The first time I experienced hypnosis, it was like magic.

The hypnotist stood there looking at all of us with an intense gaze and with a powerful gesture he dropped his subject into a deep hypnotic state.

Then he had his dog put them into trance.

Looking back on that experience recalls to me two things. Firstly, the art of hypnosis has become obscured and sensationalized by showmanship and myth. Secondly anyone and their dog can do it, with the right training. :)

Since then I’ve learned a lot about hypnosis, trance states and how the mind works. I learned about hypnotic language – the words you should use and how to use them. I found out how to hypnotise myself so I could make positive changes at a deep level. I even learned how to put someone into a trance in under 5 seconds.

That all forms a very useful, purposeful model of hypnosis – a plan for how it works including rules for what to say, how to say it and how to behave.

So, after playing with hypnosis for another while, I found out that language is not always necessary and learned to induce altered states in total silence.

I figured out how to induce trance and do a piece of changework within a ‘normal’ conversation and trained myself to bring my conscious awareness into ‘deep’ trance states.

While I was doing that I occasionally stopped to wonder what was so ‘deep’ about being in a wonderful, relaxed altered state anyway.

The most important thing that I realized was that we all hypnotise ourselves and others into the realities we perceive every day. We do this through the words we choose and how we behave, based on what we believe to be real and certain.

I like to teach hypnosis as a way of creating new realities with better available choices where learning and change will occur.

It’s possible to do that in a conversation, in a story or without a single word being expressed.

I find that to be a much more elegant and useful model of hypnosis than the one I first built from my learnings.

A model without the myth, the smoke and mirrors, the ‘hypno-gaze’ and the other sensational trappings.

And anyone and his dog can do it, given the right training.

That, to me, is the true magic of hypnosis.

©2005 Philip Callaghan

Advanced Hypnosis seminar.

Back to Articles Index