Hypnosis is a “state” of increased attention and relaxation at the same time. This may sound a bit contradictory at first, but if you have experienced hypnosis before, you understand.

However, there is no general definition. Even if you look into the past, and try to find a definition, you will quickly realise that this is not so easy. Even science hasn’t been able to establish a clear and unambiguous definition yet.

Well known hypnotists / hypnosis training institutes, websites etc. said the following: Hypnosis is…

Dave Elman:

„Hypnosis is a state of mind in which the critical faculty of the human is bypassed, and selective thinking established.”

Milton Erickson:

„Concentrating exclusively on your own thoughts, values, memories and beliefs about life.”

Gerald F. Kein:

„Hypnosis is the bypassing of the critical factor of consciousness and the establishment of appropriate, selective thinking.”

American Psychological Association:

„Hypnosis is a procedure during which a health professional or researcher suggests while treating someone, that he or she experiences changes in sensations, perceptions, thoughts or behaviour.“

Hypno School:

„Hypnosis is the tool to bypass the critical factor of consciousness in order to make the necessary changes in body, mind and spirit for a free and happy life.”

Jason Linett:

„Hypnosis is a natural process in which your mind is more receptive to positive suggestions, insights and the release of negative feelings. It is your mind’s ability to quickly assimilate new skills and strategies. A professional hypnosis practitioner can help you take control of your life. Get a grip on your habits, behaviours and feelings.”

Dirk Revensdorf:

„Hypnotherapy is a psychotherapeutic method that uses hypnotic trance as an altered state of consciousness to enable behavioural changes, to reconnect thought structures and to correct unproductive attitudes, to change affective patterns. So minimise, amplify or recondition. To promote physiological, biochemical and change process.”

English Wikipedia:

„A natural psychological process, in which the critical thinking of the mind is bypassed and a kind of selektive thinking and perceiving is established.”

German Wikipedia:

„Hypnosis is a „state artificially produced partial sleep in connection with a changed state of mind“. „Hypnosis is: the process to archive a hypnotic trance. One speaks also from „hypnotic induction“ or „Hypnosis in the narrower sense“.”

 

Summary (detailed with example):

What the German Wikipedia writes is only partly true. Hypnosis is NOT sleep and in hypnosis you do not have an altered state of consciousness, as you would probably think. In hypnosis you have a positive altered perception. You have even more control in hypnosis than without hypnosis.

Even though from the outside it may seem that the hypnotist has the “power” over the subject, in reality he (the hypnotist) does not.

The easiest way to compare hypnosis is with learning to drive a car. If the driving instructor tells the learner driver to please sit next to him in the driver’s seat, but the learner driver sits in the back seat because he thinks he can learn to drive from there, then the driving instructor can try to convince the learner driver to sit in the front seat after all, but if the learner driver refuses, the driving instructor has no chance either. Even if the driving instructor says that the learner driver should turn left, but the learner driver turns right, then the driving instructor can also do nothing except react to this situation and make the best out of it.

The learner driver is in control. Thus the client, who in this example is comparable to the learner driver, is also always in control of himself and the vehicle. The vehicle is then in hypnosis comparable to the brain and the body. The driving instructor can only give instructions on what the learner driver should do, but it is up to the learner driver whether he follows the instructions or not.

If the learner driver follows the instructor’s instructions, his chances of getting the license are quite good. But if he decides not to follow the instructions, the chances of getting the license are not good. It is exactly the same with hypnosis. If the client follows the instructions / suggestions of the hypnotist, the hypnosis works. However, if the client decides to disregard the instructions / suggestions, or not to follow them, the hypnosis will not work either.

You are in control at all times and during hypnosis you even gain more control over yourself. This is the case because in the “awake state” we have no (or limited) access to our subconscious mind. Through hypnosis we also gain control over our subconscious (and also superconscious, which is used in the Simpson Protocol).