Hypnotherapy (group)

Hypnotherapy was a Pune One therapy / meditation group led by Santosh. It was also known as "Dehypnotherapy", indicating the work to be done on the hypnotic nature of our conditioning. The Community to Provoke God brochure had this to say as a brief description:

The purpose here is to give participants the chance to experience altered states of consciousness usually experienced only in the very deepest stages of meditation. Individuals are helped not only to clear away old psychological problems that are obstructive to meditation but given the opportunity to delve deeply into the subconscious and to experience the collective consciousness.

The brochure also mentioned a further "Deeper Hypnotherapy" group for which this Hypnotherapy group was a prerequisite, quite possibly also led by Santosh.

Maneesha writes about it in Hammer on the Rock, 10 Jan 1976:

One of the newest therapies to begin in the ashram recently is Hypnotherapy.

The idea behind this technique is to help people to unlock unpleasant memories that have been pushed back into the inaccessible parts of their minds. When these feelings surface, the individual is encouraged to face and experience them and the old situation, in the light of his present growth.

Bhagwan talked recently in the morning discourse about Hypnotherapy, saying that it could be helpful in gaining insights and glimpses of one's past lives.

The implications of this are very important for one's growth, because once one sees that one is repeating a pattern of many lives past, patterns instantly change ....

Hypnotherapy shows up in The Sound of Running Water's groups chart as starting in Apr 1976 and offered all the way through till Dec 1977. It may seem that this start date is much later than Maneesha's report, and Maneesha even talks about the group-leader Santosh, but it is clear from Osho's words in the discourse she refers to (on 7 Jan) that the new therapy (Hypno) is still in the future.

Later, on 1 May, in Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 10, Osho talks of this group as a current phenomenon, playing with calling it Dehypnotherapy. A few days later, in ch 7 of Yoga, Osho goes on at length about the depths to which Hypnotherapy can penetrate, comparing it -- using Patanjali's five-body system as a yardstick -- to Allopathy, able to touch only the outer body, the physical, while Acupuncture can touch the second or vital body, Homeopathy the third or mental body, Hypnotherapy the fourth or consciousness body and meditation the fifth or bliss body. He says meditation goes furthest because all other tools are grosser, and even Hypnotherapy requires an "other" to give the suggestions.

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