Fiction: In some earlier Hollywood horror movies the Bad Guy has innate hypnotic powers. He hypnotises his victims by fixing them with a penetrating, and oft times, ridiculous stare. The audience are frozen in awe as the victims exhibit zombie-like expressions and become mindless slaves to Bad Guy’s evil will.

Fiction: A Hypnotist can take over your will and make you do all sorts of foolish things.

Fact: In hypnosis you cannot be made to do anything that you do not want to do.

Fact: Hypnosis is a totally natural way of being.

Fact: In a typical Hypnotherapy session you are deeply relaxed and deeply suggestible. Yet you remain fully aware of all that is happening.

Fact: In hypnosis dialogue from the Hypnotist bypasses your conscious mind and goes directly to your subconscious mind without being analysed or censured. Conversely, your responses come directly from your subconscious mind.

Fact: There are different levels of hypnosis, ranging from light trance to a very deep hypnotic state – sometimes called the “Esdaile” state (named after Dr James Esdaile, 1808-1859).

Fact: A state of anaesthesia can be produced using hypnosis. Thousands of operations, even amputations, have been successfully performed while the patients were under hypnosis.

Fact: A Hypnotherapist will use various therapy methods depending on the nature of the problem. The most widely used methods are: Suggestion Therapy, Age Regression Therapy, Past Life Regression Therapy, and Parts Therapy.

Fact: Suggestion Therapy delivers positive suggestions to your subconscious mind – where the root of the problem resides. It treats a wide range of problems and is commonly used to erase harmful habits, such as smoking. In this instance, positive suggestions could be: “You are now a non-smoker…. All thoughts of smoking are leaving your mind.”

Fact: Age Regression Therapy, sometimes called “Analytical Therapy,” is used for more deep-seated issues such as phobias, behavioural problems and inexplicable physical conditions. It takes a number of sessions to explore “repressed” areas of the patient’s past and to find the root cause of the problem – the “Initial Sensitising Event” (ISE). Once the cause of the problem is brought to consciousness and dealt with, the problem itself soon disappears.

Fact: Past Life Therapy works in the same way as Age Regression Therapy. The difference is that Past Life Therapy takes the patient back in time to experience prior life times. This can be quite effective, especially when dealing with more entrenched issues.

Fact: Parts Therapy works on the premise that your subconscious mind is comprised of parts. Individual parts can become active or passive, naughty or nice, at any time they choose. Just like two-year-old children, parts can conflict with each other in order to get their own way. In Hypnotherapy the Therapist enables the patient to converse with problematic parts and helps resolve the conflict between them.

Fact: Hypnotherapy is not a substitute for conventional medicine. It can, however, be used to dramatically speed up the process of healing and to resolve many health issues.