We could talk for hours about what hypnosis is and what it is not.

We could fill an encyclopedia of definitions, filling the appendix with qualifiers. After all, every definition has its exceptions.

Including the one I like to use.

I’m sure if you sit down, you could pick this apart, finding all sorts of cases where this doesn’t apply.

And that’s fine.

This is not the only definition of hypnosis as far as I am concerned. But it is my definition, in all its glory without filters or censorship.

And that is simply this:

Hypnosis is where you deliberately make unconscious material conscious.

That’s it, nothing fancy.

I wouldn’t present this at a hypnosis seminar or medical conference, because it lacks the precision that the public expects. But between you and me, this is more than enough.

Consider:

Your mind brings unconscious material into consciousness every day. At least I hope it does. That’s what dreams are: the raw churning of your unconscious mind: processing, organizing, storing, intuiting, all without conscious involvement.

Even if you don’t remember your dreams, you still have them. They are an important part of your mental functioning, and we still don’t know everything there is to learn about them.

The dream remains mysterious.

But that’s okay, because we’re not talking about sleeping here. It does not meet the crucial part of the definition:

‘Deliberately.’

Even lucid dreamers have non-lucid dreams, where the chaos of the unconscious mind roams free. Even if they didn’t, lucid dreamers are the first to tell you that they don’t control everything, they’re just awake enough to shape it and enjoy it.

With hypnosis, you are in a trance. Although we often compare it to sleeping, it is not that similar. During most of his trances, he is fully aware of what is happening and can remember everything afterwards.

And if something dramatic happened, it would stick in your mind, not like a dream that likes to fade, no matter how vivid.

With hypnosis, the hypnotist and the subject are in control. Unexpected things will happen (I have never had a trance free of surprises), but the goal and the process are deliberate.

Which brings us to the other part:

Make unconscious material conscious.

That is exactly what a trance is. It feels like entering a new but familiar part of your mind.

Maybe it’s something you forgot.

It may be more intense than you normally experience.

Or it could be something you’ve never dreamed of before…and yet it comes with a sense of deja vu.

It’s usually not like an alien presence in your mind, even with the strangest of experiences. It is more often as if you somehow always know what you are now learning.

This is how you grow through hypnosis, realizing everything that is below the surface. All your old instincts, memories, prejudices and thought patterns, things that were automatic and invisible, suddenly come into focus.

You can let go of what you no longer need.

And create whatever works best for you.

Of course, it’s not always that simple. Going into a trance and changing oneself is an ability, just like any other. You may or may not be natural about it; either way, it only gets good with practice.

And you know what? Sometimes it’s that easy.

Sometimes just by going into a trance, you instantly see the solutions.

You’d be surprised what your unconscious shows you once you give it a chance.