by Gurmeet Mattu

Created on: August 29, 2008

Self hypnosis is merely the western term for the eastern practice of transcendental meditation. This is a method of reaching and influencing the unconscious mind, which can affect and manage deep seated behaviour patterns such as smoking and over-eating. Practising self hypnosis is not difficult, but it does require repeated application because what you are effectively doing is subjecting yourself to subliminal advertising. The positive is that what you are selling yourself is better health or self-esteem.

The first step in this process is to open the path to communicating with the subconscious, or achieving the trance state. To achieve this

Sit on an armchair or lie on a bed.
Ensure that you are as comfortable as possible.
Control your breathing to reach a regular pattern.
Close your eyes.
Begin the relaxation process from the toes upwards. This means repeating to yourself My toes are becoming relaxed, more and more relaxed, and with ever breath I take they are becoming more and more relaxed. And as they become more and more relaxed, so I am falling into a deeper and deeper sleep. Not a normal sleep, but a hypnotic sleep.'
Repeat this process, moving up your body, step by step, from your ankles, to your calves, to your thighs and so on.

You will inevitably find this very boring, but do not resist it and continue with the process. Reaching the trance state requires repetition to fool the conscious mind to allow access to the unconscious. This becomes easier over time as your mind learns what is expected of it. Eventually you should be able to achieve the trance state merely by lying back and closing your eyes. The trance state is not alien or strange, but a normal stage that we pass through as we head from being awake to being asleep. What we are attempting to do is to reach that stage and hold the mind there without falling totally asleep. During this process you will remain totally alert and in charge of proceedings, but if you fall into a natural sleep, don't worry, that's normal too!

As you reach the end of your travel up your body at your head, emphasise to yourself that you are in a deep hypnotic sleep. Now, pause and take a few deep breaths.

What can you achieve in the trance state? A great deal, but don't expect to become a superman. But you can influence yourself and affect behaviours such as smoking, over-eating, lack of confidence, phobias and such like. Any bad behaviours that have been learned can be unlearned, and good behaviours such as concentration

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