You’re Already Using Hypnosis

Yes, it’s actually hypnosis!

One of the oddest things about hypnosis is that millions of people use it every day while insisting they can't be hypnotized.

Call it visualization, mental rehearsal, guided imagery, or performance psychology, but if you're deliberately creating vivid experiences in your mind that affect your thoughts, emotions, and performance, then yes, it's actually hypnosis.

Of course, when many people hear the word hypnosis, they imagine something mysterious or theatrical. But hypnosis is much simpler than that. It's just the process of using imagination and focused attention to create real changes in thoughts, feelings, and behaviour.

And people do it all the time.

Olympic skiers mentally run the course before they ever reach the top of the mountain. Archers rehearse the perfect shot. Golfers imagine the perfect swing. Musicians hear the performance in their minds before they step onto the stage. Surgeons walk themselves through difficult procedures. Speakers rehearse presentations. In every case, they're creating experiences internally that influence what happens externally.

In other words, they're doing hypnosis.

The amusing thing is that many of these same people will insist they don't believe in hypnosis, despite using it every day and obtaining excellent results from it.

Neuroscientists have discovered that vividly imagined experiences activate many of the same pathways involved in actual performance. The brain itself doesn't draw a sharp distinction between vividly imagined experience and actual experience, which is one reason mental rehearsal works so remarkably well.

Great athletes have known this for generations, even before neuroscientists came along and started measuring it. They don't merely hope things will go well. They experience success repeatedly in their minds before they ever step onto the field, into the ring, or onto the slopes.

I've seen the same thing in my own life. During the more than forty years I spent performing stage hypnosis shows, I was quite nervous in the early days. Before going on stage, I'd sit quietly for a few minutes and deliberately put myself into trance. I'd mentally rehearse the opening, imagine myself speaking comfortably and confidently, and picture the audience responding exactly the way I wanted.

It worked beautifully.

Eventually, I didn't need to do it anymore. The patterns had become so thoroughly established that walking onto a stage simply became what I did.

Years later, in 1995, I found myself performing live on television in Australia, knowing that somewhere between one and four million people in Australia and New Zealand were watching. Yet I felt completely at ease. There was no nervousness at all. Everything simply unfolded naturally, and I remember realizing that I'd finally arrived.

The rehearsal had become reality.

That's what practice does. And mental practice is no exception.

Of course, people who aren't athletes are using hypnosis all the time too, though often in less helpful ways.

Have you ever replayed an unpleasant conversation over and over in your mind and found yourself becoming angry all over again? Have you ever imagined an upcoming event going badly and felt anxious before it even happened?

Congratulations. You've already demonstrated the power of hypnosis.

You simply pointed it in the wrong direction.

Fortunately, the process works just as well when it's used intelligently.

Here's something you can do immediately.

Think of an event coming up in the next few days. Perhaps it's a meeting, a presentation, a difficult conversation, or even a game of pickleball.

First, imagine you're watching yourself in that future situation, almost as though you're observing a film. Notice your posture, your facial expressions, and the ease with which you're handling everything.

Watch yourself responding calmly and confidently. See yourself smiling. Notice how naturally everything unfolds. Hear the sounds around you and observe yourself performing exactly the way you'd like.

Run this little movie several times.

Then, when you're satisfied with what you've seen, step into that picture and experience it through your own eyes. Now see what you'll see, hear what you'll hear, and notice how good it feels to perform so naturally and effectively.

Finally, imagine the event is over and hear yourself saying, "That went beautifully."

You're not trying to predict the future.

You're rehearsing success.

Milton Erickson understood this very well. He famously had his son mentally rehearse shooting basketball free throws, vividly and repeatedly, and his son's performance improved dramatically.

We've all heard that practice makes perfect, but in reality, perfect practice makes perfect. Mental rehearsal is simply perfect practice carried out in the theatre of the mind.

The mind tends to move in the direction of its dominant pictures. Most people understand this when it comes to worry, but somehow forget it when it comes to success.

If you can mentally rehearse disaster, embarrassment, and failure, and most people do, then you can certainly rehearse confidence, competence, and success.

Both are hypnosis.

One simply produces better results.

Eventually, the mind begins to accept the rehearsal as familiar territory. And familiarity has a remarkable tendency to become reality.

Yes, it's actually hypnosis.

Until next time,

- Mike