Becoming hypnotized. During hypnosis, fixation on a focal point sends a subject into a daydream like trance. In the mid-1800s, hypnotists used a focal point like a watch or a candle. Then in the early part...
In the mid-1800s, hypnotists used a focal point like a watch or a candle. Then in the early part of 1900s, they used a revolving disc as a focal point to involve the subject and to focus and narrow their attention on a single point either in front of them or across the room on a wall. That's not required at all, but it's what is called fixation. Fixation occurs spontaneously if the person enters into trance. It's like the experience of "staring off into space."
One of the reasons hypnotists asked people to fixate on an object was to bring about something that is known as a relaxation response. Hypnosis occurs best when the person is relaxed. One of the ways that you can invite the person to become more relaxed is to have them fixate their eyes. It is passive activity and begins the process of muscle relaxation throughout the body, which in turn begins to alter the person's consciousness in the direction of the hypnagogic.
Hypnotists often invite a person to have a guided daydream. The experience is also often referred to as guided fantasy or guided imagery. Fantasy happens to spontaneously when people are thinking about something they would like to do, wish they could do, or about something that they have done.
For instance, I am a pilot. Often when I am sitting in my office and can't take the time to leave, I'll look out and see the blue sky and wonderful puffy white clouds, and I'll start daydreaming about being in an airplane enjoying myself at 3000-4000 feet. When people walk into my office and say something to me, they have to pull me out of my daydream or hypnotic-like state, because in fact I am imagining I am not here. I am out in the wild blue yonder, flying in an airplane.
The most important thing is that a hypnotic state is not an unusual or mysterious state of mind. The only difference between a hypnotic state that happens spontaneously and what happens in the therapist's office is that it's induced deliberately rather than occurring accidentally. People have a tendency to think that our label is an experience, but it's not. You could say, "That's a book." Everybody knows what a book is, although there are many kinds of different books in different sizes and different colors. When you say hypnosis, we are talking about a very unique state of mind, so having a label for it is sort of deceptive. Each person's hypnotic experience is unique.
