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Although the word hypnosis comes from the Greek word hypnos meaning "to sleep," hypnosis is not sleep at all, but rather a very deep state of physical relaxation and acute mental alertness. This state is more correctly described as a hypnotic trance.
Trance is actually a normal and everyday state. We experience light trance whenever we are engaged in an activity that requires intense concentration such as playing a musical instrument, practicing martial arts, or dancing. We also may find ourselves in trance when we daydream or when doing something repetitious like driving a car on a highway or listening to a persistent musical beat.
Hypnosis is being in trance and receiving suggestions. There are many examples of hypnosis in modern society. Some are obvious. For instance, advertising makes use of suggestion transmitted through the trance-inducing medium of television.
But a lot of hypnotic suggestion is more subtle and falls under the guise of accepted conventions of family, culture, religion, nationality, law, and government. In fact, many clinical hypnotists claim that everyone has been hypnotized and that their job is really to remove those hypnotic suggestions that no longer serve their clients well.
MYTHS AND MISCONCEPTIONS
There are many myths and misconceptions concerning hypnosis, for example, that a client is completely under the hypnotist's control. A hypnotist cannot make an individual do anything under hypnosis that they do not want to do. Hypnotic subjects are totally alert under hypnosis and can remember everything that happened while they were in trance. And if an emergency were to occur during a session, such as a fire, the subject would simply snap out of trance, and attend to the problem at hand.
THE ROLE OF THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND
Often the conscious mind and the unconscious mind are in conflict or disagreement. For example, consciously you may want to stop smoking, but unconsciously you may still associate smoking with being macho or looking sophisticated. Or you may consciously want to eat better food and smaller portions, but unconsciously may associate eating with a positive experience like being nurtured or loved. Dr. Milton Erickson, arguably the foremost hypnotherapist of modern times said: “Patients are patients because they are out of rapport with their own unconscious...”
During a hypnotic session, clients are helped to progressively relax. As they do so, their conscious mind lets go more and more and the unconscious mind starts to play a more active, more dominant role. The same thing happens in the early stages of sleep; however, in the hypnotic state the unconscious mind maintains a peculiar ability to remain extremely alert and to receive whatever suggestions the client has asked to receive, without normal conscious resistance. In this way, the conscious mind and the unconscious mind are finally able to agree on the desired results. The hypnotist is the facilitator or guide during the journey.
USES OF HYPNOSIS
The use of hypnosis in Western medicine was popularized by many prominent doctors including Mesmer, Braid, Charcott, James Esdaile, Sigmund Freud, and Milton Erickson, to name but a few. The American Medical Association formally recognized the role of hypnosis in facilitating healing in 1956.
Perhaps the most popular uses of hypnosis are for facilitating weight loss and smoking cessation. Overcoming phobias, stress reduction, pain management, low self-esteem, and career coaching are some of the other areas where hypnosis is commonly applied.
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