What is Hypnosis?
There is no definitive answer to this question as there are many different theories about what hypnosis is. I believe Hypnosis is a natural state everyone accesses when daydreaming, watching TV, driving, and reading and many other times we have a focused attention.
Below are some definitions so that you can begin to understand it better.
There is a debate between scientists who study hypnosis the theories about what hypnosis is can be divided in to two groups the sate theory or the non state theory. In this course we will be discussing the state theory.
The state theorist says that hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness (ASC) which is different form the normal waking state.
Were not going to cover what the non state theory but you can find out more at:
http://www.hypnosisandsuggestion.org/state_nonstate.html
Hypnosis is phenomena that happens every day and people go into and out of hypnotic trance states all the time.
Research in to brain waves suggests that our brain waves fluctuate through out the day and that during natural trance states like reading, running, watching TV and driving etc we are in an altered state of consciousness which is called trance.
These trance state produce hypnotic phenomena that can be used in therapy.
If you re read the list of natural trance producing situations you will see that some of them are relaxing but others like running are not so hypnosis does not need to be relaxing to be effective but relaxation is normally used so that the client can be relaxed while talking about a symptom that may cause anxiety.
I believe hypnosis is a state of focused attention that is produced naturally.
Most people would say that we go into different states depending on the situation we are in at the time for example we may be in a different state at work or on holiday talking with different people and in different contexts.
You may have been in the son or daughter trance, the employer or employee, the victim or perpetrator or many other trance states.
