BELIEF + ANTICIPATION + IMAGINATION + EXPECTATION = HYPNOSIS

• A person must believe that hypnosis can work for them
• Anticipation can improve the outcome
• Imagination will affect the degree of results
• Expectation will assist in achieving the desired state of hypnosis

FAQ’s

What Is Hypnosis?

Hypnosis is an education communication process to a person’s mind that allows his/her conscious and subconscious minds to come together and believe the same message.  During hypnosis, the body and the conscious mind are in a relaxed neutral state while the subconscious mind remains awake and receptive to suggestion.  In this state, the person suspends critical judgment and exercises selective thinking.

Can I get stuck or trapped in the hypnotic state?

No. At any time a client can re-alert or choose to ignore suggestions. No one stays hypnotized indefinitely – you will always “come out” of trance within a short time.

Will I be asleep or unconscious?

“Hypnosis is sleep”.  If you are at all familiar with hypnosis, you have no doubt heard this fact stated over and over again.  Wrong, hypnosis is not sleep.  The average person, however, continues to cling to this misconception. They believe you are asleep when you are hypnotized. This erroneous belief is so ingrained in the minds of most individuals they find it almost impossible to be free of it.

How can a treatment aimed at your mind affect your body?

The body responds physically to thoughts. For example, when we think a frightening thought, we can experience increased heart rate, shortness of breath, “butterflies” in the stomach, muscular rigidity, sweating, shaking, and so on. Similarly, when we think a pleasurable thought, we can experience reduced heart rate, deeper breathing, relaxation of muscles, and so on. These are autonomic nervous system responses that are involuntary, but they can be utilized to promote health. When hypnotized, an individual is very open to suggestions that can enhance positive and diminish negative physical reactions.

“I don’t think I was hypnotized–I heard every word you said!”

Some people, after a session of hypnosis, don’t believe that they were hypnotized at all. This likely comes from misconceptions about just what a ‘trance’ really is. There are differences between the brain waves of people who are asleep and those who are in trance. In practice, people who are hypnotized often talk with the hypnotist, and can both answer and ask questions, hear everything that is said very clearly, and are perfectly well aware. There is no mysterious feeling to being hypnotized and our minds are not taken over nor controlled. This expectation and perhaps a demand to have some mysterious experience beyond conscious control or awareness seems to leave some people disappointed and even denying they had any experience at all. These same people may actually have received substantial results and unconscious change.

Will I lose control of myself?

No, there is no loss of control. Hypnosis allows clients to be more focused and less distractible and more skillful in using their own mental abilities constructively. In this way, they can achieve more of their goals, and consequently, actually achieve more (not less) control of their personal comfort, health, and well-being. The ‘control’ misconception appears to originate from stage hypnosis which actually involves people doing what they want to be doing in a social agreement to be entertaining.

Will hypnosis make me remember things accurately?

No. Hypnosis can improve our recall of events that we believe happened to us. But hypnosis is not a way to find out the truth (whatever that may be) about events that are in dispute. That is, under hypnosis you may re-experience events, but there is no guarantee that you are remembering them correctly. Hypnosis only assists the subject in recalling perceptions, not truths. Courts recognize this, and sometimes take the position that being hypnotized influences your ability to later testify in court on those matters. You should get legal advice before attempting to use hypnosis to improve your recall of events when there are, or might be, court matters involved.

The Functioning Purpose Of  The Conscious/Unconscious Mind

The Conscious Mind

Very Analytical                                                                  Logical/Rational

Works out Problems

Observes, Listens, Learns

Reasons and Judges

Will Accept & Reject any and ALL information

BELIEVES it’s in control                                                   If you were consciously in control,

why would you be here?  You would

be able to stop eating inappropriate

foods, stop smoking, etc.

WILL POWER                                                                      Extremely Powerful

You must remember to use it.

Willpower to say no to junk, fatty,

fried foods; to say no to smoking.

You may say: “I don’t have any

willpower—that is why I am here.”

This Is Just An Illusion.

If you didn’t have willpower, you wouldn’t get out of bed in the a.m., wouldn’t go to work, etc.  You do these things because you know you must do them.

The Subconscious Mind

Remembers Everything                                                Acts as a storehouse or warehouse of all

images, ideas or concepts you have ever

seen, heard, smelled, tasted or touched.

Generates Emotions                                                      We don’t consciously choose how we feel

on any given day.  If you were depressed,

you could just tell yourself to stop being

depressed.

Cannot tell the Difference                                           If you imagine it’s going to be easy to

Between Real and Imagined                                       reduce weight or stop smoking, it will be.

You achieve what you imagine.

(Phantom pregnancies, nightmares)

CONTROLS EVERYTHING                                             Heart rate, breathing, digestion

CONTROLS HABITS                                                          Habits start out as something we do

consciously, then it moves into a

programmed habit.  Once it becomes a

habit, it is out of your conscious

awareness and then becomes more

challenging to change.  This is

“Stimulus Response Conditioning”

Example:   Eating while watching TV and

eating a sweet after dinner or smoking

after a meal, learning to drive a car.

When the conscious and subconscious minds are congruent (working together), positive changes occur.

Then conscious mind takes everything literally, can conduct many tasks at a time, learns and reacts quickly.

ACTS OUT any image, idea or concept  that you allow to be implanted in your mind.

I can become thinner

I can’t.

I can quit smoking or can’t

I can make $100,000/year

Or it will never happen to me.