Self Hypnosis for Cosmic Consciousness: Achieving Altered States, Mystical Experiences and Spiritual Enlightenment [Paperback]

Ronald A. Havens (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1904424546 | ISBN-13: 978-1904424543 | Publication Date: April 2, 2007

Explores the hypnotic pathways that can lead to an alternate experiential world. This world of inner peace and happiness can be created by even a momentary immersion in the unknown potentials that lie just beneath the surface of everyone s conscious awareness. It is a world removed from the cares and concerns of contemporary life, and every perception is charmed by a sense of beautiful magic. It is a world that soothes the soul, brings contentment, and heals wounded spirits. The alterations of consciousness dealt with throughout this book merely involve a different way of perceiving the world, not a way of tapping into some mythical external "Universal Mind" and are most certainly not a source of superhuman powers or energies. The experiences generated by the hypnotic approaches described in this book can range from relatively mild or temporary states of relaxation to intense bursts of overwhelming sensation, or even to profound alterations in thought or understanding. Join in this exploration of these altered states of consciousness and sit back, relax and enjoy whatever happens.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Ronald Havens delineation of the essential characteristics of cosmic consciousness experiences followed by practical hypnotic communications for experientially eliciting them are exceptionally helpful resources. ---Stephen Gilligan, PhD, author of "Therapeutic Trances, The Legacy of Milton H. Erickson"

Provides a down-to-earth guide to experiencing cosmic consciousness. The author writes that he is coming from that place, one which most people have had glimpses of, and would like to experience more. ----Peter Young, author of "Understanding NLP"

This powerful, possibly life altering book is a must have. The approach presented here offers a higher level of awareness, a clearer sense of being, and a new feeling of connectedness to the world. ---Theresa Eytalis LCSW, Southern Illinois School of Social Work, Integrated Assessment Program

Product Details

• Paperback: 268 pages
• Publisher: Crown House Publishing (April 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904424546
• ISBN-13: 978-1904424543
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,097,304 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't read this book - experience it!, February 10, 2010

By 

Judith E. Pearson, Ph.D. "Hypnotherapist/NLP ... (Springfield, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Self Hypnosis for Cosmic Consciousness: Achieving Altered States, Mystical Experiences and Spiritual Enlightenment (Paperback)

Cosmic consciousness is an altered, mystical state. In Self Hypnosis for Cosmic Consciousness psychology professor Ronald A. Havens explores how cosmic consciousness can be achieved via Ericksonian Hypnosis. This is Haven's fourth book on hypnotherapy and it is, by far, his best.

Cosmic conscious can be life-changing for some, and simply pleasant for others. According to Havens, the therapeutic value lies in the way it changes thinking, beliefs, and perceptions. While some believe that cosmic consciousness can occur only through elaborate rituals, or drugs, or disciplined study and practice, Havens points out that people with no preparation whatsoever have had such moments. He believes that hypnosis can bring about the same sensations, perceptions and cognitions of these experiences.

Cosmic consciousness is different from ordinary wakefulness. The after-effects often include gratitude, reverence, and inner peace. The long-term effects can be life-changing, as individuals report that they feel less judgmental, driven, lonely, anxious and fearful. They feel more creative, interconnected with others, liberated from past limitations, self-assured, and accepting of life as it is. Abraham Maslow, wrote that such peak experiences often occur in self-actualizing people, although people from all walks of life have reported such experiences, sometimes occurring even in moments of tragedy, loss, or desperation.

Havens believes that moments of cosmic consciousness could alleviate the suffering and emotional pain that often bring people to therapy. He begins with the premise that people suffer, emotionally and often physically because "their ordinary way of looking at or thinking about themselves, their experiences, and the world around them is limited, distorted, biased, prejudiced, and judgmental." People want reality to conform to their wishes. To eliminate suffering, people must overcome their ordinary ways of thinking. During a cosmic experience, judgments and assumptions become irrelevant and immaterial. The individual becomes open, accepting and non-judgmental of the world, and thus, less likely to suffer. This alteration of mind is accomplished by a flood of images, ambiguous suggestions, and associations that cause "an explosion of neural activity throughout the brain."

For those uninitiated in hypnosis, Havens gives a basic primer, so that even novices can understand the process. He then provides hypnotic scripts that are designed to appeal to the senses and suggest various ways of reaching the cosmic consciousness state.

The script topics include light, energy, sound, perfection, universal love, and oneness with the cosmos. They contain references to stars and suns, light and illumination, flame and darkness, energy, vibration, electricity, child-like wonder, animals, natural settings and events in nature, body sensations and emotions, music, angels, purification, beauty and perfection, memories and awareness, creation, love, unity, and connection. The wording is client-oriented, permissive, optimistic, often vague and indirect, and suggestive of many possibilities. The analogies and metaphors are woven from supernatural events as well as common, everyday experiences in nature and human life. The scripts are inspiring, encouraging, and suggest that something exists beyond the mundane---something mystical, transforming, and sacred.

This is a book to experience. While completing this review I asked a colleague to read a script to me while I relaxed and listened. I chose the script entitled "Cosmic Connections" because on this given day, I wanted to expand my awareness of the possible.

Upon hearing the sheer poetry of this script I felt relaxed and entered a dream-like state. The words and concepts evoked images and memories that were both trance-inducing and transcendental. I was aware of pleasant thoughts in the meanings and associations I attached to the words. I heard references to childhood play and amusements, clouds, puzzles, patterns, light, flowing water, the sun, moon, and stars, and the body-self. At some point I lost conscious awareness of what the speaker was saying, almost as though falling asleep, but still hearing the lull of the voice in the background. The immediate environment became irrelevant. When I reoriented, I honestly could not remember most of what I had heard, as though the message had slipped past me, disappearing into the nether regions of my inner mind, before my conscious mind could register what had transpired.

This was one of the deeper trance experiences I have had. I think, with this kind of hypnosis, the kind of change one can expect is a not a noticeable, immediate behavioral-emotional change, but a subtle, slowly expanding sense of potential, intuition, wisdom, and inner harmony that invites additional exploration and learning.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Recommended Reading for All Hypnotherapists, June 23, 2010

By 

Laura De Giorgio "hypnotherapist" (Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Self Hypnosis for Cosmic Consciousness: Achieving Altered States, Mystical Experiences and Spiritual Enlightenment (Paperback)

If you are an Ericksonian or Neo-Ericksonian hypnotherapist, or for that matter any kind of hypnotherapist, buy this book. It contains many scripts which you can adapt and/or incorporate into the work you're doing and help your clients to experience a greater sense of well-being.

If you are a genuine spiritual aspirant or practitioner, my guess is that you would get better and more permanent results if you worked with something like A Course in Miracles, meditations from Shiva Sutras, or whatever systematic mind training is part of the esoteric / spiritual tradition that appeals to you. Systematic spiritual mind training involves training yourself to be aware of that which is ETERNAL (by whatever name you want to call it) throughout the day.

At the beginning of this book, the author offers a disclaimer to make sure there is no confusion about his stand on mystical experiences: "My foundation position is that the experiences described in this book are generated by and occur totally within the brain. I do not believe that we are tapping into some external source of light, energy or wisdom ..." It is true that the source of everything IS within, and can be discovered only by going within, but that same Source, that same Self, expresses through EVERYTHING. The issue with this book is that for the author the SOURCE of everything is the BRAIN, and he further in the text defines the Self as the conscious mind, so when he speaks of "death of an ego", and equates it with the "death of the SELF" - spiritually speaking, he misses the point - as during the spiritual transformation the individual shifts his sense of identity from that which is transient (and that includes the brain, the physical body and everything that is manifested), to that which is eternal, and indestructible - the individualized self, merges with that all-encompassing Self that expresses through everything. The whole point of spiritual practice and of mystical experiences is Self-Realization, realization of one's deathless Self.

If you are an Ericksonian hypnotist, you are taught to describe the world in terms of conscious and unconscious. If you are aware of your left toe, you can say that it is in your conscious mind and if you are not aware of it consciously, then it is in your unconscious - and because people tend to be consciously aware only of minute number of things - the term "unconscious" is used to describe that all-wise, and all-powerful part of the individual (other forms of hypnosis tend to use the term "subconscious", and sometimes add "superconscious"). Within the framework of hypnotherapy, it works beautifully.

An Ericksonian hypnotherapist may love to play with ambiguity and confusion, giving the person a suggestion to go deeper into a trance, by telling the client "you're unconscious", while the client is consciously hearing "your unconscious", for the purpose of by-passing the person's conscious mind and gaining access to the person's unconscious, which is not only a storehouse of all experiences the person may had (the "subconscious" mind), but is also a storehouse of every imaginable solution to the any problem the client may have (the "superconscious" mind). The rules of the game in Ericksonian hypnotherapy is that the hypnotherapist plays with the client's unconscious, while the client is consciously clueless of what's going on. He hears words, but can't make much conscious sense of what the hypnotherapist is saying. Again, this works great in a therapeutic context.

The hitch here is that the goal of spiritual practice is that the individual becomes fully conscious - even of the content of which he is ordinarily unconscious of, whereas the author of this book at times equates mystical experiences with one who is losing awareness and becoming unconscious. But there is a difference between a person who is unconscious and a person who is enlightened - a spiritual adept is if anything super-conscious, super-aware. In Eastern philosophy that state of consciousness is referred to as "turiya". So, while being immersed in reading a book, is a good example for being in a trance state, that state is nowhere even close to being "enlightened". The truly enlightened person is fully conscious of that which resides in his unconscious. If you read books by genuine eastern spiritual teachers, you'll come again and again upon the injunction "become fully conscious of that which resides in your unconscious". You don't just see the object of your contemplation, you don't just relate to it in some way - you become it in your experience - you identify with ALL.

If human bodies were candles (the "ego" that must eventually die), then the Self, would be not just the light of that one candle, but the Light of ALL candles, and the experience of spiritual enlightenment doesn't entail just experiencing the part of that light, but experiencing yourself as the Light that illuminates all candles. Moreover, I can add from personal experience that at that point the experience of yourself as the Light feels MORE REAL than any earthly experience you've ever had, and therefore is not comparable to what we just imagine or dream. Another appropriate spiritual analogy of "death of the ego" would be the one where an individual being (the "self" with little "s") is identified with a drop of water, and the All (the "Self" with capital "S") with the ocean, and during the "death of the ego" the drop of water, merges with the ocean, and begins to identify with the ocean - at which point it is still aware of the Self.

The author has quoted a popular saying "before enlightenment chop wood carry water, after enlightenment chop wood carry water" - but what he didn't mention is that while on the outside the act may seem to be the same, the individual's attitude toward the wood and water is different. Before enlightenment he experiences them as separate - after enlightenment he experiences them with the awareness that the same Self that is within him is also within the wood and water and that the Self is chopping the Self and carrying the Self" so to speak. I suppose if you're stuck in a perception that you begin and end in the human brain, then your description and interpretation of what happens will be rooted in that physical perception.

Throughout the book it seems as if the author can't quite make up his mind whether there is anything beyond the physical realm or not. He is trying to remain within what is acknowledged within the field of psychology and psychiatry - and I suppose that anything beyond the scope of the physical body is still considered a taboo, and that not even the discoveries from quantum physics made a foray into the field of psychology - and I am not sure if the author is holding onto the physical realm for the sake of maintaining the respectable status within the professional field, or because even though he talks of "death of the ego" he is afraid to look beyond the physical body, beyond the physical appearances. If you have nothing greater than the physical realm to hold onto, you'd too be afraid of the "death of the ego" and everything it stands for. And while the author keeps on talking here and there in the book about plunging yourself altogether into the spiritual experience, and on one side he's holding onto the physical realm, while at other times he quotes other people's experiences and occasional some spiritual term - to me it felt like trying he's trying to go somewhere, while holding onto the door. At the same time, the book does read as if he put his heart and soul into this book and gave it his best, according to his understanding and experience.

True to the style of Ericksonian (and neo Ericksonian) hypnotherapy the scripts are loaded with words and words intended to overwhelm your conscious mind with sensory experience so that you'll hopefully let go and eventually surrender yourself to the wonders that your unconscious will bring into your conscious awareness. In that respect Ericksonian hypnosis is like going on a treasure hunt where you know for sure you'll end up with some wondrous gif that may surprise and delight you. And while I read the words and words of the script of oneness where the author is trying to get the reader to experience a sense of unity with the physical world that surrounds him - and I'm sure someone will find the script helpful, to me it doesn't come even close to the effect of the phrase "I AM in everything I see". A Course in Miracles would have a phrase along the lines of "God is in everything I see", and a spiritual teacher from India may say "I AM THAT". Short, sweet and powerful. Just remember to repeat it throughout the day with full awareness of what you're saying. Now, if you begin with the premise that you begin and end with your human brain or human body, that statement will never make much sense to you. Looking at the computer in front of you and saying "I am that" may begin to feel like too much to digest mentally. That's why one of the first spiritual lessons is "Look beyond the body". If you look at your body and someone else's body - from the perspective of what you can see with your physical eyes - they are definitely separate. You can now sit down and contemplate at which level of consciousness are you the SAME as the computer - and when you experience yourself as that which is the SAME - then you are getting closer the "enlightenment". A spiritual adept may transmute one object into another because he is experiencing oneness in a true sense - he is identified with the boundless ocean of energy and consciousness that expresses through everything - not with the physical body. For him human brain is definitely not the Source - after all the Source is eternal , all encompassing - it is there long after the human brain has come and gone... Read more ›

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Source for Spiritual Scripts, February 15, 2009

By 

Amy Hale "Amy" (MI) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Self Hypnosis for Cosmic Consciousness: Achieving Altered States, Mystical Experiences and Spiritual Enlightenment (Paperback)

This book contains information on connecting to yourself and to the universe. It offers valuable scripts as a base to reach higher realms of transformation. A great read with an uplifting point of view.