Hypnosis - What is Hypnotism

The image of the man dangling the watch back and forth before the patient's eyes and saying "You are getting sleepy... You are getting sleepy... You are getting sleepy" is ingrained into our brains as the primary mode of hypnotizing someone. Once a person goes under, the hypnotist can get the unconscious to say or do just about anything on command. While hypnotism is accepted in the entertainment industry, the scientific community generally snubs such practices. Nevertheless, recent therapeutic trends suggest that the power of the mind cannot be discounted.

Austrian physician Franz Mesmer is sometimes called the father of modern hypnotism, and in the late 1700s, he proposed that it was a mystical force called animal magnetism that flowed from the hypnotist to the patient.

Hypnotists James Braid and Hippolyte Bernheim argued that mesmerism is something far different from hypnosis and that their work centered on the idea of passing a direct suggestion, while simultaneously encouraging deep relaxation, occasionally under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

However, modern Ericksonian hypnosis, popularized by Milton Erickson in the sixties, purports that indirect suggestions have a greater influence over the mind.

While there is much dissension over who is right, the hypnosis techniques are practiced in centers, clinics and living rooms around America to help folks mentally and physically.

In 2000, Harvard researchers sought an answer to the question:

• Does being hypnotized change the brain?

In their study, they asked a group of men to hold a brick out in front of them as long as they could, which was five minutes for most fully conscious subjects. However, under hypnotic suggestion, they held the brick out for fifteen to twenty minutes.

Next, subjects were hypnotized and placed in an MRI scanner. A computer screen showed them patterns of yellow, red, blue and green rectangles and recorded their brain activity. Then they were shown the same rectangles in shades of gray and were asked to imagine the colors. When they were not hypnotized, both activities showed brain activity on the right side only, but when they were hypnotized both the left and the right hemispheres responded. "What we have shown for the first time," lead researcher Stephen Kosslyn concluded, "is that hypnosis changes conscious experience in a way not possible when we are not under hypnosis."

So, if being hypnotized can change the way the brain works, can it change our habitual behavior? Can we use hypnotherapy training to lose weight? While not all studies have been conclusive, there are some signs that a hypnotic suggestion for weight loss really works.

In a 1985 study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, two groups underwent a nine-week weight management program and the hypnotized group continued to lose weight two years later, while the non-hypnosis group showed no future benefits.

In another study of sixty women, the thirty hypnotized women lost an average of seventeen pounds, while the control group only lost an average of half a pound (Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1986). In 1996, it was discovered that adding weight loss hypnosis to a weight loss plan increased weight loss by 97% and increased post-treatment effectiveness by more than 146%!

Hypnosis center therapists use a number of different hypnotic techniques to help their patients. For example, age regression and revivification can help sufferers of mental disorders who need to connect with repressed past memories to regain something.

Folks suffering from insomnia, anxiety or anger disorders will benefit from guided imagery hypnosis sessions instead.

Hypnoanalysis, pioneered by Sigmund Freud, has patients recall moments from the past to confront them and release pent-up emotions. Folks may benefit from direct suggestion and repetition tactics or from confusion and indirect suggestion. Different techniques of hypnosis work for different folks, so it is good that therapists are familiar with more than one technique.

Learn How to Hypnotize Someone

Learning how to hypnotize someone is not a magical experience for the mystics, nor is it a skill acquired through years of schooling. Hypnotherapy training can easily be done with a book or two, a subject and the desire to learn hypnosis techniques. Maybe there is somebody in your life you would like to help through hypnosis.

This method is said to relieve pain, reduce anxiety and help folks with weight loss, smoking cessation and emotional issues. On the other hand, maybe you would like to make some extra money on the weekends performing hypnosis sessions for small audiences. The basic gist of hypnotizing somebody is to get them to relax, at which point their brain waves will slow and their creative, unconscious side will emerge.

Induction is the first step in successful hypnosis sessions. Learning how to hypnotize someone is based on convincing that individual to ditch his or her waking state and slip into a more suggestible state of trance. Not everybody can be hypnotized and definitely not without their permission, but you will discover that most folks are willing to relax, breathe deeply and visualize certain things. A common script for visualization centers on the parts of the body you want your subject to relax. You might say,

"Begin by relaxing all the muscles in your forehead... let all the cares, the stresses, the anxieties of this day melt away... feel your forehead relaxing deeply to feel the tingling of relaxation... feel your neck become warm with the deep relaxation as you take a deep peaceful breath and just let go...”

Once your subject has been relaxed into a state of trance and you have learned how to hypnotize, you will need to know what to do with your subject. You may want to plant a hypnotic suggestion that the subject can come back to in his or her waking state. For example, you might tell a story about a beautiful garden and say,

"I am giving you the trigger word 'Eden.' Whenever you wish to relax in the future, you can take three deep breaths; remember your trigger word 'Eden' and come back to this beautiful, relaxing place."

You may also go into the next stage of hypnosis by issuing instructions, such as,

"I want you to try to get up, but your right leg is so heavy you can't move it."

Once the subject is in this deeper level, clinical hypnosis may be performed to alleviate mental and physical pain. Next, you will need to prepare the subject to awaken.

Learning how to hypnotize someone can be a very enjoyable hobby. You will likely find yourself feeling more relaxed and better about yourself as you help others. You may use your relaxation hypnosis techniques to help yourself fall asleep at night too. If you are engaging in this as a hobby, then books and CDs will probably be all the resources you need. However, if you are serious about pursuing a career or making money in hypnotherapy, then it is best that you attend something like the four-day American Society of Clinical Hypnosis workshop to engross yourself in the discipline. Stage hypnotists can benefit from the Ultimate Stage Hypnosis Seminar, which features guest appearances and training from some of the masters, such as Jerry Valley, Tommy Vee and Alex Mitt.

How are Hypnotherapists Trained

Hypnotherapists are able to treat clients with a variety of medical disorders ranging from asthma, bed wetting and depression through to cancer pain, eating disorders and gastrointestinal problems. You would therefore think that somebody with so much power over the human body would require a full university degree together with some form of medical training.

However, because hypnosis techniques are considered entirely safe, certification is not closely regulated in the United States. Although medical hypnotherapy training is possible and helps lend credibility to the profession, it is not essential, which is one of the reasons why so many folks want to learn how to hypnotize someone else.

Primarily, hypnotherapists are self-motivated entrepreneurs who are naturally positive folks with an eagerness to help others. Because the job itself is so flexible, a lot of therapists start off part-time, seeing folks on the weekends or evenings while building a client base. They may team up with healing centers, physical therapy offices, counselors, reiki yoga centers or acupuncture clinics to gain business. Marketing and networking are central to the success of a hypnotherapist. A number of professionals work from home in order to keep overhead costs down, while others gain employment at a hypnosis center. Once they become established, experienced specialists typically branch off to hold weekend workshops and retreats, teach classes or offer group sessions. Others will use their talents for entertainment purposes and take to the stage.

It can take twelve to eighteen months for new hypnotherapists to gain recognition in their communities. Numerous hours will be spent handing out business cards, hanging up flyers, advertising online and networking with local affiliates. Initially, it can be tough to make money solely off hypnosis sessions, so it is important that newcomers try to keep costs as low as possible and spend the rest of their hours marketing.

There are also weekend seminars and fifty hour certification courses offered that can assist a professional differentiate him or herself from the masses. In many cases, a person can gain hypnotherapy certification with just four hours of hypnosis training. The more experience aspiring hypnosis therapists have, the more confidant they will be in opening their doors to clients.

Over recent years, hypnosis techniques have been turning many heads, as the medical and psychological values are recognized. This is a great opening for folks who are interested in the inner workings of the mind, but may not have the money to attend medical school. There are several different approaches to the topic of hypnosis. Some focus on the medical effects such as pain management, while others approach it from a life coaching perspective. Hypnotherapists should generally be caring, empathetic, engaged, and confident as well as hardworking entrepreneurs in order to be successful.

How Does Hypnosis Therapy Work

The term hypnosis stems from the Greek word hypnos, meaning sleep. Hypnosis Therapy or Hypnotherapy employs several techniques that create a feeling of deep relaxation in patients, which then leads to an altered state of consciousness known as a trance. Therapists use hypnosis techniques to open a gateway into the mind, where they can actually influence folks on how to change their embedded behaviors.

While it has not been proven beyond reasonable doubt, a number of patients have reported the use of hypnosis sessions to quit smoking, lose weight, overcome obstacles in their marriage and find a sense of empowerment.

In a hypnotherapy session, the patient's body relaxes, blood pressure decreases, heart rate decreases, oxygenation of the blood increases and brain wave activity may be altered. By contrast, the mind becomes more attentive, more focused and more awake. While patients are in this deep concentration, they are more in touch with their emotional side, the left and right brain hemispheres are communicating better, mental gatekeepers open up and they are highly responsive to suggestion. A patient may be given a list of reasons to stop smoking or convinced to eat smaller portions. Perhaps a series of coping mechanisms can be directed into the subconscious realm to help a person calm down and overcome anxiety, anger disorders, stress or depression.

Hypnosis therapy is used to treat a wide host of ailments, both mental and physical. Most recently, researchers discovered that the mind plays an important role in pain management, particularly with cancer patients or those undergoing surgery.

Studies show that hypnosis meditation can lessen one's need for medication and shorten recovery time. Thinking negative thoughts can lead to stress, which has powerful ramifications on the body. It can disrupt a woman's menstrual cycle, create a cold sore, make a person ill with a cold, disrupt sleep patterns, generate ulcers, facilitate hair loss, exacerbate psoriasis, lead to heart disease and contribute to obesity.

Nowadays, hypnosis sessions are used in treating obesity, asthma, anxiety, pain, sleep walking, thumb sucking, nail biting, smoking, inflammatory bowel disease, insomnia, addiction, warts, bedwetting, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, eczema, psoriasis, acne, migraines, stress, tinnitus, cancer pain, obesity, anorexia, bulimia, indigestion, phobias, depression and the pain of childbirth.

The problem with hypnosis therapy is that not everybody is susceptible to hypnotic suggestion. The subject must be an open-minded, willing participant who pledges to remain attentive, suspend disbelief and go along with what the therapist is saying. A common misconception is that hypnotists can mesmerize somebody against his or her will, plant suggestions and cause the subject to act against his or her free will. The process itself is mysterious, although there must be a certain level of agreeableness before healing can occur.