What Does Hypnosis Feel Like?
When it comes to hypnosis, many first timers want to know: what does it feel like?
They have seen the movies of hypnotized people who become into zombie-like robots that follow every command of the hypnotist. Or they watched a stage hypnosis show where people did the most ridiculous thing on stage under the spell of hypnosis. Maybe they have even read some magazine articles or a book about “real” hypnosis, vs. the “entertainment hypnosis”.
But all studying won’t help you to get the know the feeling of being hypnotized.
The surprising answer is: being hypnotized feels different to different people. And usually, it doesn’t feel strange at all. Most people describe the hypnotized feeling as “relaxed and calm”. For some people their arms and legs become heavier. For others, they become weightless.
One of the most common experiences that goes hand in hand with being hypnotized is the lack of orientation in time. Oftentimes an hypnosis session might have lasted 30 minutes, yet to on subject it feels like 5 minutes, and to another subject it feels like an hour.
Many of those who had ideas of somehow experiencing extreme altered-states of consciousness have a hard time believing that they actually DID get hypnotized. “No, I wasn’t hypnotized. I remember everything that happened.” Well, yes, you can be hypnotized and remember everything that happened. It’s not like hypnosis knocks you out like a swing on the chin. Because these people have these “high expectations” of hypnosis, they have a hard time coming to grasp with the fact that hypnosis actually feels… pretty much normal.
Now you CAN induce all kinds of strange physical sensations under hypnosis. But than that should be the clearly defined goal of the hypnotic session. For example, you can tell a hypnotist: “Look, I really just want to experiment a bit with my brain. I want to have a mind trip on hypnosis.” But if you just want to be hypnotized for stress-relief, or smoking cessation or weightloss or any other thing, there is absolutely no need to get trippy.
However, if you do want to feel some outrageous hypnosis, then the best way to start is really one of these audio recordings:
