while assistants at the side played monotonous music. The group's attention was focused on the top of the needle, and in this strange atmosphere, they entered a hypnotic-like state. Then people would start yelling or crying or having other strong emotional reactions. When the physical problems appeared, Mesmer and his assistants would massage the afflicted part of the body to "prompt the magnetic fluid to pass through." The results appeared to be quite good.

Mesmer got more and more patients, but he also attracted attacks from other doctors, and these eventually caused his departure for distant Paris. There he likewise established a large practice before the French government formed an investigatory committee to examine his theories. The committee found no evidence to support the contention that people were magnetic and judged that his theories and methods were unscientific. This not only did great damage to Mesmer's reputation, but it also put an "unscientific" label on hypnosis that has stuck to the present day.

Nonetheless, the seeds for hypnosis therapy had been planted in continental Europe. Various doctors continued using it, until the 19th century when Freud passed judgment on it. Because hypnosis was difficult to comprehend, and not everyone was easy to hypnotize, and because he once experienced an embarrassing incident of a patient "transferring" her love onto him after hypnosis, Freud viewed hypnotic states as mentally ill states, rejected the use of hypnosis and created psychoanalysis, which became the mainstream of psychotherapy. Hypnosis has yet to recover from its fall from favor.

Yet because some doctors were influenced by Mesmer, therapeutic methods still managed to survive on the periphery. And in some university parapsychology classes, hypnosis is a formal research topic.

Under hypnosis, the imaginary seems like the real, and the boundaries of time and space blur.

Folk popular, doctor disdained

Because the Taiwanese medical establishment now follows mainstream Western medicine, many doctors say that hypnosis is "a mysterious art that is impossible to understand and hard to make sense of." They regard such folk practices as spells, charms to calm people shocked by ghosts, and the trances of jitongs, as just plain superstitious and ridiculous. And as for meditation, yoga and Zen contemplation, these they view as the realm of religion, completely distinct from the domain of science.

Wang Yi-chia, a doctor and writer, holds that Chinese society has revered Confucianism above all else for 2000 years. The concept that "Confucius has nothing to say about the strange, the violent, the immoral or the spiritual" has influenced many doctors, resulting in their approaching the supernatural with an attitude that differs sharply from the curiosity showed by most people.

Currently, Edwin Chen and Wang Wu-shih are the only two psychiatrists to focus on research of hypnosis therapy in Taiwan. Chen, because of his Christian background and scientific training, did not believe in "reincarnation." But after more than 10 years of experience with hypnosis therapy, his patients' constant references to "past life" phenomena deeply troubled him, and he resolved to return to Taiwan, a fertile land for folk beliefs, and find even more cases to conduct therapeutic research.

Wang began to research and perform hypnosis after a patient suffering from depression asked him to proceed with hypnosis therapy two years ago. He viewed his patient's emotional and physical state sparked by painful past experiences as a kind of "unusual mental power." Wang is the first to employ the powers of mental projection, determination and imagination as used by Eastern religious devotees to deal with these "negative energies." For example, to get his patients to release their emotions, he uses the Buddhist tantric "methods for seeing and thinking" as well as methods making use of modern physics that involve light, heat and magnetism. He teaches patients to use deep meditation to focus their energy on the part of the body that is uncomfortable in daily life. He also uses yoga to dispel accumulated depressed energy through relaxing the body. These are all therapeutic methods he invented himself, which have proven to be very effective with dozens of patients.

Because the medical establishment in Taiwan rejects hypnotism as something ridiculous, Wang Wu-shih is jokingly called a "witch doctor" when he takes time from his own clinic to visit patients at National Taiwan University Hospital. Edwin Chen has also left hospitals to open his own clinic. "We often call each other, sharing in our loneliness," says Wang with a sardonic smile. "Ever since Mesmer, people using hypnosis in therapy have been 'the victims of orthodox science.'" Nonetheless, the two expect to publish their research results in medical journals.

A bridge between mind and matter

"The greatest moral duty of a doctor is to try to cure his patients. All he has at his disposal should serve this purpose." For Wang and Chen, the fact or fiction of past lives and the effectiveness of hypnosis therapy are side issues. Ever since the 17th century, when the French philosopher Descartes proposed a conception of the "scientific," "mind" and "matter," and "science" and "spirituality" have gone down their separate paths. "While the realm of science gets stranger all the time, spirituality is still on the same track," Chen says. "No matter how much more people come to know about the material world, they'll still only know half the picture." For him, hypnosis is a bridge between the mental and the material.

Through probing with hypnosis, is it possible that we will come to a complete understanding of the universe? More people are going to have to get involved if this question is to have an answer.

[Picture Caption]

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Can hypnosis crack the codes of the subconscious? It's a question that deeply interests many people.

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Martin St. James's hypnosis stage shows took Taiwan by storm. On the one hand audiences betrayed a desire to see the bizarre, and on the other they displayed curiosity about the paranormal. (photo by John Yang)

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With the craze for hypnosis overtaking Taiwan, they've even been exploring this spiritual realm on college campuses. The photo shows Edwin Chen lecturing on "hypnosis and uncovering potential" at the National Taiwan University "psychology camp."

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Shamans around the world use "self-induced" hypnosis. Taoist jitongs are the best example of such practitioners in Chinese folk culture. (photo by Liu Wei-chun)

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Hypnosis in psychotherapy can also be applied to groups, but it requires accredited psychiatrists and nurses to provide care according to individual circumstances.

p.30

The human subconscious is like a multi-layered treasure box. How many memories of past lives does it hold? It's a riddle still awaiting an answer. (black-and-white photos courtesy of Hu Chen-hsiung)

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The methods employed by Eastern religious devotees are similar in conception to self-induced hypnosis, but they take them a step farther to a higher realm of "awakening to the truth."

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Under hypnosis, the imaginary seems like the real, and the boundaries of time and space blur.