Deeper Inside: The Art, Science and Power of Self Hypnosis for Self Mastery and Inner Peace

You know there is more to ‘you’ than you know, right? That’s why you’re reading this. There are hidden depths of potential inside you, just waiting to be accessed… For centuries, people have been discovering ways to access that incredible inner power. Today, we call it Self Hypnosis.

The power to influence your thoughts, your feelings, your very being is not some mystical secret… it’s a fundamental part of the human story.

First a Little Self Hypnosis History

Ancient civilizations across the world engaged in solo practices akin to self hypnosis… focused attention and self directed intention.

Meditation traditions in Hinduism and Buddhism utilized breath and mantra to induce altered states in the practitioners, sitting quietly. The tribal elder or Shaman dancing, entering a trance-like state to gain insight for himself, a particular person or the group as a whole.

These early practices, although not formally self hypnosis, were tapping into the very same principles: focused attention and the power of suggestion… directed from within.

11th century Persian polymath Ibn Sina (or Avicenna) used the phrase “Al Wahm al-Amil,” meaning ‘active suggestion’ or ‘working suggestion’, in his works: The Book of Healing (published 1027 CE).

He used this term ‘active suggestion’ to describe a form of hypnosis… highlighting the power of imagination and suggestion on individuals experience. This was possibly the first written reference to a self derived hypnosis.

At the dawning of the 19th century, the term ‘Hypnosis’ was coined by James Braid. In his work: ‘Observations on Trance or Human Hybernation’ Braid details the earliest account of self hypnosis. Describing his successful treatment of crippling rheumatism by using hypnosis on himself.

In the early 20th century a formalizing of an approach that starts to look a lot like modern self hypnosis started to appear with the insightful work of Émile Coué.

Coué realized that the most powerful force for change resided “Not in external remedies alone, but within the individual themselves”. This lead him to formalizing Autosuggestion, the practice of deliberately directing your own inner dialogue… Planting seeds of positivity in your unconscious mind.

Techniques like mentally counting down, visualizing yourself descending to a peaceful place, or simply using the power of your intention to go deeper, became invaluable tools.

Hypnosis, Self Hypnosis & Stage Hypnosis

It’s all about intention, trance and change…

Self Hypnosis offers convenience, cost-effectiveness and privacy. Self Hypnosis is the process by which an individual induces a hypnotic state on themselves. It’s a self-induced state of focused concentration and deep relaxation.

Hypnosis, also known as hypnotherapy, is a state of heightened focus, concentration, and relaxation, induced by a trained hypnotherapist using a large verity of verbal and non-verbal skills and techniques. Hypnosis with a practitioner provides expert guidance, deeper trance states, and support for complex issues.

Stage Hypnosis is entertainment and relies on a lot of social compliance… While the power of hypnosis and suggestion are part of these performances, there are several other crucial elements that contribute to the allure and success of stage hypnosis.

Through skilled showmanship, the stage hypnotist creates an atmosphere of excitement… by using carefully chosen volunteers.

The Benefits of Self Hypnosis

The benefits that can be obtained from Self Hypnosis with its focused approach to making change to behaviors, beliefs and habits, etc are HUGE (compared to doing nothing or the same as you’ve always done!)

Self Hypnosis provides a direct route to accessing and influencing/changing the emotions attached to: memories, bad habits, fears, anxieties… allowing you to reprogram limiting beliefs, values and create positive changes in your life.

Life Changing results can happen in a single session. While sometimes it’s continued and incremental changes that are experienced over regular practice.

The Benefits of Self Hypnosis Include:

Accelerated Physical Well-Being: By tapping into your body’s natural healing potential and activating your body’s innate healing capabilities.

The National Library of Medicine (NIH), in a publication in 2022, showed that hypnotic suggestions profoundly effected both the endocrine system and the autonomic nervous system: “increasing Growth Hormone levels by a staggering 400%”. There are many other studies drawing the same conclusions.

Mental & Behavioral Shifts: Breaking free from unwanted habits and cultivating positive change. You can transform unwanted thoughts and behaviors with ease using self hypnosis.

“Meta-analytic evidence on the efficacy of hypnosis for mental and somatic health issues: a 20-year perspective” This study was a meta-analyses of 261 distinct primary studies… resulting in 99.2% of the outcomes demonstrating positive effects.

Meaningful Spiritual Exploration and Growth: Spiritual awakenings happen all the time… With self hypnosis you can open the doors to deeper understanding and spiritual connection.

Somewhat less studied… but as you look at the overwhelming scientific evidence for physical healing and emotional/behavioral change above! Spiritual awakenings and insights can happen if that is your intension… at least that’s my personal experience.

With Self Hypnosis You Can:

…deep insights into how and why you do what you do. Understanding the root causes of your actions, empowering you to create lasting change and achieve your desired outcomes.

Self Hypnosis: Techniques

#1 The Betty Erickson Technique

Betty Erickson was Milton H. Erickson’s daughter. She created this simple and elegant process, called the Betty Erickson Technique.

First: Settle into a comfortable position, sitting or lying down. Bring your attention to your immediate surroundings…

You’re going to start by making five visual observations about the world around you. Stay sitting still, allow your eyes to go soft focus and looking straight ahead.

For example: “Now I am aware of seeing the chair in the corner of the room”, “Now I am aware of seeing the bookshelf by the door” etc.

Then switch to audio… making five audio observations about the world around you.

For example: “Now I am aware of ________” the sound of the wind outside, the birds, the hum of the air-conditioner, etc.

Then onto feelings, five distinct physical sensations you are currently feeling. For example: your feet on the floor, your hands in your lap, the belt around your waist, etc.

Then repeat this whole process. But this time, name only four things you see (or visualize), four sounds you hear, and four sensations you feel.

Repeat again reducing the number to three, then two, and finally one thing for each: sight, sound and feeling.

At some point inevitably your eyes will close… then you will only see behind closed eyelids.

At first you may only ‘see’ red blobs, bright yellow flashes or pinpoints. Later images may pop into your minds eye. The more you practice this the more you’ll see them and the details of the images.

Similarly, you may start to notice ’emotions’ as feelings rather than the floor beneath you or the weight of your sitting bones on the floor.

Your focus is going from external to internal, your senses are withdrawing from the outside world and you’re going into self hypnosis.

#2 Self Hypnosis Visualization Technique

For a more and more relaxed you…

Find a comfortable position, sitting or lying down in a place where you can relax undisturbed. Gently close your eyes, take a slow, deep breath in… exhaling slowly. Repeat this a few times.

Focus on the relaxing feelings in your body… notice any tensions and consciously release them.

Bring an image of yourself relaxing to mind, or just get a sense of you in a relaxed state…

Imagine that relaxed you becoming even more relaxed… Float into that more relaxed version of yourself. Feel the increased sense of relaxation within you and ’see’ the world from this more relaxed perspective.

Then bring to mind another image of you, even more relaxed than before…. float or step into this even more relaxed version of yourself.

Continue this process, imagining floating into increasingly more relaxed versions of yourself…

#3 Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)

Another technique for self hypnosis is the Progressive Muscle Relaxation technique, or Systematic Relaxation. As it sounds… it involves the systematic relaxation of the muscles, because physical relaxation leads to mental relaxation.

By consciously tensing, then releasing muscle groups, you become more aware of the tensions and relaxation in your body.

Simply: inhale slowly and deeply while tensing the muscles firmly (not to the point of straining or pain), hold for a few seconds… then exhale slowly, while releasing the tension.

There is no set pattern for this… You can start with your feet, calf muscles, thighs and all the way up… Alternatively you can start by tightening the muscles around your eyes, then jaws, neck and all the way down. My Hypnosis download Pure Relaxation Hypnosis contains a systematic relaxation.

As with anything, the more you practice the better you get. When practiced regularly any of these techniques can result in dropping you into a ‘deep trance’ within a few short minutes.

This then becomes similar to the post-hypnotic suggestion of “Sleep” that stage hypnotists give in their show and the participant drops back into a deep (sometimes somnambulistic) state.

A post hypnotic suggestion (or Reinduction Anchor) is like a short cut back into the deep trance state. A Hypnotic Reinduction Anchor is the same as a comedian’s signature joke, just as a simple reference, a gesture or facial expression can trigger the audience’s laughter again, the anchor quickly re-establishes a hypnotic state.

Maximizing Your Results From Self Hypnosis

This brings us to Intention…

What is your reason for going into a self derived hypnotic trance…? Simply relaxation, time-out, healing, or to find answers to problems, gain insight into situations… etc.

Setting a clear intention before you start will maximize the results you experience. Preferably setting a clear intention following the four conditions of well-formedness from NLP:

1. Stated in the Positive “I want to…” rather than “I don’t want to be…”
2. Within your control, i.e: learning to play an instrument, writing a book, or starting a business, rather than “I want this person to change and stop doing…”
3. Ecology check, is it holistic, is it good for all of you? Spending all your time or money on a thing may result in negative impacts in other areas of your life, check that the goal is good for all aspects of you.
4. Create a sensory rich experience: visualize it, hear it, feel it… what does the success look, sound and feel like?

Watch this video for detailed explanation of Well-Formed Outcomes:

After Your Intention is Set…

Then say to yourself this intention setting frame (that also acts as a post-hypnotic suggestion later):

“I am going to relax into hypnosis for [stated time], to [stated well-formed outcome], if for any reason I need to awaken I will do so sharp, clear focused and ready to deal with anything needed.”

Creating a Fully Sensory Rich Experience

(Visual) Thoughts…

True… “A picture is worth a thousand words.” While words are the tools of conscious thought, the subconscious responds more powerfully to imagery. Memories surface as strings of words, snapshots and glimpses of images and of course feelings and emotions…

Psycho-Cybernetics emphasizes the importance of using your imagination to create positive mental images of your desired outcomes. “The subconscious mind doesn’t strongly differentiate between vividly imagined experiences and real ones.”

Psycho-Cybernetics

In 1960, in Dr. Maxwell Maltz’s self-help book ‘Psycho-Cybernetics’… Dr Maltz showed that the human brain is a ‘goal-seeking mechanism’, much like a cybernetic system.

Like Self Hypnosis, Psycho-Cybernetics involves creating Vivid Mental Images (VMI) of yourself successfully achieving your goals.

These principles are used in sports psychology and other areas where mental performance is critical. Where relaxed concentration is used for achieving a state of relaxed focus to better impress positive suggestions onto the subconscious mind. 

Vivid Mental Imagery: Clarity in your goals and focused mental attention on your desired outcomes.

The ‘New Thought’ Take

Wallace D Wattles (New Thought author of: The Science of Being trilogy) calls it a ‘Clear Mental Image’ (CMI). Wallace believed holding this image with unwavering faith and purpose would influence the universe to bring it into physical…

This is Law Of Attraction Manifestation. By impressing upon your mind clear and positive imagery, you are essentially directing your minds goal-seeking mechanisms towards your desired outcomes.

The same is true for Psycho-Cybernetics Vivid Mental Imagery. And in Émile Coué’s Autosuggestion he strongly recommends adding Vivid Mental Imagery to the process.

Simply repeating “I will be confident” lacks the impact of a clear mental image. The words must be merged with a mental picture of yourself… You as you want to be, i.e. the confident person. 

The Feeling is the Secret

Feel the feelings of confidence: re-experience the kinesthetic of confidence*. Allow the ‘feeling’ of confidence to grow… As you think of yourself looking more confident, repeating the suggestion.

*You can think of anything that you’re confident about… literally, your ability to read. You’re confident you can read. Notice the feeling of confidence, where it starts and how it moves, then picture you being more confident with this ‘borrowed’ feeling.

Keep repeating this image in your mind… with the mental suggestions that you’re confident… feeling the feeling. As you keep implanting these images, feelings and audio phrases… a sensory rich well-formed outcome… it will become a natural part of your conscious personality.

Is Autosuggestion & Self Hypnosis the Same Thing?

Autosuggestion is the process by which you implant an idea in your own mind… The crux of Coué’s philosophy is that your imagination has a far greater influence on your behavior and well-being than your willpower.

Émile Coué observed that the more a person consciously tries to do something (using willpower), the more the person tends to reinforce the negative outcome.

For example, the more someone with stage-fright tries not to be nervous, the more they focus on nervousness, and the more anxious they often become. This is what Aldus Huxley called the ‘Law of Reversed Effort’.

Autosuggestion: The Process

In a Relaxed State: Practicing autosuggestion in a relaxed state allows the positive ideas to enter the subconscious more easily, without the resistance of conscious effort or doubt… creating a temporary suspension of the critical-faculty… thereby enhancing receptivity to suggestion.

Positive Affirmations: Positive and desired outcomes are suggested to the imagination… the idea you wish to plant in your subconscious mind.

Avoiding Willpower: The aim is gentle, repetitive implantation of positive ideas.

Autosuggestion can be practiced without the trance of formal self hypnosis. Autosuggestion is repeating affirmations… with of course that clear mental image. Interestingly Émile Coué advocated combining Autosuggestion with a ‘medicine’. Not an off-the-shelf remedy, but a specifically created mix… acknowledging both the power of certain remedies and placebo!

Self hypnosis includes that relaxed focused state that makes the planting of suggestions more effective, amplifying the impact of the autosuggestions.

Here’s the biggest truth bomb:

All Hypnosis is Self Hypnosis. Even when a hypnotist guides you… your response is ultimately controlled by you. You enter that state when your mind is ready, and you remain fully in charge throughout the process.

If not ‘true’ it’s a belief anyway…

Self Hypnosis is a state of heightened self-awareness and control… as with any form of hypnosis: You are always in charge and can choose to accept or reject any suggestion. You are guiding yourself into and out of the hypnotic state… in fact you could say all hypnosis really is self hypnosis.

The Biggest Misconceptions

Hypnosis is confused with sleep… the word ‘hypnosis’ comes from the word ‘Hypnos’ (the Greek god of sleep), but hypnosis is not sleep. Confusing etymology… ironic really, as hypnosis sometimes deliberately employs confusing (ambiguous) words to create the trance state.

Another myth is that Hypnosis is a form of mind control… in many ways it is! But it’s YOU controlling your mind. Contrary to the misconception of external control (or even some form of diminished consciousness), the hypnotic state is actually characterized by a form of heightened, selective attention… an increased focused awareness, a form of deep concentration and absorption.

Myth: not everyone can learn Self Hypnosis. Truth: not everyone WILL learn self hypnosis. But anyone can. Self Hypnosis is a natural human ability like focused attention, relaxation, and the use of your imagination, these are skills everyone has to varying degrees.

Can I Get Stuck in Self Hypnosis?

No. No one ever has. Hypnosis is NOT a state you can become trapped in.

At most, if you are particularly tired, you might drift off into a natural sleep, from which you will simply wake up as you normally would… perhaps feeling even more refreshed. This is why we set the intention statement before going into self hypnosis, that you are going into trance for 25 mins etc.

Like any skill, self hypnosis becomes easier and more effective with regular practice… helping to train your mind to enter the desired state more readily and strengthening the impact of your suggestions.

Regular Practice Will Do Two Main Things

You will be able to experiment with different relaxation techniques and find what works best for you.

#1 You will become better at: going into self hypnosis, going deeper and deeper over time and creating change.

You’ll become more attuned to the subtle signs that indicate you’re entering (or re-entering) a hypnotic state… and you’ll shorten the time it takes to reach a desired level of depth.

#2 Repetition strengthens the neural pathways in your brain. So regular practice strengthens these pathways…

Repetition of positive suggestions reinforces the desired thoughts (images and sounds), feelings, and behaviors at a neurological level. Consistent visualization helps to create mental blueprints (such as a new self image) that your brain follows.

Over time, these strengthened pathways make the desired responses more automatic and natural.

When you learn to become the master of your own mind and unlock the potential of self hypnosis, the possibilities for positive change are, quite simply, limitless . . .

Go on, Unleash Your Inner Potential, you absolutely deserve it!

Self Hypnosis Conclusion

Self Hypnosis is Simple and something everyone can do. It’s a natural state that, with practice, can benefit anyone who learns it. Self Hypnosis done the right way is a valuable tool for self-improvement, healing and spiritual development.

So, In a nut shell (is a nut), Self Hypnosis is…

#1 A Focused Goal or Outcome. Clearly defined and internally experienced as a ‘Mental Image’ (or Movie), a Clear Internal Dialogue and a Strong Positive Feeling or Emotion.

#2 Combined with the DEEP Relaxation (the Altered State often associated with Hypnosis) to Embed these ideas and create change or have inspiration.

Just Think: What Positive Impact Can You Have With This Approach…?

Interested in learning more… Join the Autosuggestion & Self Hypnosis Online Workshop with John Vincent. This workshop empowers you to become your own skilled Self Hypnotist, the Conscious Architect of your own transformation.

This workshop is also perfect for those wishing to expand their professional toolkit.