Suggestions

Wikipedia defines suggestion as the psychological process by which a person guides their own or another person’s desired thoughts, feelings, and behaviors by presenting stimuli that may elicit them as reflexes instead of relying on conscious effort.

Suggestions are a crucial part of hypnosis. It is both the most mysterious and most obvious part of hypnosis.

On one hand, it’s almost too simple. The hypnotist tells the hypnotee what to do, and the hypnotee does it. On the other hand, hypnotic suggestions can be like magic, utterly real and convincing to people.

Under the direction of the hypnotist, the hypnotee is able to alter their perceptions and their experience of reality. The ability to alter perception is an ability that most people never exercise and may not even realize exists, so it’s only in the context of hypnosis that people experience this.

The ability to alter perception is called phenomenological control. If we want to know how hypnotic suggestions work, we have to understand perception.

Perception is the brain’s best-fitting model for the information entering the senses. Everything we see, hear, feel, and experience is a hallucination; the brain has no ability to interact directly with the senses, only with the processed data that it receives.

This section will walk you through the guidelines and parameters of suggestion, and walk you through some common suggestions.