If you believe you can, then it's easy

It is the failure to recognize the tremendously effective force of the post-hypnotic suggestion—and a tendency to confuse self-hypnosis with autosuggestion —that make it difficult for some people to appreciate the powerful influence a person may wield upon himself, to direct his own efforts, through self-hypnosis.

Just how powerful a force hypnotic suggestion can be was recently reported in the Journal of the British Society of Medical Hypnotists. During an experiment in London, a number of soldiers were given tests measuring the strength of their hand grips. A dynomometer was used to register the pressure they exerted.

The average grip in the normal awakened state was 101 pounds. The soldiers were then hypnotized and told that they were "very weak." Returned to the awakened state, but under the influence of the post-hypnotic suggestion, they averaged only 69 pounds. Re-hypnotized and told they were very strong, they averaged 140 pounds.

The belief that they were strong had raised their strength 40 percent above normal, while the belief that they were weak reduced it to 30 percent below normal.

Dr. Theodore Xenophon Barber, formerly with the psychology department of the American University in Washington and now with the laboratory of social relations at Harvard, commented on the suggestive force of hypnotism in the following words: "The phenomenon of hypnosis has always seemed mysterious because it has always been difficult to understand how belief can bring about such unusual behavior. It seems as if there must be something more, some unfathomable force or power at work.

"However, the plain truth is that when a subject is convinced that he is deaf he behaves as if he is deaf, when convinced he is insensitive to pain, he can undergo surgery without anesthesia. The 'mysterious force or power' does not exist."

It's hard to believe nothing happens during hypnosis

The difficulty most persons have in accepting and practicing the powerful suggestive force available to them for self-help with self-hypnosis arises from the fact that during self-hypnosis "nothing happens."

They seem to be disappointed, even puzzled. If such power is available from self-hypnosis, they say, why don't they feel "knocked out" or "blacked out"? Why don't they "at least have a funny feeling"?

Hypnosis is a natural phenomenon, not a major operation.
Professor Griffith W. Williams of Rutgers University, says in "Hypnosis in Perspective": "What happens regularly and frequently often remains unobserved or unrecognized, so that the trance states in daily life, especially light ones, occur, pass unnoticed and remain unrecorded.

"When a man is fishing, for example, there is little to distract him. The river washes over the rocks with a relaxing music. Gradually the water seems to swell and creep up, while vision becomes slightly blurred. Often at this point, he will be seen to make a slight jerky motion of the head and to change his stance.

While such an experience is frequently mentioned, it is seldom recognized that the antecedent conditions are ideal for mild self-hypnosis."
Don't be disturbed or disappointed if the induction of self-hypnosis appears to be "almost too easy."

You form a mental picture of yourself

In the deliberate employment of self-hypnosis for self-help, the most effective method is that of visual imagery. You use your conscious mind to form mental pictures of what you wish to accomplish.

These mental pictures are more easily transferred to the subconscious memory than are words. They are also more effective in the "play back" from the memory.

Motivation—which is how you act, feel and express your attitude toward things—is based on the sum total of experiences recorded in the memory. By giving yourself a new, clear, undistorted picture, free of self-doubt, showing how you wish to feel and act, you replace under self-hypnosis the old picture you have concerning yourself with the better one.

Dr. Edward W. Arluck and Dr. Benjamin Galinsky, both New York City psychologists, reported on an experiment involving hypnosis and visual imagery in which the subjects were told to picture themselves as being "more intelligent and more emotionally stable/' The doctors declared that every person taking part in the experiment responded by becoming more optimistic and more self-confident.

They all claim it's visual imagery that does the trick

"Psycho-Cybernetics," a recent book by Dr. Maxwell Matz, is devoted almost entirely to the theory of developing a new personality by the employment of mental pictures. He says: "The 'self-image' is the key to human personality and human behavior. Change the self-image and you change the personality and the behavior."