First things first, what is hypnosis? Well, hypnosis is not a method of controlling people. Instead it is a state of calm and inner focus. The common belief that hypnosis can make someone ‘act like a chicken' with a single command is wrong - when someone is in a hypnotic trance they become suggestible, so yes you can make them act like a chicken, but you have to still persuade them first.
Hypnosis is actually far widely used than people believe. Whenever you have an argument or debate with a person, both of you are trying to persuade the other to come around to your point of view. The victor though is usually the person who has the best argument, so this hypnosis is the mental equivalent of hitting them over the head with a two-by-four. The placebo effect is another. Hypnosis can also be used on entire populations or large gatherings of people, such an example being religion.
A fierce believer in a God will preach and if they are a good enough speaker then the audience will feel the same about that God. During Hitler's speeches he spoke intensely about his planned future for his country and the audience were so enflamed by his passion they had to support it, they could not possibly doubt it. You may have felt this - when a person is speaking to an audience about something you are interested in and you are listening, your hair will stand on end or you will have a tingling sensation throughout your body.
Hypnotizing yourself is actually quite easy - when you have done it once, you can do it again and it is not hard to start. First of all you need to have a goal for your intended state of mind. This can be inner calm, sleepiness, alertness or any other. The best thing now to do, to get the best results, is to go somewhere quiet. It helps to turn off mobile phones, and move away from the computer. Sitting or lying down helps, but when you have done it a few times, you will find you can do it anywhere.
Next, close your eyes and slow your breathing. You now need to imagine a staircase. Depending on your wanted state of mind it should go up or down - to become sleepy or calm it should go down and for alertness or self-confidence it should go up. The staircase should have exactly ten steps. Now you need to imagine yourself walking up or down the stairs, slowly. For every step you move onto you will become a bit more of your intended mind-state.
As you continue up or down you must think to yourself, ‘I am becoming [mind-state]' As you reach the final step you know that you have reached your desired state of mind and you can step off, and either open your eyes or keep them closed if you are trying to sleep.
Once you have done this once you can find a use for it anywhere and in any situation. Self hypnosis can help with anxiety, grief, fear, doubt, anger or any other mentally based emotion or feeling.
