Seeing it in Person

I recently got the opportunity to finally watch someone listening to my mp3 induction files in person.

As a hypnotist, body language is one of the most important indicators as to how you are doing, and that’s not something you normally get to see when the person listening to your file is 100 miles away, webcam or no.

It was a great relief that not only did my subject enjoy the experience, and give me high marks for the quality of the file; her body language showed that she was achieving a moderate trance depth, despite the strangeness of the situation and having just completed a six mile run.

When you’re there in person, you can see the rhythm of the subject’s breathing, the tension of his or her muscles, and the motion of his or her eyes beneath the eyelids. On top of this, you can notice facial flushing, especially redness in the eyes, resulting from relaxed blood vessels. These are some of the most important clues as to how well someone is responding to hypnosis.

All of my files use the same induction, and so this review gave me the confidence to release my two for-sale downloads, knowing that they use similar techniques and are of even higher audio quality.

I often have a difficult time writing a script in more than an outline form before starting a session, as it’s hard to work on the pacing and wording without some feedback in the form of someone listening. With some additional help from this subject, I hope to be releasing some new recordings within the next few months.

Finally, Files for Sale

I bit the bullet and finally posted the two files I've been working on.

The first helps you get to sleep, and the second helps you wake up on time. A nice pairing, I think.

After lots and lots of tweaking, I decided it was better to have a product that wasn't perfect than to not have a product at all.

Trial and Error

Hypnosis doesn’t always work out the way you plan. Sometimes someone just isn’t going under, even when you’re use standard methods that you’ve used dozens or hundreds of times before.

Some people blame this on the potential subject who ‘just isn’t hypnotizable.’ That’s a weak excuse.

When you hear the oft-quoted fact that “x% of the population can’t be hypnotized” what it’s really saying is, if you use the exact same induction methods with however many people, a certain number just won’t go under. Well Duh.

Hypnosis is something that often has to be tailored to the individual to be successful. I say often because in most cases, there is a standard response you’ll see from most people for a given suggestion; it’s just a matter of how big the response is and how long it takes. The people that claim that each session must be individually tailored sometimes seem sanctimonious, but if you want the best results in the shortest time, they’re right.

That leads to the biggest challenge I have with iHypnoU.com: trying to come up with a set of suggestions that works well enough with everyone to achieve the session’s goals. How do I do it? I use the fact that there are standard responses to the suggestions I’m giving, and structure my entire recording around encouraging them, using their appearance to build expectations.

Hypnosis for Swine Flu?

I don't know whether to be angry or just sad about the marketing of it - Victoria Gallagher, the hypnotist at hyptalk.com, has released a hypnosis recording to boost the immune system with hypnosis to help the listener not get swine flu.

Google has a lovely tool which I use called Google Alerts. It provides me with an email listing recently indexed sites and blogs relating to terms I specify. Linked in that email last week was a press release that made me quite angry.

You can read it yourself here, but I'll tell you the wording that made me contemplate the laws regarding these types of claims. I'll preface this by saying that the file probably just makes you relax and not worry so much about sickness, which could help your immune system; but some of these claims are just ridiculous.

The first line: "Spend 30 minutes a day in Hypnosis, and you will greatly improve your chances of staying healthy this year (and every year)." Iffy, but okay. It's a bit of marketing exaggeration for most, but true in the cases of some people who always think they're sick.

Later: "For those who might be scared of the risks involved with the Swine Flu Vaccine, Hypnosis provides a risk-free alternative." Wow. Claiming that hypnosis is risk free compared to the vaccine...what the risk of really getting swine flu? And what about the risk of then passing it on to someone you love? I mean, swine flu isn't that bad, but I wouldn't want to give my family a bad present for Christmas; why would I want to risk giving them an illness?

"So, you could find yourself staying healthy from all colds and viruses." The word could is a good qualifier, but 'all colds and viruses' includes meningitis, HPV, HIV, and all sorts of other things that aren't so much affected by stress levels. And being sick is about more than just experiencing symptoms.

The release starts to redeem itself in the second half, encouraging people to wash their hands, rest, and drink fluids, as well as hinting at the fact that what the file is doing is getting you to not think about getting sick, but by that point it's made some pretty fantastical claims.

She is/They are giving a way a file for free right now, but most of her files apparently sell for $39, which makes it no surprise that she's pushing this, even buying a special domain name, beastswineflunow.com. I assume the hope is that when someone listens and doesn't get swine flu, they'll line right up to buy the $99 packages for good luck so they can win the lotto.

Testing is key

I've been in limbo for the past month or so, and it's been really painful.

Why?

I've gone through several product revisions. I was on the verge of releasing my first script - a sleep aid that would also help you wake up at a specific time without using an alarm clock. But I ran into a problem.

The file worked too well. Those who listened to it were falling asleep before I even got to the part about their mental alarm clock.

So rather than sell something that only "sort of" worked, I figgured I'd tweak it. After another round, I decided that there was a better way - I'd split up the file into two seperate recordings, one for a mental alarm clock, and another for getting to sleep.

But now I've run into another problem - my beta testers are being a little flakey.

I don't want to put something up for sale until I'm completely satisfied, because that's what I want my customers to be. So I'm going to new lengths to get feedback on the file, and hopefully I'll be able to release both very soon.

If only it were so easy...

I like to keep tabs on traffic to my sites using Google's Analytics service.

It allows me to see what people are looking at, how many people are looking, and how they got to my site. This makes it easier for me to produce content people are looking for, improve the layout and usability of my sites, and how I can better promote them.

Every so often though, it produces some interesting surprises.

One of the most awesome features is that you can see what search terms brought you a viewer from Google. I was looking through that today when I ran across something surprising and strange.

One of my visits was from someone whose search term was "how to make someone your obedient slave with hypnosis."

Apparently, my site for hypnosis mp3 files, iHypnou.com features in position 13 for this term, thanks to some of my talk about hypnosis safety on YouTube where I discussed how rediculous many of the hypnosis videos are, claiming to be for simple relaxation but containing suggestions for obedience and submission.

Obviously, the person didn't find much information about enslaving people, but I'd like to hope they learned how rediculous the idea is before they shell out money for some worthless product.

If only it were so easy for me to rank highly for keyword traffic that I actually want...

Hypnosis Suggestion of Surgery

Another interesting story about what hypnotic suggestions can do, and what lengths some hypnotist go to in order to craft a successful suggestion:

Woman hypnotized to think she has gastric bypass surgery, and loses weight.

From the article:

"The therapy involved a number of sessions in which she was familiarized with the procedure of a gastric band surgery, including a real surgical gastric band and stomach model."

"She then underwent several sessions of hypnosis, in which every stage of the surgery was narrated to her ... a recording of surgical tools played in the background. The hypnotherapists also pumped smells into the room to simulate those found in ... a hospital."

Supposedly she has lost 55 pounds, though it doesn't say over what period. I imagine there would be an easier way to achieve weight loss through hypnotic suggestions, but if it works for her, more power to both her and her hypnotists.

Interesting Story on the AP wire from South Korea:

Hypnotist fined for stealing a kiss on a date

From the article:

"...the hypnotist chanted: "Black hole! You will plunge deeper into a trance. You will feel thrilled all over your body and if my hand touches your body, you will feel intense pleasure."

Of course, the girl was fully aware, even though she had her eyes closed, and rebuffed him, later going to court over it.

The hypnotist's lack of ethics and poor skills cost him the won equivalent of $2,453.

Knowing your Subject

Just the other day, I got a chance for a 4 hour trial session with one of my friends. I like to experiment with new methods when there’s no other objectives to the trance, so that I don’t feel hampered or pressured, and neither does the subject.

This particular friend has had some rather interesting experiences with self hypnosis in the past, so she might not be the best person on which to judge the effectiveness of new hypnotic techniques, but she’s definitely capable of giving good feedback.

I’ve hypnotized her once before, but it had been awhile, so I talked to her again about her self-hypnosis experiences and what she already knew worked for her. If I had been in a hurry to put her into a trance, it would have been easy enough to lead her while she was practically reliving her trance states, but I figured it best to pay more attention to what she was saying.

When she described the self hypnosis she uses for sleep, she told me that she liked to imagine herself on a beach, alone, and how she could almost see herself sinking into the sand. What she used, though she didn’t know it then, was a progressive relaxation induction, and she would normally be asleep before she finished.

With this information, I ran an informal experiment, inducing her in several ways. One was to have her recall a recent hypnosis session and use the natural tendency to shift into a past state to remember it’s sensations to help shift her fully into that state in the present. This induction was rather kinesthetic with a lot of proofs of trance. Another method I used was to have her use a visual focus, and to eventually picture it in her mind’s eye as I used pacing and leading to bring her under.

Now, the second one worked much better, even though I used similar techniques in both, and she was skeptical of how effective the second method would be. The important part was that I matched the reference frame she is accustomed to when undergoing hypnosis.

All it took was a little listening beforehand. If your subject doesn’t have much hypnosis experience, maybe ask them to describe a dream they’ve had, or their favorite place.

If you can work flexibly with your subject, you’ll turn out to be a much more effective and respected hypnotist.

Hypnosis Safety II

I know I already posted about safety when viewing hypnosis videos on YouTube, but I think it's serious enough that I'm going to embed this here. The audio isn't the best, (I'll probably re-record it soon) but the info is important.

Problem Solved

The DNS changes are still percolating, but percolating they are. iHypnoU.com is finally accessible again.

To celebrate, I've got a link to my updated induction file. I'm looking into hosting at least the free files locally to make them more easily accessible, but I'm wanting to get a feel for the bandwidth requirements first.

Running a site can be Difficult

iHypnoU has been down quite a while, and it's bothering me a lot.

Not because I'm losing money - nothing is for sale just yet.

Honestly, I'm embarassed.

In the middle of moving to my apartment, I've stopped focusing so much on the website, and I didn't notice it was down until my traffic started dropping.

Even when the web host is up, the site has been down. I'm not quite sure what it means, but in an effort to fix it, I've moved to a new host. The only issue now is getting ahold of the guy who can change my nameservers.

I've learned my lesson, I guess, in that it's important to have full control, or at least really direct supervision, over the really important stuff.

Competition

While registering a new domain name yesterday, I browsed through one of the many bargain bins of recently expired names. In the process, I noticed there were a lot of hypnosis related domains up for grabs, especially those targeting our lovely neighbor-to-the-north, Canada.

One of the first things you do before you enter a marketplace with a new venture is scope out the competition. As far as hypnosis goes, there is a lot. The next thing you do, if you want to be successful, is figure out how you can differentiate yourself to get ahead of the pack.

At iHypnoU.com, we are looking to differentiate ourselves by providing real hypnosis and hypnosis information. We aren’t pushing any new-age ideas; we aren’t offering rubbish hypnosis sessions for ‘attracting good luck’ or money, and when our instruction materials come out, we won’t be teaching you how to mind control your boss for raises or get any woman to sleep with you.

It’s no surprise that so many of these domains are up for grabs. Many of them were probably owned by one person, and online hypnosis sites selling bunk information, like bad hypnotherapy practices, go out of business quickly.

Know that, despite our website being down at the moment thanks to our horrible (and now former) web host, we are still here and still working hard. Our first pay file, for helping with sleep troubles, is finished will be out the door soon.

Microphone Review – Alesis USB Mic

Seeing as how I’m recording hypnosis .mp3 files, having a good microphone is important. The only issue is, I value my mobility, and my primary computer, like many Americans these days, is a laptop. In making the switch to a laptop, I gave up a lot of things, like the plethora of inputs and a good soundcard that having pci or pci-e slots can offer.

To top it all off, ever since I had my motherboard replaced last year (Hooray for extended warranties with in-home service) my sound jacks have both been very noisy.

Where does that leave someone looking to get good sound quality?

I was faced with two options. One is to buy either an external sound card or mixer that hooks into my laptop via USB. The other is to skip the middle man and buy a USB microphone.

Given that I don’t need the finest control or quality, and I’m buying from a value perspective, I went with a USB microphone. This allows me a much easier set up if I’m recording a session elsewhere, and at a price range of $50-$150 is much cheaper than buying a USB-XLR interface or some other mixer box.

If you’re wondering what kind of benefit you’ll see over using a cheap headset or desktop mic, you’ll probably be quite impressed after some fiddling with levels and microphone positioning. I bought an Alesis USB mic - a condenser microphone with a cardioid pickup pattern.

The condenser part means that it is essentially a big capacitor, and vibrations strike one of the capacitor’s plates, the change in distance changes the capacitance of the system, which is measured to create a signal. This is different from a dynamic microphone, which relies on a diaphragm moving within a magnetic field to create an electric current (The opposite of a speaker). Typically, a condenser microphone will give a better reproduction than a dynamic mic. Many of the small microphones in electronics are electret mics, a special kind of condenser, but on average their sound quality usually suffers (due to size and expense) in comparison to a larger mic.

The cardioid pattern means that it picks up sound best when it comes from in front of one side of the microphone. This allows some leeway in background noise.

If you need the best quality sound reproduction, there are much better options with correspondingly higher costs, but for quality that is just ‘okay’ I don’t think you’ll go wrong with the Alesis USB microphone. It retails in the US for $99.

Tying Things Together

One of the first things most people learn about hypnosis, whether they realize it or not, is the concept of tying two effects or stimuli together, and how it makes the hypnotist job much easier.

Even hokey depictions of hypnosis on TV usually get this one right: by tying a stimulus to a response or vice versa, the hypnotist has an easier time wording suggestions and creating an agreement snowball.

Agreement, as a noun, is how I like to describe the condition where an expectation, created by either the hypnotist or the subject, matches up to what the subject actually experiences. This convergence of expectation and reality seems to almost acquire a life of it’s own over time, leading to a situation where the subject’s mind will work to create agreement without effort from the hypnotist.

One of the key tools to generate this agreement is to tie something the subject is experiencing or doing to some effect, establishing a cause and effect relationship. Even better, is when this relationship can be looped back on itself.

The classic example, is in the Eye Lock, or Eye Catalepsy – it goes by many names, but it’s often used as a test and convincer. One of the commonly used suggestions: “The harder you try to open your eyes, the harder it becomes to open them.” By tying increased effort to increased difficulty, a subject accepting and following the suggestion will keep their eyes closed, never reaching the requisite effort level.

The big overlooked use of these relationships, however, is in the induction itself. Some hypnotists might throw ‘and’ or ‘as’ into their inductions to simply make them flow better, but they generate cause and effect relationships that help the trance.

For example, you can take something that you and the subject both know the subject is experiencing - perhaps her eyes are blinking or his body is sinking into the chair – and tie it to some effect you’d like to see, such as a warm relaxation washing over her or a feeling of calm contentment sinking in.

This secondary effect can and should be more internal, or harder to define and prove than the one it’s linked to, because in most cases you’re trying to shift the subject’s focus towards the internal, and because these are effects that you’ll never be 100% sure about just by saying they are there. Tying them to the first effect helps generate that agreement and rapport that the hypnotist needs, as any hint of that secondary effect can be noticed and enhanced by the subject, building credibility.

There are even additional benefits, as linking together sensory information helps with pacing and leading, and is one of the most direct methods for shifting state of consciousness.

Session Length

I see a lot of hypnotists bragging online, especially on YouTube, about how fast they are. Many of them are simply using the same instant induction techniques used by most every hypnotist; some are just showing videos of using what is essentially a re-induction trigger. Regardless, there seems to be a concept that faster is better.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, I’ve noticed that my sessions tend to run short compared to many. Maybe I’m incredibly lucky in that all my usual subjects are quick to enter trance, or maybe I’m just rushing through things. Maybe it’s because other hypnotist think that a longer session is necessary to achieve results, or to make people feel like it’s worth the price. With an in-person therapy session, a one-hour length is probably the minimum necessary to account for talks on both sides and any potential slip in scheduling, but how many people have an hour or more to listen to a recording, especially on a daily basis?

It’s a common question subjects pose, though: how long will it take to hypnotize me, and how long will it take to see results.

The answer, like most things in hypnosis, is “It depends.”

There are a lot of factors that go into how long it takes to hypnotize someone: experience in being hypnotized, what the goals of the session are, and how eager the subject is all play a role, among others. In the same way, how long a session must last – and how many sessions, depend on a lot of the same factors.

Personally, I prefer to have shorter sessions, and more of them. While a single long session can give more time to bring ‘deeper’ trances, depth isn’t always the important thing. I think that in many cases, a quick 20 minute session, held often with content shifting slowly with time, can bring more effective change.

Hypnotic Paralysis - Not Pretending

There was an interesting article yesterday in USA today about a study that used scans to reveal what was actually occurring in the brain undergoing a hypnotic suggestion of paralysis.
You can read the article here: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2009-06-24-paralyzed-hypnosis_N.htm

Basically, as was commonly theorized, it was shown to be different from someone just imagining that their hand was frozen. Part of the brain thought to be responsible for mapping one’s own body is getting involved in the process. The motor cortex prepared to move the subject’s hand as it normally would, but the precuneus gets involved; apparently full of imagery resulting from the hypnotic suggestion.

Similar effects have been shown in previous studies investigating hypnosis’ effect on Stroop Interference.

Closing Your Eyes

It might be a bit low class of me, but I’m a big fan of having the subject close their eyes at the beginning of an induction.

Many people out there will say that it’s not necessary, and that’s entirely true. In fact, when hypnotizing a person face to face, having them keep their eyes open allows you to see their eyes, and pay attention to the focus of their eyes and the characteristics of their blinking.

Much of my hypnosis these days, however, is not face-to-face. When I write scripts for iHypnoU.com, I have to create a script for a session where I never see the person. It’s one of the hardest things in hypnosis.

A hypnotist’s best tool for putting someone under is his or her ability to change the session to fit the subject. It’s often said that only a certain percentage of the population can be hypnotized. I think that’s crap. The better way of putting it is that a given induction will only work for a certain percentage of the population. So generating a .mp3 that works for the biggest percentage of people possible is quite a tall order.

With an .mp3, I don’t have the subject focusing on a video, so rather than have them stare at a spot on the wall or something, it is much more effective to have them close their eyes and focus inward on a visualization that I give them. Some people would have no problem with being hypnotized without ever closing their eyes or having a visual focus, and would go under with their eyes open staring off into nothing. For anyone visually oriented, however, a lack of a focus is a major dealbreaker.

So I tend to start my .mp3s with having their subject close their eyes. It may be stereotypical and a little campy, but it’s effective.

Hypnosis Safety

Yesterday I put up a video on YouTube talking about ways to be safe when viewing videos made to hypotize you. Quite a few videos are posted that have Dominance/Submission themese when they proclaim on their description to just be a little relaxation. (Honestly, this is because quite a few of them are using scripts written by someone else.) Most of the videos are pretty low quality, but just in case they work, it's important to be safe if you aren't looking to be someone's internet slave.

Some of the main tips I covered:

When you open a video page, pause the video and let it download fully in the background. While it's downloading, you can check out some of the other things I suggest, and once it's downloaded, you can scroll through it using the timeline to see exactly what text it is going to show you.

While you're waiting, check out the comment section. You might see that the video is wanting users to post their real name, or call the video uploader 'master', or other clues that it is trying to get you to do things it doesn't mention.

Also, check the video uploader's profile. A lot of times they'll be more up front there. While there you can also see the comments people have left on his or her profile, and see the other videos he or she has uploaded. These can all tell you whether it's a straightforward experience.

On the other hand, most of these videos with objectionable suggestions will only work if you really are looking for what it's truely offering, so there's not too much to worry about.

As I've said before, I have a website over at iHypnoU.com where I have a quick induction .mp3 that has no gimmicks or master/slave stuff in it. You'll also find a Tips page where if you are wanting a hypnosis video or mp3 to work, you'll find some info that will help.

Phobias

When people think of hypnosis in relation to phobias, most people would think of using trance to get over the irrational, debilitating fear. When I think of phobias and hypnosis, though, another thing also comes to mind.

Imagery.

One of the most important parts of hypnosis is imagery – it’s one of the most used and useful tools in a hypnotist’s arsenal, but it can harm as much as help the trance process.
One of the important things to cover with a subject in a pre-hypnosis talk is to ask them about fears and phobias that they have. If the goal of the hypnosis session is to alleviate some of these irrational fears, then some are apparent. Otherwise, though, a hypnotist might not think about what their subject is deathly afraid of, and that can be dangerous for the rapport and trust that the hypnotist is working so hard to build.

Imagine someone has just completed an induction, and proceeds into a staircase deepener. Rich imagery helps this deepener greatly, and often the staircase is described as a spiral staircase.
Fun fact: I once cried for 10 minutes at a tower in Casa Loma when my parents tried to drag me up a spiral staircase. Now, I was probably five years old at the time, but the point is that you don’t always know what will push people out of their comfort zone, and when you’re running a hypnotic induction, you’re definitely want your subject nice and comfy.

This goes for people looking to be hypnotized as well. Especially if you’ve had problems in a previous experience, make sure you let your hypnotist know about phobias or fears like claustrophobia before you start.

Full disclosure of phobias can make a hypnotic trance more enjoyable for both the subject and the hypnotist.

I Think I Have My Answer

Over the weekend I went to DejaVu with some friends to see Tony Lucero's erotic hypnosis show.

The evening was mostly enjoyable. We got in just as volunteers were coming onstage and were there for the whole show, which lasted about an hour.

As I surveyed the volunteers on stage, I began to sort them into a few catergories. There were the eager to please, the doubters, the uncomfortable, and the general poor responders. My intuitions were well founded as the three I had tagged as doubters were off the stage during the first set, the uncomfortable left during the set where the hypnotist suggested they try the imaginary weed he was handing them, and the eager to please girls had outrageous responses to his suggestions throughout several sets.

What probably surprised me the most throughout this performance was how little Lucero had to do in order to get them to follow along. This is the wonderful thing about having a self selecting group. On top of the fact that they volunteered to be on stage, they all came from an audience who came to see an erotic hypnotist, including the bachlorette party that showed up to the club in a van covered with penis drawings.

The other thing that surprised me was a sort of awe that some of the volunteers had for what was happening. I suppose I've seen similar responses in my vanilla, one-on one hypnosis, and it makes sense that the shock would be slightly bigger when rather than say, having your hand locked in the air you're working your way towards an orgasm without any touching.

This was sort of concerning to my friends who have the "They're in his power" view. One of my friends even likened it to "mind-rape of the feeble" and said her faith in humanity was ruined by the way the audience responded to it.

I thought it seemed to me the people on stage were having a wonderful time; particularly the girl with the cucumber halfway down her throat and the woman compelled to dry hump anyone who congratulated her after the show.

Stage Hypnosis Show

This Saturday, I'll be visiting a friend in Columbia Missouri, and taking in a stage hypnosis show.

We'll be going to DejaVu and seeing Tony Lucero, MoJo Master. While the 8:00 pm show is apparently straight comedy, the 10:15 show is the "Erotic Hypnotic XXX show."

The late show is of a lot more interest to me, because it fuels one of the big questions about stage hypnosis: Are they faking?

Ignoring the people who say "Of course they are, it's one big practical joke by everyone who's ever gone up on stage," people tend to fall into two main camps: those who think people are going along with what's expected of them, and people who think the volunteers really are helpless to the whims of the hypnotist.

My answer to the question tends to be that in the context of stage hypnosis, it doesn't matter. The people on stage aren't looking for theraputic help, and anyone who goes to the show is merely looking for enjoyment. The people in the crowd should get that regardless, and the people on stage knew what they were getting into when they volunteered. When people follow the suggestions of the hypnotist, it has the same result regardless of the reason why they did it.

Erotic stage shows give weight to both sides of the arguement, though. The 'power' side says that of course the hypnotist is in control, because there's no way someone would give a random person a lap dance or hump a blow up doll in front of hundreds of people. The 'expectations' side says that there are a lot of things people will do when given an excuse that they wouldn't otherwise consider, and the context of being on stage provides that excuse and is a powerful influence all it's own.

Of course, with hypnosis being one of the closest things you can get to a placebo, it's difficult to give a firm answer to this. My experience is that no matter how real and legit you try to be with your hypnosis, pre-concieved notions and expectations will always have an effect.

What I really want to know: disregarding the showmanship aspect, is stage hypnosis easier than private sessions? That's one of the things I'll be watching for.

A Bit About Me

As I said in my last post, I've been hypnotizing people for about four years now.

I've recently started up a website, http://www.ihypnou.com/, in order to offer downloadable hypnosis inductions and files written by me and based on what I've learned over the past few years.

I prefer to hypnotize people in person and one on one, but the internet allows people to communicate in ways never seen before. This has lead to a lot of information about hypnosis finding its way to the internet, much of which is utter crap, especially a lot of the products floating around claiming to teach you hypnosis or how to control peoples' minds.

If it were all really that easy, wouldn't they just convince people to buy worthless crap for enormous sums of money? Wait a second....

That's not hypnosis. It's marketing playing to the fact that nobody wants to work for anything when they could simply have it handed to them.

This is one of the reasons I've decided to speak up here, and start http://www.ihypnou.com/. I'd like to provide useful, factual information to anyone out there interested in hypnosis.

What is Hypnosis?

When you ask someone what hypnosis is, you might get a wide variety of responses.

Some people might think of what they've seen on TV or in the movies, of swinging watches and people staring into space saying "Yes Master". One of my first enocounters with hypnosis was an episode of Scooby Doo I saw as a kid, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Other people think of a stage show, with people clucking like chickens and forgetting the number four.

You might run into someone who has done some research who throws out terms like 'state theory' or likens it to 'being in the zone'.

But what better way is there to learn more about something than through experience? I have set out to do just that over the last four years, and I'll share some of the experiences I've had along the way with you here.