Lets start at the beginning with a little bit of history. Hypnosis has been used for many thousands of years both the ancient Greek's and Egyptians used hypnosis to treat anxiety and its associated symptoms, in fact the word hypnos derives from a Greek word meaning sleep. But it wasn't until the 1800's that an Austrian physician called Anton Mesmer (yes thats where the word mesmerised comes form) brought this hypnotic trance to a wider audience to what we now call hypnotherapy.
Hypnosis is a natural state which most of us enter many times throughout the day it is an altered state of awareness when our bodies senses become more acute and focused on the task in hand. A good example would be when we drive a route that we have driven many times before only to find that when we reach our destination we may not remember parts of the journey. Have we been driving without due care and attention? driving through red lights leaving a trail of chaos behind us? The answer is no you would have driven your car safely and would have been in complete control in fact you would have been more attuned to what was happening all around you than when you are in your usual waking state. If you don't drive you may experience the hypnotic state when you read a book or are engrossed in a film becoming so focused that you are unaware of what conversations are going on around you.
Hypnosis is a natural state which most of us enter many times throughout the day it is an altered state of awareness when our bodies senses become more acute and focused on the task in hand. A good example would be when we drive a route that we have driven many times before only to find that when we reach our destination we may not remember parts of the journey. Have we been driving without due care and attention? driving through red lights leaving a trail of chaos behind us? The answer is no you would have driven your car safely and would have been in complete control in fact you would have been more attuned to what was happening all around you than when you are in your usual waking state. If you don't drive you may experience the hypnotic state when you read a book or are engrossed in a film becoming so focused that you are unaware of what conversations are going on around you.