01/ Focal Points

There are no swinging pocket watches, and it’s nothing like the ‘sunken place’ scene in Get Out. Hypnosis is ‘a naturally occurring state of highly focused attention’, says David Spiegel, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University and co-founder of the Reveri self-hypnosis app. If you’ve ever been so caught up in a good film that it felt like the world around you dissolved, that’s a similar experience to hypnosis. In this state, you are also highly suggestible.

02/ Power Down

‘All hypnosis is self-hypnosis,’ says Dr Spiegel. ‘It’s not something I do to you. It’s something that I show you how to do.’ You might be asked to lie or sit somewhere comfortable and close your eyes. Research suggests that hypnosis slows functions such as heart rate and breathing, inducing calm, but you remain conscious. ‘You’re maintaining alertness, but turning it inwards,’ says Dr Spiegel. Some people are highly hypnotic and will enter this state easily. Others need to work at it.

03/ Giving It Up

Unlike meditation – which is often practised daily – hypnosis is undertaken with an objective. That might be to reduce anxiety or treat addiction. If you want to quit smoking, hypnosis allows you to ‘try out being a different person’, Dr Spiegel says – one for whom cigarettes hold no appeal. It’s similar to visualisation, but more intense. A 2019 review suggests self-hypnosis for smoking is associated with a subsequent six-month abstinence rate of 20% to 35%.

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04/ Brain Science

As well as narrowing focus, hypnosis heightens ‘cognitive flexibility’, allowing you to explore new ways of thinking. Activity in a region of the brain called the salience network – linked to threat detection and pain processing – is reduced. ‘This is the part that fires up when you hear a loud noise,’ says Dr Spiegel, meaning you’re less likely to be distracted. Connectivity is also decreased between the brain regions that process self-awareness and self-reflection.

05/ Pain Control

Hypnosis can help filter the signals that pass from body to brain. For example: prior to reading this sentence, were you conscious of the sensation of your body touching your chair? Probably not – because your focus was elsewhere. Pain can be reimagined as a cold, numb, tingling feeling. Or you might imagine easing your aches in a warm bath. One study found those who are highly suggestible can experience ‘clinically meaningful’ pain reductions of 42%.