Hypnosis used well can help us heal faster,2 leave depression behind,3 and overcome physical afflictions4 as well as emotional problems such as addictions.5,6 It can lessen physical pain,7 improve performance in sports,8 and even strengthen our muscles9 – all from our armchair!
So hypnosis is clearly amazing! But what exactly is it?
The mystery at your fingertips
Hypnosis isn’t just a psychological experience and nor is it just a physical experience. It’s both.
Every day, or, I should say, every night, you travel into the deepest of hypnotic trances. A trance in which your surroundings, even your everyday world, is forgotten. A state of mind in which you can do anything, from flying through the air on a magic carpet to communicating with phantasmagorical creatures.
I’m talking about dreams, of course.
We all spend at least 25% of our sleep time dreaming, whether we recall those dreams later on or not. Time spent dreaming is known as the REM (rapid eye movement) stage of sleep. We also call this stage ‘paradoxical sleep’, because your physiology and psychology are markedly different than in your non-dream sleep.
During REM sleep our attention is locked inward, onto the self-created realities of our deepest imagination.
