How to Control Pain With or Without Hypnosis

The following video contains a presentation by Scott Sandland, a hypnotist specializing in pain control. He demonstrates how to achieve control over physical sensations of pain without hypnotizing yourself or having someone else hypnotize you.

If you are already familiar with the use of self-hypnosis, I suggest you first watch the tape and follow the suggestions without any induction, as Scott recommends. Then you can practice these same suggestions from memory in future self-hypnosis sessions, in order to make their effects even stronger. (Note: I wouldn't personally recommend using autosuggestion to block out the effects of cold, due to the possibility of hypothermia. But the important point is -- it works!)



The video below describes how Scott Sandland, the previous narrator, became interested in pain management after a personal injury, and how to manage pain with a hypnotic induction.



Sarah Grabke, describes from her own personal experience how she has used the instructions on the previous video for pain control:

The idea is really simple: we think of pain as endless (or at least can't see an end to it now) and we think it's uncontrolable. But wait! What is pain really? It's a kinesthetic sensation. So... how about giving it some shape and/or colour? You take control over it now. Watson suggests placing it in your hand and throwing it away (literally, if you like). The first time I did it, it was enough for me to sit there and hold my hand on my lap as if there was something in it and imagining the shape floating away to the other side of the room. I did it a couple of times. As for the endlessness of the pain, well... let's say it with Charlie Chaplin: "Nothing is permanent in this wicked world, not even our troubles." This includes pain. It may take some time, yes, but eventually all the bad things, situations and feelings end. We tend to forget that and instead get absorbed in the troubles and pain.

So this is how I do my pain control most of the time: I let the pain give itself the shape and colour. That is I don't imagine a shape and/or colour and say "that's it, that's my pain now". I go ahead and feel what shape could cause the pain I feel. Most often the shape is a triangle or rectangle. Those have nice corners to sting your body. The colour comes by itself as I imagine the shape. Mostly it's something yellow, orange or brown like. The first time, as I wrote, I placed the form in my hand and let it float away. Recently it's enough for me to imagine the shape in front of me. I guess the fact that this way, I'd "taken" the pain out of my body, is enough for me. You don't have to give it a colour. For me it just happens with a colour, so I change that, too. My eyes are blue and people say that blue cloths fit them nicely. Since I've learned that Erickson's favourite colour was purple, I've grown to take it as my favourite colour, too. Because of the connection to Erickson, purple has a calming, smoothing effect on me. So that's my colour for the pain. As for the shape, I turn it into a circle or egg-like shape, something round with no edges or corners. Sometimes to feel better, I imagine something like a purple light around me a couple of inches thick. Something like an aura around me, I guess you could say. Or if I have a headache, I may not take the pain out in front of me, but imagine my head in this purple "bubble". Maybe the simple act of concentrating not on the kinesthetic feeling but the act of keeping the pain in shape and colour - and most importantly in front of me - makes it be less already.

I told this shape and colour pain control to my parents once. My dad suggested that probably the complementary colour to the "pain colour" would work best. I haven't tried that yet. For one thing I keep forgetting about it when I have some pain and also purple works nice enough for me. In the end, I think, it doesn't matter much what shape and/or colour you give it, if only it gives you relieve of the pain. ;-) One thing you should keep in mind however: if you pick a colour, make it something far away from your "pain colour". That is if that colour is orange, don't turn it into yellow or red. They're too close. Blue or green for example are more likely to have a positive effect.

One advice if you do pain control: keep some of the pain. That's what many hypnotherapists, including Stephen, say. Pain above all is a way of telling you to take care of yourself. Respect that and don't just "hypnotise away" all the pain you have. Also most of the time it's not necessary to get rid of all the pain. I don't visualise the purple circle until the pain is gone. I do it for a short time only. Just enough so the pain doesn't bother me anymore.

On one of his videos Richard Bandler says that people ask him what he does for headaches. They expect him to explain some hypnotic pain control method. His response? "I take aspirin." Toothache? Bandler says, "I go to the dentist." There's not reason, he says, to do hypnosis, if taking aspirin or a walk to the dentist can relieve you from the pain just as well.

I should also note that pain is not merely a signal to the body to take it easy, it may also be a signal to the body that something may be wrong. Therefore, you should not attempt to control your own pain by methods such as this without previous medical approval.

See also: Self-Hypnosis Training and Demonstration Tape