What is hypnosis?

There will always be people who don't believe in hypnosis, or believe it's against their religion, or is a form of brainwashing, witchcraft, voodoo or mind control. That's because they watch too much television and allow their imagination to rule their decisions instead of using common sense, which is actually science.

To those people, I tell them then don't watch television commercials because they use hypnosis in every one of them. It's called misdirection, very much like a magician gets you to focus on his left hand while his right hand is doing the actual trick. 

Commercials work the same way. They get you to focus on their dancing and smiles and laughter and social gatherings and the pretty colors in the background, and once you are focused on their left hand, at the end of the commercial, their right hand sends you the message, "buy this insurance or car or cell phone."

The hypnotist gets you to focus on their left hand, which is actually a particular object or a spot on their hand. Once you have done so, just like when commercials get you to focus on their dancing, the hypnotist sends you a message, just like the commercials do, which is usually something like "stop picking your nose." 

Just remember that hypnosis, just like the commercials, can't get you to do anything unless you wanted to do it in the first place. If you're not going to buy a car, then all the car commercials in the world aren't going to get you to buy a car. If you hate hot dogs, then all the hot dog commercials or even hypnosis that tries to get you to eat a hot dog, won't get you to buy or eat hot dogs. 

You now know that hypnosis works exactly like commercials do. So, scientifically speaking, the following explains how it all began and how the word hypnosis is greatly abused and therefore misunderstood. I'll begin with a paragraph from my first page.

What exactly is hypnosis? The word hypnosis was originally created to describe the process you put yourself through in order to fall asleep, named after the Greek god Hypnos, the god of sleep. It's lying in bed and letting go of all the thoughts and stresses of the day, eventually limiting your thoughts to how warm the blanket feels around you or how soft your pillow feels beneath your head, and without even realizing it, you drift off to sleep.

Hypnosis is actually called mesmerism. You are mesmerized when you can focus your attention on something to the point where you are oblivious to everything else going on around you. It's also called tunnel vision. Named after Franz Mesmer, the creator of the mesmerizing techniques everyone has mislabeled as hypnosis.

Franz Mesmer's theory is this. By focusing your eyes on an object (visual tunnel vision) while focusing your hearing on the sound of someone's voice (audible tunnel vision), the more mesmerized you become, at which point a part of your mind becomes willing to accept suggestions, but only if they're coming from someone you trust and if you were leaning in the direction of those particular suggestions in the first place. Think of a hypnotist/mesmerist as a motivator who helps you stay on a path that you've already taken.

The confusion all began in 1843 when James Braid noticed that when clients had created tunnel vision and were mesmerized, that they exhibited the same sleepy "look" that one had when going to sleep. So he changed the word from mesmerized, which is the "focused" look, to hypnotized, which is the "sleepy" look. But he eventually saw his mistake, that they weren't sleepy at all, so he tried to change the word back to mesmerized, but by then the word hypnotized became so popular, thanks to movies, that he gave up trying.

Knowing this, here is what to expect. Your hypnotist, or mesmerist, will ask you to focus your eyes on a particular object (visual tunnel vision) while focusing your hearing on only the sound of his voice (audible tunnel vision). If you have followed instructions, then your eyes will appear blurry, out of focus, distant. This is a hypnotic state of mind, or more precisely, a mesmerized state of mind. He will then give you suggestions that you are willing to accept in order to experience change for the better.