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The Power of Your Mind

The following is an excerpt from Patrick Wanis' book, "How to Hypnotize Anyone!" -Copyright American Media 2002. This excerpt helps to explain hypnosis, hypnotherapy, and how to use it to make positive changes in your life. Please read all the way through this excerpt to learn how to use hypnosis for lasting change, and how to use it for love!

The word hypnosis comes from the Greek word "hypnos" which means to sleep. But hypnosis isn't sleep; it just looks like sleep.

Hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness in which the mind is open to suggestion. In other words, when hypnotized, you are less inhibited. It's a bit like being drunk, but your senses are actually heightened - and there's no hangover involved!

- Are you in a trance now?
- The conscious and subconscious
- Mind over body
- The raw onion
- Imagination and thought
- Your inner voice
- Reprogramming the Inner Voice
- A powerful tool
- Past life regression
- Hypnosis for lasting change: Hypnotherapy
- Hypnosis for love

Are you in a trance now?
We have all experienced various forms of trance. Have you ever been so focused on one thing that you block out everything else around you, even though you are somehow aware of what is going on?

A good example is driving a car and reaching your destination without remembering most of the journey, having lost track of time. Another example is making love: We become totally engrossed in what we are doing and block out everything else.

I remember one friend who went into trance after seeing the movie Rocky for the first time. He was so moved and energized by the movie, he ran all the way home - seven miles - without even saying goodbye!

The mind is an incredible machine. Learning about how it works is the first step in learning how to use hypnosis.

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The conscious and subconscious
There are two parts of the human mind - the conscious and subconscious. The conscious mind is your ability to evaluate and analyze, and your subconscious mind is the seat of your emotions.

You analyze things with your conscious mind, and how you feel about those same things is determined by your subconscious.

The subconscious mind directs your behavior, creativity, wisdom and intelligence. It regulates body-maintenance, breathing, blood circulation, digestion and tissue regeneration. The subconscious also controls your nervous system, your breathing, heart rate, digestion and blood circulation.

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Mind over body
Have you ever heard the term "mind over body?" It literally means the ability to use the mind to control the body. But is that possible? Can the mind make the body do things, amazing things, things beyond the ordinary?

There are documented stories of Tibetan monks who can make a frozen towel placed over their body catch fire just by using their mind, and voodoo witch doctors who can pierce their skin and bones with nails without bleeding or feeling any pain.

NASA has taught mind over body programs to its astronauts to slow down and speed up their heart rate, and to warm up and cool down their hands without moving them.

One technique I teach is pain control, in which clients with chronic pain can do a simple mental exercise that will dramatically lessen or remove their pain.

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The raw onion
Probably the best example of mind over body power comes from my stage hypnosis show. I hypnotize a group of people and tell them, "You are now on a deserted planet. Two weeks has passed and you have had nothing to drink. It is so hot and dry.

"You are hot and thirsty. In a moment, you will open your eyes, and you will be ten times more thirsty than you already are, and you will come to me.
"In my hand will be a fresh, ripe, juicy peach. You will take three big bites from it. You will chew it slowly, and it will quench your thirst.

"When you have finished chewing and eating this wonderful fresh, ripe juicy peach, you will go back to your seat, close your eyes and fall asleep."
Upon opening their eyes, it is quickly obvious that these hypnotized people are hot and thirsty. You see them loosen their collars, pant deeply, and call out for water.

They approach me and sometimes even push each other out of the way to get to the peach in my hand. They take three large bites and chew it slowly. The feeling of joy and satisfaction from eating that peach is all over their faces. They then return happily to their seats and fall back asleep. Their thirst has obviously been quenched.

Now you ask, what is so special about that? I pass around to the audience what is left of that fresh, ripe, juicy "peach." The audience laughs and at the same time is in total shock as they see that what these hypnotized people just ate was in fact not a fresh, ripe juicy peach, but a raw onion. Yes, a raw onion!

So what happened? How did these people eat a raw onion and not taste it? Why did they not spit it out or frown horribly at the awful taste? Why did not even one of them cry? And how were they able to chew it so slowly for so long and not even flinch but instead look as if they were actually enjoying it?

They were so deeply hypnotized that they did not see, smell or taste an onion. Their minds convinced their bodies that what they were eating was a peach. Even if someone is allergic to onions, they will not be affected, because the body does not recognize the onion - it believes it is a peach.

Here's the other truly amazing thing. Twenty to 30 minutes later, at the end of the show, when they come out of trance, I approach my hypnotic subjects and mention that their breath smells like onions. Although they don't remember ever eating an onion, suddenly the foul taste takes over, and sometimes tears well up in their eyes. Now that's the power of the mind in action!

So we know that there are two parts to the human mind - the conscious and subconscious. You evaluate and analyze things with your conscious mind, and how you feel about those same things is determined by the subconscious.
And despite all that we believe, we are in fact controlled entirely by our emotions. That means every decision we make is an emotional decision.
Even a so-called logical decision such as putting on sunblock to prevent skin cancer is emotionally based. Why? Because we are fearful of cancer, and therefore we try to avoid the pain of getting skin cancer by putting on sunblock.
This also explains why we eat food that we know is bad for us or continue to engage in self-destructive habits.

If you were asked to walk a thick, sturdy plank that was placed on two bricks, you would find that easy. Now what if that same plank was placed 15 feet in the air, could you walk it easily? Probably not. Why not? Because fear would take over.

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Imagination and thought
The fear comes from your imagination and the thought, "I might fall and hurt myself." You immediately imagine falling, and the pain that follows. Logic may tell you, "There's no wind, and the plank is thick and strong," but still you are scared. Your emotions and imagination are much stronger than your logic.
The same applies to all of our habits and patterns of behavior. Take overeating, for example. You say to yourself, "Now I know that eating this tub of ice cream is bad for me, but it tastes great."

You think about it a for a moment, and then you imagine the wonderful taste of your favorite flavor of ice cream melting in your mouth, cooling you down, and boom - you go ahead and eat the ice cream.
Our logic tells us one thing but our emotions determine what action we take. In other words, we believe there is more pleasure from eating the ice cream than not eating it.

If, under hypnosis, you were convinced that eating ice cream and cake would hurt you more than it would give you pleasure, you would stop eating them. Now your emotions would work in your favor.

Another example is public speaking. Research shows that people's greatest fear is not death - it's public speaking.

Why are we more scared of speaking than dying? Because we imagine getting up in front of the audience and making a total idiot of ourselves. As human beings, one of our deepest fears is embarrassment and shame

Because of these fearful imaginings, most of us won't even attempt to speak in public. For most of us, the fear stops us from even trying!
Willpower is not stronger than imagination or emotions. And our imagination and emotions come from thoughts we create.

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Your inner voice
We say that only mad people talk to themselves, but the truth is that we all talk to ourselves all day long, without even knowing it. In fact, we have around 60,000 thoughts a day. What are we thinking? What are we telling ourselves, and where does this inner voice come from?
Self-talk is what we repeat to ourselves - our mental background music. Most of us are not even aware of our self-talk, yet it has a powerful influence on behavior, our stress, motivation and actions.

This inner voice is often referred to as the chatterbox, because it practically never ceases talking. This inner chatterbox is the voice inside your head that says, " I can't do it… I'll fail… I am a loser… I am fat…" or "You can't afford it… You will never be rich… You're stupid… You're ugly…"

All those thoughts that make up the chatterbox are the result of everything you have ever been told and that you accepted as true. These thoughts and messages are the things you were told during your childhood by your parents, family, peers and the media. They can also be the result of events that occurred in your life or your personal thoughts and fears.

You may find that many of the things your parents told you as a child are the very things you repeat to yourself all day long - often without even knowing it.
Some of these things you accepted as true because you experienced them as a child, and children learn by imitating. For example, if your parents worked hard to make their money, you probably believe that only hard work leads to money, yet others around you may seem to come into money easily.

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Reprogramming the Inner Voice
One of the keys to happiness, peace of mind and getting what we want is being able to change the messages we continually repeat to ourselves all day long.
If you consistently and permanently change your self-talk and start saying, "I am thin and attractive" instead of "I am fat and ugly," your mind would direct you toward activity to make you thinner. Your imagination starts to create images and pictures of you as a thin person. You start to exercise or eat less, and you become thinner.

Hypnosis works the same way by changing permanently your thoughts, beliefs, self-talk and imagination - and thus, your reality.

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A powerful tool
Today, the science of hypnosis is being used to treat and cure a variety of physical and mental conditions, including:

" Insomnia
" Addictions like smoking and overeating
" Obsessions and phobias
" Bed wetting
" Teeth grinding and nail biting

Hypnosis can also improve:
" Sexual performance
" Sports performance
" Creativity
" Healing
" Learning
" School grades
" Phobias, panic attacks and anxiety
" Self-confidence and self-esteem

Many doctors and dentists use hypnosis in place of anesthesia, particularly for those who may be allergic to anesthetics.

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Past life regression
One current popular use for hypnosis is past life regression. A person is deeply hypnotized and taken back in time to recall or relive a former life or lives in an attempt to learn more about him- or herself, heal past hurts and help change behavior in the present life.

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Hypnosis for lasting change: Hypnotherapy
In hypnosis, it's important to realize that the person hypnotized will only perform suggestions while he or she is hypnotized, and then for about two minutes after they come out of trance. Permanent behavioral change only comes from hypnotherapy. In other words, you cannot command a hypnotized person to do something after they come out of hypnosis.

For a suggestion to work after the person has come out of trance, an entirely different process must be used

In hypnotherapy, the subject is given new understanding that leads to permanent change. For example, hypnotizing someone to lose weight and commanding him or her to exercise and quit eating junk and fatty foods will most likely be totally ineffective. The key is to help the hypnotized person understand at a deep level why it is better for him or her to change that behavior and how he or she will gain so much more pleasure from the new habit.

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Hypnosis for love
Now, for those who want to know if they can use hypnosis to attract a lover - yes, you can. But hypnosis is actually more effective once you are already in a relationship.

Hypnosis can be used to improve your love life by helping you both to release inhibitions, and improve all aspects of romance.

But remember - for any of this to work, the gal or guy must be willing to be hypnotized. You should both discuss prior to the hypnotic induction what you plan to do once your partner is hypnotized.

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