Hypnotism is a very mysterious power to those that do not understand it. But to those who do, it is quite straight forward. Understanding hypnotism can be very enlightening about how the brain works and how we interact socially.
Put simply, hypnotism is like the state that we enter just before we go to sleep. We are still conscious of the world around us but we are much more susceptible to suggestion, we act on impulse rather than reason, so a hypnotist can make suggestions which you automatically act upon. It is also just like the state that a lot of people go into whilst driving when they are not paying much attention. Sort of a limbo state.
It is social learning as we are growing up that makes us act upon the suggestions made us while under this state so it is not possible to hypnotise someone to do something they consider immoral. It is just not an automatic reaction for people to do things they find immoral. In the same way you might completely lose control of yourself when you get drunk, you will still not doing anything that you find morally reprehensible. Sorry guys, being drunk is no excuse for the bad things you did :-)
I'm not really interested in teaching people how to perform stage hypnosis as a party trick to get your friends to act like dogs or talk Chinese. I put this article in the "personal skills" section because understanding hypnotism can help you to understand yourself and the way you think. It can help you to train the way you think so that you can think in a more productive way. It can help you to understand why you like certain things and not others, such as smoking or chocolate. And if you want to do something about it, it can help you to stop liking them or stop liking them so much.
The other obvious advantage is that it will help you to understand how other people think and can help you to interact with them better. You can help them to think in ways that are more constructive or more productive for both of you.
The best way to learn how to hypnotise is to go on a course or seminar with an proper instructor. This is because the hypnotist must be completely confident in what they are doing in order for it to work. It's a bit of a catch 22, without the confidence, it won't work, which means you'll lack confidence. The aura of confidence is all important.
If these courses are a bit too expensive for your budget and you are prepared to learn the long and hard way, then there are some very good video and book courses*. But, without the hands on experience of a seminar, the learning curve will take a lot much longer.
HypnosisDownloads.com specialise in hypnotic self help videos and CDs but they also have a free course to learn hypnosis*. It's probably the best way to get into hypnosis, even if just for a taster to see if you like it.
