What is Hypnosis?
How many of you have ever engaged in day dreaming? All of the sudden you wake up realizing that you are actually sitting at your desk in the office, you’ve shifted your gaze from looking out the window, and now are back in the present moment of the task in front of you. That far off dream you were in touch with, perhaps on the sandy beach of Maui, is no longer around you, but you were there just a minute ago. Day dreaming is a similar experience to hypnosis. A person may go in and out of trance-like states several times a day, depending upon their suggestibility. Hypnosis takes place when both the conscious mind and subconscious mind come together. It is not being asleep and neither is it being in a state of wakefulness. It is somewhere in between. It is a twilight experience. Hypnosis is a heightened state of awareness, an altered state of consciousness. When in the state, a person may be aware of all the other noises around them, and then on another level, feel so far away from those sounds. It is as if there is some absence of time.
Hypnosis is a focus of concentration where imagining and visualizing take place. During the state of hypnosis, the subconscious mind is more open and receptive to receive positive suggestions and images. When working with Cheryl, the actual journey taken in hypnosis is specifically designed, based on client needs and desires.
Hypnosis occurs when enormous loads of information come into the mind, more than the conscious mind can handle, so that a kind of escape occurs, the fight/flight mechanism has been activated, with that, suggestibility has been heightened, and the subconscious mind can be more easily accessed. Whether a person goes into hypnosis with purposeful self inducement or because they have allowed someone else to help take them there, they must want the experience. They will not do anything they do not want to do. So, since the client must have a desire to be hypnotized, all hypnosis is really self-hypnosis.