Hypnosis with the Chevreul pendulum

Why does the world of hypnosis have the cliché of the swinging pendulum?

I will try to explain… You see, the pendulum is linked to many early notions related to hypnosis…

You know about the mind-body link, don’t you? Well, I’m sure you know that when you are stressed for long periods of time in the mental department, your physical resistances and immune system are weakened – your mental state affects your bodily state. Many people have heard of what we call ‘mind-body’, but how many of us can demonstrate it in real life terms, or really know what it means?

And what the hell does that have to do with pendulums?

Pendulums were used to prove that the world is round, as the Focault pendulum is designed to help.

In many hypnotherapy training courses, hypnosis practitioners learn “suggestibility testing.” That is, show people how open they are to suggestion before taking them (that person) into hypnosis. It also serves to show the customer that you are open to suggestions and is useful for many other reasons as well.

You see, these days everyone has heard of the expression, or the words “mind-body” medicine, health, system or whatever… However, the real mind-body links are demonstrated perfectly and very obviously with evidence of hypnotic suggestibility and what are often called ideomotor responses.

Have you ever seen those annoying headlines that unimaginative journalists write every time they interview a hypnotherapist? Something like “look me in the eye” or “you’re sleepy”. however, these words are never really used these days. They are often accompanied by the image of someone using a pendulum of some kind, or a swinging clock as a tool to bring someone into hypnosis.

It’s the pendulum and how to use it in a brilliant way to show how your mind communicates with you when you apply your mind in the right way…

Once upon a time there was a man who called himself Michel-Eugene Chevreul. He was a well-known French chemist who in the early 19th century investigated what was initially considered a “hidden” phenomenon of the pendulum and wanted to give it a plausible scientific explanation. In 1812, Chevreul discovered the psychophysiological basis of dowsing, although it was not made public until 1833, when his work was shared.

Chevreul’s explorations and research showed that the pendulum effect is due to a simple, regular, and very common human reaction, but a reaction with such interesting effects that it flirts with seeming magical, just as Derren Brown flirts with being psychic today. , giving it an air that people find fascinating… However, this thing with the pendulum, was seen as some kind of mystical phenomenon for years… Heck, some even make that claim today! I know of people who remotely clear negative energy in entire buildings using just a pendulum to spray, again, something for another day and another discussion…

So this guy Chevreul figured out that if you intensely imagine something, then the human body behaves as if the imagined action, event, or circumstance is actually happening.

Today, the Chevreul pendulum is used to demonstrate the amazing and remarkably strong effects of self-hypnosis by people like me in hypnosis courses and self-hypnosis seminars. However, today, here on the hypnosis blog, I thought I’d share with you Chevreul’s experiment that you can replicate and try, because it’s absolutely fascinating.

The experiment, which could be carried out by anyone of any age, aims to illustrate that:

First, that the imagination (and some may say the unconscious mind) can effect and influence physical movements. (i.e. those not under the control of the conscious mind)

Second, that actions are very often sustained by the imagination (or unconscious mind) with, without the interference of the conscious will.

Third and last, that the mind can be trained through repetition.

So here is the experiment for you to try…

Chevreul’s pendulum experiment:

Step One: First, take a piece of paper or card and draw a circle with a diameter of about 40-50 cm. Mark A at the top of the circle, C at the bottom. B to the right and D to the left of the circle. Join each letter with a line, so that you have a cross inside a circle. Basically, it should look like a large circle with a cross in the middle dividing it into quarters, and with the letters ad clockwise around the points of the cross.

Step two: If you don’t have your own pendulum then you need to make one… So go find some cotton, string or something similar and make it 30-35cm long. Attach a small weight to the end; you can use a ring or anything on the end to serve as a weight for the pendulum.

Step Three – You should now sit at a table with your piece of paper/card on the table in front of you. Rest your elbow on the table. Hold the string between your thumb and forefinger so that the weight of the pendulum can hang down; ideally 1-2 cm above the center of the cross pattern. Try to keep the pendulum as still and immovable as possible. Let your arm be as loose as possible while holding the rope in this position.

Step Four: Now we are going to stimulate the mind, through the imagination and have fun with this!

While holding the pendulum as still as possible with your arm as loose as possible, imagine how you would feel if the pendulum began to swing vertically. In your mind, picture it swinging, imagine watching it swing vertically along the line on your diagram. Don’t consciously do anything to make it swing, just imagine as strongly as you can that the pendulum begins to swing on its own.

Step Five – After a couple of minutes of really engaging your imagination, you might find that the pendulum really starts to swing. These are likely to be small swings at first and will soon grow into broad, bold swings in the vertical direction. When you’ve had success with the vertical swings, you can do the same to imagine what it would feel like if the pendulum started to swing clockwise. Once again, the pendulum reads your mind and begins to swing the way you imagined.

You do absolutely nothing, and yet your thoughts caused an inanimate object in your hand to move in a mentally predetermined manner.

Cool huh?

Step Six: The pendulum takes small movements at one end, magnifies them and expresses them much more broadly at the other end… So when you imagine the pendulum swinging, then subconsciously your body makes very small, almost imperceptible movements towards the right. address.

The pendulum is an energy storage system, so tiny, imperceptible oscillations add up, and after a while, the pendulum swings with easy-to-observe movements.

When you have noticed this, start to see what happens when you imagine it swinging when you are most calm, relaxed and happy, see how it changes when you focus on different places (i.e. the tip of the pendulum or the arm that is holding it) and see how a variety of different thoughts affect the mind’s receptivity to affect your body.

You can learn a lot about yourself by exploring with this.

The principle discovered by Chevreul’s pendulum scientific research, that the human body reacts physically and chemically to imagined situations, lies behind a host of important psychological theories and notions…including being the basis of the vast majority of what we know as mind-body. connections

So there is some connection between the cliché and the reality of something useful after all.