SELF HYPNOSIS

Developing self hypnosis requires a procedure and technique. Preparation, deep relaxation, deepening procedure, suggestion application, and termination are the five steps in a self-hypnotic induction. All five steps are presented here.

Preparation

A schedule of practice is vitally important, so the first thing you want to do is develop one. It should be realistic, one you can stick with, and one to which you are willing to make a commitment.

You are undoubtedly an exceptional person, one who can do many things a lot of other people cannot do. I know this because over the years I have found that it is mainly only exceptional people who seek out and learn to use self-hypnosis. Here is another little tidbit I can pass on to you from my years of experience: The more exceptional you are, the more you need a schedule. I don't know why that is, it just is.

The more specific and realistic your schedule, the better the chances that you will succeed. If you leave the scheduling of self-hypnosis practice to catch-as-catch-can -- that is, you will practice whenever you get a chance -- you won't last long.

So develop a firm schedule. Begin by picking a good time to practice. You should choose a part of your day when you are at your best. If you wait to practice until after you get home from a gruelling, hard day at work, you might only practice going to sleep. Self-hypnosis practice is best if practiced when you are reasonably alert.

If morning is that time for you, if you wake up alert and rested first thing in the morning, practice then, before getting out of bed. Choice of this time of day must take into account whether or not you will be disturbed by spouse, lover, kids, pets, etc.

On the other had, if you have a hard time getting to sleep at night, try practicing in bed just before going to sleep.

Your choice of practice time should also take into consideration the likelihood of being disturbed. Choose a time when you are not likely to be interrupted.

If you have trouble staying awake, that is, if you keep falling asleep when you try to practice no matter when you do it, try practicing while sitting up. Keep making yourself progressively less comfortable during your practice until you can practice without going to sleep. I've know a few cases in which people had to practice while standing up until they broke the habit of falling asleep. Obviously this is not the ideal position in which to practice self-hypnosis, but no amount of practice will help you if all you are doing is practicing going to sleep. If you fall asleep while standing up, you need medical help.

When you know more about suggestion you will be able to use it to help keep from falling asleep while you practice. We will get to the suggestion section later, but don't jump over there just yet.

Most people find it best to practice lying down, in a comfortable position, with as few distractions as possible. If you are bothered by noise while you practice you can try to mask out the noise with some other source of sound. You can try stereo music in the background, or white noise if you like. If like most people you don't have a white noise generator, try tuning a radio receiver between stations. The static you get when you do that is similar to white noise. However this takes an older or cheaper FM receiver without a noise suppressor. Sometimes AM tuners work well for this.

The best way to deal with unwelcome noise while practicing is to have a masking sound that also promotes good hypnotic states. It also contributes to the development of deeper self-hypnotic states.

Later, when you have become more practiced at self-hypnosis, you will be able to practice in the middle of a Grateful Dead concert. Or when you are really good maybe you can do it with a teenagers' party going on downstairs. But it takes a while to get that good.

Relaxation

The second step, after the initial preparation, is to get relaxed. You have to slow down the juices, get your mind slowed down, and begin to get the muscles of your body relaxed, drained of tension.

Begin by taking a few deep breaths. Controlled breathing is helpful if you know how, that is, if you have been instructed in deep-breathing techniques through Yoga or some other transcendental form of practice. If not, just inhale deeply a few times, slowly, hold it momentarily, then exhale slowly. Imagine each time you exhale that you are blowing out your tensions, that breathing out is purging your body of tension.

Start the relaxation at your toes and think your way up your body, letting go of the tension in each muscle group as you slowly work yourself upward. Imagine each muscle becoming limp and completely relaxed.

Take your time. This is not something you want to rush. Later when you are more proficient you will be able to relax more quickly, but if you have not been practicing deep relaxation -- if this is your first go at it -- give yourself plenty of time to achieve a deeper state of relaxation.

Gradually move all the way up your body. Include and end with the muscles of your jaw, face and neck. Pay particular attention to the muscles in your neck. This is where a lot of tension likes to hide out, so take plenty of time to get your neck muscles relaxed.

A very popular method of deep relaxation is the tensing and releasing method. The discharge of tension is relieved by tensing the muscles, then releasing them. This is the method I use. The time involved for the relaxation phase of your self-hypnosis induction can vary from half an hour to just a few seconds. It is an important part of the induction and should not be slighted. As you get better and your skill increases you will recognize deeply relaxed states, and you will be able to achieve them in a surprisingly short time. But as a beginner, take your time. It will be time well spent.

Deepening Procedures

Once you have completed the relaxation phase of your self-hypnosis induction procedure, you can begin to deepen the relaxed state. At some time between the deep relaxation and the deepening procedures you will move into a hypnotic state. You probably won't know it, especially as a beginner, but it will happen sooner or later.

One of the first hurdles a beginner must get over is the compulsion to "watch for it." That is, you will keep waiting for hypnosis to happen, for some change in your awareness or the way you feel that will say to you, "You're hypnotized."

This will definitely get in your way if you don't get it out of your mind. For one thing, it won't happen. Going into hypnotic states is in this respect similar to going to sleep. If you try to catch yourself going to sleep, if you try to be aware of the precise instant in which you actually go to sleep, that activity will keep you awake. If and when you finally do get to sleep you will not know it. You will know when you awaken that you were asleep, but you have to wake up to know it.

In this same way you will not know when you go into a hypnotic state. Later, when you are getting good hypnotic depth during your practice, you will know you were in a hypnotic state, but you will not be aware of when you go into it.

So do not watch for it. Just do your practice and let things develop as they will.

As I write this I know just as sure as I am sitting here going tippety-tap on my little keys you are still going to watch yourself. You will be distracted by every little nuance in your mental state, waiting to see what happens to you as you go through the procedure. I guess it is inevitable because it is natural. Just keep in mind that you are probably not going to be aware of anything except the relaxation, which is very pleasant, and perhaps a slightly "distanced" sense of being removed from the cares of the day. Try to be as unconcerned about it as you can. It is best to measure your achievement and whether or not you were in hypnosis by the results of your suggestions, not by how you feel while you are practicing.

One of the most popular deepening procedures is the count-down technique. Hollywood also likes this one. That is why you see it in so many movies. That and the swinging watch. I have used a swinging crystal but never a watch.

To use the count-down technique you simply start counting downward from, say, 100, imagining that you are drifting deeper with each count. Other images and thoughts will probably intrude themselves as you count. That is natural. Just gently brush them aside, continuing with your counting.

The speed with which you count down should be natural; not too fast, not too slow. For most people this means counting at a rate of about one count for each two or three seconds. Do it at a rate that feels comfortable and relaxed to you. Some people like to tie the count with their breathing. As they drift deeper their breathing slows down, so their counting also slows down.

Don't count out loud, just think your way down the count. You want to avoid as much physical involvement and movement as possible.

Another popular method is to float down as if you were floating down to earth from a very high point. You can combine this with counting to increase the sense of downwardness. Don't bother with this method if you are afraid of heights or if it reminds you of anything you find unpleasant, such as flying, diving, and so on.

Elevators and other metaphors are also helpful to some people. You can imagine, for example, that you are going downward in your own private, very comfortable elevator, and that you will be in your hypnotic state when you get to the bottom. With this procedure it is generally a good idea not to get too far into the literal nature of an elevator. For example, don't go down to the basement unless you just happen to have a particular fondness for basements. Just think of a pleasant state of mind awaiting you as the counter -- the floor indicator -- counts downward from the 100th floor.

Feel free to experiment with this concept. The basic idea is to use some imaginative vehicle to get to a deeper level. For most people, that is. A few people are not as comfortable with the concept of going deeper, and they respond better to concepts of going up. Either way, use the metaphor that works best for you.

It usually does not work well, but you can make an induction tape to try if you like. It is better to follow a if you are going to try this.

Measuring Your Depth of Trance

Results from suggestions are the best way to gauge how deeply you are going during your self-hypnosis practice. If your suggestions are working and you are getting results of the kind you expect, then you are achieving plenty of depth in your self-hypnotic trance.

Having said that, here is a fun method for getting a DESCRIPTION reading of how deep you are getting in your practice. (There are numerous tests to measure the state of hetero-hypnotic states, but most of them will not work with self-hypnosis because the action required to apply the measurements destroys the hypnotic state.)

This method will not provide valid comparisons of the states between people, but it will give you a good idea of how you are doing relative to your own depth. That is, you can use it to compare your own depth from one session to another.

Here is how it works. When you are at the deepest point in your practice, imagine the face of a gauge with a pointer and several numbers. The actual make-up -- circular, vertical, horizontal, etc. -- is unimportant. It also does not matter how many numbers there are on your gauge. You should probably stick to a scale something like, say, zero to 10. If you feel more comfortable naming these units, call them fathoms.

You could, of course, just imagine the pointer going to any number you wanted but that would not tell you anything. You have to let yourself imagine the face of the dial with no pointer at first, then let it emerge slowly and wherever it wants to. You have to be passive with this, letting it happen rather than making it happen. With a little practice you will get the hang of it.

So let's say in your first practice you use this method, maybe clearing it and bring it up two or three times, and you get a reading of between one and two. So you were down at what you are subconsciously gauging as one-and-a-half fathoms. Someone else at the same depth might have got a reading of three.

As you can see it is all highly subjective. This primarily serves as a measure of the difference between your own sessions. So don't bother comparing this number with that of someone else who is using the same measuring technique. It won't be a valid comparison if you do.

Suggestion Application

Once you have reached the end of your deepening procedure you are ready to apply suggestions. We'll talk about formulating suggestions later. For right now let's concentrate on how to apply them at this point in the self-hypnosis procedure.

What you have done with the relaxation and deepening procedures is increase your suggestibility. That is, you have opened up your subconscious mind at least a little bit to receive your suggestions. This works because of the particular, and peculiar, characteristics of the subconscious part of your mind.

The most common and easiest way to apply suggestions is to have them worked out ahead of time, properly prepared and worded, and memorized. It should not be too difficult to remember them because they should be rather short and you are the one who composed them. If you have them ready and remembered, you can simply think your way through them at this point.

Dialogue, or more properly monologue, is also okay. You just talk ("think" to keep your effort to a minimum) to yourself about what it is you want to do, be, become, whatever.

Don't say "you." You are thinking to yourself, so use the first person personal pronoun "I." Some suggestions can be succinctly stated in a somewhat more formal sort of way, like, "I am eating less and becoming more slender every day." Elaborated suggestions are generally wordier and more of an ad lib: "Food is becoming less important to me every day and I am filling my time with more important and meaningful pursuits than eating. It is getting easier and easier to pass up desserts and other fattening foods . . ." and so on.

There are many ways to apply suggestions. You can experiment in order to find the most effective method for yourself. If you have trouble, or feel that you are not finding the most effective way to apply suggestions, you might need a more in-depth approach to suggestion application. Although people sometimes see immediate results from their suggestions, it is more likely to take a little time for them to kick in. So don't be impatient. On the other hand, if you have not begun to see some results within, say, a couple of weeks, you need to change your suggestions.

Termination

Once you have finished applying suggestions you are through and ready to terminate your session. You could just open your eyes, get up and go about your business, but that is not a good idea. You should formally identify the end of every session. By doing this you provide a clear demarcation between the hypnotic state and your ordinary conscious awareness. A clear termination also prevents your self-hypnosis practice session from turning into a nap. If you want to take a nap, take a nap. But don't do it in a way that sleeping becomes associated with self-hypnosis practice.

If you are practicing at bedtime and don't care if you go on to sleep, that is okay. But still draw the line in your mind to indicate the end of your self-hypnosis session. This way you will avoid developing the habit of falling asleep when you practice hypnosis.

To terminate the session, think to yourself that you are going to be fully awake and alert after you count up to, say, three.

"One, I'm beginning to come out of it, moving toward a waking state. Two, I'm becoming more alert, getting ready to wake up. Three, I'm completely awake." Something like that.

If you are practicing in bed just before going to sleep, you might terminate like this:

"One, I'm beginning to come out of it, moving toward the termination of the self-hypnotic state. Two, I am shifting over to a normal, drowsy state. Three, I'm completely out of self-hypnosis and ready to go to sleep."

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Disclaimer: These pages are acquired from many sources and are for information only. If you have a medical problem then you should in the first instance consult a medical practioner or a qualified Hypnotherapist. No responsibility can be accepted by this website.