Hypnosis is a state that all of us pop in and out of all the time, many times a day. When we watch a film or programme on the TV and our attention becomes so fixed on the storyline, we can become emotional and feel as is we are really there, really involved. Emotions are controlled by our subconscious mind so if we start to cry when the flower droops next to ET and his red heart starts to fade, technically we are in a state of hypnosis. If we are watching ET thinking "it's only a puppet" and do not show any emotion to what is happening then we are not "hypnotised".

We pass through the hypnotic state when we wake up and when we go to sleep, if you have ever been driving a car and simply not remembered the last part of your journey, you have experienced "highway hypnosis".

So what is the state of hypnosis?

Hypnosis is defined many different ways but I choose to stick to two definitions, very closely linked.

1) The bypassing of the critical factor of the mind and the establishment of acceptable selected thinking.

2) All hypnosis is self-hypnosis.

In short, people will only do what they want to do, and allow themselves to go into a hypnotic state. No-one can be forced to go into a state of hypnosis and no-one will do anything that they don't want to do.

Hypnosis is when the critical factor (your common sense and ego) drifts off for a break, or drifts off for a daydream, and your subconscious mind is more open to suggestion.

But, and this is a big but, just because your subconscious mind is more open to suggestion, it does not mean that you will accept every suggestion given to you when you are in this state.

Advertisers spend vast fortunes trying to bypass your critical factor to encourage you to buy their products or services, but you don't rush out of the house after every TV advert break and buy every product advertised in that break.

Advertisers, stage hypnotists and NLP'ers all use hypnosis but consider this. All hypnotherapy uses hypnosis but not all hypnosis is hypnotherapy. I will discuss the difference between hypnosis and hypnotherapy next time.

Be happy,

Dave.