Meditation is undoubtedly similar to hypnosis. Both are used to attain deep states of relaxation, but they rest on slightly different levels and tend to have separate purposes.

As far as I understand, the way that people meditate is to concentrate on something intently. They might choose to focus their eyes on a candle or some other object, just as you might use eye fixation to bring on hypnosis. People also tend to use a mantra in meditation, a word or phrase repeated over and over again until they are relaxed. I’d call these mantras suggestions, and the relaxed state hypnosis.

In fact, there are such similarities that if you sat two people side by side, one in hypnosis and one in meditation, it would be hard to say which person was in hypnosis and which one was meditating. It’s just two different belief systems wrapped around the same sort of state. In my opinion, meditation is just another means of entering the hypnotic state.

The act of meditation is often linked with a certain set spiritual beliefs. While this differs greatly from hypnosis, they both invoke altered states through concentration and are actually quite similar. Hypnosis and meditation can each be used to eliminate physical discomfort, bring about balance to the system, and reduce mental and emotional stress. In fact, deep relaxation in any form can provide these benefits.

However, the belief in the spiritual aspect of meditation and the deepening of that connection is a benefit that lies solely in the realm of meditation. I wouldn’t suggest hypnosis as a great way of strengthening your spirituality or embarking on a spiritual journey.

In this same sense, hypnotherapy and our own self hypnosis CDs and downloads are geared toward benefiting specific issues and bringing about behavioural change, such as to stop smoking. Meditation might not be the best way to resolve emotional conflicts or stop unwanted behaviours. So while there is certainly some common ground, the purpose and personal use of each can be quite unique.

If relaxation is what you seek, then both hypnosis and meditation will suffice. We know the benefits of relaxation alone are innumerable. Yet if you seek solutions to emotional issues or desire to bring about changes in your behaviour, then I believe hypnosis is the best option and will provide you with a direct path towards resolution.

Some hypnotists choose to employ suggestibility tests to indicate how susceptible to suggestion and hypnosis a person is. There are many different kinds of suggestibility tests and I will discuss those momentarily, but first I want to point out that these tests aren’t generally given in a clinical setting. There is no need for them in a therapeutic sense really. Stage hypnotists do rely on them however, because it’s very important for them to quickly identify the most suggestible members of the audience for use in their act. A very experienced operator can stand several people in a row and know with twenty seconds who is going to respond well to hypnosis.

That’s how quick and how effective these tests can be. I personally don’t see that much use for them in my work apart from demonstrating the power of the mind, but I generally don’t go down that road in my practice. In most cases it’s just not needed.

The handclasp is a standard suggestibility test that stage hypnotists use. It basically involves a person clasping their hands together with their palms held close, and then focusing on something, their thumbs or anything really, while the hypnotist talks about how their hands are coming together tighter and tighter. It may even be suggested to them that their hands are stuck together with glue. Whatever the case, the suggestion is brought into the imagination as a means of eliciting some sort of physical phenomena.

Another type of test involves the person imagining they have something very heavy in their hand, like a stack of books maybe. Sometimes this might instead be a handful of balloons or something that makes their hand feel extremely light. These two might even be combined, with one hand suggested as heavy and one hand said to be feeling light. The hypnotist can then see how well the suggestion was accepted by the difference in the distance of the hands.

Suggestibility tests to gauge how well a person may respond to hypnosis can take on many forms. Most of the tests will involve some sort of physical movement, while others rely solely on the power of the imagination. No matter what form the tests may take, they are all basically designed to help the hypnotist determine how suggestible the person may be to hypnosis.

As I’ve already said, I am not concerned with suggestibility tests in hypnotherapy, because I know that everyone is susceptible to suggestion really. It’s not a matter of how quick and easy I can bring about hypnosis; it’s more about the lasting benefits of deep relaxation and permanent behavioural change.

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It’s impossible to walk down the street without being bombarded with billboards and signs in shop windows. We may like to think that we aren’t really paying attention to these messages, but we are all influenced by the suggestions fed to us in advertising to some degree. In many ways hypnosis is suggestion and suggestion is hypnosis. Advertisers know this and certainly use it to their advantage.

Some suggestions of course we notice because we look at them directly, but lots of them we don’t notice. For instance, do you remember what was on the last advertising billboard that you passed? You might say no or not remember exactly, but on some level you have taken that information in and processed it. All the suggestions that surround us are meant to get us to buy into an idea, a person, or a company’s product. They work into our minds at an unconscious level, much like suggestions in hypnosis.

The mind tends to work by association, and suggestion also happens to work by association. So to help you associate with the advertisement, the message might be something like “If you buy this, you’ll look as young and look as good as me” or “You’ll be happy and smile like me if you buy this product.” These are positive suggestions, but negative suggestions are at work in advertising as well.

For example, insurance advertising plays highly on the fear element. “If you don’t buy this insurance you might get a victim of theft” or “You could find yourself without money in hard times, and end up homeless.” There are different ways to motivate people through suggestion, some of which play on our emotions quite directly.

Often when I watch TV, it takes me on such an emotional journey. It takes over my reality. My reality becomes whatever I am looking at on the TV. When I am watching a soap opera in my mind I am in there with the people. I am concentrating on the screen and, for a lack of a better description – I am in a hypnotic state. You’re concentrating and excluding outside stimulus, which is quite similar to what occurs in hypnosis.

That’s why TV is a fantastic medium for suggestion and for sales, because people are almost in a state of hypnosis. In fact, eye fixation is a classic way of inducing hypnosis. Even though the use of subliminal suggestions in advertising is somewhat illegal and frowned upon, the suggestions are there and are given in such subtle ways sometimes you might not even notice. They use sound, colour, and association to elicit emotional responses to the material being presented. Your unconscious mind picks up these messages and files them away. Remember, hypnosis is merely the unconscious acceptance of suggestion.

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Post hypnotic suggestions are suggestions given to people while they are under hypnosis that are expected to be acted upon in their full waking state. So if I say to you while you are under hypnosis that each and every day you will feel better, or more confident, more powerful, more in control, or whatever the case, these suggestions are to be taken into your unconscious acceptance. They are to become part of you’re your daily waking thoughts and reality.

Obviously, the hypnotist has to work professionally and ethically and not suggest things against the person’s belief system or personal values. Suggestions given in hypnosis can be very effective, but it’s highly unlikely that suggestions that go against a person’s beliefs will be accepted. For example, unless you believe that you are a dog you probably won’t start barking like a dog just because someone suggested it to you while you were under hypnosis (if you don’t like dogs see our ‘Fear of Dogs‘ hypnosis CD/download).

Working with someone’s belief system to bring about results they desire is wondrously effective. However, it’s not a definite science as to how well or quickly someone will respond to suggestions while under hypnosis. Everybody is unique and therefore everyone’s response to hypnosis and post hypnotic suggestions will be unique. Some people might respond very, very quickly while for others it might take a bit of time for the suggestion to sink in.

You could say that most of hypnotherapy and certainly most suggestion has a relation to post hypnotic commissioning because we want these suggestions to stick. There’s no point in helping someone to feel confident for an hour or only while they are in hypnosis. I want people to feel more confident and manage their emotions well beyond the hypnosis session.

Poorly worded suggestions may hinder the unconscious acceptable, which is why I feel it is very important to speak positively in hypnosis. I try to talk about what the person wants, rather than what they don’t want. Depending on whether you are using direct suggestion or indirect suggestion the wording might also change. In direct suggestion hypnosis sessions I might say “when you do this you will feel more confident.” Whereas in indirect suggestion, I might tell the person in hypnosis to just think about or consider what it might be like to experience a particular thought or behaviour.

I use a combination of these suggestions in my self hypnosis CDs and hypnosis MP3 downloads. I find that this has the best impact and can really help a person get the most out of their self hypnosis sessions.

Many people have a picture in their mind of hypnosis that almost always includes someone swinging a pocket watch. The idea likely developed from Hollywood movies somewhere in the 40s or 50s. If hypnosis was featured in a film it inevitably involved some doctor or authority on hypnosis taking out a pocket watch and swinging it in front of a person’s face. Suddenly the person goes into this trance-like state and is hypnotised. I can imagine this makes for fantastic entertainment. You have a mixture of mystery and possibly even fear, elements that undoubtedly make great movies. But is it real?

The portrayal of a swinging watch does in fact fit the concept of eye fixation that was part of the classical hypnosis induction. However, as time has progressed many different ways of bringing about hypnosis have emerged. Verbal suggestion is probably the most common and is the main medium used in our self hypnosis CDs and self hypnosis downloads.

In verbal suggestion, you talk about the person’s internal or external experience to help them go into hypnosis. For example, I might ask people to think about the way the palm of their hand feels and to focus intently on it. Or I might just suggest to them that they listen to the sound of my voice and let go of their thoughts.

Progressive relaxation occurs easily with the help of these verbal suggestions. There are plenty of ways to concentrate attention and bring about hypnosis — and no watches or swinging objects are required.

I don’t know any hypnotherapist that uses a swinging pocket watch, but I will say that I have used a crystal once or twice. It came about because it was communicated to me in the beginning of our hypnotherapy session that they expected me to do this as part of the hypnosis induction. This preconceived notion was so strong that it was actually easier to work with that idea rather than against it.

In reality, the swinging watch and other such eye fixation processes have lost popularity within hypnosis. Nowadays, the most popular hypnosis induction is progressive relaxation as I mentioned. It’s so much easier to just relax and concentrate your focus on the different parts of your body as you feel them relax. Your mind easily slips into hypnosis this way.

I still encounter people who automatically assume that I use some sort of watch or eye fixation process. I let them know that the idea of a swinging watch is old-fashioned and it doesn’t bring on any stronger hypnosis than progressive relaxation. Swinging watches may make for great movie scenes, but using them to bring about hypnosis is just not necessary.

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Why is there so much fascination with the eyes in hypnosis?

Eye fixation – that is helping somebody’s eyes to get tired and close, is a classic hypnotic induction. It involves concentration and focus, which are both ingredients of any basic hypnosis process. All the early methods of induction were based around some kind of eye fixation and getting the eyes to close. I think this is still what society generally pictures when they think of hypnosis.

Certainly looking at something for a long time at eye level or just above eye level helps to tire the eyes. There is a particularly strong connection directly between the eyes and the brain. Obviously when the eyes have closed, it shuts down all visual sensory systems and your ability to see things outside of yourself. This allows the person trying to attain hypnosis to focus more and become more aware of their internal dynamics.

I don’t particularly have a “swinging watch” like one might see in Hollywood movies. I don’t know where this idea of induction into hypnosis came from, but it certainly looks good in films and on TV. It looks intriguing and quite mysterious. Imagine someone just swinging a watch in front you and suddenly you fall asleep. Well, that is a bit strange so I can understand where people might see hypnosis as a mystery.

I suppose swinging a watch is just another way of getting someone to concentrate and focus. As they watch it move from side to side suggestions are given to relax, which together create the type of circumstances needed to go into hypnosis.

As I said, I don’t have a watch. However, I do take into consideration that in society people’s perception is generally that a hypnotist will do something that involves their eyes to help them into hypnosis. If that’s the case and a client comes into my office expecting that, then it’s useful to follow what is already in their belief system.

In my self hypnosis CDs and hypnosis downloads, we don’t go through the process of having somebody look at a particular spot so that the eyes get tired and close down. Instead, we literally ask they take a few deep breaths and close their eyes, which bypasses that process.

This means that people can relax much easier and deeper, and go into hypnosis that much quicker. Deep relaxation is after all, what hypnosis is all about.