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Bringing the Subconscious on Board
Hypnosis is a way of communicating with a person's subconscious, helping that inner person to realize something or take on a new behavior. In this way hypnosis can be an effective means of helping a person to internalize their own desired behavior changes. For example, if a person wants to quit smoking but has struggled with cravings you can hypnotise someone (or, as more commonly spelled, hypnotize someone) and use that trance to get their subconscious on board with the plan. While the person is in the hypnotic state the hypnotist tells their subconscious that smoking is unhealthy, that the habit is distasteful and that they no longer have an interest in this activity. The hypnotist simply works to bring the subconscious mind in line with what is best for the body and with what the conscious mind wants.
When you hypnotise someone you help to reprogram their thinking on a deeper level. In this way a person doesn't have to use so called "will power" to change their behavior - they simply want to engage in different behavior, such as not smoking - they feel a deep need to do it after the hypnosis, no will power required. But it is important to know that you cannot hypnotise someone into doing whatever you ask; the subconscious will not accept suggestions that go against the morals, ideals or intelligence of the person under hypnosis.
What You Can Do When You Hypnotise Someone
Now let's look at some specifics and consider what you can do when you hypnotise, or hypnotize, someone. What you can do is help to develop a deep seeded desire towards a certain activity or remove a deep seeded dislike of something.
Let's consider someone who is afraid of snakes to the point of becoming frozen with fear even at the thought of them. This fear is not based in rational thought, it is a deep seeded fear that somehow became imbedded in the person's subconscious mind. That person may intelligently know that there are no dangerous snakes in their area, or that snakes usually stay away from people, yet they cannot help but be paralyzed with fear even at the thought of a snake. No matter how rational this person is they cannot erase the irrational fear on their own because it is imbedded in their subconscious. They want to stop their fear, but they cannot. Willpower alone simply cannot help them overcome this fear.
With hypnosis, an experienced hypnotist can reach deep down into this person's subconscious mind and chip away at this fear of snakes. The person who knows how to hypnotise someone can speak to the subconscious, explaining the irrational nature of the fear, the damage that it is causing, and telling the subconscious to view snakes differently. After just one hypnosis session the person will likely find themselves able to be in a room with a snake without panicking; it can work instantly. The effects of hypnosis are also usually very long lasting.
What You Cannot Do
Now, as we mentioned previously, when you hypnotise someone there are limitations to what you can do. The human mind is resilient and pliable, but it is also strong willed and powerful. No hypnotist is able to command a person under hypnosis to steal for them, lie, cheat, kill - or cluck like a chicken. Hypnosis does not give one complete control over a person's mind, it simply allows access to the subconscious which can then be reasoned with to change its deep seeded attitudes and feelings. What hypnosis can do is be an extremely helpful tool through which a person accomplishes their own goals by giving another person permission to speak to their subconscious and change their deep feelings, attitudes and thus behaviors.
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