What is Hypnotism

You’ve seen it done at fairs and magic shows: the evil –looking magician swings a shiny object at the face of the female helper, recites some words and she goes into trance. She then performs like a robot every wish the master says, while you think if it is all authentic and not scripted.

This stereotype description of how hypnotism affects an individual, however, is really vastly different from real hypnotism. An individual under hypnotism is seldom the complete slave of his ‘master’; he retains his consciousness all the time. And the subject is never half-asleep; only extra-sensitive.

Hypnotism has been practiced - and abused - for ages now, yet how it happens is not completely dissected, even by hypnotists who study it extensively. What happens is all too apparent, but the logical process of how it comes about is little known. The cause is might be locked within a greater question: how the human mind functions. Thus, no explanation to the mystery of hypnosis may be expected in the near future.

Hypnotism defined
Various sources define hypnotism as ‘a wakeful state of focused attention and heightened suggestibility with diminished peripheral awareness.’ Or, ‘a trancelike state, artificially induced, in which a person has a heightened suggestibility, and in which suppressed memories may be experienced; the art or skill of hypnotism.’ It is also ‘a state that resembles sleep but that is induced by suggestion’.

Whatever is the definition, there is nothing there that says the individual is deprived of his senses, nor is he a robot to the practitioner. He is not even asleep, only highly suggestible and intently focused. The condition is comparable to daydreaming, when the individual is ‘lost’ and has rejected all outside conditions: nothing matters but the thing at hand.

Some hypnotic states
Different hypnotic states have been proposed to understand it: driving a car, reading, or watching movies. Others are when there is great adrenaline flush and the person is singularly concentrated on what he is doing: playing competition chess, watching an engrossing movie, playing a fish, saving one’s self from a burning building and nearing panic. Meditation is also a form of personal hypnosis, many experts say.

The conscious and the subconscious minds
When you do something, it is not automatic that you must think about doing it: some actions are automatic and needs no thought. You simply decide to act on it and afterward do it. This system of unconscious deed is the work of the subconscious, that part of the mind that is below the conscious, and works without stopping or rest even when you are sleeping. It handles the body’s senses ---taste, touch, sight---, feelings, imagination and impulses as well. The subconscious is ergo not confined to the five senses nor the rationality of conventions but is much freer and creative.

How hypnotism enters the mind
Psychiatrists believe that taking the mind to a certain focus pacifies the individual and sets aside the conscious mind enough for the subconscious part to dominate. While the person realizes what is actually happening he follows the subconscious which the hypnotist is able to communicate with directly. As thus, hypnotism happens as we know it.

The author runs an informative website on all different topics of hypnotism from Hypnosis Stories to more unknown subjects such as Feminization Hypnosis.