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THE DEFINITION OF SELF-HYPNOSIS: Hypnosis is a state of hyper-suggestibility where the conscious and the subconscious disconnect. It is an altered state of mind where the subject is more likely to accept the Hypnotherapist's suggestions.

You have been in the state of hypnosis many times in your life without even realizing it. If you've ever seen a sad T.V. show and reacted with a tear in your eye, you have been in the hypnotic state. You entered a state of amplified suggestibility where you uncritically received the suggestion of gloom on the TV screen and reacted with a sad emotion, your tear. To put it into different words, your ability to reason, which is controlled by your conscious mind, was bypassed. You did not reason that the show was just a play; you accepted the action as being real. So you reacted with real passion and shed a tear.

WHO CAN BE PLACED IN HYPNOSIS? It has been found that all normal people are hypnotizable to a greater or lesser extent. People with an I.Q. of under 70 generally are not hypnotizable. People who are actively psychotic generally can't be hypnotized. Most senile people are difficult or impossible to hypnotize. I have found in my own professional practice dealing with many retired people up to 85 years of age, that hypnotism is a powerful and beneficial system for the majority of people. The person's personal motivation is the key to his or her success.

DO I HAVE TO BE A "DEEP" SUBJECT FOR SUCCESS? For the therapeutic applications of hypnotism that are often dealt with in therapy, hypnotic depth is not required. A subject can be the lightest possible subject and still obtain all of the benefits from hypnotism that the deepest subjects will obtain. I believe that over the years, far too much importance has been placed on how deep a subject is. If the hypnotic subject is deep, it could be beneficial. This however, may not necessarily be the case. Actually, with the latest hypnotic techniques like Ericksonian hypnotism and state of the art "NLP" (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), hypnotic depth is one of the least important aspects, which create success.

ARE THERE ANY DANGERS IN SELF-HYPNOSIS? There are essentially no dangers to the practice of hypnotism. It is not possible to "get stuck" in hypnotism. The most horrible thing that could happen while a person is in hypnosis is that she might fall into a natural state of sleep for twenty or thirty minutes. She would wake up rested and no longer in the state of self-hypnosis.

MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT SELF HYPNOSIS: There are many misnomers about hypnotism. Most of the misnomers are due to stage and television acts. Paradoxically, it's because of the fact that the television can hypnotize you that these misnomers are so well-established in people's minds.

IS SELF-HYPNOSIS A STATE OF SLEEP? The largest misconception about hypnotism is that it's sleep. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you are asleep, you are unconscious. If you are unconscious, you can't hear anything. If you can't hear anything, then the hypnotherapist can't help you. Hypnosis is a state of keen awareness. The subject is wide-awake and aware of everything around her. This misconception comes from the stage Hypnotist's use of the word "sleep" as akin to a state of hypnosis. When the old time hypnotist swung the watch in front of the subject's face, he told the subject that she was getting "sleepy." Then he told the subject to "go to sleep." What he meant was to go into a hypnotic sleep, not a natural sleep.

IS THERE A HYPNOTIZED FEELING? The second largest misconception about self-hypnosis is that there is a hypnotized feeling. There is no hypnotized feeling. I repeat there is no hypnotized feeling. Most people feel very relaxed when in a state of hypnosis, as relaxation seems to be the essence of hypnosis. Some people feel heavy. Some people feel light. Some people have other sensations and feelings. Other people have absolutely no feeling that they are in self hypnosis, and believe they have not been hypnotized when they most definitely have.

CAN THE HYPNOTIST TAKE CONTROL OF ME? NO! The hypnotherapist can't make you do anything against your will. There is always an observing ego state. Should the hypnotherapist make a suggestion that you find offensive; this observing ego state would reject the suggestion. Additionally, you will probably come out of hypnosis if the hypnotherapist makes an offensive suggestion.

CAN THE HYPNOTHERAPIST MAKE ME DIVULGE MY SECRETS? You will not divulge any secrets while in self hypnosis unless you want to. The therapist doesn't have any control over the subject. Quite the contrary, the subject has more control over herself since at this time she can directly communicate with her own subconscious. The subject can easily decline any suggestion the therapist makes, no matter how simple or complicated the suggestion might be. The subject can open her eyes, emerge from the state of hypnosis, and walk out of the room at any time she chooses.

MUST PEOPLE TELL THE TRUTH WHEN IN SELF-HYPNOSIS? NO! People can lie when in the state of self-hypnosis.

DO HYPNOTISTS HAVE SUPER NATURAL VIBRATIONS? This is a common misconception. The therapist doesn't have any special powers, nor does he have any special vibrations with which to propel you into the state of hypnosis. In reality, all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. The therapist leads the subject into a state of hypnotism. In other words, the ability of hypnosis is within the subject.

WHY DO PEOPLE FAIL TO REACH THEIR GOALS USING SELF-HYPNOSIS? Perhaps the biggest reason for the failure to reach one's goals through hypnosis is an inadequate amount of practice where self-hypnosis is concerned.

The biggest reason for the return of a symptom or "relapse" is the early discontinuance of hypnotism with the Hypno-therapist or recorded program. While self-hypnosis is important, it is generally the hetero-hypnosis with the therapist or hypnosis recording which has the greatest impact upon the subconscious.

This is because of the training that the therapist has vs. the lack of training of the client. Some people are penny wise and pound-foolish. They mentally set an amount of time that they are willing to spend for help. And then they prematurely discontinue their sessions because; "I didn't lose 50 Lbs. in two days, so it isn't working."

If a therapeutic method is really helping one to make positive changes, then it is invaluable and it should be continued. For this reason it is wise to have follow up hypnotherapy sessions, even after a symptom seems to have disappeared completely. Self-hypnosis should be an ongoing affair on a daily basis. Ultimately, YOUR SUCCESS IS UP TO YOU!

WILL I BE BETTER OFF HIRING A HYPNOTIST, OR WILL PURCHASING A RECORDED PROGRAM WORK BETTER? That is a great question. Normally I would recommend that you employ the services of a reputable therapist. The reason is that by meeting with you, a good therapist / NLP'er will be able to customize his approach to your personality and your favored representational system -- the way you favor taking in information through your senses to make sense out of it and react to it.

In my opinion, ninety-nine percent of the pre-recorded hypnotherapy tapes available today are based on Traditional Hypnosis, and are made up of only one or maybe two sessions of it at that. Traditional Hypnosis is nothing more than a set of direct suggestions: "If you eat a brownie you'll vomit." "You will not have cravings and urges," and so forth. This technology has a very poor track record of success because the people in our generation have been trained to question everything. That's why you, your friends, and your kids usually do the opposite of what they are told to do. This is called a polarity response.

That being said, having personalized sessions with any therapist / NLP'er who has enough experience to be able to actually help you can cost a great deal of money. There are some hypnotic programs based on Ericksonian Hypnosis and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) that have overcome those shortcomings. They've accomplished this by using a mix of Traditional Hypnosis, Ericksonian Hypnosis, NLP, and the highly regarded Video Hypnosis technology.

These are all technologies that are designed to do away with the resistance factor. In fact, Video Hypnosis and the NLP technology that it's based on do not utilize suggestion at all. These technologies rely on using the thought processes that have created a problem, to eliminate it!

Look for companies that offer these methodologies in multi-session products. These are programs that generally have six to eight different sessions, so you are exposed to a broad range of techniques. It takes a lot of work to script and record this type of program, but the high success rates achieved are well worth the effort.

I recommend that you stay away from the "one size fits all" -- "do-or-die" hypnotism CDs and downloads. Many people are attracted to these recordings because they are cheap, usually under ten dollars. But is it cheap if it just wastes your valuable time and does not work?

If you try something and it does not work, then you get guarded and start to expect the next approach to fail. And you get what you expect. Do you really think that the same exact suggestions will work for everyone? Do you think that they will work for you? Do you always do exactly as you are told? Or do you usually feel the strong desire to do the opposite of what you are told?

(c) 2007 By Alan B. Densky, CH. This document may be re-printed as long as it is not altered and the author's name and clickable links are retained.