Hypnosis(from the Greek word- hypnos, "sleep") is often thought to be "a trance-like state that resembles sleep and is induced by a person whose suggestions are readily accepted by the subject.
Hypnosis is sometimes used for medical purposes to relieve anxiety, or otherwise improve or alter behaviour. Its effectiveness has been clinically demonstrated in many areas, most notably in the area of acute pain relief. It is also used in popular stage acts in which subjects are persuaded to perform bizarre feats.
Milton H. Erickson(1901-1980), M.D., maintained being in a trance or “a trance-like state” is a common, everyday occurrence. Have you ever experienced while waiting for a bus or train, reading or listening, or even being involved in strenuous physical exercise, you become so immersed in the activity and go into a trance-like state that you are removed from any other irrelevant stimuli or are oblivious to external events around you?
These states are so common and familiar that most of us do not consciously recognise them as hypnotic phenomena. The same situation is in evidence in everyday life, however, whenever attention is fixated with a question or an experience of the amazing, the unusual, or anything that holds a person's interest. At such moments people experience the common everyday trance; they tend to gaze off to the right or left, depending upon which cerebral hemisphere is most dominant (Baleen, 1969) and get that faraway or blank look. Their eyes may actually close, their bodies tend to become immobile (a form of catalepsy), certain reflexes (e.g., swallowing, respiration, etc.) may be suppressed, and they seem momentarily oblivious to their surroundings until they have completed their inner search on the unconscious level for the new idea, response, or frames of reference that will restabilize their general reality orientation. We hypothesize that in everyday life consciousness is in a continual state of flux between the general reality orientation and the momentary micro dynamics of trance...
Hypnotherapy is simply the use of trance for therapeutic purposes. Traditional hypnotherapy uses commanding language called direct suggestion. However, some people resent authority figures and will resist these direct suggestions.
Ericksonian hypnotherapy uses more of what is called indirect suggestions. Indirect suggestions are harder to resist because they are often not even recognised as suggestions by the conscious mind since they are often disguised as stories or metaphors. Indirect suggestions are all said in such a way as to mark out key words and phrases by subtle shifts in the tone of the voice. The subject’s unconscious awareness thus responds to the “embedded commands” in the indirect suggestions.
In hypnosis, we believe in the wisdom of the unconscious mind and people have the all the resources necessary to make changes inside themselves. The job of the hypnotherapist is to help the client re-establish connection with his inner resources and to develop a rapport between the conscious and unconscious mind.