Most of us know all about daydreaming or zoning out. It is that unique moment in time when we lose all connection to whatever is going on around us. We may be present physically but we feel as though we are millions of miles away. That is an example of naturally occurring subconscious thought and hypnosis is the simple process of enabling it to occur.

The subconscious mind is a complex and powerful place. It is where all of our values, beliefs, habits and patterns reside. It is also our body s control center; it regulates our breathing, heart rate and the thousands of metabolic functions that occur automatically everyday of our lives.

The subconscious mind is active when we daydream, zone out, stare at a television or computer screen or when we sleep. It is also active when we are hypnotized. Having access to this powerful level of thought is the reason hypnosis is so effective in offering long term solutions for so many physical and emotional concerns.

The conscious mind, or short-term memory, has a much different job description. It keeps us in the here and now. It analyzes, critiques, accepts or denies the storage of daily information into the long term memory or subconscious mind. With the client s trust and co-operation the hypnotherapist helps them bypass the critical conscious factor and is then able to offer new positive direction in the form of suggestions, imagery and metaphors directly into the subconscious mind, where it is then acted upon and becomes the client s new reality.

Think of the hypnotherapist as a tour guide. Since hypnosis is the language of the mind they skillfully use nothing more than words to point clients toward relaxing vacation spots in their minds. The hypnotherapist has no power over the client at all; it is completely up to them how relaxed they choose to become or if they wish to become relaxed at all. So essentially, all hypnosis is self-hypnosis.

Hypnosis feels as right as rain! It is a natural peaceful moment of inner stillness. Some clients describe it as a peaceful heaviness, as though they are sinking or melting into the surface beneath them. Others describe sensations of floating or a mind body separation. For most, hypnosis is a combination of deep physical relaxation and heightened focus.

Fifty to 100% of those hypnotized hear and remember everything that is said to them during a session because the conscious mind may be taking a break, but it is still quietly monitoring things from the background.

Today hypnosis is widely used in 21st century medicine, psychotherapy, athletics and dentistry. It helps with smoking cessation, weight loss, relieving symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, allergies, pain and stress. Hypnosis enhances general health, academic, sales and creative arts performance. It can help improve public speaking skills, confidence and self-esteem. Hypnosis helps clients to sleep better, improve concentration, memory and relationships.

It also helps students ace exams; it supports complication-free surgery and helps mothers comfortably deliver babies without the need for any medications. With hypnosis, clients are involved with the process of creating positive change, which is as empowering as it is rewarding.

The keys to success with hypnosis are fairly simple: you need to be an open and willing participant; you need to be truly motivated and lastly you should be sitting with someone who is professional and capable. In most states hypnosis is not a regulated profession which means there are no professional standards ensuring competence or accountability.

A good direction to take when looking for a qualified hypnotherapist is to find someone who is also a licensed healthcare provider such as a physician, registered nurse, psychologist, psychiatrist or a social worker. These individuals are educated and certified in their field and are more likely able to offer professional quality care.

You should also ask your primary physician for a referral. Although most doctors know very little about hypnosis it is a good base to cover and they may just surprise you with a referral. Another resource might be holistic health centers, where there are usually several modalities of holistic practitioners under one roof.

Online you can use sites like www.superpages.com which offer searches based on the category and distance from your home. From there you can research websites, office rates, qualifications and also get a feel for their level of professionalism, at least as it is presented on the internet.

From the initial phone conversation with a prospective hypnotherapist you should be able to gauge if they are generally interested in your concerns, how long they have been in business and what their qualifications are. You might ask if they are affiliated with any particular organizations. There are many reputable governing organizations which have their own code of ethics. An example would be The National Guild of Hypnotists (NGH).

You should also ask if the session(s) will be specific to your needs and if you receive a recording of the session for home reinforcement. Many hypnotherapists do not record the sessions and only offer a generic reinforcement tape while others offer nothing at all.

Also ask if they will teach you how to self-induce hypnotic trance which is a great way to help you own the process even more and it also helps you to become an independent practitioner giving you the opportunity to add new control and freedom to other areas of your life all on your own.

Another helpful question is to ask how many sessions you will need. The hypnotherapist should be able to give you a good idea of how many. You should also ask for references. I have a long list of satisfied clients who gladly make themselves available to anyone who is curious about my services.

If you get all the right answers to these questions and feel good about the person you are speaking with, the last thing is to make sure their rates are in line with the area they practice in. This varies greatly from one part of the country to the next. Don t let a few dollars dictate your decision. If you feel good about how they describe their services and they seem to respect you and your concerns don t let a few dollars get in the way of a positive experience.

Now that you have chosen a hypnotherapist the last step is to evaluate their office. If they got passing grades so far the chances are pretty good that the office experience well get good marks as well. Their office could be in an office building or in their home. You will know right away if it is clean and professional in appearance. You should feel safe and protected. The hypnotherapist should make you feel welcome and cared for. There should also be a comfortable place for you to relax during your session.

If everything meets your approval just relax and enjoy yourself. Hypnotherapy is a wonderful experience on many levels. You may discover great clarity and understanding. You may experience new freedom, control and fulfillment. In life we all follow the path of our most dominant thoughts, hypnosis lets you choose your thoughts and reframe your world.

About the Author

Paul Gustafson RN, BSN, CH is the founder of HealthyHypnosis.com in Burlington, Massachusetts. His 11 years of acute cardiac and hospice experience offer a solid foundation supporting his clinical approach to hypnotherapy. Visit HealthyHypnosis.com HealthyHypnosis.com or call toll free at 888-290-3972 for a free video about hypnosis.

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Have you ever watched a TV magic special and wondered, “How is that possible?” have you ever been curious as to how the top magicians accomplish some of their most extraordinary feats?

Soon you won’t be wondering; you’ll be trying them out for yourself!

Let’s start with one of the oldest tricks in the book, but one of the best and most vividly compelling - levitation!

Levitation

Since you’re interested in magic and illusion I’m going to bet you’ve heard of levitation before. Perhaps you’ve even seen a magician perform this incredible trick and wondered, “How the heck is he doing that?!” Well, hold onto your hat, because you’re about to learn how.

First off, what is levitation? We all know what it looks like - the act of floating off or above the ground. It’s sort of like flying. All the great magicians try to perfect this trick because it’s one of the most simply visually arresting illusions in existence. And it’s actually not that hard to do….

We practical magicians know that there is some trickery involved in levitation as a performance. However, there are those who believe in the real phenomenon of levitation as a form of psychokinesis, or the ability to move objects just with the power of the mind. The only people said to be able to perform levitation in reality are the spiritual elite, or those possessed by spiritual forces, like shamans, people in trances, or those possessed by a devil.

Now I don’t know anyone who’s actually seen a REAL levitation outside a magic performance, so take this for what you will….

I mean, you can sit on the floor and meditate and wait to “lift off,” but unless you’re really in possession of some special supernatural forces I don’t think you’re going to have too much luck!

What I am here to show you is how to perform the trick of levitation, to give your audience the impression that you are floating, or else causing some other object to float.

Levitation as a magic illusion has recently been practiced in the public sphere by such magic superstars as David Blaine and David Copperfield. Copperfield even performed a spectacular stunt in which he appeared to float over the Grand Canyon!!

All smoke and mirrors? TV special effects? Not exactly…

This article was extracted from the book ‘Discover The Magic Trick Secrets You’re Not Supposed To Know’. To find out more please visit www.DiscoverMagicTricks .com

About the author:

Chris Lloyd is the author of ‘Discover The Magic Trick Secrets You’re Not Supposed To Know’. For more details visit www.DiscoverMagicTricks .com

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Hypnosis is a state of consciousness one enters and leaves naturally all the time during your day-to day experiences. It feels very much like day dreaming i.e., the state between sleeping and waking. Hypnosis is a guided fantasy. In this state of relaxation you are more open to suggestions. In this state (also called alpha) your brain wave vibration rate slows down, giving you access to your Subconscious Mind. While your Conscious Mind is still completely aware of what is going on the whole time, in this relaxed state of mind, your subconscious mind has the ability to accept information given to it by the hypnotist.

Hypnosis is a valuable tool for self-empowerment and continuous personal growth. Hypnosis is a state of heightened suggestibility. We are all influenced by suggestions. Hypnosis uses this natural human process to change negative patterns into positive patterns of behavior.

There is nothing mysterious about hypnosis. There are five components necessary to induce hypnosis.

Motivation - You must want to be Hypnotized Relaxation - Hypnosis is a state of deep relaxation. Concentration - You will use your ability to concentrate. Imagination - You will use your vivid imagination. Suggestion - You will hear and respond to suggestions. Its application is based solely on the relationship between the conscious mind and the subconscious mind.

The subconscious mind, having no power to reason, accepts and acts upon any fact or suggestion given to it by the conscious mind. As long as there have been human beings, there has been hypnosis. We use this commonly occurring, and natural state of mind, unknowingly, all the time. It is just natural for us. For example, if you have ever watched a television program or a movie and became really absorbed into the program, you were probably in a trance.

Advertisers understand this. They use television programs to induce a hypnotic trance and then provide you hypnotic suggestions, called commercials!

Everyone has already experienced hypnosis, by accident or intentionally.

Another common example of this naturally occurring state of mind is when you are driving down the road, with your mind focused on some other task (a day dream perhaps), and next thing you know, you have passed your next turn.

The hypnotic state is an optimum state for making changes in your life.

During hypnosis you can set aside limiting beliefs that may have been preventing you from moving toward a more healthy, and happier you.

In order for you to understand how hypnosis works, it is very important for you to understand the relationship between your conscious mind and your subconscious mind.

Since everyone has experienced light levels of hypnosis at different times, don’t be surprised if you don’t feel hypnotized. All that is required to be hypnotized is a motivation to be hypnotized, concentration, imagination, relaxation, and the willingness to respond to suggestion. There are ways to check for the depth level of hypnosis, usually in a one-on-one session.

During hypnosis, you will remain conscious of your surroundings. Some of the sensations you may experience are:

Tingling in your fingertips or limbs A sense of numbness or limb distortion A sense of being light and floating away from your body A heavy feeling like you are sinking A sense of energy moving through your body Feelings of emotions Fluttering eyelids An increase or decrease in salivation. When you notice that you are noticing these sensations, do not become alarmed or you may shock yourself right out of your trance. Just expect the trance to occur gradually and it will. Suggestions stay with some individuals indefinitely, others need reinforcement. The effects of hypnosis are cumulative: The more the techniques are practiced and posthypnotic suggestions are brought into play, the more permanent the results become.

Brain-imaging study has shed light on why some people are more susceptible than others to hypnosis. By hinting at the brain processes involved, the analysis also suggests that hypnosis - both the stage and therapeutic varieties - does have genuine effects on the brain’s workings.

Those who are easily hypnotized show different activity in a brain region called the anterior cingulate gyrus, which is involved in planning our future actions, reports John Gruzelier of Imperial College London. In a hypnotic trance, the function of this region may be impaired, he says, meaning that subjects are more likely to follow a hypnotist’s suggestion: “The hypnotist tells you to go with the flow, and so you don’t evaluate what you’re doing.”

This is consistent with the idea that those who are easiest to hypnotize tend to describe themselves as generally letting go of their inhibitions quite easily, Gruzelier told the British Association Festival of Science in Exeter, UK, on Thursday.

Mind games

Some experts have argued that hypnotism is not a real physiological phenomenon at all, but rather the result of hypnotists imposing themselves on their subjects, who may be simply swept along. Stage hypnotists are often accused of intimidating their ‘volunteers’ into playing along for the sake of the show.

This effect is certainly part of the picture in performance hypnotism, says Gruzelier. “Lots of it is due to personality and persuasiveness, but then that’s showbusiness,” he told news@nature.com. Such tactics can cause people to ignore the potential of genuine hypnosis to ease painful diseases, he adds: “Unquestionably, stage hypnotists give hypnotism a bad name.”

“Humans like to comply; they don’t like to be embarrassed,” agrees Peter Naish, who studies hypnosis at the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK. But he insists that underneath the coercion used by charismatic stage acts, a physiological effect is occurring. “The evidence really is there; hypnosis is not miraculous,” he adds.

Gruzelier studied 24 subjects, half of whom were categorized as succumbing easily to hypnotism, and half of whom were resistant. He scanned the volunteers’ brains while they tackled a problem called the Stroop task, a test of mental flexibility that requires subjects to categorize a list of colours presented in a different colour - the word ‘green’ printed in blue, say - depending either on the name or the actual colour.

Gruzelier tested the subjects before and after they underwent a standard procedure used by hypnotists to put their subjects into a trance. In resistant subjects, the anterior cingulate gyrus was less strongly activated after the procedure than before, showing that their brains were working less hard as they got better at planning how to complete the task.

But in hypnotized volunteers, the anterior cingulate, and the regions that govern it, were more strongly activated when they were in a trance, showing that they were struggling harder to plot their actions, Gruzelier reported. He suspects that this impaired ability to plan for oneself makes people more suggestible.

This process may underlie hypnotists’ ability to influence their subjects’ behaviour, be it stopping smoking or barking like a dog whenever they hear Elvis Presley. Subjects frequently report that they feel compelled to do something even though they know they don’t really want to.

Gruzelier also suspects that hypnotism may interfere with subjects’ evaluation of future emotions such as embarrassment. A region in the brain’s medio-frontal cortex, close to the anterior cingulate, governs our perception of how we will feel if we take a certain course of action, he says. If connections between the two regions are impaired, stage volunteers might happily act without thinking.

That may well be the final weapon in the showbiz hypnotist’s arsenal, says Gruzelier. By not only making volunteers suggestible but also taking away their sense of shame, the possibilities for public ridicule are immense. “The structure that monitors the emotional consequences of future actions becomes disconnected,” he suggests. “So you make a fool of yourself.”

For more information on Hypnosis please visit the Hypnosis resource center.
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