 What is Hypnosis?
A relaxed, focused state of concentration. That is the definition. But the actual state of hypnosis is a little harder to define. Until recently it was assumed that it was similar to sleep, or that the mind was somehow unconscious. In reality, there is a specific state that the brain enters into when it is receptive to suggestion. This has been discovered on scans during hypnosis. It is not an unusual state of mind, and may feel like you are not in a trance, or in hypnosis. For most people they simply feel relaxed. There is a change in the brain wave activity, similar to that time just before sleep when the alpha state is entered.
Your brain's waking state is a beta brain wave, just as you are going to sleep it changes to alpha and then to delta and theta in deep sleep. The alpha state is a very dreamy, pleasant state. During this time the mind is very open to visualizations and creating a rich sensory experience. The more real the experience becomes in the subconscious mind during this state, the more effect it will have on your waking behavior.
Is hypnosis dangerous?
Hypnosis is a normal state of mind, one which most people go in and out of every day. When you are watching a movie that you are engrossed in, driving down a long monotonous road, listening to music that captures a mood or engrosses you, you are in hypnosis. We experience hypnosis every day and don't even know it. During a hypnosis session you would instantly get up and leave the room if it caught on fire, even if had previously felt like your arms and leg were too heavy to move.We have a built in “protector” that keeps us safe.
 Medical Research
As reported by NewScientist.com news service:
"Hypnosis is more than just a party trick; it measurably changes how the brain works," says John Gruzelier, a research psychologist at Imperial College in London. "Hypnosis significantly affects the activity in a part of the brain responsible for detecting and responding to errors, an area that controls higher level executive functions." The finding is one of the first to indicate a biological mechanism underpinning the experience of hypnosis. "This explains why, under hypnosis, people can do outrageous things that ordinarily they wouldn't dream of doing," says Gruzelier, who presented his study at the British Association for the Advancement of Science Festival in Exeter, UK. Gruzelier hopes it will also benefit emerging research showing, for example, that hypnosis can help cancer patients deal with painful treatments.
Some Famous Users of Hypnosis
Mozart (1756-91) apparently composed the famous opera Cosi fan tutte while hypnotised.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-92) repeated names to himself as a hypnotic mantra in order to access different states of consciousness in which whole poems came to him.
Thomas Edison inventor, Henry Ford car manufacturer and Albert Einstein physicist, all used trance states to develop their ideas.
Jackie Kennedy-Onassis used hypnotherapy to 'relive and let go of' tragic events in her life.
Rock star Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits reportedly beat his smoking habit through hypnosis.
Kevin Costner flew his personal hypnotist to Hawaii to cure his sea sickness during the making of the film "Waterworld".
Jimmy Connors used hypnosis to win the U.S. Open Championship.
Tiger Woods' mental coach, Jay Brunza hypnotizes him to block out distractions and focus on the golf course.
Champion golfer Jack Nicklaus claims that his success is entirely owed to practising concentration and visualisation.
Actor Sylvester Stallone after using a hypnotist finally got the courage to submit his "Rocky" script to a major Hollywood producer and while on location "would lie down and listen to a specially made subconscious motivation tape"
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