The Principle of Hypnosis (Part One)

Now let us explain the principle of hypnosis, using the three hypnosis cases from yesterday. In the first case, as soon as the hypnosis master issued the command to sleep, those hypnotized subjects immediately fell asleep leaning on one another. Afterwards, the master issued the command to wake up, and all of them woke up from deep sleep. After waking up, they had no awareness that they had been leaning on one another while asleep.

Why does such a situation occur? When we are normally awake, the mind consciousness and the manas are able to rely on each other, depend on each other, and guide each other. Normally the manas He follows the guidance or control of the mind consciousness, obeys the mind consciousness's commands, and is influenced by the mind consciousness. Now the manas is no longer influenced by one's own mind consciousness—by whom is He influenced? By the hypnosis master. The hypnosis master's role is equivalent to the role of the hypnotized subject's mind consciousness; the manas completely obeys and completely trusts all of the hypnosis master's commands—whatever he says, the manas believes, with one hundred percent obedience, exceeding the trust in one's own mind consciousness. The hypnotist's commands override the commands of one's own mind consciousness.

Therefore, whatever the hypnosis master says, the hypnotized subject's manas believes, and as soon as He believes, He can immediately accomplish it. Why can He do it as soon as He believes? Because the manas is the consciousness that takes charge and has power; whatever He wants to do, as long as there are no factors influencing Him, He can accomplish. When the hypnosis master tells Him to sleep, because there is no mind consciousness to control and guide the manas, the manas obeys, immediately decides to sleep, and thus lets go of all conditions. With no mind consciousness participating, He falls asleep instantly. In the state of sleep there are neither the five sense consciousnesses nor the mind consciousness, so when these people lean on one another while asleep, their own mind consciousnesses do not know it; and of course, after the mind consciousness wakes up, it still does not know. During sleep the mind consciousness ceases, so it does not know what its own state of sleep was like during that sleep.

Why can one fall asleep so quickly under hypnosis, whereas normally sleep does not come so fast? Because when preparing to sleep normally, one must first extinguish the discernment of the five sense consciousnesses, and then extinguish the discernment and mental activity of the mind consciousness; extinguishing the mind consciousness is somewhat more difficult. Under hypnosis, however, the mind consciousness simply ceases to function directly, and therefore one falls asleep the moment sleep is called for.

From this principle we can see that as long as the manas believes something—and this belief is not ordinary belief, but an extremely, extremely deep belief, believing without doubt, taking whatever is said as what it is, without any deliberation (manana) in one's own mind, without considering right or wrong, with no mind consciousness to exert control—the manas's own ability to discern the six sense objects is relatively weak, and He does not discriminate. As long as He believes the hypnotist, whatever the hypnotist says is what it is, and whatever He is told to do He does. This is where the manas's wisdom is inferior. If there is a mind consciousness, the mind consciousness can think, can distinguish right from wrong, can take measures, and can control the manas. Now the manas has no six consciousnesses as helpers, no mind consciousness as helper; He does not have such strong discerning ability himself. When the hypnotist tells Him to sleep, the manas does not need to deliberate about anything and can fall asleep immediately.

If each of us, in our practice of sitting meditation, enters deep meditative concentration (samādhi), the manas will discover the realms of the six sense objects, discover one's own physical body, and discover that all realms feel different from before. Because in deep dhyāna the manas's mind is highly concentrated and wisdom is developed, He knows that the physical body can be controlled by Himself; He knows that realms are illusory and not so real, or He no longer takes the realms seriously, because in deep dhyāna there is no control by the mind consciousness. Whatever the manas wants to do, He can accomplish; if He wants to manifest supernatural powers, He can bring forth their wondrous functions.

For example, in the fourth dhyāna, if the manas thinks: "I want to fly up into the sky," at that time there is no interference from the six consciousnesses—the mind consciousness does not disturb Him, He has no concept of the sky, and no hindrance from the physical body—and He can immediately fly into the sky, passing through mountains and over ridges. If the manas thinks: "I want to hear sounds from far away, or sounds in the heavens," because there is no mind consciousness interfering, as soon as He thinks of it, He can hear sounds from extremely far away. How does the mind consciousness interfere? The mind consciousness keeps telling Him that this is impossible and that is impossible; once it says something is impossible, the manas feels it is truly impossible, and the matter cannot be accomplished.

Without the mind consciousness's interference, when the manas says "I want to do such-and-such," He immediately goes and does it, and while He does it, the boss behind the scenes helps Him accomplish it. In this way, measureless supernatural powers are developed. When the mind consciousness interferes, it influences Him through its own life experience and the habits of ordinary life, saying this cannot be done and that cannot be done. Because the mind consciousness has never seen the true reality, all of its ideas and thinking are incorrect, and its interference with the manas is very great. In the absence of the mind consciousness's interference, everyone's potential for supernatural powers can be developed.

Now the hypnotist's role replaces the role of the mind consciousness: whatever the hypnotist says, the manas believes, and whatever He believes, He can accomplish. Supernatural powers arise in this way, and the principle of hypnosis is also like this.