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When you think of Hypnosis what comes to your mind? Do you think of a performer on stage making people act like  animals in front of their friends and family? Or maybe you think of it as some form of mind control where people can  persuade you to take unwilling actions. These are some of the common stigmas of Hypnosis. Some people are scared if  it, others are intrigued… you may be both. At least, I was when I first started learning about it. However, what I  learned when I started to research all of the benefits is that it’s not scary at all. It’s not some sort of witchcraft or  pseudoscience or mind control… It’s actually it’s a very simple and practical process.

  

What is Hypnosis? 


Hypnosis is a trance-like state that is induced with the intention of replacing limiting patterns of behavior and belief  with behaviors and beliefs that empower you and move you towards your goals and desires. In this process you gain  access to the subconscious mind – the part of the brain that makes up around 95% of your brain power and stores all  
of your beliefs and values. The subconscious mind is the mechanism within us that allows us to make sense of the  world and to build our personal story of ourselves and our lives.  When we gain control of the subconscious mind, we  gain the power to create better realities and become better versions of ourselves. 

 

The power of belief 


Before we get into the practical process of how Hypnosis works, first lets explore WHY it works. We’ll start with this  concept – Belief creates reality. Maybe you already know this, maybe you think it’s crazy but there is actual science  that proves it now. Lets look at the Placebo Effect, a concept that is typically used in the medical field. A placebo is  anything that appears to be a “real” medical treatment, but isn’t, according to
WebMD. Here’s how it works:  researchers take two groups of patients and gives one group a placebo without their knowledge (usually sugar pills)  and gives the other group the real medication. Here’s the crazy part: people in the placebo sample will often  experience measurable benefits, even though it should have no effect on them at all. Take this study for example… 

“‘The Powerful Placebo’ (Pubmed)…showed that across over a dozen clinical trials involving over a thousand people,  35% of patients being treated for an illness with a placebo (usually a sugar pill) instead of an actual medication  designed to treat their illness actually felt better and showed measurable signs of improvement.”

 

The Placebo effect illustrates the power and influence that beliefs have over our bodies. In addition, Quantum physics  states that everything is made up of energy. Your body is made up of the same energy that makes up everything else  in the Universe. At our very core, we are all just one big field of energy vibrating at different octaves! Pretty trippy  right? So what do you do with this information? Well, The Law of Attraction states that the energy you put out into the  Universe in the form of thoughts, feelings and beliefs, determines the energy of you get back. Like attracts like. Love  attracts love. Feelings of wealth and abundance attract the reality of wealth and abundance. This is how you create a  new reality by reshaping your thoughts and beliefs. These patterns of belief and feeling are stored in the subconscious,  which can be accessed very simply through the process of Hypnosis. Okay, enough of the esoteric stuff, let’s look at  the science behind it now.

 

How does it work?

In the most common form of Hypnosis, the intention is to get the brain into Alpha state. In deeper forms of Hypnosis  we bring the brain into Theta state. There are five Brainwave States: Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma and Theta. For more  information about each state, check out the graph below.

 

Image by Muse.

 

We spend most of our waking time in Beta. This is the state that we work from, and that we solve problems and make  decisions from. In this state, you become deeply focused on your tasks, you’re more engaged in conversation and  you’re able to be more productive and alert with whatever you’re doing. Most of the modern world lives in Beta.  When you practice Hypnosis you go into Alpha state, or if you go deep enough, Theta state. Many people don’t realize  that we go into these 2 states hundreds of times throughout the day. In other words, you regularly go into mini states  of Hypnosis. Some examples of this are when you get lost in a good book or movie, or when you’re doing something  deeply creative and feel like the creation is just flowing out of you. The benefit of being in Alpha and Theta states is  that you’re more open and receptive to new ideas. So hypnosis works in 2 ways – #1 it bypasses your conscious mind  and gives you access to your subconscious mind (the driving force behind everything you do) and #2 it conditions you  with new patterns of belief that are more aligned with the life you want to live and the person you would like to  become.  
In my own experience, Hypnosis has been the single most effective tool for self development and has made me an  overall happier and more confident version of myself. The more I learn about it, the more motivated I become to  spread this incredible tool to as many people as I can. I believe we all have the ability to change the world. The thing  that prevents most of us from becoming all that we can be isn’t so much our external circumstances, but more so the  limits we create within ourselves. When we change our beliefs of what’s possible, we change our lives. Hypnosis is the  tool that has helped me do just that. I don’t want you to take my word for it. If you feel called, I invite you to try a  hypnosis every day for the next 30 days and watch what happens. Notice who you become and most importantly,  notice what you start to believe is possible in your life. The results may surprise you.