Archive for the ‘Psychology’ Category

Scent is relatively neglected in terms of how much research and attention the other senses receive. More recently, research has been showing up all sorts of interesting things about smell, such as how our noses adapt to chemicals in the air within twenty minutes (i.e., we can’t smell them anymore).

You have likely experienced the strange phenomenon of having a whole era of your life come flooding into memory when you pass someone with a particular perfume or whiff of hair shampoo. Scent is more entwined with our emotions and memories than we give it credit for, and it operates largely on a purely subconscious level. This is why scent is now becoming a hot area in marketing research.

The picture is for Tom Tykwers movie adaption of Patrick Suskind’s novel, Perfume: Story of a Murderer. More information about the research of scent can be found here.

I am reading a good book at the moment called “Strangers to Ourselves” by Tim Wilson. Personality theory has normally focused on how to measure ‘personality’, with predictability of behaviour being the only really output of any research results (and the results were never particularly strong in that respect because personalities are more dynamic than lab tests can seemingly account for). Tim theorises on the idea of a conscious personality, and an adaptive unconscious personality, which can be quite different. The research is staggering. For example, a persons conscious ideas about his or her beliefs and prejudices can often be completely contradicted by their automatic actions or responses in a situation. It comes down to that difference between who we think we are, and who we really are. Our automatic responses account for a majority of our behaviours, yet they are the bits we filter out as part of our big defensive campaign to reinforce our ’self beliefs’. Its all very interesting. The more I learn about the automaticity of the mind and the unconscious, the more it dovetails with my experiences of hypnosis and hypnotherapy. Will Williams, Exeter.

Mind control is always an interesting area – The Manchurian Candidate, hypnosis, Derren Brown, the CIA’s secret MKUltra brainwashing program in the cold water and all that kinda stuff.

But the most powerful form of mind control must be to control your own mind, not others. Having self awareness, the ability to recognise when you’re thinking doesn’t make sense. Having the discpline of directing your own mental energy, and actions, to get things done more effectively. Being able to let go of things, whether people, places, objects or old beliefs about things. And also, having the control to reliquish control when need be, and to not live your life in fear of it.

Whilst experience is valuable, having the initial awareness of knowing how to make the most of experience is also vital. This prevents your experiences from just solidifying and reinforcing your mind rather than freeing it up. This is what self help hypnosis is all about.