Hypnotic Susceptibility

Hypnosis is a fascination field of study - it's a way of exploring the unchartered territories of our minds.n
Hypnosis has been successfully used for medical, therapeutic, business and personal matters.n
Just a couple of months ago, the Queen Fabiola of Belgium at the age of 80 years used hypnosis instead of drugs to undergo surgery without the use of anesthetic drugs. Medical doctors performed open heart surgery with patients successfully only by sedating them with hypnosis.n
But different people have different kinds of hypnotic susceptibility. Some people can experience deep hypnotic trances very easily. Others seem almost "unhypnotizable".n
Research has shown that about 10% of the population is extremely hypnotizable. Then there is about 70-80% of the population who have medium hypnotizability. And then there are 10-20% of the population who have a very hard time to experience hypnotic states.n
What is the reason for that? Well, just as each one of us has his or her own personality traits, his or her own fingerprint, each and every one of us also has his or her own way of going into trance.n
This is specially true for those 10-20% who are seemingly "unhypnotizable". These people go into hypnotic states in very different ways from the majority of the population. Trying to hypnotize them with the methods that work for the majority of the population is just not gonna do it. It's like trying to open a lock with the wrong key. It won't work. But that doesn't mean that something is wrong with the lock - it's just the key. If you have the right key, the lock will open.n
Unfortunately, most hypnotists don't have those "keys". They learned the standard procedures with slight variations, and they are satisfied with that. They call those "unhypnotizable" clients resistant, and tell them: if you don't really want to be hypnotized, then I can't hypnotize you. n
The sad part is that many of these people paid a lot of money because they wanted to be hypnotized. But they just can't if the hypnotist doesn't come up with a hypnotic induction that suits their mental blueprint.n
Everybody is hypnotizable. It doesn't matter if you're left-brain or right-brain dominant. It doesn't matter if you're young or old. It doesn't matter if you're smart or dumb. It doesn't matter if you're this or that.n
What matters is that you get the kind of hypnotic induction that suits you. That's the problem with all those "hypnosis CDs". They are done to suit "the majority", but people with a different kind of hypnotic susceptibility won't respond to that.n
In fact, hypnotic susceptibility can change over time for each one of us. Research indicates that prolonged isolation and sensory deprivation lead to enhanced susceptibility.n
It can also be "trained", by exercising the mind in specific manners. If one extremely absorbs himself in imaginative activity, this has shown to enhance hypnotic susceptibility.n
Michael Diamond reported about studies that tried to alter susceptibility by experimenting with music, psychedelic drugs, operant conditioning, relaxation training, biofeedback and other methods. These studies haven't been scaled up to be confirmed, but on a small scale it worked.n
If you want to experience hypnotic states of consciousness but are having trouble to let go of conscious control, the first thing you should do is relax. There is nothing wrong with your way of doing things. Finding a skilled hypnotist, learning more about the hypnotic process and exercising your mind are all things that you can do to enhance your hypnotic susceptibility.