Hypnosis is a relaxed, focused state of concentration.

But the actual state of hypnosis is a little harder to define. Until recently it was assumed that it was similar to sleep, or that the mind was somehow unconscious. In reality, there is a specific state that the brain enters into when it is receptive to suggestion. This has been discovered on scans during hypnosis.

The brain operates in four general states determined by the frequency of the electricity generated by the exchange of chemicals in the neural pathways. The four states include Full Conscious Awareness, the Hypnotic State, the Dream State, and the Sleep State.

These four states are defined by brainwave electrical frequency ranges.

There is a change in the brain wave activity, similar to that time just before sleep when the alpha state is entered. Your brain’s waking state is a beta brain wave, just as you are going to sleep it changes to alpha and then to delta and theta in deep sleep. The alpha state is a very dreamy, pleasant state. During this time the mind is very open to visualizations and creating a rich sensory experience. The more real the experience becomes in the subconscious mind during this state, the more effect it will have on your waking behavior.

Full Conscious Awareness occurs when the majority of the electrical activity in the brain is in the beta range (14-35 Hz). The Hypnotic State occurs when brain activity is in the alpha range (8-13 Hz). The Dream State occurs when brain activity is in the theta range (4-7 Hz), and the Sleep State occurs when brain activity is in the delta range (.5-3 Hz)

Hypnosis is not an unusual state of mind, and may feel like you are not in a trance, or in hypnosis. For most people they simply feel relaxed.

Hypnosis is a normal state of mind, one which most people go in and out of every day. When you are watching a movie that you are engrossed in, driving down a long monotonous road, listening to music that captures a mood or engrosses you, you are in hypnosis.

The experience of hypnosis can vary dramatically from one person to another. Some hypnotized individuals report feeling a sense of detachment or extreme relaxation during the hypnotic state, while others even feel that their actions seem to occur outside of their conscious volition. Other individuals may remain fully aware and able to carry out conversations while under hypnosis.

When you are in a guided hypnotic trance session, or driving down the road in trance, you have an observer self, which is an actual part of you that is always aware and watching out for you. This observer self has been documented as a credible aspect of our mind, that keeps us safe, even when asleep. During hypnosis you can trust that your observer self will watch over you. This is not a guide or spiritual being, is a scientific discovery of a function of our brain. During a hypnosis session you would instantly get up and leave the room if it caught on fire, even if had previously felt like your arms and leg were too heavy to move.

And actually, since hypnosis can help make us sharper and more aware mentally, it actually may help keep us safer, by making us more aware of our surroundings during the day. If your perception of what is happening around you is better, you will notice things that are happening with greater clarity and perhaps make better decisions.

Hypnosis has been in use for thousands of years. There is a great deal of evidence to support the belief that Hypnosis was being used by the Ancient Greeks and Romans – for therapeutic benefit – as far back as about the fourth Century BC.

While a person is in this more relaxed state, they find it easier to accept beneficial suggestions (e.g. “you are now a non-smoker”).

It’s not clear how hypnosis works. Hypnotherapists say that hypnosis creates a state of deep relaxation and quiets the mind. When you’re hypnotized, you can concentrate intensely on a specific thought, memory, feeling or sensation while blocking out distractions. You’re more open than usual to suggestions, and this can be used to change your behavior and thereby improve your health and well-being.

Clinical hypnosis does not involve surrendering your will to another person and hypnosis does not make a person do anything they don’t want to do. It is not mind control, but rather a state of such deep relaxation and inner focus that the power of suggestion becomes easily acceptable. Hypnosis works with the subconscious mind because it is the part of the brain that operates in the background during both sleeping and waking stages.

Hypnosis is best described as a state of intense inner focus in which the subconscious mind is at the forefront and the conscious mind is subdued. This is mostly what happens when a person sleeps, but hypnosis works while a person is awake and allows them to relax to the point of putting their conscious train of thought to rest.

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No. The induction of hypnosis is never dangerous to the person being hypnotized, although many people have fears and ideas that cause them to be fearful. A hypnotist’s job is to educate and inform clients so that they see hypnosis for what it is: a powerful tool for creating personal transformation.

Of course, in actuality, all hypnosis is self-hypnosis, meaning a state that anyone can and does enter throughout the day. If focussed, it can be very powerful for you access the awesome power of the subconscious mind. This is the power that sometimes allows humans to do superhuman things.

However, most people have not developed the skill to focus this state, and so using the service of a trained hypnotist may seem the easier way to attain the state. But since it’s a natural state, it’s not dangerous.

Do we give up control of our minds during hypnosis?

Well, do we give up control of our minds during a movie?

When is the last time you got so involved during a movie that you actually felt emotion? You were in a hypnotic trance, no more and no less, although you still have the power to emerge from that state if desired.

While your mind may be guided by a movie, TV show, self-hypnosis tape, or Hypnotherapist, you alwaysl have the power to resist. Even though there are some people who seem to at least partially give up control of their minds, that is because of misunderstanding who has the power. Certainly one can be misled into believing that he/she has “given up control” in some forms of stage hypnosis or other experiments–but does that make it true?

Once people really understand that hypnosis is a natural and common state, they may enter deep states of hypnosis while still retaining the power to resist unwanted suggestions.

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