How does hypnosis work?

How does hypnosis work?

John McGrail, C.Ht. (Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist) gives expert video advice on: How does hypnosis work?; Can I hypnotize myself, or do I need someone else to hypnotize me? and more...

The absolute truth is we're not really sure. In the same breath I can say we're not really sure how aspirin work's but we know it works. When we enter hypnoses, there are certain parts of the brain that are affected. We can wire a person up, put them into trance and test for that. We find that the critical area of the brain tends to go into what we call advance - it shuts off. Emotional centers are affected and the centers for memory are affected. So we enter this state and it is likened to a more primitive state of mind. Primitive man for instance lived in a hostile enviroment, and was constantly having to adapt to survive. When we enter hypnotic trance, it is generally accepted that we enter a very similar state, a more primitive state of mind in which we are very adaptalble. Our mind becomes very open to suggestions, suggestions that we want to hear, and is very open to learning. We often consider hypnotherapy a process of unlearning the unwanted issues and relearning new wanted behaviors, responses and that sort of thing. As to how it actually works, no-one knows.