What Is Critical Factor And Why Do You Need It

by Peter Saks on October 23, 2009

Your subconscious mind can do a lot of things at once, like we've mentioned, it keeps you breathing and living. It also has one very important characteristic. Between your conscious and unconscious mind there is a little place called critical factor.

You can compare critical factor to a bouncer in the club, that separates your unconscious and conscious mind. Its role is to determine which information that you receive should be accepted and processed and which should be trashed. Once the information passes through the guardian, it will get processed no matter how ridiculous or destructive it is.

In short, if you will get your suggestion through the guardian, it will be obeyed. The purpose of this part of our mind is quite obvious, it protects us from unsafe information. If critical factor wouldn't exist, the world would be chaos and you could control anyone with simple suggestion.

No matter how careful the guardian is, there are few methods to trick him, and one of them is hypnosis. However, there are times when your subconscious isn't guarded and it definitely should be.

Critical factor can be bypassed when persons conscious mind is exposed to overload of stress, information etc. In such a situation conscious mind shuts down and handles control over the body to unconscious, which leads to dramatic suggestibility. This dangerous situation is a reason behind most of the deep seated psychological issues and phobias. Such mental problems are impossible to overcome with conscious methods. You can defeat them only by replacing the suggestion causing this issue with a conflicting one.

Your guardian is turned "off duty" when you access a very relaxed state. Some may think it is a dangerous situation from the point of your security and you are right. However, without this characteristic of critical factor, progressive relaxation techniques in hypnosis wouldn't work.

Suggestion can also find a way in your subconscious mind by shock, confusion, day dreaming, authority figures, emotions and rules. You will discover how is it exactly possible in future articles about instant induction methods, you will find in this course.

Research also shows that critical factor is left turned off, in children until the onset of puberty. This is the time, when kids gather information and beliefs they will base their entire future life on. It is the reason why we often share values and think similarly to our parents.

The last method you can get pass the critical factor is, repetition. Advertisers are very aware of this fact and often exploit it to make a sale. You can also notice it when it comes to beliefs from your childhood. When you were little you believed that Santa is real, but after many people telling you he is a fictional character, you have changed your beliefs.