Cannabis And The Hypnotic State: Finding The Edges Of Our Conscious State

This article was originally published on Cannabis.net and appears here with permission.

As someone who is constantly exploring the outer edges of my own consciousness, hypnosis and deep trance are states that are quite beneficial for self-discovery. Of course, the notion of hypnosis in a modern crowd is far different than that within a clinical setting. The fact of the matter is that everybody goes in and out of hypnotic states several times throughout your day.

Hypnosis, as opposed to the popular belief of “surrendered will” is a state of “hyper focus”. The Mayo Clinic defines it as, “Hypnosis, also referred to as hypnotherapy or hypnotic suggestion, is a trance-like state in which you have heightened focus and concentration.” I think of it as a means of direct communication with the unconscious super mind and when used correctly can help create significant change in your life.

With good hypnotherapy, you can “install” new ideas and experiences and even engage in a practice called "Deep Trance Identification”, which is a technique where you shift your consciousness into a particular configuration that is not your own. For example, you could emulate being Elon Musk by creating a mental model of him and then – when deep within a trance state – shift into the avatar in your mind. By tapping into the mirror neurons, you begin to experience a simulated reality that has real implication in your performance. This was best illustrated by the work of Alexander Raikov, a Russian hypnotist that utilized the method to increase the performance of classical musicians after emulating world masters with this technique.

It truly is a fascinating experience when done right and can have significant impact in your personal development. As a psychonaut, utilizing drugs to help reach certain mental states is fair game which made me think about cannabis as a conduit for this kind of work. How effective would cannabis be on the hypnotic state and if there is any observable benefit, how can you maximize cannabis as a tool to facilitate these states.  

At first, everything was anecdotal

When I went on my online search, it took me a while to find some real science but eventually I stumbled on a study that actually asked the same question but in relation to all drugs. However, before that, I found a Quora thread where hypnotherapists where chiming in on the conversation.

Here’s a few of their responses to give you an idea about the landscape of thought within the circle of professional hypnotists.

Dorothy M Neddermeyer, who according to her profile is a certified hypnotherapist with over 30 years of experience in the field said, “Hypnosis is the word used to describe a process of assisting the mind to go into a deeper focus than the mind automatically goes into many times a day or during meditation. While in a deep focus the mind is directed to one focal point. A deep focus heightens the ability of the 5 senses—-seeing, hearing smell, touch, taste. Bringing the mind to a single focus increases the mind's ability to create a more profound understanding of the issue/ideas/intuitiveness, etc. Marijuana obscures a.k.a. alters all senses—hearing, seeing, smell, touch, taste. With all senses obscured people enjoy the altered awareness, however, the value of what needs to be illuminated is lost to a large degree.” - Source

While Dorothy might have insight into the world of hypnotherapy, it seems that her conclusions on cannabis is a bit too “text book” as opposed to having personal experience with the plant. At least this is what I can infer with the latter part of her statement. While it’s true, certain cannabis can make you feel “dull, and stoned” – other strains can make you alert and fully focused. Therefore, depending on the application of cannabis potency and strain can have a varied influence on the session itself.

Other comments echoed sentiments similar to that of Dorothy, others simply saying, “The only negative being that the effects of the “script” or any suggestions are not as effective, with less fundamental changes after the session is over.”

This last statement was by another man in the same thread.

Most people believe that cannabis will make you fall into trance states easier, but suggestibility would be dampened. However, science says differently.

The one scientific paper I found on the subject…

Finding science so specific to my needs isn’t always easy. In many instances I fear I’d have to create my own clinics and study the effects of cannabis on these states, however, every now and then I find studies that seem to answer the specific questions I asked.

Like this one, a study entitled, “HYPNOTIC SUSCEPTIBILITY,DISSOCIATION, AND MARIJUANA USE: A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HIGH HYPNOTIC SUSCEPTIBILITY, MARIJUANA USE, AND DISSOCIATIVE ABILITY.”

It’s like the internet gods wanted me to find it.

So what did the study say?

“Participants were divided into five groups of low to high susceptible participants (based on their

responses to the Harvard) and ANOVA analyses were performed for the AEI drug items (use of alcohol, LSD, cocaine, heroin, and marijuana) as a function of hypnotizability and dissociative ability. A significant interaction between drug use and hypnotizability as a function of dissociative ability was found only for the use of marijuana”

In other words, with all of the different drugs that they tested, they only seem to find that cannabis provided some sense of enhancement when it came to hypnotizability.

Within the conclusion of the study the researchers had this to say,

A significant interaction between marijuana use and high hypnotizability as a function of dissociation was found in the present investigation. Those high susceptible participants who reported they smoked marijuana were more likely to be dissociative than those high susceptible participants who did not endorse that item. The significant linear trend for participants who smoked marijuana suggests that the relationship between hypnotizability and dissociation is a linear one, although differences between "yes" and "no" responders were only significant at the high susceptibility level. There was no significant trend for those participants who responded "no" to marijuana use.

This is an important point to make, that there was only real results within the group that was labeled as “highly suggestable”. Nonetheless, it did seem to suggest that cannabis does have the ability to help you reach these deeper trance states. More research is required and more experimentation with willful participants and hypnotherapists – but from personal experience I believe that cannabis can be a great aide in the exploration of the consciousness.