What Exactly IS Hypnosis?

Hypnosis is difficult to define. People go in and out of a hypnotic-type consciousness everyday. Hypnosis compares to daydreaming in that you are still completely a part of your surroundings, however, your mind wanders.

In hypnosis, the hypnotist gives suggestions to guide a person through a mind journey. By guiding you through the subconscious, the guide can give powerful suggestions that will help you successfully make changes to your negative self-destructive behaviors, while substituting them for positive ones.

There are five states that need to be present before you can be hypnotized. They are:

1. Concentration
2. Relaxation
3. Motivation
4. Suggestion
5. Imagination

Hypnosis works because it affects your subconscious mind, which is unable to reason. Since it cannot reason, it accepts and acts upon the conscious mind’s suggestions. Before the conscious mind can be used as a tool in change, the five states above need to be in place.

According to researchers, the conscious mind takes up only 10% of the human brain. Conscious mind activities are everything you do that interacts with the environment around you. The remaining 90% of your brain is the subconscious mind. This part handles the body’s functions- such as breathing, blinking, muscular and skeletal interactions, and even cellular activity.

The subconscious is also where we get creativity and intuition, as well as emotion and rational/irrational behavior. The subconscious mind often has influence over the conscious mind. One of the bad parts of the subconscious mind is that it sometimes draws illogical rationalizations that lead to dysfunctional negative behaviors.

One of the most important points about the subconscious mind is that it is possible to reprogram it.

Commonly known as the gate between the conscious and subconscious mind, the “Critical Factor” has the power to take in or reject suggestions. When the Critical Factor sees change as threatening, it rejects the suggestion in an effort to protect.

This is why any suggestions that do not coincide with what is programmed in the subconscious are rejected. The Critical Factor has to be bypassed in order for change to take place. This means that you will go past emotion, memories, and habits. Once this is done, real change will occur.