What is Hypnosis?

posted in: Blog, Hypnosis, Hypnotherapy

If you polled one hundred random people asking if they’d ever been hypnotized, a healthy majority would say “no!” And this would be incorrect. And if you asked them, “What is Hypnosis?”, they probably would have trouble answering that.

You see, hypnosis is a normal and natural nervous system phenomenon.  As humans, we regularly hypnotize ourselves throughout our day. Almost anytime you express a strong emotion, you create a hypnotic mind state.

Examples of expressing strong emotion include but are not limited to relaxation, worry, fear, anger, feeling deep grief, laughter, enthusiasm, focusing on reading, driving from point A to point B and wondering how you got to your destination and any other strong emotion.  Sometimes a strong emotion could be sneezing! It simply depends on your frame of mind.

Some behaviors you demonstrate help you.  Some work against you.  Behaviors you’ve conditioned yourself to believe as true for you that cause self-defeating action limit your life success. In a hypnotherapy session, these behaviors are the ones you can transform and release.  That’s the real value of using hypnosis during a hypnotherapy session.  You joyfully experience behavior change.

According to the American Psychological Association, hypnosis or hypnotherapy is an interaction between a hypnotist and a willing participant. During this interaction, the hypnotist will suggest specific ideas you, the participant, can choose to believe and accept as true for you. These suggestions are meant to cause a favorable change or response in your behavior. Various clinical studies have proven that hypnosis can be very effective in improving a variety of conditions, if you so desire it to be.

What is Hypnosis?

The phenomenon known as hypnosis is a theory.  It is not a physical part of the body like the brain is.  It is like the mind, which is also a theory.

Why are hypnosis and the mind considered theories?  Because scientists and the every day person can’t scientifically explain them like we can explain a body part we can see.

We don’t have a solid hypnosis part of the body like a pinky finger or our nose. Instead, we feel the effects of using hypnosis as a part of the entire mind/body/spirit connection.