Anywhere from seconds to a lifetime. Remember that only suggestions that are acceptable to you will be "allowed" in to your subconscious mind; we are not all gullible so not all of us will eat the same brand of chocolate bar, use the same brand of washing powder or vote for the same political party just because advertisers or political party broadcasts "suggest" we do so.

The simplest way to think about this is to consider suggestions as beliefs. Think of an acceptable suggestion being an acceptable belief.

Many people in the UK support a football team because their dad supports them or because it is their local team. This belief is usually suggested to the young child many hundreds of times in their formative years through verbal encouragement, football strips as presents and by taking them to their first football match. How long will this belief last, how long will they remain a supporter of their chosen team? Probably a lifetime.

Let's imagine a classroom of 8 year old children being told that they will really enjoy a performance at the local theatre, it will be fantastic (the kids are already believing that they will enjoy themselves), it will be an enthralling performance that will keep them captivated (wow, expectation is building amongst the children), it will delight them as they watch a performance of ballet. Now, the belief that it will be an enjoyable performance will probably grow amongst the girls and will probably disappear amongst the boys. The girls "belief" that they will enjoy themselves will last right up to the trip, the boys "belief" that they will enjoy themselves has already gone, it only lasted for a matter of seconds up until the word "ballet" was revealed. If you want to reverse the expectation between the sexes simply swap the word "ballet" for "kickboxing".

So a suggestion, or belief, can last for a matter of seconds or a lifetime.

A simple suggestion that lasts for seconds would be used, let's say, in a stage hypnosis show. If someone is told that "as soon as you open your eyes your nose will become incredibly itchy, and as soon as you have scratched it, the itch will disappear". That suggestion becomes an acceptable belief and the suggestion literally lasts for a couple of seconds.

Consider a smoker who wants to become a non-smoker. The whole point of every suggestion during the session would be to encourage all suggestions to become beliefs that last a lifetime. So will they?

This depends entirely on the desire, motivation and commitment of the person accepting the suggestions. Many people have stopped smoking instantly and never smoked again, many people have lost their excess weight and kept it off, many people have overcome habits of a lifetime and never bitten their nails or twiddled their hair again. A few haven't.

So, how long does a hypnotic suggestion last?

As long as you want them to.

Be happy,

Dave Sabat.