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Hypnosis is a mental state of focus and communication that allows change to happen instantly.

A Hypnotist invokes and manages the hypnotic state becoming a catalyst and facilitating rapid and permanent change in our mind’s patterning.

an 'Alternative' Hypnosis FAQ

All the usual questions but with many unusual answers.

Jonathan Chase is widely considered to be a leading operator in the subjects of Remedial, Recreational, Personal performance and Metaphysical Hypnosis.

In this Alternative Hypnosis FAQ he debunks a lot of the accepted and often misleading so called 'facts' and refreshingly demystifies hypnosis as he answers some of the many questions thrown at him (thankfully they aren't bricks) over the years in a career spanning three decades.

These frequently asked questions about hypnosis are sometimes added to so bookmark this page and check back.

last updated 1st February 2006

The TRUTH really is out there.

What is Hypnosis?
A. For the purpose of this FAQ and to hopefully clarify a term that has come to describe an ever more complex and cumbersome tool of the psychotherapist....

Hypnosis is the art of producing changes in our mental patterning by the use of a sometimes deliberate act of communication and influence of the human emotional and belief patterning system achieved by reducing and / or redirecting the attention of the logical conscious process so that the psyche [subconscious] becomes directly contactable.

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Is hypnosis a natural phenomena?
A. Yes. But not at all like the usual explanations you are likely to read elsewhere. Hypnosis happens 'naturally' when we are in a state where logic goes flying through the window. Those times when afterwards you find yourself thinking 'Why did I say that?' and 'What the hell was I thinking of?'

Such times are usually emotive, when you are scared, angry, or even head over heels in love or when we are children until our conscious logical mind is mature. These are times when our psyche is in control of things and can be influenced directly. These are the times when inappropriate patterns are formed such as phobias and inappropriate habits.

Comparing day dreaming or the dissociation we experience when driving a familiar route to hypnosis, or when becoming immersed in a book or TV show, is like comparing my back yard with a smattering of snow in February to the Antarctic. Yes they may look similar but .........

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How does hypnosis work?
A. Very simply. No I don't mean that your mind is simple but the way hypnosis works is.

It's direct communication with the illogical subconscious mind or more accurately the psyche, the seat of our desires, dreams, imagination, emotions, while bypassing the bit of us that we actually think we control - our logical conscious.

When we communicate with the psyche, we can change the way it patterns the reality we live in.

So a 'bad' pattern can become good as easily as those bad patterns formed in the first place. Once the pattern is changed the unwanted behaviour stops. Or a much better and more desirable behaviour begins.

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Who are the hypnotists?
A. You are.

Everyone uses Hypnosis and everyone becomes a Hypnotic subject at some time in their life. Parents, teachers and significant others all instill subconscious belief patterns either by direct subconscious communication or by repetition but always bypassing the critical logical conscious and delivering suggestion direct to the psyche. Everyone learns using this process.

However some people have developed their expertise and enhanced their understanding of such communication skills to a point where they can deliberately and systematically use suggestions to produce specific effects in other human beings.

These people are Hypnotists.

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Is hypnosis dangerous?
A. Is a scalpel dangerous in the hands of a surgeon? Hopefully no, because they recognize and understand what it is they are holding and take responsibility for its use. Hypnosis is no different.

The state is not of itself harmful. That is just being hypnotised will not harm you, but to be hypnotised requires a hypnotist and with that comes responsibility.

To declare that we can eradicate a phobia for instance and not use the exact same process to cause one would be very irresponsible, and just a little stupid. So the answer in truth is that hypnosis is no more dangerous than the person using it.

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Can I just get up and walk away?
A. Of course you can, if the hypnotist tells you to. If you can do that without direction then you are not hypnotised. The fact is that this myth - which has grown from unsuccessful hypnosis replacing the real thing - wouldn't have been much use to the early hypnotists like James Braid who performed several thousand operations using hypnosis as the anaesthetic. Just imagine someone being able to walk away half way through an appendectomy. Messy.

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Can Hypnosis force people to do things they don't want to do?
A. FORCE NO. Persuade, influence and cajole yes.

That's basically what hypnosis is aimed to do. If we couldn't influence in this way then it would be a pointless exercise.

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What is hypnotic trance?
A. In accepted understanding the word describes a profound change in both psychological attention and physiological condition.

In plainer language your conscious drifts off somewhere and certain predictable and observable changes happen to your body. Often, although by no means always, including relaxation.

The thing to remember is that this is an induced state brought on as a reaction to suggestion. So trance is not hypnosis, just a symptom of it.

One thing is certain, Hypnotically induced 'trance' has no real comparison in our experience other than when we are experiencing times of overwhelming emotion.

Hypnotic trance certainly has nothing to do with the distraction experienced in daydreaming, the amnesia after traveling a familiar route or the disassociation we feel when getting lost in a good book.

Hypnotic trance certainly has nothing to do with the distraction experienced in daydreaming, the amnesia after traveling a familiar route or the disassociation we feel when getting lost in a good book.

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Can I hypnotise myself?
A. No. At least not in the same way or as intensely as can a hypnotist.

Although repetition of self suggestion can and does work over time, and relaxing deliberately is nice this is not the same as hypnosis.

As hypnosis requires your conscious to be by passed then it should be obvious that this is not happening if you are directing your hypnosis using you conscious. And if you didn't use the conscious then the psyche is just left to it's own devices without any direction, so probably nothing would happen.

Listening to recordings is also not self hypnosis, the hypnotist is directing things, not your conscious.

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Can I get stuck in hypnosis?
A. No.

A rubber band when its stretched taught doesn't stay stretched when you let go.

Your mind works in a similar fashion when the hypnotist or conditions let go, it springs back to it's usual state of attention.

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Is ALL hypnosis SELF hypnosis?
A. No. Not if it's directed by someone else. That would be like saying that taking the drugs your doctor prescribed was self medication.

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Can I be hypnotised against my will?
A. Against your will would mean against your deliberation. In that case yes, you can. A hypnotist has to be able to change your 'will'. If not your behaviour would not change.

You can be hypnotised without your knowledge and consent which is what I think this question really means. That happens all the time. If it didn't you wouldn't have any beliefs or desires or emotional responses and you wouldn't need a hypnotist or some other form of help to get rid of the unwanted stuff.

You can not be hypnotised against your disinterest or in most cases against your disbelief. Fortunately even the sceptic 'believes' in hypnosis, they just don't know it consciously.

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What is stage hypnosis?
A. Errrrrrm, it's hypnosis demonstrated on stage as entertainingly as possible. The phrase 'dumb question' springs to mind.

Hypnosis is hypnosis, stage is just a place. We don't say office hypnosis or living room hypnosis or swimming pool hypnosis.

Stage hypnosis is usually most peoples first contact with the possibilities that our psyche gives us. Done well it releases restricted imaginative talents and allows the experience of altered realities in a safe and controlled place.

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What is hypnotherapy?
A. Hypnotherapy describes, at least it should, hypnosis being used to dislodge ills. This constricts people using the title to look at just about everything as illness. I prefer the term hypnotist as this has no such limitations.

More and more however hypnotherapy describes psychotherapy and psycho-analysis that sometimes doesn't even use hypnosis but the prefix looks good on the letterhead.

Such therapists tend to use guided relaxation and visualisation of one sort or another, which often works perfectly well, but doesn't always lead to real hypnosis. These 'relaxation' techniques are not as rapid nor as intense an experience and people have often reported their disillusion that nothing really happened.

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What can hypnosis be used for?
A. Anything.

Name a human emotional or even physical condition and chances are that someone somewhere has used hypnosis to alleviate or change it.

Stress, the effects of trauma, both physical and emotional pain such as in childbirth, motivation, memory, breast and penis enlargement, health control and even time travel in the form of past life regression - are just a few that spring to mind.

Even if hypnosis can't totally eradicate something it can and does go a long way in changing attitude and perception so that the bodies healing process can act with less interruption.

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What is past-life regression?
A. Most of the major religions are based on a form of belief in reincarnation or life after death, either of a physical or spiritual nature.

It could be possible that when in a hypnotic mood or state we can tap memories hidden from us in our current incarnation, or it may be that a channel of some kind is opened allowing us to 'see' into some kind of universal conscious, or perhaps we become mediumistic and can make contact with some kind of spiritual dimension, or we may just be imagining the whole thing.

Certainly something is happening, and theories of genetic memory have already been widely discussed. Any or all of these theories have been used as an explanation for child prodigies. It could also be possible if talent for art, business and the like could be passed on then why not negative factors such as obesity.

Experiencing this fascinating phenomena brings new surprises every day. I may even write a book about it... some day.

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Can hypnosis make me brilliant at something?
A. No.

Hypnosis can remove limiting beliefs and ensure natural and learned abilities can be used with accuracy and consistency but whatever that thing is called talent, then you'll need that to be 'brilliant'.

I was once asked if I could make someone play guitar like Brian May, and of course we can help someone believe that is what they are doing, but in actuality Mr May got there first.

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Can hypnosis stop pain?
A. Stop pain no, but it can change the way you react to it and take away it's overwhelming control of you.

Pain is an alarm. Like that annoying car alarm in the street you can learn to put it in the background once you've checked it isn't your car. If it is your car and no one is trying to break in, then you can turn it off.

In hypnosis we can't stop the alarm being set off, that would be silly anyway as it is the only way we know when things are physically going wrong. But we can turn off our reaction to it once things check out okay.

Put simply we can't stop the nervous system working but we can control how our thinking system works.

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What do the Hypnotists letters mean?
A. They mean the hypnotist may have spent some time and money getting them.

The thing is if this is important to you - ask.

I once heard a story of a guy who had VGHLC after his name, it meant Very Good Hypnotist Low Cost. . . so ask.

I wouldn't be too concerned if they don't have any. There are a lot of good self taught hypnotists out there. I'd be more concerned if they have more letters after their name than they have in it. Pages and pages of letters could mean they spend more time on courses than they do working a getting the vital experience. It's the experience that makes the diffrence.

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What hypnosis organisation should I look out for?
A. If you are looking for hypnotists as opposed to hypnotherapists or relaxation psychotherapists then try the Academy of Hypnotic Arts.

Some hypnotherapy organisation's in the USA claim they are state or even government 'registered', that is the local government are aware of them, but they are mostly self governing 'lay' associations. In the UK there is currently no such organisation officially recognised by anyone outside of the 'profession' and there is currently 69 of them.

Ethically these organisation's tend to preside over their members, some groups for instance ban 'stage' hypnosis. However it is important to understand that these codes and standards are not enforced by legislation and even if they were it is still the responsibility of the individual operator to be of moral fibre. Look for the organisation which allows freedom to learn with experience and backs its graduates guarantees.

What books do you recommend?
A. Easy, Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, Terry's and Neil Gaman's book "Good omens" which is really insightful on the human condition and anything by Nick Hornby or Ben Elton....

Seriously, there are thousands of hypnosis books out there - including mine available from this site but the vast majority say the same things in slightly different ways - except for mine available from this site, which says different things in slightly the same way.

In stage hypnosis could you hypnotise a whole audience?
A. If I could hypnotise two hundred or two thousand people with complete control and in such a short time, I would not be telling everyone I was a hypnotist. Neither would a few bank managers when head office discovered the interest free loans they'd been handing out.

In saying that, I've never really tried, watch the news papers. ;-)