What Is Hypnosis?

 

Hypnosis is a state of narrowed focus or concentration.

 

We all have a conscious mind and an unconscious mind. Your conscious mind is responsible for logical, analytical, linear thinking and our belief systems and behaviors reside in the subconscious mind. It has been described as storing "everything within your experience and capabilities that you are not currently thinking about’.

 

 

In order to get new, beneficial ideas to be accepted by the unconscious mind, we must relax the conscious mind and communicate directly with the unconscious mind. If this idea is accepted by the unconscious mind, the whole mind is focused and tuned in to making that idea true. Since the unconscious mind runs the body, our perceptions and emotions, as well as habits, it can line up all those resources to make things happen. Deep in your mind, changes can take place that allow you to feel different emotions, have different habits, learn things quickly and respond with a more thoroughly resourceful physiology.

 

 

In hypnosis, we temporarily relax the conscious mind and gain access to the powerful inner mind. In this beneficial, relaxed state, we can more easily get positive ideas across to the most powerful parts of our minds.

 

So one definition of hypnosis is this;

 

"Hypnosis is a temporary relaxing of the conscious mind allowing positive and beneficial ideas to become accepted by the inner mind"

 

 

When these ideas are presented with sufficient skill and connected to an individuals motivations they become powerful permanent allies for healing, personal development or habit control.

 

Some prominent hypnosis scholars take the position that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. In other words, the person hypnotizing you is merely your guide, showing you how to achieve hypnosis. Another way of putting this is – you must agree to be hypnotized.

 

What is hypnosis like?

People describe the experience of hypnosis as highly pleasurable and often comment upon emerging that they feel like they’ve had a refreshing nap. You might feel any number of sensations while in trance. Most people’s muscles grow loose and relaxed. Many report pleasant feelings. Often the breathing grows deeper and slower as a result of increased relaxation. Feelings of warmth or tingling are common. Often people report an increased ability to visualize --much like daydreaming. Some people’s perception of time is altered – the trance state may seem much longer or shorter in duration than it actually is.

 

While some continue to listen to the words of the hypnotist, others report that the mind drifts away to some pleasant memory or imagined scene. Because the conscious mind may drift away, some report only a general sense of what was said in the trance- just like seeing a movie but not perfectly remembering every scene. Each individual's experience of trance is unique.

 

Naturally occurring hypnosis:

Hypnosis is a natural state, in fact, we are in hypnosis many times each day. We pass through hypnosis on our way to sleep and when we wake up each morning. Recent studies of ultradian rhythms, these are bio-rhythms that are less than one day long,  conclude that every 90 to 120 minutes we pass into a state physiologically identical to hypnosis. So when people ask; Can I be hypnotized? The answer is: You already are.

 

Here are some other times in which people experience hypnosis naturally:

 

 •If you’ve ever woken up, feeling very relaxed but not needing to be anywhere and thought something like “Maybe I’ll get up and brush my teeth,” but your body is too relaxed to move, you’ve been experiencing hypnosis.

•Becoming absorbed in a good book or movie is experiencing hypnosis.

 

•Driving on long trips on automatic pilot is known as highway hypnosis.

•Becoming bored or allowing your mind to drift away leads to hypnosis.

•Becoming extremely engaged in something and allowing your mind to focus means that you are experiencing hypnosis.

•Because of the rhythmic sounds and swaying, riding on the train is often a highly hypnotic experience.

 

 

Is Hypnosis Mind Control?

 

If we could control people's minds with hypnosis, we wouldn't need courts and prisons, we would just need hypnotists. Commit a crime, get sentenced to a hypnosis session that instructs the person to never be bad again and presto chango! But no, it doesn't work like that.