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It is this idea of finding beauty personally that I want to start with in this article today and then relate such ordinary psychological processes to how we define what hypnosis is. 

Let me explain...

Last night I was sat in bed with my Kindle in my lap, reading a sci-fi novel. It was pretty early by most people's standards as I had just put my 2 year old son to bed.  Katie was getting our baby daughter to bed. As I sat there, I could hear him humming, gently singing in his high pitched voice, and offering up some of the loveliest random, seemingly tuneless "la-la-la's" that I have ever heard. I put my kindle on my lap, turned the light off, leaned back against my propped up pillow and just listened as he sang and drifted off to his own little dream world.

To me it was majestic and utterly heart warming. I have been to listen to the dawn chorus of the birds in the New Forest here in Dorset in the early hours of the day. I have had the pleasure of listening to my good friend playing lead cello for the London Symphony Orchestra. I have delighted in live recordings of Iggy Pop singing 'Search and Destroy' - all of which I thought were wonderful and among my favourite things to listen to, but all paled in comparison to how much I adored listening to my son singing himself to sleep last night.

Likewise, my baby daughter recently fell asleep in my arms and as her breathing changed as she fell deeper to sleep, her little snores got louder and sometimes even had a squeak to them! She would then pause in her breathing and sigh as she exhaled and carried on with her dinky snores. I have slept in a room with some snoring noises of mammoth proportions before - on floors with drunken University friends, in bedrooms with family members and on trains with total strangers - and none have been anything other than grating and distracting. Yet my daughter gently snoring in my arms is a delight.

At the beginning of January, I wrote this on my Hypnotherapy School Facebook page:

"Ran my first Sunday long run of 2014 this morning as part of my Spring marathon training... Up and out the door at 6am... Car windows iced over, the stars were clear in the sky and my first few miles spent being mindful and warming up, enjoying running... Onto the dark sea front with a hint of a red glow in the backdrop, I listened to the waves crashing in on the sea front and pushed my pace some, engaging in some self-hypnosis for altering my perceived level of effort... I spent the final 3 miles of today's 14 listening to drum and bass music, totally dissociated... Got home in time to clean up and cook my wife breakfast... As with hypnosis, the ordinary psychological processes can seem (and truly are) really magical at times... 2014 is off to a magnificent start."

I do not always delight in these things when I am up at dawn and out running, and I know for a fact that the vast majority of runners don't necessarily enjoy the seemingly mundane aspects of their runs when they are running 5-6 times a week.

Why am I indulging myself in this article in this way today then, and what is this connection with hypnosis? Well, it is not at all as tenuous as you might think. You see, I find these afore-mentioned things to be beautiful. Others may not. I do.

I find them magnificent because of my own personal attitude towards them. I have a particular mindset that flavours my responses and relationship with these occurrences. These things are all very ordinary, yet they yield truly magical outcomes and experiences to me.

I'll connect this to hypnosis and self-hypnosis:

Hypnotism was discovered by James Braid in 1841, and entailed a more common sense psychological explanation of the apparent effects of Mesmerism (a historical precursor of hypnotism).

Braid defined hypnotism as "focused attention upon an expectant dominant idea or image" (Braid, cited in Robertson, 2008). Later, Hippolyte Bernheim, a very important figure in the history of hypnotism, said that there was no such thing as "hypnosis" other than heightened suggestibility, and named his approach "suggestive therapeutics" (Bernheim, 1887).

Hypnotism is essentially the art and science of suggestion, and not that of inducing "trances" or altered states of consciousness.

A 1941 paper written by the personality theorist, Robert White, entitled "A preface to the theory of hypnotism" is considered by many to be the beginning of the non-state, cognitive-behavioural approach to hypnosis. Research cited by White in this seminal article suggests that responses to hypnosis are primarily a result of the conscious attitudes and voluntary efforts of the individual. As a result, he redefined hypnosis as follows:

"Hypnotic behaviour is meaningful, goal-directed striving, its most general goal being to behave like a hypnotised person as this is continuously defined by the operator and understood by the client" (White, 1941).

White took the perspective that "hypnosis" is actually a verb rather than a noun. That is, it is a skill that the individual does and it is not a passive state that seems to automatically 'happen' in a mechanical fashion in response to something a hypnotist does. White supported the notion (though it was not the first time this notion was supported) that all hypnosis is, to some extent, self-hypnosis. Or a process of hypnotising oneself.

Nonstate theorists apply healthy scepticism when explaining hypnosis, they look at it in rational terms and with Braid's original approach of Scottish common sense.

In contrast to the popular "trance-state" way of explaining hypnosis, based on extensive scientific research, we explain hypnosis in terms of a hypnotic "mind set" comprising of ordinary processes, such as our beliefs, our imagination, our expectations, our attitude toward hypnosis, our level of motivation, the depth of our engagement with the role of being hypnotised and some other factors too.

The term "hypnosis" then, simply refers to a set of attitudes and behaviours that facilitate hypnotic responses, and not an "altered state of consciousness" or "hypnotic trance" of some kind (Barber, Spanos and Chaves, 1974).

To add some meat to the bones of this, you can go and grab a copy of my book The Science of Self-Hypnosis: The Evidence-Based Way To Hypnotise Yourself - because there is a great deal more to this discussion and explanation than I can offer up in a simplistic blog post.

To experience hypnosis (or self-hypnosis), you simply need to engage in a hypnotic mindset. A 'hypnotic mindset' simply means that you will be motivated to hypnotise yourself, you will be confident in your ability to respond, optimistic about the hypnosis process, and that you will expect to automatically experience the responses being suggested or imagined. If you adopt this mindset, you will derive more benefit from hypnosis and become more responsive to hypnosis.

This hypnotic mindset may seem sobering and a far cry from the magical way hypnosis is often presented. Some people do not like having the magic whipped away from them. However, one important consequence of this is that the role of the hypnotic subject, and the role of the self-hypnotist has now been demystified and made more easily learnable. In order for you to be a successful hypnotic subject or self-hypnotist, you learn further evidence-based hypnotic skills and apply therapeutic, beneficial protocols and adopt this hypnotic mindset throughout.

Today I conclude, that hypnotism is basically about inducing a set of attitudes or mind-set. The self-hypnotist or hypnotic subject learns to adopt a favourable attitude, to "get into the right mind-set", prior to engaging in hypnosis.

You can see then that my own set of attitudes, expectancies and mind-set effects my responses to things (like my son singing himself to sleep, my daughter snoring, the way I perceive the environment of my long runs during marathon training) which are fairly ordinary in the perspective of others, yet becomes magical to me. The same as Ricky Fitts finding a plastic bag a beautiful thing to watch. Likewise, engaging in ordinary processes with a particular set of attitudes can create what we know as hypnosis which can be magical in many ways too.

References:

Barber, T., Spanos, N. and Chaves, J (1974) Hypnotism, Imagination and Human Potentialities. New York: Pergamon.

Bernheim, H (1887) Suggestive Therapeutics. New York: Putnam's Sons.

Robertson, D. (2008) The Discovery of Hypnosis: The Complete Writings of James Braid. National Council For Hypnotherapy, UK.

White, Robert W. (1941). A preface to the theory of hypnotism. Journal of Abnormal & Social Psychology 36 (4): 477-505 (498)

I found it difficult to write that title today. This is something I have toiled with. 

In recent years I have gradually moved towards a much more evidence-based approach to the application of hypnosis. There is no empirical evidence to directly suggest that using hypnosis can help people become wealthier in financial terms. No studies to support such an application of hypnosis. 

For a number of years, we offered a 'millionaire mindset' programme based upon lots of common theories and notions that I had read about from a wide variety of different authors - it sold incredibly well. That's something else I began to struggle with on a personal level. I was making money out of people who needed the help the most - the programme's name suggested they might become a millionaire as a result of using my programme and I had no way of substantiating that. At times, it felt like preying on the needs of those who were struggling the most, and that weighted more and more heavily upon me. 

So we offered the full programme for free for a while and the uptake was immense. Eventually, I took the decision to remove it completely. I wanted to focus on applications of hypnosis we had evidence for - more therapeutic applications of hypnosis, and focused on that. 

In that time, we have had a most incredible number of people email me and ask where they can get that programme online. We get many people asking to buy it. We get people from all over the world asking about it and for it. I have stood firm and been resolute about not offering it. 

Last month, Keith and I were discussing some of our plans for the year ahead and he asked me about this subject matter again. He reminded me about the popularity of that previous programme and showed me more of the emails he had received from people saying how much they had benefited from the programme. One well-known wealth guru even openly wrote that my old Wealth Wizard audio tracks had helped him more than any other single course of tuition or advice on his way to becoming wealthy - but I still refused to offer the previous programme again. Keith asked me if there was a way around it, and if there was anything that we could offer, or anyway we could help all of those who were asking us. 

I attempted to do a literature review, but there was very little in the way of direct material to use so I had to look at alternative ways and ideas; processes that had evidence-based rationale that were related and could potentially be put to use in this area. I could find nothing and was close to closing the door on this topic forever. Then I flicked open an old copy of Napoleon Hill's 'Think and Grow Rich' and there at the very start of the book, before chapter one, this is written: 

"Napoleon Hill's Think and Grown Rich 

Teaching, for the first time, the famous Andrew Carnegie formula for moneymaking based upon the thirteen proven steps to riches. 

Organized through 25 years of research, in collaboration with more than 500 distinguished men of great wealth, who proved by their own achievements that this philosophy is practical."

The foreword to the book writes account upon account of people who benefited from the system of beliefs, thinking strategies and processes laid out in this book. Still today, there are a great many who use and apply these processes with great success. 

As I started to unwrap some of the chapters and some of the key concepts utilised within the programme of the book, I found that some of the theories had parallels with pieces of evidence that did support them, not just for the field of hypnotherapy, but in fields of neurology, cognitive psychology and cognitive behavioural therapy. This got me looking deeper and starting to formulate ways in which i could start to amalgamate self-hypnosis with some of these principles, some of the studies and some of the core concepts contained within this seminal work. Needless to say, I got on the phone to Keith and told him that I think I have found a way to be able to offer up a series of articles and audio sessions that are supported with evidence, that have solid principles to support them and which will result in me being able to sleep at night, knowing that there is a good chance of people deriving much gain from such applications. 

There will be no reference to making people millionaires. There will be no promises. There will be no get rich quick schemes. There will be solid notions and ideas, key themes supported with as much research as possible, cognitive strategies, mental imagery exercises that are all combined with the magnifying and amplifying effects of self-hypnosis aimed at helping you to become wealthier in ways that are right for you. 

That is going to be my theme for the month of February both on my blog and on my ezine. I think you are going to really like what I am about to offer up. I'll be writing more in February!  

If you want to train to be a hypnotherapist, there has never been a better time, we are thriving in this economic climate! 

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I'll be back next week, enjoy the ordinary psychological processes that seem magical to you this week ... I thank you for reading...  Goodbye for now.

Bulooo!

Adam.