October 18, 2025

Let’s see if hypnosis is pure magic or maybe, just a little bit, more than that… Some people think of hypnosis as some sort of magic, and while human unconscious is indeed magical, hypnosis certainly isn’t. While beautiful, it’s a natural process of which clients have full control of. In fact, all hypnosis is essentially self-hypnosis. But let’s dive a bit deeper into what to expect and what the “prerequisites” are, so to speak.

What to expect?

Hypnotherapist usually starts with a short screening form to align on goals, check for medical conditions, and verify suitability of a person and their goal for hypnotic work. Then, if there are no contraindications, several susceptibility tests (see here and here for examples) are carried out. Then the therapist guides the client into a relaxed state by first relaxing the body and the the mind. Often, people are only able to achieve the light trance during the first few sessions, but even in light trance hypnosis can be of huge help.

Trance state can have varied depth, depending on the person’s general ability to relax and his or her rapport with the threapist.

To put it simply, the light trance is when a person follows most of the things the hypnotherapist says and remembers everything after the session is finished. Although relaxed, clients in this state can sometimes snap out of it because of loud noises or being uncomfortable. Medium trance is a deeper state of relaxation, when while being aware, clients usually choose not to respond to noise and might even not notice it. In that state, thoughts wander or disappear completely. In a deep trance, clients aren’t bothered by external triggers at all (unless in danger) and might not remember much of what the therapist was saying. Many people report blank state, completely relaxed and unperturbed. It might be so comfortable that therapists might sometimes repeat re-orientation (bring the client’s full awareness back) several times.

Can I be hypnotised?

According to Erickson, trance is a natural everyday experience (Erickson, 1983). Perhaps, you notice sometimes being aware of doing something while not being fully “there”. Often that happens during driving or doing some routine tasks. That’s the altered state, focused yet different. The person is still aware of where he or she is and can react quickly in case of danger. This state can be “induced” by relaxation and refocusing (similar to meditation) and then used to talk to relaxed mind in order to reach to the unconscious.

The question is (as with psychotherapy) what will work for you and that highly depends on what you need. Hypnosis can be used for three main purposes: two unblock, to motivate, and to analyse. Freud relied on hypnosis for the last purpose, but turned to free association instead later. Elman – another prominent hypnotist of the previous century and the father of the analytical hypnosis – successfully used hypnoanalysis to uncover unconscious material and help people with such issues as obesity, stuttering, phobias, and even allergies (Elman, 1964). That’s not to say that hypnosis can’t or shouldn’t be used for analytical work, but rather to highlight how the same thing can be achieved by different means.

Can I be forced to do something I don’t want to?

No one can be hypnotised against their will. For a person to respond to suggestions (main hypnotic mechanism), the person’s subconscious needs to agree with it, and for unconscious to agree, this goal needs to be clear and useful. Also, in trance people are always aware of what is happening even if the trance state is deep. In his book Elman (1964) recorded test cases where he and his students tried different suggestions on people in deep trance, and when those suggestions weren’t useful or relevant, people either ignored them or snapped immediately out of trance.

References

  1. Elman, D. (1964). Hypnotherapy. Westwood Publishing Company.
  2. Erickson, M. H. (1983). The collected works of Milton H. Erickson, M.D.: Vol. 10. Hypnotic realities [R. E. Rossi (Ed.)]. Irvington Publishers. (Kindle ed.)
  3. Wikipedia. (2025, October 11). Hypnotic susceptibility. In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnotic_susceptibility