THE ENIGMA OF HYPNOSIS

It is full of seeming paradoxes: It is definitely not sleep, and yet is not really a waking state either; it depends on attention and concentration, and still is most often characterized by letting go and relaxing; it is most easily induced by a skilled person using specific verbal techniques, and yet it is exclusively the product of the hypnotized person's own mental abilities. Hypnosis has been extensively investigated in a scientific manner over a period of sixty years - and yet no generally accepted definition of the phenomenon exists. Fortunately, though, there is agreement among researchers and practitioners about what typically occurs when a person experiences the hypnotic state, and how the hypnotic state can be used to help people with a variety of problems.