1

The conscious critical faculty

If you read around the topic of hypnosis you will frequently hear about the
bypassing of the conscious critical faculty and its importance within the therapy.
The conscious critical faculty is the internal filter we use to interpret of how the
world works based on all we have learnt rightly or wrongly since we were born. It is
the part of us that helps us get through life by having us automatically understand
water will be wet and that a lion would be dangerous. It is a great survival tool for
humans and has helped us become the world most dominant species. We interpret
the world through this filter and we accept information that conforms to our beliefs,
and quickly reject or dismiss any information that opposes our view of the world.
The conscious critical faculty unfortunately is not without its faults in the modern
world. Comments from adults when we are children may teach us that we are
unattractive or lacking intelligence. Once these ideas have taken hold it is very
difficult to remove them from the subconscious mind. This can have a terrible
impact on our confidence and opportunities in adult life. These negative ideas we
learn when we are young can affect our exam, sexual and general levels of
confidence and happiness. An adult holding onto these negative beliefs will struggle
to accept themselves even if they are presented with evidence to the contrary (such
as a member of the opposite sex finding them attractive). This is why it’s so easy to
give advice but so difficult to take it even when you know it to be correct.
Traditional talking therapies try to rationalize with the conscious mind to resolve the
issues but this can be hugely time intensive as it is difficult for the client to resolve
these issues locked in their subconscious.
Hypnosis allows a hypnotherapist to bypass this conscious critical faculty and
remove the fears, beliefs and phobias of the past directly from the client’s
subconscious mind. Once the initial sensitizing event has been resolved the client is
then able to see the world from a completely new direction. The filters of the before
have been removed and the client can enjoy an improved life without the haunting
negativity of the past.
 2

The Conscious Critical Faculty

By Terence Watts | Last updated on Nov 2, 2015

Within the hypnotic state, most people’s suggestibility is increased; that is, they are very much more

susceptible to the ideas that are suggested to them than they would be in ‘normal’ levels of

consciousness. The reason for this is the by-passing of what is often referred to as the ‘Conscious

Critical Faculty’.

It is this by-passing effect which allows hypnosis to be effective and without it, it is doubtful whether

there would actually be any particular use for the phenomena, other than to provide a state of deep

relaxation. The by-passing of the Conscious Critical Faculty allows ideas and suggestions to be

accepted by the non-critical, non-logical, subconscious mind – and once accepted, they will be acted

upon, make no mistake about that.

How does the Conscious Critical Faculty work?

It is easy for us to illustrate how effective this Conscious Critical Faculty actually is, although this is

not a particularly dramatic illustration. Consider this statement:

“At night we can see the sun more clearly than during the day.”

Of course, you instantly refuted that suggestion! But why? Well, obviously, it is because

you know that it is the moon that is more visible at night and anyway, we can only see the sun during

the daytime. You were not born knowing that – you learnt that it was so, you believed that it was so,

and now your Conscious Critical Faculty filters out all information that does not fit in with your belief

system.

The mechanism is simple. Everything we encounter and every situation we meet, is compared with

our existing knowledge-base – which includes all our previous limitations and awareness of things that

we cannot do. If it does not find a match – that is, if it opposes what we already have learnt – then it is

likely to be rejected as inaccurate or worthless.

The actual concept is of greater complexity than we need to go into here, but it is part of the built-in

survival kit in the human mind: only trust and act upon that which you know to be tested and true.
 3

This system, designed to protect us, is precisely why we might need therapy and why hypnosis and

hypnotherapy can be so helpful!

False or incorrect beliefs and the fundamental belief system

False or incorrect beliefs will cause the Conscious Critical Faculty to reject ideas that could actually

be beneficial to us, but that do not fit in with the ‘tried and tested’ criteria. The human psyche will

not act upon a rejected idea, even though it may be exactly what we need for beneficial change. Of

course, there will have to be a rationalization of the reason for the rejection and this will usually be

along the lines of: “No… I don’t think would work for me. I don’t like the feel of it...” or something

remarkably similar.

This illustrates another important facet of the human psyche – the workings of the belief system. In

plain language, what it means is that if somebody already believes she cannot do something, then

any suggestions that she can will tend to be disbelieved and distrusted in the normal way, whoever

it is that tells her so. The Conscious Critical Faculty sees to that. It goes further, actually; the

individual may well appear to attempt to act upon the suggestion, but they will do so with the

expectation of failure – and failure is what they are likely to find, of course, probably because of a

‘half-hearted’ approach. And then their doubts have been soundly confirmed, along with the

creation of a destructive new belief that even if they do what others suggest, ‘it’ does not work

for them.

Henry Ford summed it up beautifully when he said this:

“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re probably right.”

The Conscious Critical Faculty is based on nothing more credible than the teachings you have

received since the moment you were born. We all have learned beliefs and acquired behavior

patterns, many of which will have come about from a most inappropriate source… somebody else’s

belief system! Our fundamental belief system is what makes Henry Ford’s statement so true. And

the Conscious Critical Faculty is a part of this belief system, seeking to maintain its integrity by

rejecting out of hand anything which does not ‘fit’, whether it is good or bad.

The great thing about hypnosis is that it can sometimes – often – allow us to change one or more of

those limiting beliefs. Hypnosis works by by-passing the Conscious Critical Faculty so that the
 4

subconscious mind can accept a more useful idea – which it will only do if it is an idea that is

distinctly beneficial to, required by, and accepted by, the individual. Hence, we simply cannot use

hypnosis to persuade you to do anything that is against your moral code. Any attempt to do so

within the state of hypnosis will alert the Conscious Critical Faculty to what is happening and the

hypnotic state will be instantly terminated.

A practical example of the workings of hypnosis and the psyche

Consider a shy young man who has always had difficulty talking to girls, though he has no idea why

this should be. All his friends and family have said all the right things, they have all reassured him

that girls like him and so on… but the Conscious Critical Faculty has rejected all of it – because

he knows he has the problem and expects to feel the same way each time. Those reassurances are

not tried and tested information to be trusted and acted upon. So his problem steadily gets worse as

experience confirms that his belief system is right. He has terrible trouble talking to girls.

Then along comes a hypnotherapist…

Like all competent hypnotherapists, they easily by-pass the Conscious Critical Faculty (don’t worry

about how it is done, just accept that hypnosis allows it to happen) to prepare the young man’s

psyche to accept a new and more desirable belief about himself. During the session, the

hypnotherapist will suggest something along the lines of:

“… and the very next time that you’re in the company of a girl… you’ll be pleasantly surprised to discover

yourself to be so totally relaxed and so totally at ease within yourself, that you’ll find yourself talking to

her comfortably and confidently. And that sensation of confidence and easiness will actually start to

increase as you enter into a conversation with her…and that confidence will continue to increase all the

time you are talking to her…” and more to that effect.

Now, the Conscious Critical Faculty, being by-passed, does not interfere with the idea. And because

it is what the young man truly wants to happen, the idea can be absorbed into his belief system,

especially if it is repeated a few times – which hypnotic suggestion always should be.

You might imagine that the individual would think to himself: “Well, I can’t see why. After all, I’ve never

been able to before…”when he is given this suggestion. Well, of course, he would… if his Conscious

Critical Faculty had not been by-passed. If the hypnotherapist had not done their part of the work
 5

properly. If that work is done properly, though, what will happen is that the hypnotized young man

will merely think: “Wow! That’s really going to feel so good!” or words to that effect.

In practice, it might take a couple of hypnotherapy sessions and some more skilled work with words

and imagery from the hypnotherapist for the concept to truly take root in the young man’s belief

system. If the individual in question were to put the idea into action before the suggestion had had a

chance to wear off, he would then start to find that talking to girls is easy; the original belief then

would gradually be replaced by the new, as experience proved it to be true. It would become tried

and tested information to be trusted and acted upon. Well, it would unless there was an underlying

cause for his difficulty, but that is beyond the scope of this article. For the moment, just understand

how the belief system has been ‘reconditioned’ in a beneficial manner.

This example accurately illustrates the concept of hypnotherapy at work and how effective hypnosis

can be when we are able to bypass the all-important Conscious Critical Faculty.