FAQ › What is Hypnosis?

What is hypnosis?

Hypnosis is a term which is often mystified, mis-understood, or simply over complicated. It is used to describe a trance like state, however, in reality we all go in and out of mild “trances” every day; those moments when our minds wander and we daydream, when we focus intently on something and block everything else out, or when we “zone out” either in front of the television, or with a book.

These are all examples of trance like states, and they are all safe and natural. All hypnosis does is put you into one of these mild “trance” states purposefully - with the aim of sending beneficial hypnotic suggestions directly into your subconscious mind.

Far from being asleep or unaware, hypnosis is a wakeful state where you are both deeply relaxed yet have a heightened level of suggestibility as well as a focused awareness.

It is because of this this heightened state of mind that you can use hypnosis to make changes to your self beliefs, and patterns of thinking safely and naturally.

How does hypnosis work?

Hypnosis works by relaxing you into a state where your brain shifts its activity. In fact, on a brain scan, a person in hypnosis shows the brainwave activity as we experience in the early years of our lives when our minds were able to sponge up information and immediately integrate it. This same accelerated learning occurs in hypnosis, bypassing your conscious mind so that your unconscious beliefs and perspectives change quickly and naturally (and it was in your unconscious mind that old limitations and worries were causing you to experience the challenges and discomforts that you're here to change!)

The hypnotist causes this trance formation by using subtle hypnotic commands to put you into a mild trance, a state where your conscious mind is largely in-active, direct access to your subconscious mind can be gained, and positive suggestions can be planted.

Because of this there is no conscious resistance from you, and so changes can be made to long-held belief systems. Often those belief systems were not beneficial, yet they may have been so familiar to us that we would hang onto them and become “logically” defensive of them. For example you might have had a low self image and want to change it, but your fear of the unknown, and relative level of “comfort” at thinking in this way made you resist against change.

However with the power of hypnosis, this logical, conscious thinking function is bypassed and changes are made from within - positive changes which alter your beliefs, how you feel about yourself, and in this example, ultimately your levels of self esteem improve.

Which style of hypnosis do you use?

We use a blend of Ericksonian hypnosis, traditional suggestion, visualization, and neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) techniques. For the most part, it's a very indirect form of hypnosis.

This means that listening to our albums feels like you are just having a conversation with Brennan, your hypnotist. There are subtle hypnotic commands embedded in the conversation, and these commands gradually and naturally put you into a trance like state. Since you'll hear Brennan throughout the audio, you may or may not even be aware of the way you're gradually drifting deeper and deeper into hypnosis – it's just so natural.

This indirect, modern approach to hypnosis is safe, effective, and most importantly it ensures that anyone can be hypnotised (more on that in the next paragraph).

Can anyone be hypnotised?

Yes. There are 2 important things to understand about this:

1. Many of the myths about some people being “susceptible” to hypnosis and other people being un-hypnotizable came from back when hypnotists were trying to do hypnosis the same way every time for every person, regardless of their personality type and learning preference. Since the mid-1900's, though, research has shown us many things about how to adjust the hypnosis approach to fit the mental “template” of the listener, so that everyone can be hypnotised.
2. Another reason there was a myth that some people couldn't be hypnotised is due to the stage hypnotists / TV hypnotists / movie hypnotists. That form of hypnosis requires a very deep trance, and only about 7% of the population have the right processing style to experience that kind of hypnosis. As a result, the other 93% of people seemed like they weren't hypnotizable.

Hypnosis is actually just one natural state of consciousness, and one which we all enter mild forms of everyday - when we concentrate or focus, when we are reading, learning, or just engrossed in the television. These are all forms of hypnosis, our albums simply put you into a similar state of mind where you are suggestible to new information.

What does hypnosis feel like?

Everyone experiences hypnosis differently, and even from session to session you will have slightly different experiences as sometimes you will “go deeper” than others.

Typically you will feel deeply relaxed and comfortable while under hypnosis, and as the session continues you may or may not remember all of what is said to you.

This is partly because some people are more susceptible to hypnosis and will enter a deeper trance straight away, but also because the more you use our albums the more you will get used to it, the more often you will go into a “deeper trance” where you won’t remember everything, and the more benefit you will receive - essentially you are training your mind to be hypnotised every time you listen.

At the end of the session you will return to being your fully alert normal self, you will feel refreshed and energized.

Is it better to enter a “deep trance”?

Whether you go into a deep hypnotic trance and don’t remember much of the session, or you are alert throughout and are aware of everything being said makes no difference to the powerful benefits you receive from the hypnosis.

Everyone is different, some people enter a deep trance most of the time, some people rarely do. Generally the more you use hypnosis the easier you will find it to enter a trance, but every session will be different and sometimes you will “go deeper” than others.

The important thing is to trust your unconscious to take care of this for you. Your unconscious is excellent at trance formation and hypnosis, naturally. Just relax, and enjoy the experience of hypnosis either way and you will receive powerful benefits.