About Hypnosis

Nope. You are aware and deeply, calmly relaxed. Hypnosis, however, can feel like the cozy moments between just waking in the morning and stirring to stretch or get up from the bed. And there are different levels of hypnosis, some deeper than others. Different hypnotic techniques work better in different depths of hypnosis.  

 Not true. You are receptive but not passive, and you do maintain your “wits.” You are unlikely to do, say, or believe any suggestion that goes against your sensibilities or morals. In fact, suggestions that go against the grain for you will likely interrupt the hypnotic effect. Those Hollywood movies about hypnotized people committing crimes are just that—Hollywood movies. And the spectacles seen in stage hypnotist shows are coordinated in such a way that participants are specially selected for high hypnotizability and consent.  

 Again, you are receptive, not passive. You are unlikely to mindlessly reveal things like security passwords and such. Besides, a qualified hypnotist is bound by ethical codes and will not go off topic to pry into  matters not agreed upon in the planning stage of hypnosis treatment.

 Hypnosis is self-limited. If the hypnotist creates too long a pause in the session—or, say, leaves the room to grab a cup of coffee, take a wee, or make a phone call (which no self-respecting hypnotist would actually do)—or has a medical emergency during a session that makes him or her speechless—you will either be so relaxed in hypnosis that you fall asleep and have a brief nap or you will simply come out of hypnosis and back to normal waking consciousness.