What is hypnosis?

Hypnosis is a natural state of mind that most people enter several times a day without even realising it. Have you ever found yourself doing or feeling any of the following?

- Feeling emotionally involved personally during a sad (or happy) part in a movie
- Getting caught up in a good story
- Finding your way home automatically
- Daydreaming and losing track of time

In those states of mind you become relaxed, and open to suggestion. The analytical part of your mind stops paying so much attention to what you’re doing, which is why you find yourself able to believe more completely in the movie or story in front of you. On one level, you know that what you’re watching and reading isn’t *really* real… but you find yourself emotionally and mentally connecting with it as though it was anyway. Hypnosis is a deeper form of that relaxation. A person in hypnosis is much more open to suggestion than they would be normally. And this is where the fun begins, because for the unconscious mind nothing is impossible.

Can anybody be hypnotized?

Hypnosis works for most people who are interested in it and happy to try it out. Trance is actually a very natural and normal mind-state. Any time you emotionally engage in a book, or movie, you’re in trance. The same goes for carrying out tasks automatically without thinking. Ever find yourself automatically walking or driving someplace familiar without needing to consciously think about how to go about changing gears in your car or which turns to take? That’s a natural trance or light form of hypnosis.

Can one be hypnotized to do anything against their will?

Nope. All hypnosis is self hypnosis to some degree. One can only be hypnotized if one is comfortable, and feeling safe and happy with the hypnotist. Even if one is consciously switching off, the subconscious is always aware and able to keep one safe. That way if a hypnotist were to suggest anything one doesn't want to do one'd be able to fully snap out of it, wake from trance, and give the idiot a slap.

One *can* be compelled to do things that one is comfortable doing, which is where a lot of the fun in the shoots comes in. A hypnotist can suggest to a person in trance that they feel happy… or ticklish... or weightless… or that they have a sudden driving need to stand up and shout “Monkeys!” and as long as the person in the trance is happy with the suggestion, that’s exactly how they’ll feel.

A hypnotized person won’t do anything within trance that they wouldn’t want to do ordinarily. If a person is comfortable with the hypnotist, they’ll accept and follow suggestions that they’re given, even though to their normal waking mind, the suggestions might seem a little strange.