A Practical Guide to Self-Hypnosis

All of us like to think that our actions and reactions are a result of logical thought processes, but the fact is that suggestion influences our thinking a great deal more than logic. Consciously or unconsciously, our feelings about almost everything are largely molded by ready-made opinions and attitudes fostered by our mass methods of communication. We cannot buy a bar of soap or a filtered cigarette without paying tribute to the impact of suggestion. Right or wrong, most of us place more confidence in what they say than we do in our own powers of reason. This is the basic reason why psychiatrists are in short supply. We distrust our own mental processes and want an expert to tell us what to think and feel. Despite this tendency to adopt our attitudes from others, man has always been dimly aware that he can influence his own destiny by directing his thoughts and actions into constructive channels. He has always, to some extent, known that his mind exerts a powerful influence on his body, and that thoughts can have harmful or helpful effects on his emotional and physical health. The ancient Egyptian sleep temples and the attempts by early physicians to drive evil spirits out of the body were both attempts to influence the body through the mind. One of the chief assets of a good hypnotist is to be flexible in his approach in hypnotizing his subjects. As you know, it is necessary many times to adapt a technique that is suitable to the subject, and not to make the subject adapt himself to the method of induction. We know that with somnambulistic subjects any procedure will put the subject under hypnosis immediately. The hypnotist gains complete control of his subject just as fast as he wants. Unfortunately, most subjects do not respond at the first session because of conscious or subconscious fears that must be gradually eliminated. Once you get the subject to relax, or let go, he will naturally succumb to hypnosis. This is the problem that confronts all hypnotists. Merely suggesting to the subject to relax or to let go is not sufficient, as a rule, to bring about this desired state. The subject, at this point, cannot turn on or off his mental and physical state of being this easily. Even if we have the subject lie down, this does not assure the hypnotic state, as the subject can still be tense. Our problem is how to get the subject to relax. Our situation is similar to the physician telling his patient to go home and forget about a certain problem. I'm sure that you'll agree that the advice is virtually impossible to follow. This however is a simpler book, one which takes a practical approach to this subject and walks you through it sep by step.