Was I hypnotised?

[lucylove]

I had my first hypnotherapy session on Tuesday. My problem is negative self-talk, which has led to what I suppose is mild depression and low self-esteem. Going into the session I was rather anxious, though I had done my research and decided to keep an open mind about the whole thing. I am naturally quite skeptical, but even scientists admit that hypnosis happens, they just don't all agree on why.

Anyway, I suppose I was quite disappointed from the get-go, as the hypnotherapist seemed quite nervous, and not the 'person of authority' that I was expecting. My session was two hours long, and we spent the first 30 mins talking about why I was there, and that went well. Then she spent an hour talking about EFT, and getting me to try it. To be honest, that isn't why I was there, but she seemed to really want to help so I went along with it. In my mind though, I was wondering if she was actually ever going to hypnotise me. She eventually did attempt to, in the last 30 mins or so. I am pretty sure I wasn't hypnotised, but she said she had never failed to hypnotise anyone before, so I am wondering if I'm mistaken.

I felt I never let my conscious mind shut off, though I was giving it permission to, and kept trying to relax. At one point she said to relax my eyes, then try to open them and told me I would be unable to do so. Well, I did open them but she ignored that and carried on. I suppose I gave in a bit at that point but let her carry on and really DID try to quieten the worried voice in my head. I remember everything she said, and was certainly relaxed, but almost in a trying-no-to-fall-asleep way. When she counted me back, I 'woke up' feeling really sleepy because I felt like I was about to nod off. I wasn't refreshed as I had expected. She insisted that she could tell by my eye movements that I had been hypnotised, but I'm not so sure.

Anyway, I don't feel any different after the session. I know she said the colour red would have a great significance for me, and, well, it hasn't. I am just wondering if it did on some level make some subtle changes and am loathe to cancel my next session (Monday) if that is the case. Or am I just un-hypnotisable? I have a fantastic imagination, but don't see myself as a susceptible person. I am really disappointed as I so wanted this to work. Excuse the novel, but I would love some feedback.

Lucy

[John B.]

It's not possible to say with any certainty whether you were hypnotised or not. What matters is what you think. When you opened your eyes after she suggested that you could not, you lost confidence in the process. It does not suprise me that you've not noticed any difference. In your mind you may believe that since you did not feel hypnotised no change could have taken place.

The question to ask yourself is whether you have confidence in your hypnotist's ability to help you. If you do not, don't give up, find someone else.

[Connie]

A good hypnotherapist would have explained that being "susceptible" is not at issue, it's not what's going on. You're in control during hypnosis, including the ability to open your eyes in spite of a suggestion otherwise. She should have explained what it may feel like, which may be very much like your waking conscious state.

You ARE hypnotizable. The fact that you can read and write says so to me. :) Whether or not you were hypnotized in this instance, I don't know. I wasn't there. If the hypnotherapist is at all experienced, you should trust her affirmation that you were.

How are your feelings and self-esteem since the session? Does the world seem at all rosier? Gauge the success of the session by the results--in this case your feelings. Has the negative self-chatter slowed or stopped?

All hypnotherapists are not created equal. Find one that you feel comfortable with, and who answers your questions WHILE you're there, or even before you ask them.

[Poodle]

and welcome. It's very difficult to know from what you write as I was not there in person to see what was going on. It certainly does not read to me like you are a person that wants or likes relaxation. There are many other ways to induce trance from confusion to instants. Is that the only little test she did to make sure you were following what she was saying? Why not call this person back and ask if she knows other inductions, deepening techniques and convincers. First time clients need to know and convincers do the job. It's OUR job to MAKE SURE YOU ARE IN TRANCE. It's not unusual at all to remember every word.

I have always found it a magical experience from light trance all the way down to the Esdaile "Coma" state; however, trance is a very unique experience. In fact, it's soooo magical I would love to stay in deep trance for very extended periods of time.

Now Lucy, you have negative self-talk going on. Why not change that voice in your head to a cartoon character or perhaps a really sexy male voice. Makes a world of difference and can actually give you something to laugh about or not take seriously. If you happened to use Donald Duck it would be pretty darn hard to understand, huh? Also please note that you do not talk to other people that way so why on Earth would you treat yourself worse than a stranger?

Be well,
Pood

PS: Please read Merlin's FAQ on hypnosis. I highly suspect you will find your own answers in there. She has done an excellent job of getting it down to everyone can read and understand it.

[John B.]

If you happened to use Donald Duck it would be pretty darn hard to understand, huh?

I usually suggest to my clients that they hear Donald Duck doing the play-by-play for negative thoughts, being sure to point out that although Daisy wears a skirt, Donald doesn't wear any pants.

That always elicits a giggle or two. How seriously can you take a duck in a pinafore without pants?

[Terry]

First clue, you noted that the practitioner seemed nervous. That tells me you lost confidence in here before any interchange took place. Second clue, she talked too much and did too little, again, loss of confidence. Finally the coup de gras, she told you your eyes wouldn't open and they did. At that point, if not sooner, she lost you, and I suspect you were not hypnotised based on the above.
My advise would be to cancel and find someone more suited to you. I can assure you, anyone is hypntisable if they have reasonable inteligence, and are capable of absorbing information and reacting to it, but not all practitioners can hypnotise all who come to them, I had my share of failures when I first started out in practise, but time and practise do make a big difference.

[lucylove]

thanks for all your input.

I don't know how to quote more than one post, so I'll just c&p...

from Poodle- It certainly does not read to me like you are a person that wants or likes relaxation.

I want to relax, I just find it hard, other than when I play music. I'm a musician and that is like a trance or extreme relaxation to me.

Is that the only little test she did to make sure you were following what she was saying?

That was the only test that I was aware of. The thing is, when I did open my eyes, she carried on with her "script" and said "very good." She did see me open my eyes, as we discussed it at the end when I told her my doubts about whether I had been hypnotised.

From Connie- How are your feelings and self-esteem since the session? Does the world seem at all rosier? Gauge the success of the session by the results--in this case your feelings. Has the negative self-chatter slowed or stopped?

I have not noticed any changes. I was expecting at least straight after the session to be feeling more positive and refreshed, but I didn't even feel that.

Terry, your post is spot on. I think that the lead-up to the hypnosis is the reason it didn't work. The rapport just wasn't there. She seemed intimidated by me if anything (which sounds ridiculous, but that was how it felt. I've been told that I do come across as very confident, even though I'm really not, and that, coupled with my British accent, seems to scare some people..lol.). I think I will cancel with this lady and maybe try someone else. I don't want to give up, especially after reading Merlin's (very informative) FAQs.

Thanks again everyone, and Pood, I love the Donald Duck suggestion! I am going to try that. Without pants, and per John's instructions :D

Lucy

[Jack]

Hello Lucy,

Like Terry, I would suggest that you visit a different hypnotherapist since you have no confdence in the one you have.

Hypnotherapy is a very intimate therapy in which you allow another person to help you to change your thought processes or behaviours for your benefit. If you have any doubts about the abilities of your therapist then more of the same may be pointless.

Jack

[Merlin]

Expectations?
I felt I never let my conscious mind shut off, No reason you should.though I was giving it permission to, and kept trying to relax. Why relax?At one point she said to relax my eyes, then try to open them and told me I would be unable to do so. Well, I did open them but she ignored that and carried on.A test for her to evaluate? It's OK if she seems to ignore your response. I suppose I gave in a bit at that point but let her carry on and really DID try to quieten the worried voice in my head. I remember everything she said, and was certainly relaxed, but almost in a trying-no-to-fall-asleep way. When she counted me back, I 'woke up' feeling really sleepy because I felt like I was about to nod off. I wasn't refreshed as I had expected. She insisted that she could tell by my eye movements that I had been hypnotised, but I'm not so sure.
Maybe you were hypnotised?
But that's a very small part of hypnotherapy.
It's what happens after the hypnosis that matters.
So, who knows if you were hypnotised or not?
Well, the proof is in the pudding.
The real question is: Did you get the results you went for?
If not, then discuss why not with your hypnotist.

[jimcole]

Lucy,
I am certain that hypnosis does not work for all people. We are all different and unique. This is part of nature. I too am somewhat unsusceptible to hypnosis. What I have found is that 'self-hypnosis' does work for me. Perhaps this would work for you. I suggest that you look into self-hypnosis. One technique you may try is the 'beep' technique. This is a sort of passive way to alert your subconcious to what it is doing. It helps to use some of the various self-hypnosis techniques to relax yourself, and to become passive to the thoughts in your head. You are not looking for negative or positive thoughts, just observing the thoughts as they pass through you concious mind like they are passing overhead like clouds, only, when the negative thoughts pass through you make an audible beep sound outloud. Not trying to erase the thoughts, but alerting yourself whenever you in fact have them.

Good luck

[Merlin]

Jim,
Your IQ is below 40??
Hypnosis is just how we learn.
are you saying you can never learn?
who is typing these messages in your name?

[jimcole]

Jim,
Your IQ is below 40??
Hypnosis is just how we learn.
are you saying you can never learn?
who is typing these messages in your name?

Merlin,
Entirely unneccessary to attempt an insult here, but I will entertain your baseless premises. IQ is a measure of one's ability to take a logic exam, it does not attempt to measure learning ability, but that's besides the point because your premise was that hypnosis was nothing more that "learning." I disagree here, as a trance state can heighten one's ability to learn, it does this not by triggering learning ability alone, but by allowing the mind to focus and heighten sensory input without the inhibition of psychological, defensive barriers. So next time instead of saying "are you stupid?" to someone's argument, instead present facts, assumptions, etc in a scientific way like an educated person would, and who knows, even you might learn something.

Cheers
Jim

[eccles1214]

Lucy,
I am certain that hypnosis does not work for all people. We are all different and unique. This is part of nature. I too am somewhat unsusceptible to hypnosis. What I have found is that 'self-hypnosis' does work for me. Perhaps this would work for you.

Hello Lucy,
Like Terry, I would suggest that you visit a different hypnotherapist since you have no confdence in the one you have.

Hypnotherapy is a very intimate therapy in which you allow another person to help you to change your thought processes or behaviours for your benefit. If you have any doubts about the abilities of your therapist then more of the same may be pointless.

Jack

I would concur with both of these posters. I had limited success using a hypnotherapist, and I think for me it had to do with style. Some hypnotherapists take an authoritarian approach to inducing a trance in some of their clients, while taking a permissive stance with other clients, or they do one approach but not the other. I know that I prefer a permissive "soft" approach where I work _with_ the suggestions and not be bossed around or ordered around _by_ the suggestions. The latter causes resentment, which itself is a long-held problem for me that I am trying to work on.

Personally, I have had the best success with self-hypnosis as given above. I learned through reading the books Self-Hypnosis in Two Days by Freda Morris and Hypnosis for Change by Josie Hadley and Carol Staudacher. Both can be found through book search websites like bookfinder4u.com as well as Amazon.com and Half.com, and used copies are inexpensive. But it does take practice, and I've noticed that my response to hypnosis has changed. When I hypnotize myself now, I some of my early manifestations or clues to the fact that I am hypnotized have remained the same, but others have changed. So how do I know that I am hypnotized? Because I hypnotize myself sitting or lying down, I look for tingling and numbness in my extremities (physical), followed by a detached "out of body" experience coupled with an intense mental focus. I feel both that my body is still but my mind has expanded beyond my body's boundaries.

[Poodle]

If you would bother to read, Merlin has written a lovely FAQ on hypnosis. You may find it trance-ending - thus the comment re: your IQ and the number 40.

Knowledge is power. Remember!!

Pood

[jimcole]

Thanks, but no thanks. In any case you will see that there is no reference to "trance" in the post Merlin replied to. I believe this individual is attempting to dominate the message board using a simple technique:
1. Establish youself as an authority or expert
2. Establish yourself as trustworthy
3. Develop allies and references
4. Prevent, eliminate potential threats to position

I believe the bombastic reply to my post by Merlin was an example of number 4 because Merlin's authority was questioned ever so slightly in another message.

You can tell that Merlin has something to hide by the response as it was an attempt to get me to respond in kind. I wasn't born yesterday you know?

[Don]

Jim.
1) Unfortunately, you obviously did not clearly read or understand Poodle's post, otherwise, you would not have described Merlin's post as not having a reference to "trance" in it. Alternatively, you have no concept of what hypnosis is and how hypnosis functions daily.

2) Merlin IS an authority, expert and trustworthy.
3) If someone is an authority, expert and trustworthy, that person requires no people for allies, instead allowing such things as understanding, knowledge, wisdom, and experience to speak for themselves.
4) I fully believe that Merlin couldn't care less about any sort of "position."

On the other hand, I do find that when people make wild, unsubstantiated claims as you have, it is frequently as part of an attempt to bully other. This most often begins with a mind closed to any alternatives, such as claiming they don't need to look at what anyone else has written--they know everything.

Merlin is in the UK, but here in the US such an attitude is commonly called "talk radio syndrome."

[jimcole]

Look at Merlin's response to my first post, and if I misinterpreted something then my appologies. I maintain that Merlin's post was bombastic and I refuse to waste time on someone's FAQ who talks like a retarded/uneducated imbicile to me. Many "experts" are also *******s, unfortunately, but I maintain the Merlin verbally attacked me and you my frined should be a moderator, not act as a poster defending people, etc.

[jimcole]

Merlin is in the UK, but here in the US such an attitude is commonly called "talk radio syndrome."

Lol, perhaps in the UK this is called "outrageous."

[Jack]

Hello Jim,

Whether Merlin was bombastic is up to your perception of whether she was setting out to insult you or illustrate a point by getting your attention.

She certainly did the latter, but whether it was useful to do so is debatable since you now would not accept any illustration from her, which is a pity, but inevitable unless you let any any perceived or real insult float by and float away.

What I think she was trying to say - in a way that somewhat riled you - is that old but still useful saw that 'everything is hypnosis' and that consequently any learning that we humans may absorb is absorbed in a trance or altered state of awareness. That again is debatable since no-one actually knows, but it is an opinion and a commonly held one amongst hypnotherapists.

As for your original post, I could find nothing in it with which I did not agree
since I believe that there are some people for whom what we call 'hypnosis' does not appear to 'work'. Those who cannot enter a formal altered state are usually either lacking in imagination or have a low IQ, or are brain danaged, or are not being correctly induced or are being induced by the wrong person. I say this after 33 years as a fairly successful hypnotherapist and it is not intended to be insulting to anyone, just a statement of what is my considered opinion. Conversely, there are some people who are highly suggestible and can be induced with a wave of the hand - if it is the right hand and waved in the right way.

So, my advice, if it has any value to you is to ignore what was said and read Merlin's FAQ. You will find that you agree with some of it and perhaps disagree with other bits, as I do, but take the useful bits since they are free. Then, if you have an argument that is coherent and logical about her FAQs argue your points on here.

By the way I am not an expert since I would not want to be labelled a ******* whatever one is. ;)

Jack

[jimcole]

Thanks, cheers.

[Don]

Lol, perhaps in the UK this is called "outrageous."

Perhaps it is. Perhaps it is.

LOL!

However, in reviewing, once again, Merlin's post and your response, it is clear that her post was in no way "bombastic" as you falsely claimed. So why, then, did you think such was the case?

Well, first, it is clear that you don't know the meaning of the term "bombastic" which, according to the dictionary, actually means "high sounding language with little meaning, used to impress people." In fact, her language was not "high-sounding" at all. Nor did it have little meaning. Nor was it meant to impress anyone without any meaning.

Second, your response shows that at least in this aspect, you know very little about hypnosis. But not only that, you are clearly trying to bully your way into making others accept your personal opinion rather than objective fact.

As has been pointed out, one of the few things that prevent people from being hypnotized is an extremely low IQ (and even that will be debated by some people). In short, your claim that some people cannot be hypnotized is without foundation and is factually false.

Now, it absolutely IS true that not everyone can by hypnotized by anyone, but anyone with an IQ that allows them to post to a web forum can be hypnotized.

So, by saying you can't be hypnotized you are basically announcing that you have the IQ of a moron. Now, I don't believe that. And from Merlin's post it is clear that she doesn't believe that and, if anything, is shocked that you would make such a self-deprecating announcement, even going so far as to wonder if someone else was posting in your name.

But you see, you have your mind closed and totally made up as to what is possible, so you have to attack anything that disagrees with your predetermined mindset. Even when Merlin said that she doesn't believe in your self-insulting behavior, you attack her! And all because you don't understand the nature of hypnosis and have false beliefs about it.

Well, that's okay. But understand, this is a forum, not email. If you were to email me with a false and misleading claim I could just ignore it. But as a forum where hundreds or thousands of people read posts, if someone else does not correct you by presenting factual information about such things as hypnosis and sociology, then part of my task, as moderator, is to correct such misinformation.

You may choose not to believe that everyone can be hypnotized. That's up to you. You may also choose to believe that there are little green men on Mars who will shortly launch an attack on Earth looking for little green women. Again, that's up to you.

But presenting factual information in a forum will often get people to stand up and say, "No, you're wrong." Claiming their comments are "bombastic" (misusing the term "bombastic") doesn't avoid the truth. It is just bullying.

However, I like to think I have an open mind. So I'll tell you what. Present a mere three modern sources (after 1980) from peer-reviewed journals indicating that people who are not of a low IQ and who wish to be hypnotized cannot be hypnotized, and I'll publicly apologize and admit that I was wrong.

[jimcole]

I'll look for three sources. Here is one for starts, but maybe a bit older but I think date is irrelevant for this;

Rosenhan, David; London, Perry

(http://content.apa.org/journals/abn.rss)
The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. 1963 Jan Vol 66(1) 77-81

78 male undergraduates performed on a hand dynamometer, a weight endurance task, and a tremor task, prior to knowing that the experiment dealt with hypnosis. They were subsequently asked to volunteer for a hypnosis experiment. Of the 68 volunteers 16 were classified as susceptible to hypnosis and 16 relatively unsusceptible on the basis of their performance on the Group Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale. During the next session, all were administered the physical performance tests in the unhypnotized and hypnotized states. The results for the dynamometer and endurance tasks suggested that, if anything, differences between susceptible Ss were more marked before they knew that the experiment dealt with hypnosis, becoming less evident during the postknowledge conditions. For the tremor test, only slight differences emerged between the susceptible and unsusceptible groups on the preknowledge condition, but these grew increasingly larger during the postknowledge conditions, favoring the susceptible group. Indeed, hypnosis seemed to markedly improve the performance of susceptible Ss, while having little effect on unsusceptible ones.

[Merlin]

Merlin,
Entirely unneccessary to attempt an insult here, None attempted. I'm sorry you took it that way :(but I will entertain your baseless premises. IQ is a measure of one's ability to take a logic exam, it does not attempt to measure learning ability, Thank you, but I do understand "IQ"but that's besides the point because your premise was that hypnosis was nothing more that "learning." True :)I disagree here, as a trance state can heighten one's ability to learn, excuse me. I stand corrected by the expert.
and here I thought it was the bypassing of the CF part of the conscious mind.it does this not by triggering learning ability alone, but by allowing the mind to focus and heighten sensory input without the inhibition of psychological, defensive barriers. So glad you're here to teach us.So next time instead of saying "are you stupid?"I didn't say that.
I merely was pointing out if your IQ is over 40, then you're hypnotisable to someone's argument, instead present facts,you mean like the lengthy, detailed FAQ I've written? assumptions, etc in a scientific way like an educated person would, and who knows, even you might learn something.

Cheers
Jim

[Merlin]

So how do I know that I am hypnotized? Because I hypnotize myself sitting or lying down, I look for tingling and numbness in my extremities (physical), followed by a detached "out of body" experience coupled with an intense mental focus. I feel both that my body is still but my mind has expanded beyond my body's boundaries.

I respectfully tell you that the above need have nothing to do with hypnosis.

[Merlin]

Pood,
Thanks, but no thanks.
Jim does not wish to learn :(

[jimcole]

Well, perhaps you are just sarcastic by nature and you don't mean to offend. In any case I have never claimed to be an expert in hypnosis, and I did not mean to question your expert opinion. I think enough has been said here.

[Merlin]

The information is outdated.
Much has been learned since then.
[but what do I know. In reality, probably nothing has been learned in any field since 1963.]

[jimcole]

I have an open mind. So I read you FAQ and bio. Interesting that you are a 7'6" female. Why do you assert that you have "always been female?" Most people would just state that they are male, female, etc without having to assert that they always have been.

[Merlin]

I have an open mind. So I read you FAQ and bio. Interesting that you are a 7'6" female.Since you read my FAQ, we have a place to begin discussion.
Since you read my bio. you know I have a fun side too :)
As for 'female' many people believe 'merlin' is by default 'male'
many people have posted, referring to me as male. So, I clarify :)

[Don]

Hi, Jim.

As Merlin correctly pointed out, this is quite dated and has been superseded. Now, I realize that this was simply a summary and not a detailed analysis of the study, but I would like to point out the errors in it rather than simply say "it's wrong," okay?

Classification as susceptible and relatively unsusceptible based on "GHSS."

I'm going to assume this refers to the Harvard scale. There is at least one other major scale (the Stanford), but it was not as widely used as the Harvard.

The major problem with this scale is that it is not objective at all. In fact, it is self-scoring. So people basically determine--with no training or experience--whether they are susceptible to hypnosis. It also does not take into account the subjects' predisposition toward hypnosis. If they felt that hypnosis was something bad, evil, or a sign of weakness, they are going to be far more likely to claim they are not susceptible.

There are two other major disagreements with this. First it is merely a way to try and get people to judge how susceptible to hypnosis they think they are. It does not require any actual hypnosis at all. To me, that's like testing someone to see how good they are at basketball without ever having them dribble or throw a basket.

The other major disagreement I have with this is that it will put testers into a predisposed mode to believe that certain people are unlikely to be hypnotizable. It has long been observed that if a hypnotist doesn't think he or she can hypnotize someone, they will not be able to do so. You are literally programming a hypnotist for failure. This is compounded by not knowing how well trained the hypnotists in this study actually are. Have they spent 20 hours studying and practicing how to hypnotize? 100? 0?


There are just too many holes in this study to make it of any practical value some 50 years later.

There have been major advances in both the art and science of hypnosis and hypnotherapy during that period. One of the most important is the realization is that we are all constantly going in and out of hypnotic trances, all day long. As a hypnotist, my job is to help a client shift out of the trance that is causing them difficulties and help them move into a trance that allows them to achieve their desired behaviors.

Perhaps the most important person in this change was the psychiatrist Dr. Milton Erickson who, before his death, was lauded by the American Psychological Association for help people to obtain a greater understanding of how the mind works. When psychiatrists and psychologists failed with patients, they'd send them to Dr. Erickson who would help people change in a few sessions where the professionals failed after years of work.

The other major change was the unification of hypnosis with other forms of therapeutic actions and understandings under the heading of "Neuro-Linguistic Programming" or NLP. I'm not a "NLPer," as are many of the people who post on our forums, but I respect and use some of the concepts and advances that they have presented to the helping community.

Respectfully, if someone is trying to be a hypnotist and is not at least familiar with the work of Erickson and NLP, they like someone trying to build an ICBM with a hammer, a screwdriver, some nails and a couple of two-by-fours.

Jim, if I were studying hypnosis 50 years ago, I would agree with what you've said 100%. As it happens, I'm involved with another community of people that has some books on hypnosis that are based on books from 50-100 years ago. Every where I go to lecture for that community I speak to SRO crowds and the people are amazed. The only reason is because the material I present is up to date.

Every time I lecture to such people, the first thing I ask for is for people who have been told that they can't be hypnotized. They are the ones who are the easiest to hypnotize! That's not a joke. I do it to show the power of hypnosis and show that all of those scales and tests were just bogus.

For some time, there was a saying that (and I forget the exact numbers) that only 74% of people could be hypnotized. Actually, the test to show that was good--it was just the analysis of the raw data that was bad. The test was done on college students where other students hypnotized the subjects (or attempted to do so) by reading a script. So the correct analysis should have been that 74% of people could be hypnotized by untrained hypnotists reading this particular script.

I don't read scripts.

So Jim, I'm going to go along with Merlin in saying that I think you do not have a low IQ, but that you are intelligent. In modern hypnotherapy, we no longer say that people have "problems." Rather, we say they do the best they can with the knowledge and skills they have. With hypnosis we are able to give them the knowledge and skills to achieve the behaviors they want to have rather than the ones that they do have.

From your post, I have no doubt that you have studied and looked at hypnosis from the beliefs that were pre NLP, pre Erickson, and pre modern hypnotherapy. There's nothing wrong with that. I would just like to suggest that the information you have is obsolete and there is an entirely new way of looking at the mind that is available to you.

Personally, I think that's wonderful! You have reached a level of knowledge about hypnosis from 50 years ago that few people have today and even fewer had back then. To me, that puts you at the top of the class.

So here's a challenge: don't just step into the present! Step into the future. Step into a universe of infinite potential and infinite possibilities.

Not long ago, people thought it was impossible to control the autonomic nervous system. Now we know that through visualization and techniques of mind control we can control the ANS.

The possibilities that are ahead for you are just endless!

[Merlin]

Nice post Don :)

[eccles1214]

I respectfully tell you that the above need have nothing to do with hypnosis.
Well, ok. So how does one know one is hypnotized? How does a therapist know when her/his client is hypnotized?

[Don]

Professional trained and experienced hypnotists have "tests" known as "convincers" that are given to the client after induction. It proves to the hypnotist that the client is hypnotized, and later, if the client says, "I'm not sure I was hypnotized," the hypnotist can remind the client of the results of the test, proving that the client was hypnotized.

[Merlin]

Response to suggestions, rather than how one feels.