Introduction

"Hypnosis is a procedure during which a health professional or researcher suggests that a client, patient, or subject experience changes in sensations, perceptions, thoughts, or behavior. The hypnotic context is generally established by an induction procedure. Although there are many different hypnotic indications, most include suggestion for relaxation, calmness, and well being. Instructions to imagine or think about pleasant experiences are also commonly included in hypnotic indications. People respond to hypnosis in different ways. Some describe their experience as an altered state of consciousness AZ`1us. Others describe hypnosis as a normal state of focused attention, in which they feel very calm and relaxed. Regardless of how and to what degree they respond, most people describe the experience as very pleasant. Some people are very responsive to hypnotic suggestions and others are less responsive. A person's ability to experience hypnotic suggestions can be inhibited by fears and concerns arising from some common misconceptions. Contrary to some depictions of hypnosis in books, movies or on television, people who have been hypnotized do not lose control over their behavior. They typically remain aware of who they are and where they are, and unless amnesia has been specifically suggested, they usually remember what transpired during hypnosis. Hypnosis makes it easier for people to experience suggestions, but it does not force them to have these experiences." Psychological Hypnosis: A Bulletin of Division 30, 2, p. 7.)

Although scientists have different theories about the nature of hypnosis, all seem to agree that hypnotized people report changes in the way they feel, think, and behave, and that these changes are in response to suggestions. People vary in their degree of responsiveness to hypnotic suggestions, what is called their hypnotizability or hypnotic susceptibility, but most people can be hypnotized to some degree. Scientists disagree about whether hypnosis involves a special mental state.

Actually, you are already familiar with Hypnosis although you may not realize it. We all go through the same altered states of consciousness, or brain wave levels each day - upon wakening in the morning and crossing over into sleep at night. We can most easily explain it in this way: Researchers have divided brain functions into four (4) separate levels of cycles per second (CPS) activity: ALPHA Relaxation level, beginning to awaken in the morning and crossing over into sleep at night, associated with imaginative thinking, corresponds to light and medium levels of Hypnosis. (8 - 12 CPS) BETA Normal daytime consciousness, critical thought level. (18 - 40 CPS) THETA Early stages of sleep, deep daydreaming state, associated with creative thinking, corresponds to medium and deep levels of Hypnosis. (4 - 7 CPS) DELTA Profound sleep, dream state. (1 - 3 CPS)

That's it!! There's no place else to go!! Hypnosis cannot put you into any other place than those four (4) brain levels. For most people Hypnosis is a mid-Alpha range activity and although you are definitely in Hypnosis you remain fully conscious of everything that is going on. Hypnosis is simply a matter of setting aside the conscious mind, to one degree or another, and selectively focusing one's attention on either a particular point or a whole range of experiences. Because of the hypersuggestibility inherent in the Alpha and Theta levels, positive programming is extremely effective in helping to create positive change.