What is Hypnosis?

What is Hypnosis? Hypnosis is a powerful therapeutic tool for accessing the subconscious mind and achieving personal goals or affecting desired changes. It may be used alone or in conjunction with other therapeutic techniques.

Despite its awesome power, there are few procedures less understood, or more plagued by misconceptions. Hypnosis has existed since prehistoric times, and Western medicine has been trying to understand it since the 1700¡¯s. But it has only been within the last two decades that I have truly begun to understand what hypnosis is, and what it can do for us.

If you can relax, you can be hypnotized. (Even if you can't relax you can be hypnotized. It just might take a little longer for you to feel that relaxed feeling.) Hypnosis has worked successfully for millions of people throughout the world. Why not let it work for you?

Hypnosis is a method for communicating directly with the subconscious mind. Few people realize the awesome power their subconscious mind has over their lives. The causes for many ¡°bad habits¡± are rooted in memories or perceptions that may be forgotten by the conscious mind but retained in the subconscious. Hypnosis helps to access the subconscious and change those habits more quickly and easily.

Unfortunately, many of the misconceptions that have developed over the centuries still exist in people¡¯s minds. If you ask the average person on the street what he or she thinks hypnosis is, they may respond with any number of answers, including: sleep, unconsciousness, mind control, or even magic. All of these ideas are wrong, but unfortunately continue to persist, perpetuated by novels and films. {Many vampire & spy movies, for instance, portray hypnosis as a way for the villain to gain control over his victims.} These misconceptions prevent many people, who could benefit from hypnotherapy, from ever trying it. Those who do try hypnotherapy often spend their first session unlearning their misconceptions.

Hypnosis is not sleep, unconsciousness, mind control, or even magic. In fact it is a heightened state of awareness. In most cases the subject is fully aware and able to respond to requests, either verbally or by a signal. Ask a hypnotized person to make a specific, ¡°reasonable¡± movement they will comply.

There is no surrender of control, no magic. No one can be hypnotized against his or her will; and no hypnotized person can be forced to do anything against his or her will.

Hypnosis is now considered to be ¡°a state of selective thinking¡±, where the subject {who is in control} chooses to experience only what is relevant to the task at hand, blocking out everything else. It may also be described as guided concentration.

Although hypnosis is not a panacea, there are many areas where it has proven to be tremendously helpful including memory enhancement, improving concentration, relieving insomnia, overcoming phobias {fears}, eliminating bad habits {such as smoking and nail biting}, pain control, and managing stress. Hypnosis is a tool anyone can use and everyone should understand.

Hypnosis must be the only medical procedure ever to be featured in nightclub acts. (Can you imagine audiences applauding the Amazing Anesthesiologist or the Radiology Wizard?) Descriptions of hypnosis on stage and screen, in fact, have contributed to a great deal of misunderstanding about the

technique. But a closer look reveals that it can be a valuable and effective medical therapy.

Nor is hypnosis simple relaxation or deep sleep. Instead, it's an altered state of consciousness that heightens suggestibility and weakens critical judgment. For example, someone who is hypnotized may have trouble telling fantasy from reality, whether or not he or she is ordinarily susceptible to fantasy. A person might become especially receptive to suggestions from the hypnotist, or, in certain cases, may forget things that happened during a session.

Partly because people are more open to suggestion under hypnosis, the procedure is increasingly used as a healing tool in both conventional and alternative medicine. Many doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, and other health professionals have integrated hypnosis into their practices in order to help patients cope with chronic pain, lose weight, deal with grief or anxiety, and stop smoking, among other things.

Hypnosis requires teamwork. If you do not want to be hypnotized, perhaps out of fear or disbelief, no therapist in the world can put you under trance. But when you trust the therapist and are willing to give it a try, any of a number of different techniques can generally induce a trance. Here is an example of a technique that is sometimes used to begin the process of hypnosis:

Example: "Please choose a spot on the wall to focus your eyes on. Keep looking at that spot. As I count backward from 300, allow yourself to become increasingly relaxed.... Soon your eyes will get very heavy from looking at that spot... they will want to close.... And when I see that you are becoming quiet and comfortable, I will stop counting and will give you suggestions about feeling comfortable, even more comfortable, and other suggestions that are in your very best interests."

Once you're accustomed to slipping into a hypnotic trance, you can often learn to enter the state on your own as in self-hypnosis. There are many books and tapes that teach self-hypnosis (often with promises to help you lose weight or quit smoking), but self-hypnosis works best if it's reinforced by regular contact with a therapist.