Hypnosis for Beginners

by William W Hewitt

  •Why do I want to learn self-hypnosis?

  •What needs can I fill?

  •What benefits can I gain?

  •How can I help others also?

  •What are my goals for self-hypnosis use?

  •Am I dedicated enough to devote 15 minutes a day for the rest of my life to practice this valuable skill?

  If you find it difficult or impossible to answer these questions, you probably are not ready for selfhypnosis. If this is the case, let the idea rest for a while. You can continue anytime when you become ready. Usually, if you try to pursue self-hypnosis before you are mentally and spiritually ready, it won't work well for you. Thus, you become discouraged and abandon the idea. If you have any doubts, wait awhile and pursue self-hypnosis when you are ready.

  PRE-HYPNOSIS EXERCISES

  Before you begin to learn self-hypnosis, use the following simple conditioning exercises.

  Exercise 1

  Sit down comfortably and face straight ahead. Roll your eyes upward as far as you can. This is quite uncomfortable. Hold your eyes upward for as long as you can. When the strain is more than you wish to continue enduring, close your eyes and let your eyes return to normal. Sit there with your eyes closed for a minute or two, relaxing and allowing your mind to be as blank as you can.

  The benefit is that you have actually forced yourself into a light level of the alpha state. When the eyes roll upward, alpha is triggered. Since alpha is necessary for hypnosis, this exercise begins to train you (and your mind) for entering alpha at will.

  Exercise 2

  Sit down comfortably and close your eyes. Visualize the letters of your name slowly, one letter at a time. Then visualize your entire name all at once. Then erase your name and open your eyes.

  This helps you develop your ability to visualize. Visualization is key to successful self-hypnosis and going beyond hypnosis into the psychic realm as described in chapter 15.

  For many, visualization is difficult. Don't be discouraged if you have difficulty. If the first letter of your name is H and you are not able to visualize it, then mentally describe it to yourself... two vertical bars with a horizontal bar between them at midpoint.. .like a football goal post. Know in your intellect that the H is there. With practice, you will learn to visualize. As with any worthwhile skill, practice, practice, practice, and more practice makes perfect. This is as true for self-hypnosis as it is for playing a musical instrument. In hypnosis, you are learning to play the instrument of your mind. Whether you remain an amateur or advance to expert or something in between is entirely up to you and how much devotion, time, and integrity you are willing to invest.

  SELF-HYPNOSIS ROUTINES

  Case 1

  Suppose your only desire is to solve a specific problem (for example, diet control) and not primarily to master self-hypnosis. Then record the diet control sessions found in Part I onto a cassette tape at a pace that is comfortable to you.

  After you have recorded session 1, make yourself comfortable and play back the recording while letting yourself (via the recording) hypnotize you.

  The next day, record session 2 and hypnotize yourself with it. The next day, session 3; the next day 4, and so on until session 6. After listening to all six sessions, you will have successfully achieved your goal of dealing constructively with the problem and learning a simple self-hypnosis routine in the process.

  You do not have to do these six sessions in six consecutive days. You can space them up to a week apart and they will still be effective. When the spacing becomes greater than one week between sessions, the residual post-hypnotic suggestions tend to become weak or even ineffective.

  For this six-session approach to solving a problem, do not do more than one session a day. The mind needs time to absorb and act upon one session before imposing another session on it.

  If your problem is something other than diet, use the same method just described but tailor it toward your specific problem. There are enough suggestions and examples in this book for you to devise your own modifications. If smoking is the problem, you would say, "I will have no desire for cigarettes," instead of "I have no desire for chocolates."

  Case 2

  Suppose you do not want to deal with a specific problem at the moment. You just want to master self-hypnosis as a skill so you can later deal with any problem or situation when the need arises.

  For this case, you will use your cassette recorder to hypnotize yourself for the initial training period. The following six steps are what I recommend you record to get started.

  1. On the first day, record and listen to the entire session 1 (see chapter 2). Record these suggestions to session 1 at the proper time:

  You are now beginning to learn how to hypnotize yourself for any worthwhile purpose you desire.

  Every time you hear your voice on tape, you will respond to the directions and suggestions you give more effectively every time.

  Every time you practice self-hypnosis, you will be able to do it faster and easier.

  Soon you will be able to practice self-hypnosis very effectively without the aid of a recorder, and this is so.

  2. On the second day, record and listen to routines A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H in that order. Record the following after routine H:

  You have now learned how to relax your mind and body. In the future, all you need to do to relax your mind and body this much or even more is to close your eyes and mentally count down from 10 to 1, or 5 to 1, or 3 to 1, visualizing each number as you think it.

  You are learning the skills of self-hypnosis which you can practice anytime, any place, for any worthwhile purpose you choose.

  3. On the third day, record and listen to routines A, B, I, and U in that order. Record the following after routine U:

  This room is a very powerful place for you to come to practice your self-hypnosis. You can do anything you wish here. You create your own reality. You can bring anyone into your room you wish simply by asking them in. You can consult or converse with anyone here. The resources of universal intelligence are available to you here. You can solve problems, ask questions, practice any skill or speech, shed bad habits, adopt good habits, plan, program goals, seek inspiration and ideas, consult with your creator via prayer. There is no limit. No limit to what you can achieve in your room. It is your private inner space in your mind. It is your magic kingdom. It is your special domain from which you can control your life.

  I am now going to stop speaking. Stay in your room for as long as you wish. When you are ready to leave your room, you may count slowly from one to five and open your eyes at the count of five.

  NOTE: At this point you should not have anything else on the tape to distract you. Just let the blank tape run; it will automatically shut off at the end. You remain in your room for as long as you wish, doing whatever programming and suggestions you wish, and counting yourself out from one to five when you are finished.

  4. On the fourth day, record and listen to the following:

  Sit comfortably in your chair and face straight ahead. Roll your eyes upward and focus your attention on a spot or object in your line of vision that is up high enough to make your eyes uncomfortable. About a forty-five degree upward angle of your eye movement.

  Keep your eyes opened and focused on the spot. Take a deep breath and as you exhale mentally say the number 5 three times.

  Now close your eyes and relax.

  Take another deep breath, and as you exhale, mentally visualize and say the number 4 three times.

  Take another breath, and as you exhale, mentally visualize and say the number 3 three times.

  Again take a deep breath and as you exhale, mentally visualize and say the number 2 three times.

  Once more, a deep breath and visualize and say the number 1 three times.

  You are now deeply relaxed and you will continue to relax deeper and deeper with each breath you exhale.

  As you continue to relax more and more completely, mentally repeat the following
suggestions as I say them:

  "I have now mastered the skill of self-hypnosis."

  "I can use self-hypnosis anytime I wish, any place I wish for any worthwhile purpose I desire, and this is so."

  "In the future, all I need to do to achieve levels of hypnosis this deep or even deeper is to close my eyes, take a deep breath, and slowly count 3...2...1 as I exhale. At that point, I can program my mind for any purpose I desire. I can go to my private room by simply visualizing my staircase, walking down my stairs, opening my door and entering my room where I can program for any purpose I desire."

  5. On the fifth day, record and listen to the following:

  Close your eyes, take a deep breath and as you exhale, mentally count three and visualize the 3, two and visualize the 2, one and visualize the 1.

  Take a deep breath and continue to relax.

  Now visualize your staircase. Go down your staircase and enter your room.

  (Do not speak on the tape for ten seconds to allow yourself time to go to your room.)

  You are in your room now. From now on you can enter self-hypnosis simply by closing your eyes, taking a deep breath, and mentally counting down from 3 to 1 while visualizing the numbers as you say them. At that point, you can do whatever programming or suggestions you wish.

  For especially powerful programming and experiences, you can go to your room simply by visualizing your staircase and mentally descending the stairs to your room.

  From now on you can awaken whenever you wish simply by desiring to do so and opening your eyes.

  You no longer need the tape recording to enter or exit self-hypnosis. You can do it all by yourself whenever you wish. You may use the tape anytime you wish for refresher or for a special programming session that would be easier to do by tape if you choose, but you no longer are dependent on the use of the tape.

  I am going to stop talking now. You may open your eyes and awaken whenever you wish.

  6. On the sixth day and every day thereafter you do not need a recorder. You can simply close your eyes and do the 3...2...1 countdown. Then visualize your staircase, descend it, and enter your room. Stay in the room as long as you wish to do your programming and suggestions. Open your eyes when you wish to terminate the session. If you feel you want to awaken more slowly, count yourself out from 1 to 5, opening your eyes at the count of 5. I use the 1 to 5 count out most of the time because I really go quite deeply into alpha and theta.

  NOTE: In these self-hypnosis sessions, it is all right to do more than one a day if you wish. Just don't let more than a week lapse between sessions; if you do, I recommend that you start over from the beginning for best results. Also, you may want to refresh yourself by listening to your tapes every once in awhile even though you have progressed beyond the point where you have to listen to them. Listening to them is kind of like putting a recharge on your battery. You may even want to create new tapes for special purposes.

  Case 3

  Suppose you don't have, can't afford, or don't want a cassette recorder. You can still achieve the same results, but it will require much more time and diligence.

  If this is the case, do all the things exactly as outlined for Case 2 but without using a cassette recorder. This means you memorize everything and mentally instruct yourself while relaxing and listening to your mental commands.

  Memorizing the commands is not simple to do. The part of your mind that gives the memorized instructions tends to want to go to beta level to do so. The part of your mind that wants to respond to the instructions and enter self-hypnosis must go to alpha level to do so.

  As a result, your brain frequency tends to vacillate between beta and alpha. This simply means that each session is likely to be less effective than if you had a cassette recorder. Hence, you usually have to repeat these sessions a number of times to achieve results. But it still works well; just persevere and stick with it.

  USES OF SELF-HYPNOSIS

  Your subconscious mind is like an obedient servant; it will do whatever it is told. The subconscious does not reason; it just does. If you do not give directions to your subconscious mind, your mind will obey the directions you allow someone else to give it. If you do not establish a good self-image in your mind, and if you allow others to impress upon your mind that you are not a worthwhile person, then you will become a not very worthwhile person. Why is a child labeled "bad"? Perhaps parents, teachers, peers, and others verbally chastised him or her by saying, "You are a bad child!" when the child expressed themselves in an unacceptable manner. The child came to believe what the adults said. Although an act may be unacceptable, that doesn't make the child an unacceptable human being, but the child doesn't know that, so his or her mind becomes programmed "You are an unacceptable person" and a great deal of human damage has been done.

  Fortunately, hypnosis can rectify the human damage.

  If you have a poor self-image, use your self-hypnosis to change it to what you want.

  If you have a habit you wish to rid yourself ofsuch as smoking, stuttering, or lying-get rid of it with self-hypnosis.

  Improve your skills. If you need to speak in front of an audience, give the speech in your room under self-hypnosis the day before you have to deliver it. You will perfect the speech and perform it just the way you programmed yourself to perform.

  Solve problems. Get information and advice from cosmic intelligence by asking for it. If Mahatma Gandhi is your hero, bring him into your room and ask him what you should do. Sound like science fiction? It isn't (see chapter 15).

  Get rid of pain. Promote healing. Maintain your health. Live longer and better.

  Establish contact with your own higher self-your spiritual self-your all-knowing self.

  Set your goals and then enjoy life as your mind brings them into reality.

  When I was a child I knew I wanted two things when I grew up. I wanted to grow a mustache, and I wanted to be a professional writer. I maintained those dreams, those images, faithfully. I didn't know it then, but I was engaging in self-hypnosis. I have had the mustache since I was nineteen years old (eons ago) and have been a professional writer since 1963. As an adult, I have other dreams and goals. Some have materialized (being a professional hypnotherapist, for example). Others are in process, and I can watch the events unfold with child-like excitement.

  You, too, can make your dreams become reality by practicing self-hypnosis faithfully every day. You now know how to do it.

  Up to this point, this book has provided the data you need to successfully use hypnosis and self-hypnosis for any worthwhile purpose you desire. You've read about an effective program for diet control and instructions on how to devise programs for things other than diet control. But even at this point many readers may be vague on exactly how to devise a program for their specific situation.

  Although one book cannot cover the vast number of situations that exist, this chapter details instructions for a broad spectrum of situations. From this sampling, you will be able to do exactly what you want to do.

  THE BUDDY SYSTEM

  Some people prefer to work with others rather than alone. Once in awhile a person doesn't feel comfortable listening to her or his voice on tape. For people in these two categories, the buddy system is recommended.

  (As far as listening to your own voice on tape is concerned, everyone finds it strange the first few times, but you quickly adjust to it, and you will produce excellent results from your self-recorded hypnosis sessions.)

  Two advantages of working by yourself are: You can work whenever you wish without having to coordinate your time with anyone, and you can work on highly personal situations.

  Two advantages of working with a buddy are: You don't have to make tape recordings if you don't want to (your buddy reads the induction to you, and you read the induction procedure to your buddy; this gives you experience both as a hypnotist and as a subject), and two heads are often better than one in deciding what approach to use to handle a specific situation.

  Whi
chever way you choose-alone or with a buddy - you can achieve excellent results. Most people ultimately use both approaches.

  In choosing a buddy, pick someone who is seriously interested in hypnosis and self-improvement, just as you are. Pick someone who is sensitive and caring and who is not a blabbermouth who can't wait to spread it all over town that you are using self-hypnosis at age thirty-five to control nocturnal ejaculations.

  Your buddy can be a spouse, sibling, parent, friend, business associate-anyone whom you trust and with whom you have a good rapport.

  Hypnosis Clubs

  A hypnosis club is the ultimate buddy system. Here a group of people with common interests gather to use hypnosis on each other to help each other in some way. It is great fun, and you can learn so much, so fast.

  Members of hypnosis clubs can help each other gain self-esteem, love, confidence, freedom from pain, more energy and enthusiasm, better mental and physical health, and control over stress and depression.

  Members can also help each other relax and control stress and eliminate boredom and the daily blahs. They can help each other breathe life and action into their innate creative abilities, help deal with spouse and children more effectively, and have greater appreciation of self.

  Students who join a hypnosis club can find help with improving memory, taking tests, developing selfconfidence and self-discipline, improving academic and athletic skills, and dealing with frustration and confusion.

  A hypnosis club can be formal or informal. A formal club can write up a charter, develop membership requirements, charge dues to purchase tapes and books, and establish meeting times and places. An informal club can include members who agree to meet at a specific day and time. Each brings their copy of Hypnosis for Beginners and alternately become hypnotist and subject as they solve problems. They may even develop new procedures and experiment.

  The beautiful thing about a hypnosis club is that there is no way you can achieve bad results. Nearly always, members achieve what is desired. However, if the subject doesn't cooperate, or if the operator has not yet developed sufficient skill, there may be no results. Remember, hypnosis is a learning process that requires much practice, so don't get upset when everything doesn't work out perfectly. There is no way you can cause harm to other members if you follow the guidelines and cautions given in this book.