Another part of the conscious mind is called the rational part of the conscious mind. This part of us must give us a reason why we behave in a particular fashion. Sometimes, if we don't have a reason why we do the things that we do, we become anxious, nervous, and frustrated. The only problem with the reason the rational mind gives us as to why we behave in any particular fashion is that it's often wrong. For example, we often reach for something to eat when we're bored, anxious, depressed, or for a myriad number of other reasons, when we're actually not hungry. Yet we tell ourselves that we're eating out of hunger.

Another part of the conscious mind is what we call willpower. You're familiar with willpower. We've all heard someone say, "I'm going to put down this pack of cigarettes and nothing on God's earth will make me start smoking again." Well, we all know how long that lasts! Just until willpower weakens, and then the old habit pattern comes back again.

The conscious mind also contains what we call working memory. That's the memory we need every day. How do I find my way to work? What is my phone number? Where did I leave my car keys? It is the memory that we need just to get through an average day. The content of the conscious is within the realm of awareness at all times.

The level below the conscious is called the subconscious, or inner, mind. The subconscious mind is extremely powerful. It can make you into anything you'd like to be: rich, famous, thin, fat, happy, sad - it's the real us. The greater part of our mental life is below the conscious level, below our awareness, and it has a great impact on our conscious acts, thoughts, and feelings.

Like the conscious mind, the subconscious mind has several functions. One of the duties of the subconscious is control of the body mechanisms. One part of the brain regulates the autonomic nervous system, controlling every organ and gland. The subconscious is probably able to control chemical and electrical reactions as well. Hypnotic experiments have been made that show the control by the subconscious of many such mechanisms.

The subconscious is the storehouse of memory and learning. It seems that we can record every perception when received, much as if a motion picture is being made, with sound effects and even with all the other senses registering, not only sight and hearing, but touch, smell, and taste as well.

Only a very small part of all the things that happen to us is subject to conscious recall. Most people have very few conscious memories of things occurring to them before the age of five years. Perhaps a few exciting or very interesting events may be remembered. Now and then, there may be a very early memory, but often it is something we were told about long afterwards. We only think it is the real memory. Nevertheless, everything that happens to us is in our subconscious memory in the greatest detail. We can consciously forget, but the subconscious never forgets. Much that we consciously forget continues to affect us in many ways. Even if we can't recall everything at the conscious level, we never really forget anything.

Habitual behavior is a function of the subconscious mind. You know you have some good habits, and you know you have some bad habits, but really most of our habits aren't good or bad. Most of our habits really are utilitarian habits. We automatically respond in a certain fashion when something else happens. For example, when the telephone rings, we don't look at it and wonder what it is; we automatically pick it up and answer it.

Another part of our subconscious mind controls our emotions. We wouldn't want to be without our emotions, but sometimes our emotions get us into trouble. When we feel intense emotion, we tend to deal with the particular situation from our irrational but highly intelligent subconscious mind. Sometimes it gets us into trouble! I know that many times in the past you've dealt with a situation emotionally, and then after the situation was over, when the analytical conscious mind took over, you heart yourself thinking or saying something like this, "Now why did I say that? Why did I do that?"

Another important part of the subconscious mind is the protective mind. It must protect us against danger, real or imagined. You see, something imagined by the subconscious mind is just as real as if it were actually happening. It can't tell the difference, and it must protect us against danger. This part of the mind is always aware and functioning, whether you are awake or asleep. It is even aware when the conscious mind is out, as from a blow, or when under an anaesthetic drug. The mother of a baby may be sleeping soundly, but at the first whimper or cry from her child, she will instantly awaken. Her subconscious has said, "Come on, wake up! Something may be wrong with the baby." If you inadvertently touch something hot, your inner mind sends messages instantly to the muscles of your arm, and you snatch your hand away before you can think and analyze the situation. In many other ways, the subconscious is always alert to guard you from harm and danger. Yet, paradoxically, it can also cause illness and even self-destructive behavior.

There is one part of the conscious mind that I haven't told you about yet, a part that quickly stops suggestion. This is called the critical factor of the conscious mind. I want you to think of this part of your conscious mind as an employee, if you will, of the subconscious. Its job is to stop, to put on hold like a red traffic light, any suggestion of change that we give ourselves or receive from an outside source. It stops it. The critical factor is like the rudder of a ship. It can keep you on course and is the pilot of all your inhibitions. It sends such signals as: "I can't," "I won't," or ""I haven't been able to before, so I can't now." Its influence is necessary when it reminds you, for example, of the folly of feeding crocodiles by hand. But it needs to be overcome when it paralyzes you into crystallized habit patterns, when healthy caution becomes crippling fear. Ideally, your critical factor screens impulses, filters out what is harmful, and helps you set realistic goals. But because the critical factor responds to the subconscious, and because the subconscious is protective, the critical factor does not always work in an ideal fashion.

Hypnosis is a state of intense focused concentration, where peripheral distractions are minimized or excluded. It is a natural way of having access to the subconscious. It is a form of communication that harmonizes your conscious and subconscious minds. If properly used, it is a means of achieving more of the potential which we all possess. A hypnotherapist/hypnotist is the individual who guides another into a highly relaxed state by using a variety of techniques to help the subject bypass the critical factor of his or her conscious, analytical, outer mind in order to reach the subconscious, intuitive, inner mind. Hypnosis occurs when your critical factor is persuaded to take a break. With your mental watchdog napping, a choice suggestion or two can easily be incorporated by your inner mind.

We have all experienced brief periods of the hypnotic state but may not have been aware of it. Natural trance occurs during moments of intense concentration or creativity when, for example, a composer may have not recollection of having written a phrase. The notes seemed to have arranged themselves. Or an accountant may become so involved in his weekly business report that he's unaware of the movement and noise around him. Moviegoers can become so engrossed in what is happening on the screen, their focus is so exclusively there, that they respond to events as though they are part of them, and not a member of the audience. Drivers have had the experience of being so preoccupied with something that they lose all sense of the road, of the flow of traffic, and of whether or not they have passed other cars. Because you have already learned to drive, your driving skill is stored in your subconscious. As you begin your journey, you get into your car, maneuver out into the highway, move into a continuous flow of traffic, and reach a constant speed. Now your conscious mind is free. Because the knowledge required for driving exists in your subconscious, your conscious mind drifts off, allowing your subconscious to become more active. You may become so engrossed in your thoughts that you drive in the direction of your office, when your actual destination is the grocery store or the movie theater. When your attention is needed to change lanes, avoid something in the road, stop at a toll gate, or slow down for an off ramp, your conscious mind comes into play again. You may even arrive at your destination and wonder how you got there so quickly.

All of these instances have features common with the hypnotic state. The major difference is that they are isolated events and other things soon impinge on your consciousness to terminate them. What is important is that they do occur, you do experience them, and they are not psychological abnormalities. With some learning, it is possible to consciously create the conditions in which these states may occur and be maintained. In other words, there is nothing particularly magical or mystical about the hypnotic state. Because it is such a familiar feeling, some people, after their first hypnotic session, question whether they were truly hypnotized.

Hypnosis induced by a hypnotist/hypnotherapist is probably not what you expect it to be. Our bodies are very relaxed, but the more we go into hypnosis, the more alert our minds become. In hypnosis all of your five senses, including sound, smell, taste, and vision, are many times better than they are right now. You may be concerned about what hypnosis can do to you. Hypnosis is not in any way harmful, but it is completely understandable for a beginning hypnotic subject to have some reservations.

Let me tell you some facts. The first one is this-there is only one form of hypnosis. All hypnosis is self-hypnosis. You don't need me to go into a beautiful, deep state of hypnosis all by yourself, and you certainly don't need me to give you suggestions of positive change in any area of your life. You can do that all by yourself. The reason you are here today is because you don't know how, but I teach people how to do that all the time. It's the easiest thing in the world. All I can ever be for you or anyone else is a guide. If you allow me to be your guide, I'll show you how to place yourself in a beautiful state of hypnosis, experiencing physical relaxation and mental alertness. If you allow me to be your guide, I'll show you how to stay there until we're finished. If you don't want to be in this beautiful relaxed state, all you have to do is have the slightest thought that you don't want to be in this relaxed state anymore, and instantly it's over, and you are back to your normal state of awareness. But if you follow my guidance, I'll show you how to stay there.

Hypnosis is a one hundred percent consent state by you. You must allow things to happen. You can stop them from happening with the slightest thought that you don't want them to happen. Now I want you to understand that anyone who has average or above average I.Q. and wants to be hypnotized can go into a hypnotic trance state. The only thing that keeps a person from going into that beautiful state of physical relaxation and mental alertness is if they have a fear or a misconception about what hypnosis really is.

I would like to talk briefly about some of the more common fears and misconceptions of hypnosis. Some people feel that when a person is in hypnosis, that person is asleep. The word "hypnosis" stems from hypnos, the Greek word for sleep. However, people who experience hypnosis are not actually sleeping - far from it. They may appear to others to be asleep, but they can think, talk, open their eyes, respond to suggestion, and move in any way. Electroencephalograms, or EEG readings, taken on people during hypnosis show a high incidence of alpha wave activity that indicates a relaxed yet attentive brain.

Some people are afraid that they won't emerge from hypnosis. Anytime you want to emerge from hypnosis, all you have to do is have the slightest thought that you don't want to be in this relaxed state anymore, and instantly it's over and you're back to your normal awareness. Even if the hypnotherapist/hypnotist went away and left a subject in hypnosis, the subject would either return to full consciousness on his or her own or would enter a sleep and awaken after a pleasant nap.

Some people have the misconception that they will tell me all their deep, dark secrets when they are in hypnosis. However, while you are in hypnosis, you are always in control of what you choose to do or say. If you don't want to tell me something, you never will. If I were to ask you for information that was none of my business, you would simply tell me that it was none of my business. Nobody can make you divulge information that is proprietary. Similarly, hypnosis is not truth serum. If a person wishes to be untruthful while hypnotized, he or she can easily lie.

And then there is that powerful misconception that the hypnotherapist/hypnotist can control the patient and make him or her do anything the hypnotherapist/hypnotist wants the patient to do. In reality, the subject is always in control, hyper-alert and concentrating at a high level. In this mental state, he or she can have the experience structured by a hypnotherapist/hypnotist, but the choice of whether to cooperate or not is his or hers alone. Thus, you will not do anything you do not think is acceptable. You cannot be made to violate your own values or accepted patterns of behavior. Some people say, "Wait a minute! I hear what you are saying, but I've seen stage hypnosis work, and I know those people control those folks. I've seen them bark like a dog and do other silly things." Through a series of questions, observations, and audience participation exercises, the stage hypnotist picks those volunteers who are somewhat exhibitionistic. Those people want to have fun and they don't mind being made fun of. That is, they will play the game and do silly things.

What are the attitudes you should adopt for hypnosis? There are basically four:

l. You must be motivated. You must want to be hypnotized and you must want to succeed at it. Beginning the endeavor halfheartedly is not a ticket to success. You must want to succeed and believe that you will succeed.

2. You must be involved in the process. Hypnosis is not, as many believe, a passive act; it requires your full involvement and positive participation. In other words, you must apply yourself, direct your attention, and concentrate on the process.

3. You must direct your will to cooperate and not to go against the hypnotic
process. This is not the same as wanting something to happen. You may want something to happen but apply your will negatively, so that it is difficult or impossible for it to happen.

4. You must approach hypnosis with an uncritical acceptance. Only by doing this will you allow suggestions to pass from your conscious into your subconscious.

Not one of these is absolutely necessary in the sense that if one is absent, then hypnosis is impossible. Nor do you require all of them to be present simultaneously. However, the more you can develop these attributes, the more successful you will be. It is not a question of either having these attributes or not, but rather to what degree you have them.

I know you are going to enjoy our session together. If you have any questions, I'll be more than happy to discuss them with you. Remember, hypnosis is a wonderful, wonderful way to change your life, and it is available to you.

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