The idea of ghost hunting is fascinating. After all, ghost hunting (as inept and careless as it usually is) is essentially an attempt to lift the veil of the Unseen (or soul, or soul-of-the-world if you will). To see the Unseen, to experience it, is profoundly life changing.
So why hunt for ghosts? For thrills and chills? For confirmation that we are more than our bodies and brains? For certainty regarding the survival of death? For relief that something transcends the limitations of our lives?
Believe me, I don’t sneer at such reasons. And I like to think that in each ghost encounter we are challenged to love this mysterious experience of life more.
But there is more to ghost hunting than this.
Ideally, the goal of ghost hunting (although not on television) is to free the human spirit (ghost or hunter) to move forward on its path toward the fulfillment of possibility. And this, too, is the ultimate goal of hypnosis.
We don’t always know what entraps a ghost, but it is usually some residual negativity from their lives, not their deaths. Similarly, we do not know what entraps the potential of a living human being. But usually, it is the brain’s habitual negative thought cycles. It is the blockages we build with our fear, estrangement, and despair.
Just as a ghost must be shaken from her reverie of regret and loss, and then must be directed into the light, so must living beings. This, when approached from such a perspective, is the task of the hypnotist (and, one could insist, that of every living being).
To a certain extent, we all have intimations of what this feels like. A heavy burden lifted. An ominous shadow dissipated. A smile breaking through the loneliness. Finally, a feeling of wellbeing. Of love.
While we learned to count and to read at a very young age, very, very few of us were to taught how to think. How to repel negative thoughts and nurture positive thoughts. Thus, our negative thoughts and feelings have galloped unchecked through our lives, constantly replicating, and trampling any budding positive thoughts. Hypnosis provides the mind training which was lacking from our childhoods. It gives us skills to create lives we can love.
Both hypnotic trance and ghost hunting are adventures into the Unknown. Both remind us that we, too, are spirits walking this earth, creating our lives and realities with our thoughts. All the while, seeking love.
