Hypnosis, depending on who you ask, has different meanings. A definition of hypnosis that is adopted by the U.S government is that it is (One) the bypass of the critical factor, and (two) the establishment of acceptable selective thinking. I will elaborate in the following paragraph.  When you are hypnotized you will be relaxed both physically and mentally. Your whole body will be relaxed, your eyes will be closed and others who are looking at you might think that you are sleeping but in reality you could still hear the voice of the hypnotist and follow his/her directions.

         You have your conscious mind, i.e the “critical factor”, and Your Unconscious mind which is the part of your mind that controls how your heart beats, how you breath, your fight & flight responses, how you feel and much more of your automated systems. Your critical factor filters what suggestions you accept and allows the suggestions to pass to Your Unconscious. Your Unconscious on the other hand makes the suggestions that it receives a reality. For example if I was to tell you that you will feel excited about being hypnotized, your critical factor will either choose to accept that suggestion and that suggestion will reach your unconscious at which point you will start to feel excited. Or on the other hand if your conscious mind was not to accept the suggestion, the suggestion will not reach the unconscious and you will not feel the excitement. How your conscious mind chooses to accept suggestions is another topic and with hypnosis we do not have to worry about it. Once hypnotized a person will be more prone to accepting suggestions because the critical factor is out of the way. Because the hypnotist have by passed the critical factor. The hypnotist therefore can choose to give suggestions like you will feel good and the client will do so. The hypnotist can suggest that the client will have the drive to workout and the client will. The hypnotist can also suggest that the client is no more scared of a spider and so forth and it happens. Of Course everything is not that simple but this pretty much covers it.

       Most people who know about hypnosis got to learn about it in one of these three ways. Some know about it because they got to experience it first had, because they got hypnotized. Most people on the other hand know about hypnosis from what they have seen either on TV and/or a stage hypnosis show. The rest learn about hypnosis because someone they know got hypnotized. The view people have of hypnosis is different depending how they learn about it.

      Those who have seen it on stage and/or on TV think of it as a mind take over by the hypnotist:  I have had people who covered their eyes when they learned that I was a hypnotist. The people who learned about hypnosis from others who were hypnotized have a better understanding of hypnosis because they know of the positive changes hypnosis can install in people. What people who have actually been hypnotized know is that hypnosis is a high state of relaxation and focus. They know that when one is hypnotized he/she will experience high state of relaxation, mentally and physically.

     After a hypnosis session some clients report that they felt a tingling sensation.  Some say that they felt their body as if it was very heavy while others report that their body was feeling as if it was levitating or rotating. All clients report that they feel very relaxed both mentally and Physically.  

I hope the information was helpful in helping you decide to use hypnosis bring a good change up in your life.