On explaining hypnosis

There are lots of reasons it’s hard to describe a hypnotic state. There are different levels of trance. People vary, as Paul Grilley says. (Sure he’s talking about yoga, but it’s still true.) And sometimes, there just aren’t words for some experiences.

I keep trying to explain it, though, because I love it for myself and for my clients, and there are things about hypnosis that make some people nervous.

I don’t want to lose control.
I don’t want to be told what to do (especially if it involves making animal sounds).
Can I even be hypnotized?

Twitter to the rescue

I was hanging out on Twitter the other day, reading and bantering, and came across a Re-tweet from my friend Eileen over at Soul Sleuthing. She was passing along a link for a blog post called, “On hypnotherapy and hot grocery store mamas” on a site called Cleavage. I fell all over myself to click on that title.

Boy, was I happy I did.

Kelly Diels tells a funny story, and follows it with a fantastic and completely unexpected description of what hypnosis feels like.

She describes it as lucid dreaming.

Yes. It is a lot like that. And it seems to give you exactly what you need in that moment. And you know how in dreams, all this weird stuff just sort of fits together? It’s like that too.