For years I\’ve mused over how people try to explain how and why hypnosis works. In my experience as a hypnotherapist I\’ve come to understand that so many of the things I read and was told, just didn\’t add up.

The first major lie was that people had to be relaxed to get into hypnosis, the second was that not all people could be hypnotized.

The reality is that Hypnosis is just a name to describe a broad method of affecting human behavior.

And the reality that getting hypnosis is one thing…it does not mean that a person will be affected by the suggestions of the hypnotist.

Let me explain further. There are two major components to hypnosis.

– Getting the state of hypnosis

– Change work/Phenomena

The whole notion that only some people are succeptable to hypnosis is kind of comical. Everybody goes into trance states. Everybody at one time or another accepts a belief or some sort of reality concept without critical evaluation.

It has nothing to do with intelligence. It has nothing to do with willpower.

Now in the case of getting the state of hypnosis we achieve what we call depth. This is course a misnoma because there is no real depth in hypnosis. It is better described by the word \’intensity\’. Ideally the more intense the state the better, assuming that the subject is still responsive.

And ideally the subject is not critically evaluating suggestions. They are just accepting them as reality.

However this still is not always enough. We know that in the case of placebo a person through sheer believe can affect a change that heals/cures a medical issue. However whilst I believe the likelyhood that within hypnosis many people will change burely based on belief, an instruction set is more helpful.

That is accepting the new belief combined with the \’how to\’.

For instance a person could be told in hypnosis that they are in fact superman. They could walk out the door in total belief they had superpowers. Of course this belief would be crushed them moment they tried to fly or use x-ray vision. The only way that the belief would continue to exist is if that person hallucinated a new version of reality.

Of course that\’s not particularly healthy! Any change work done in hypnosis should be done for the overall mental well being of the client.

The instruction set given should be enough for the person to agreebaly integrate the change into their lives.

I once heard it said that hynosis is so powerful that it works in spite of itself. From that I believe it means that even a very average hypnotist can affect change in people. The skill of course as always comes from being able to affect powerful change in a greater amount of people.

It\’s puzzling in this day and age why there still haven\’t been any major clinical trials into hypnosis. In my experience hypnosis can resolve issues very rapidly saving clients money and effort.

In the second part of this article I\’ll talk about the powerful elements of a hypnosis therapy session.

Gareth Graham is Clinical Hypnotherapist from Melbourne Australia. Hypnotherapy Melbourne

Gareth Graham is Clinical Hypnotherapist from Melbourne Australia. Hypnotherapy Melbourne

Author Bio: Gareth Graham is Clinical Hypnotherapist from Melbourne Australia. Hypnotherapy Melbourne

Category: Self Help
Keywords: Hypnosis, Hypnotherapy