The very first thing I’ll tell you is that I refuse to tell you everything. For one thing, you might not truly want me to. Part of how hypnosis works is like mental magic. We’re talking stage magic, NOT the practical kind. We understand logically that what we see the magician perform on stage is physically impossible. We become caught up in the experience of what we are seeing happen “right before our very eyes.” We know there are mirrors and trapdoors, but unless we understand how the different pieces of the act come together, we’re caught up in the feeling that what’s happening is magical. The second we know how the card motions were manipulated, how the rabbit was there, or how the saw didn’t pass through that person’s body, we lose sight of the illusion so delicately created to be experienced.
What do you need to know about how hypnosis works? That depends on the context through which you want to understand it. Here, we’re going to talk about what you need to know as a potential recipient of hypnosis or hypnotherapy.
The simplest explanation of how hypnosis works is by using various methods to access the subconscious mind. That sums it up. Congrats, you’ve got your one-sentence answer, you can go now. OR you can also get hundreds of hours of training on the subject and still be asking how it works by the time you’ve finished your studies, even with now having hundreds of different answers. I can say that it works by tapping into your internal creative processes. It could be said that it works by activating your autonomic nervous system to create relaxation and receptivity. Some say hypnosis works by convincing the conscious mind “out of the way” to reprogram subconscious processes. I’ve seen hypnosis “work” by ‘shocking‘ someone’s mind through a specific technique directly into a hypnotic trance! We can boil it down a little and consider hypnosis as nothing more or less than transmitting information to and processing it within the subconscious mind. If that’s our base of understanding, then the How it works of hypnosis is simply the particular techniques employed at that moment to facilitate information entering the subconscious realm.
How Does Hypnotherapy Work Beyond Just Having A Trance Experience?
Hypnotherapy works with the information stored in the subconscious mind, and your subconscious mind is POWERFUL! Think for a moment about every smoker you know who talks about wanting to quit. They have the conscious awareness that they are harming themselves by smoking, but still can’t get themselves emotionally to put the lighter down. They have a subconscious awareness that overrides their conscious determination. That’s the power of the subconscious mind. It’s so dedicated to the idea that smoking is good for them that they continue to feel good about smoking, and so continue to do it regardless of conscious intention. The subconscious wins out eventually in 10 out of 10 cases. At least, that’s what they tell us when we get trained in this. That’s why what we do is so important for those who come to us for access to the subconscious realm.
With hypnotherapeutic techniques, we work more directly with your subconscious mind to create a systemic resolution that supports you in making the change you want in your life. Instead of just thinking about this change in your conscious headspace, your subconscious mind has “changed its mind” and motivates you to take the actions that it had been holding you back from. In other words, properly applied hypnotherapy changes how you process your life. After hypnotherapy, the underlying beliefs that have been holding you back have been changed into a perspective that enables you to move forward with gaining the experience of life that you’ve been both hoping for and at the same time holding yourself back from. To take that smoking example to the next step, we use hypnotic language/techniques to communicate with your subconscious until there’s a resolution made that naturally results in positive subconscious motivation away from smoking behavior.
How Do I Enter Trance? What Do I Do As A Recipient?
My approach to hypnotherapy works primarily by giving your subconscious permission to communicate with your conscious, and vice-versa. This can also be the first thing you can do for yourself before any trance session! Part of where internal conflict can arise in the first place is due to a lack of communication with oneself. By agreeing to listen wholeheartedly to yourself, you create an understanding with your subconscious that it can speak to you. Giving your subconscious permission to demonstrate its power and capabilities to you, the “trance” effect, is how we listen!
Here are a few things you can read, and just by reading and accepting these tenets of being a good hypnotic recipient, you give your subconscious the space it needs to communicate even more effectively with you! All the hypnosis you receive from here on out will work better for you, enjoy!
- Agree to allow your subconscious to give you this experience.
- Accept that your subconscious already knows trance, your conscious is the one catching up with it.
- Align yourself to receive the gift that is a hypnotic trance from your subconscious mind.
- Believe that your subconscious has your very best intentions in mind for you (it always has).
- Permit your subconscious to remain alert for threats, and trust that it will keep you safe while in a trance.
- Refrain from conscious effort! it’s not you doing anything, it’s your subconscious.
- Dedicate yourself to follow the flow of suggestions from your hypnotist/hypnotherapist.
Other Sources of Information
Study Hypnosis: The Best Programs, Books, and Ideas | Psychology Today John Ryder Ph.D. provides a little bit of backstory to the use of hypnosis and explains that it has become a subject of interest to many different organizations that are dedicated to the cultivation and education of information like Standford and Harvard universities. There’s a reading list on hypnosis/hypnotherapy for those interested at the end of the page.
positivepsychology.com Speaks to the efficacy of Hypnotherapy compared with other modalities and provides statements about the benefits of inclusion of it alongside or independent of other therapies. Does Hypnotherapy Really Work? 10+ Scientific Findings (same article) includes a short video with a magician’s perspective on using stage hypnosis.
Hypnosis Today (apa.org) is an article released in 2011 by the American Psychological Association about the limits of hypnosis, while also providing support for hypnosis’s benefits in pain management. They also minimally support the use of hypnosis in smoking cessation by stating “…Green and Lynn analyzed 59 studies on hypnosis and smoking cessation. While hypnosis was more successful than no treatment, it was generally equivalent to other smoking-cessation methods…”