There are many ways to define hypnosis.  Here’s the central definition of hypnosis that I teach my students at the Institute for Therapeutic Learning: We’re always selectively paying attention to only a small portion of the data that comes to us through our senses and our thoughts. This is everyday hypnosis. When a hypnotist invites  a person to move that selective attention to whatever the hypnotist suggests — and the person does so — that person is said to be hypnotized.

What we pay attention to determines what we experience and what we feel. It sounds simple. But when you’re having a strong emotion or a craving, do you just stop, relax, take a deep breath and tell yourself, “This emotion or craving is just an arbitrary temporary experience based on what I’m selectively paying attention to”? Or do you relate to that anger, annoyance or sudden craving as if it is the truth of the moment, as if you absolutely must act on it? I don’t know about you, but I tend to do more of the latter, and less of the former!

If we relate to what’s happening as if it is the truth — something that must be attended to — then we are engaged in a hypnotic state . . .  even though, if you asked someone else about it, they’d probably agree that you’re in a perfectly “normal” conscious state experiencing “Reality” as it is!

For a fun experiment in considering what is real about your experience, watch this video.

My Experience of Everyday Hypnosis

When driving I usually consider my alertness and attention to be largely unaffected by talking to a passenger or eating a candy bar. And I also know, thanks to a recent auto accident, that I am wrong in thinking I’m alert to the greater environment if I’m doing several things at once.

That might be all right in the office or living room, but not in the car!

May we all drive safely and be free from ignorance.