What is hypnosis
Hypnosis — a completely normal and regular occurrence
People often have an impression of a hypnotist that has been based upon television and movies as being some mysterious individual with the power to get into people’s minds and to control them. And their impression of hypnosis itself is of some esoteric and mysterious force which takes an individual’s self control away and renders them under the control of someone else.
Hypnosis is a state of deep focus and heightened suggestibility, resembling a trance. In this state, a person becomes highly receptive to ideas or behavioral changes. What most people don’t realize is how often human beings go into and out of hypnosis on a daily basis. Have you ever caught yourself daydreaming? You were in a state of hypnosis!
When you go to sleep every night and wake up the next morning you pass through two states of hypnosis based upon the brain wave frequency that your brain passes through on going from wakefulness into sleep, and then when emerging from sleep and entering a fully awakened state.
When you go to sleep you pass through a hypnogogic state and when you awaken from sleep you pass through a hypnopompic state. During the hypnogogic state you may experience vivid hallucinations, lucid dreaming, or certain muscle jerks called hypnic jerks. As for the hypnopompic state, have you ever noticed sometimes when you awaken that you still sometimes feel as though you are somehow “stuck” in a dream that you were having at the moment when you woke up? That is the hypnopompic state.
Have you ever been driving for some time out on the highway and suddenly you realize that you can’t remember anything that you passed by in the last hour? That is hypnosis. In fact, it has a specific name. It’s called road hypnosis.
And can you remember a time when you were looking in the refrigerator for something but you could not find it, only to find out later that it was right there in front of you the whole time in plain view? That is hypnosis.
And did you ever observe young children being absorbed in some make-believe activity in which they were thoroughly engrossed? They could see themselves involved in quite a story that was very real to them! Can you remember doing that when you were young? It’s a normal part of childhood development and it’s called hypnosis.
In fact, it is hypnosis that allows us to enjoy movies and television or to become thoroughly absorbed in some story in which we have been reading in a book. Think about the last time that you were in a movie theater. What was happening to you? You were sitting in a darkened room watching a lot of lights on a screen along with sound, and yet you were thoroughly pulled into the story. You laughed, you cried, you may have even become angry, you may have even forgotten that you were even sitting in a theater!
You set aside the fact that you were sitting in a theater watching lights flickering on a screen. You suspended your own disbelief in order to be able to enjoy the movie. And guess what happened: you were hypnotised!