Hypnosis defined in simple terms with examples

Following is a transcript of an interview on Hypnosis. During this interview we define hypnosis in simple terms with practical examples. Hello Nitin, I am Sabista Hi Sabista, I have a couple of questions about hypnosis and its application. Can you please help me understand what is Hypnosis in simple, laymen terms? Before I answer that, tell me, What image comes to your mind when you hear the word hypnosis? Three different things come to my mind. First, is the image of a man with a pendulum, second, is a state of deep relaxation and third, is a man or a woman acting like a chicken. But I am not really sure if any of this is really hypnosis? Ok, so let me help you with this. Hypnosis is defined as state of hyper suggestibility. Simply speaking it is a state in which the person is more receptive and willing to accept ideas and suggestions. Ok, but receptive to what kind of suggestions and by whom? This in my understanding is by far the most crucial and yet, the most overlooked question! People in a hypnotic state are more receptive to suggestions that they wanted to accept but were not able to accept earlier. What does this exactly mean? Why would I need hypnosis to accept something that I already wanted to accept? To understand this, think of a time when you wanted to do something but you weren't able to. For example: you may have wanted to get up in the morning and exercise. You even set an alarm to get up but when the alarm rings in the morning, you almost on an autopilot put the alarm on snooze. Another example could be of wanting to quit smoking but not being able to. Basically any thing that you want to do but you procrastinate can be considered as an example. I'm sure you can think of more things on these lines. In each of these situations it is as if you are having an internal conflict between two parts of your mind. One part that makes the decision and another part that controls our relatively automatic behaviours & emotional states. The part that makes the decision is what we call as the conscious mind and the part that is controlling the automatic behaviours is the unconscious mind. So, there are many instances where the conscious mind makes the decision but the unconscious doesn't accept the same. This is where hypnosis comes into play. In a hypnotic state the unconscious is more receptive to suggestions that the conscious wants to accept in a way that the unconscious can make the application of the suggestion easier & more natural. In short you can help a person do the things they want to do but weren't able to do with the help of hypnosis. This includes helping them change behaviours, manage emotions, break habit patterns, recall memories, enhance performance, develop skills and a lot more. Ohh… I thought Hypnosis could be used to control people? Can it be? No, not to control people but you can influence them to a large extent. How exactly? As mentioned earlier, people will only accept what they wanted to accept but were not able to. Which means a desire to accept the suggestion is very important for hypnosis to work. What suggestions and ideas are people most willing to and least resistant to accept? The ones that are their own, isn't it? Yes When you learn conversational hypnosis, you learn to communicate with people in a way that you are able to create an illusion, an illusion that the idea you wanted them to accept is their own idea. Since they think it is their own idea the chances of them accepting it increases drastically. That said, you must have a chance to communicate with the person and the person should be willing to listen to you. This in most cases is comparatively easy to manage. Does the person need to be in a deep state of relaxation for Hypnosis to work? Deep Relaxation is one of the ways of inducing a hypnotic or hyper-suggestible state, but it is not the only way. Confusion, shock,