You’ve seen it in the movies or on TV: the evil mesmerist casts a hypnotic spell over someone and they turn into robots obeying their master’s commands, or someone under hypnosis reveals a deep secret that solves a murder. That’s all very good and makes great fiction, but it has nothing to do with real hypnosis.
How do I know? I’ve spent a decade training, studying, and practicing hypnosis. I’m certified as a hypnotherapist and as a trainer of hypnotherapists. I’ve hypnotized thousands of people. So let me start by sharing what hypnosis isn’t.
Hypnosis isn’t sleep. I know, you do look like you’re asleep when you’re hypnotized, but that’s because you’re deeply focused on just one thing rather than many things. Hypnosis isn’t some sort of truth serum or polygraph. If you were hypnotized and a hypnotist asked you to reveal some deep secret you didn’t want to share, you would simply open your eyes and emerge from the hypnotic state.
You do not lose control when you’re hypnotized. I can’t make you quack like a duck or bark like a dog. Of course, if you’re attending a hypnosis show and want to be silly, if I give you a suggestion to quack you might do it just to have more fun.
Some people believe that only weak-minded people can be hypnotized. Actually, just the opposite is true. To be hypnotized, you simply have to follow directions. The more intelligent, creative, and imaginative you are, the easier it is for you to be hypnotized. Oh, and by the way, hypnosis isn’t dangerous, either. There are records of hypnosis going back thousands of years, and nobody has ever been harmed. You can’t get “stuck” in hypnosis.
When you’re hypnotized you’ll hear everything, and you’ll remember what happens. And although some hypnotists imply it, they don’t have any secret powers to control you. Oh, and hypnosis is definitely not a tool of the devil!
So what exactly is hypnosis?
We each have a conscious mind. It’s logical, makes decisions, and is good at doing one task at a time. We also each have an unconscious mind. Unlike the conscious, it simply stores and accepts what comes into it. The unconscious also controls our beliefs and habits, generates emotions and feelings, and tends to resist change.
Let’s say you’re a smoker. Consciously, you decide to quit. You tell yourself “I’m never going to smoke again.” If your unconscious received this message directly, it would make it happen. But there’s a third part of the mind that hypnotists call the critical factor. It filters and interprets everything. It says, “Hey! Smoking is more addictive than heroin. You can’t quit.” That’s the message your unconscious receives, and that’s why so many people fail to change their behavior and stop smoking.
Hypnosis is the bypassing of the critical factor so you can directly communicate with the unconscious. Hypnotherapy allows you to send acceptable messages to your unconscious, starting the process of change.
Hypnosis can’t fix a broken arm. But hypnotherapy can, quickly and easily, help you change your beliefs, emotions, and behaviors. It can help you stop smoking, lose weight, get over long-held fears such as the fear of flying, public speaking, or going to a dentist. It can allow you to tap into the unlimited memories held in the unconscious. Often, our beliefs and misconceptions about reality keep us from becoming who we can really be. Sometimes, our beliefs even manifest as physical problems. They cause us to sabotage our own success and happiness. A few visits to a trained and experienced hypnotist, or learning self-hypnosis, can help you achieve all of the goals in your life, and even change the way you look.
If you want to try a hypnotherapist, remember to ask about his or her training and experience. And if you ever go to see a hypnosis show, remember, it’s just entertainment. Real hypnotherapy is a profound, life-changing experience.
Donald Michael Kraig graduated from UCLA with a degree in philosophy, and has become a certified hypnotherapist and Master NLP practitioner. His book, Modern Magick, is the most popular step-by-step course in real magick ever published.
9 thoughts on “The Truth About Hypnosis”
How come I can’t find a listing of mr. Kraig’s most famous book “ever published” in my local library where does one find it?
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This is a very nice article, but lack the facts about ‘mind control’, which is a very real and widely practiced nightmare of human kind. It takes place on a much deeper levels of the mind and psychie then the light subliminal aspects of gentler penetrations and openings of our hidden realms.
Those, who have been subjected to such manipulations of will and consciousness, are not so willing, or even able to tell of it’s horrors. Remote viewing is part this high level experimentation, the dark sides of hypnosis which leads to it. I hope we all stay in the light, but from personal experience I have to warn everyone to be careful, before subjecting themselves to an other’s mental manipulations.
May the Light shine into the dark places for all of us, and be protected from those who lurk in the shadows…
Don,
Very nice article I’ll have to get your book. I’m a Hypnotherapist and I do the shows also. Its great healing work, no pills or icky side effects just peace body, mind & spirit. We can all create a little magic in our lives if we give ourselves permission~
Many Blessings,
Abigail~
Thank You Donald, for a wonderful article on hypnosis and hypnotherapy.
A couple of decades ago, I sought out the services of a Certified Hypnotist to teach me hypnotherapy ……
…I wanted to go into a deeper, ( and get there faster ), state of conciousness to meditate. And it worked !
To this day, as a professional career psychic I use the hypnotherapy techniques and ” triggers ” to meditate. And when I come up and out of that deep altered state of conciousness I feel GREAT, with a sense of calm and an abundance of energy. !!!! The deeper in I go, the better I feel when I come up and out of it.
I also use hypnotherapy to go into a deep state of conciousness when I do, ( very extensive ) ,past life regressions. Much like Edgar Cayce, I appear to be asleep, ( but I’m not ), when I do deep state mediatation or am doing a past life regression.
Very informative article.
Blessed Be )O(
Gina Rose ext.9500
Donald, thank you for this informative, and for me, timely article!
I spent New Year’s Eve, without having planned to, examining myself as a person, and ended up focusing on a particular aspect of myself, having to do with how I sometimes relate to others–a way that doesn’t serve me well, and that can be very isolating because it’s a mask, and I know that I don’t “ring true” when I wear that mask. Others sense it and consequently, don’t know how to relate to me, and sometimes simply won’t.
As I thought about all that, I realized how the many decades of being this way, leave me doubtful that, in the midst of life in general, I could be focused enough on how I want to be to displace the unwanted behavior. Then it occurred to me that hypnosis could be just thing, and that since I would need to formulate for myself, what I want, and what my question/s may be, I could still get down to the nitty gritty of it, which is something I feel strongly about.
In other words, being focused on how I want to be and feel, will give me the courage to deal with all the emotional junk that’s been in the way for so long. I’ve never engaged in hypnosis, but my sense is that it could help me accomplish this very well.
Reading you article is very helpful and is encouraging me to believe that my sense of hypnosis is realistic.
Thank you so much!
Jessica