If you are a student of conversational hypnosis, you will be exposed to the idea of the conscious and the unconscious mind. The unconscious mind is also commonly known as the sub-conscious mind.

What are these states of mind?

The concept of human being having these states of mind cannot be proven with scientific data. Nonetheless, it has already been accepted in the Western world.

Here’s an interesting fact. Our conscious mind thinks quantitatively using words, numbers and logical sequential thinking. It kind of reminds me the thinking process of a scientist or an engineer.

Our unconscious mind on the other hand uses images, memories, feeling, and non-sequential thinking. An artist fit this spectrum perfectly.

So, we have 2 states of mind but we can’t really prove it. One is the super alert state, while on the opposite side the dream state. And in the middle of these 2 states is our everyday alert state of mind, in which we are relatively focused on what we are doing.

Is one state better than the other?

Here’s my logical thinking…if being aware and using our conscious mind is not getting the results that we wanted, would it be better if we were to use our sub-conscious mind instead?

There’s a very interesting fact that I found. The world hypnosis actually comes from Hypnos. Hypnos Is the Greek good of sleep. It would be fair to assume the art of hypnosis is to bring a person into a sleep state.

As I’m studying Igor Ledochowski’s conversational hypnosis program, it is very clear that we can input suggestive messages into a person mind in a state of trance. A person in trance is neither sleeping nor awake, it is sort of sleepwalking.

The reason I’m learning covert hypnosis is to achieve certain results in my work and business through verbal communication. Many leaders of the world have been using hypnosis to achieve their agenda. Not using hypnosis is like leaving behind a very powerful tool in your arsenal.

In my last blog post, I wrote about how we get into a mental trance multiple times in a day. Some of these trance states happen from doing ordinary stuff such as reading, watching television, driving a car, exercising, shopping etc.

There are actually multiple levels of a trance that we can get ourselves into. Obviously, if you want to get into a deep level of trance, you may need the assistance of a hypnotist.

What are the levels of trance a person can achieve?

The following are 3 stages:

1) Light trance.

A light trance is the beginning stage. You can get to this level quite easily. All you have to do is close our eyes, relax all your muscle in your body and start to breathe deeply.

A friend of mine, incidentally is also a hypnosis trainer, thought me a simple trick to get to the beginning level of trance. All you need to do is sit on a sturdy chair, close your eyes and start to relax all of your muscle.

Start from the top of your head and mentally noticing and relaxing all the muscle in your face, neck, shoulder, chest, abdomen, hip, legs and toes. By breathing deeply, you’ll set yourself up for the second stage.

2) Medium trance.

When you reached this stage, your head and body start to slump as if they are getting heavy. Your awareness of your surrounding is reduced and some of your senses start to become numb.

However, your sense of hearing becomes sharper and you’ll start to hear sound which you did not notice before. The most obvious sound will be the sound of your breathing.

Most people that practice vipassana meditation will experience this sensation after a prolong meditation session. A novice will experience some challenges because his mind will start to wander. To help you to reach the stage of medium trance, the clear guiding voice of the hypnotist will be very helpful.

3) Deep trance.

When you’ve when through prolong medium trance, you will slowly move to a level of deep trance. It is unclear when the transition happens, but when it does, you will experience deeper abdominal breathing.

Your sense of hearing is still very sharp though, and if you have a hypnotist or hypnotherapist beside you, his voice becomes your absolute focus.

Personally, I have never reached this level of trance before. I doubt I will achieve it on my own. I would need the help of a professional hypnotist.

Related web pages:

1) Taylor Starr Underground Hypnosis Review

2) Power of Conversational Hypnosis Review

One of the reasons why conversational hypnosis worked so well is because of its ability to bring people into a trance state. When a person is in a trance, his or her mind is very susceptible to suggestions.

A good hypnotist will recognize this state and start to input powerful suggestive phrases onto the person being hypnotized.

The funny thing is, most of us go into a trance state many times in a day. The following is a list of 5 daily examples where we are in a mental trance.

1) Reading a book.

We actually drift into our own little world when we are reading a book. This is especially true when we are reading a novel or a fiction book.

I remember the first time I read the Lord of the Rings novel. As I was reading, I can really feel the pain and burden Frodo was going through on his journey to Mount Doom. When I am reading the book, 2 or 3 hours will fly by without me even noticing it.

2) Shopping.

I guess this effects women more than men. A friend of mind literally will be shaking on excitement when she is on a shopping trip.

Think about it, when you shop, there’s a feeling of everything around you stops. All that matters is the current moment while you’re shopping.

If you don’t know what I mean, watch the show Confession of a Shopaholic and you’ll understand the trance effect of shopping.

3) Become fearful of an event.

I think this happened to me a lot when I was a kid. I always get myself in trouble.

One time I did something wrong at school and it was on a Friday. I will only be reported to the principal on the following Monday. I am so scared I can literally make my heart rush when I think about the upcoming event.

Have you ever faced such situation before at work or at home? If you do, that is a trance state.

4) Exercising.

I came to experience this trance state when I go for a swim. I like to do freestyle laps in the pool. Sometimes I’ll do 30 to 40 laps a session.

The first couple of laps are the hardest. That is when my muscles are struggling to pull my body through the water. But after about the 10th lap, everything became easier.

My arms and legs movement are synchronized with my breathing and I start to relax. The longer I swim, the more relax I become.

I didn’t know back then that I was in a trance state induced by exercise.

5) Fantasizing.

Some people call it day dreaming. But when you fantasize about something, our mind tends to relax and drift. The thought in our mind is influencing our physical state.

We get excited and our heart starts to beat faster. You may be thinking of a vacation you want to take and your body starts to relax as you visualize yourself being next to a beach.

The list above is no way near being comprehensive. There are many other ways we get into a trance state every day. If you want to add to the list, feel free to post in the comment section below.

Should you get hypnotherapy from an amateur or someone pretending to be a hypnotist?

But before that, what is the difference between hypnosis and hypnotherapy?

Let’s take a stage hypnotist as an example. What is his special skill? I guess he has the ability to make people laugh.

How about a professional hypnotist, what is his special ability?

A hypnotherapist has the ability to help people get over a fear, lose weight, quit smoking etc.

After reading some books, I come to realize hypnosis is associated with the state of deep relaxation. People under hypnosis have a very narrow focus and basically zone out anything surrounding them. Usually, their main focus is on the voice of the hypnotist.

Hypnotherapy on the other hand is used for therapeutic purposes. To get the results of hypnotherapy, a hypnotherapist uses the techniques of hypnosis to encourage our sub-conscious mind to find a solution to our impending problems.

In short, hypnotherapy is a therapy. Hypnosis itself is not therapy.

Personally, I think someone with a limited skill in hypnosis should not attempt to perform hypnotherapy on another person. It may seem like fun and game, but the consequences can be drastic.

I started to think about this subject after reading a forum thread that talks about hypnotic regression gone wrong.

It got me thinking, should we be more careful about the effects of hypnosis?

Many professionals are using the conversational hypnosis techniques in their daily lives. Does it have any short term or long term consequences on the person being hypnotized? It may be a trivial question but it got me thinking.

I’ve seen stage hypnotist doing hypnosis for entertainment purposes. The person hypnotized seems to be able to perform super human feats. I’m just wondering if the volunteer that participated in the stage act has any problems afterwards.

If it was me, I wouldn’t want to get involved with things that cannot be clearly explained.