1. Believe: for weight loss hypnosis to work, you must have faith. This implies faith not only in the process of hypnosis but also in yourself. You need to believe that hypnosis can reach your subconscious mind. You also need to believe that you are capable of changing deeply entrenched habits, attitudes and beliefs.

2. Be positive: by putting a positive spin on your weight loss efforts, you reduce the risk of sabotaging your efforts with negative self-talk. Surprisingly, the more often you repeat a positive statement the more you come to believe it.

3. Embrace change: your efforts to lose weight will only succeed if you are willing to change. Think about this. Notice any resistance to becoming a new person. Often people gain weight because they want to avoid dealing with painful issues; wish to detract attention from themselves; or feel guilty about success. If any of these obstacles threaten your success, hypnosis may be an effective way to develop a healthier mindset.

4. Change your lifestyle: despite the hype, weight loss hypnosis does not work in a vacuum. You must integrate healthy diet and exercise plans into your overall routine. And, to keep the weight off, these habits must become well-integrated habits that you engage in long after the pounds have dropped away. Ideally, you should incorporate stretching, strength training and fat-burning cardiovascular activity into your lifestyle. It is a good idea to visit a doctor first to assess your overall fitness and alert you to any potential health concerns. Set reasonable fitness goals, as well, you are more likely to stick with the program if it is fun and rewarding.

5. Come with a willing heart: in addition to wanting to change, you must possess the right attitude. It is not enough to know intellectually that these changes will be beneficial. You must be emotionally prepared as well. This may mean making some difficult decisions like going to the gym after work instead of going out for dinner with friends or giving up your favorite TV show in order to fit in a daily walk.

6. Seek help: it may be a good idea to weight loss hypnosis support from an accredited hypnotherapist; ideally, find someone who is also a medical doctor or psychologist. They will be best able to offer you a supervised holistic, scientifically based weight loss program.

7. Join the group: even in weight loss hypnosis, it can be a good idea to join a support group for people who are struggling with their weight. In addition to offering you the knowledge and resources you need to transform your eating habits, these groups provide much-needed emotional support and camaraderie. Weight loss efforts often fail because people feel isolated. Don’t let that happen to you.

8. Join the group II: likewise, it can be helpful to take fitness classes if you are new to physical exercise. Exercising with friends—new and old—turns the dreaded work out into play time. It also provides added motivation; you are less likely to skip your routine if someone is bound to notice your absence.

9. Visualize success: one of the greatest attributes of weight loss hypnosis is its ability to help us envision success. While we are in the hyper-attentive, responsive hypnotic state, our subconscious is extremely open to suggestion. It is an ideal time to imbed new images of ourselves and establish different responses to certain activities.

Hate exercise? Picture yourself climbing a mountain, running a marathon or taking an aerobics class. Now, visualize yourself enjoying this activity. Experience it as a fun, rewarding activity.

Love chocolate? Create an aversion to it. Under hypnosis, visualize a rich chocolate pudding or cake as a pile of lard or fat. Suddenly it isn’t so tempting.

10. Stick with it: No weight loss regimen offers instant results and weight loss hypnosis is no different. It takes practice, time and concerted effort. Take the time to engage in hypnosis daily. Invest in good audio CDs. Read books. Solicit the help of a hypnotherapist. The key is to be persistent…and have faith.

Although scientists aren’t entirely sure how to hypnotize someone, they have recognized three key factors in successful hypnosis. The subject must want to be hypnotized; he or she must believe that they can be hypnotized; and, finally, they must be comfortable and relaxed.

There is a small number of people who are not susceptible to hypnosis. Most of us, however, can be hypnotized, according to a standard classification system.

Hypnotherapists usually test a patients’ susceptibility to hypnosis at their initial appointment. This can be done by ushering the patient into deep relaxation and then asking them to relax their arms completely. Slowly, the therapist makes requests that require increased distortion of normal thought. For example, he or she may ask the patient to believe they are weightless.

When you are beginning to learn how to hypnotize someone, it is a good idea to begin with a similar test. Be aware it can take as little as a few minutes or as much as 30 minutes for someone to fall into a hypnotic state. Be patient and do not try to rush things.

Fixed-Gaze induction or eye fixation: this is the form of hypnosis most common to Hollywood. The subject is asked to stare intently at an object, eventually they will block out all other distractions. At this time, speak to them in a low, soft voice, lulling them into relaxation.

This technique is rarely used anymore as it no longer works on most people.

Rapid: this is known as stage hypnosis. It is performed primarily for show. If you wanted to learn how to hypnotize someone with this technique, you would overwhelm them with loud, sudden commands. If you were forceful, the subject would temporarily give up control of their conscious mind.

This isn’t a recommended technique for most people. It works for stage hypnotists because the novelty of being in front of an audience makes the subject easier to influence.

Loss of balance: a hypnotic state can be brought about by slow, rhythmic rocking, which upsets the equilibrium. This is why babies are soothed when rocked.

Progressive relaxation and imagery: This is the form of hypnosis most commonly used for CDs, DVDs and face-to-face sessions today. To learn how to hypnotize someone using this technique, follow the guidelines below.

* Relax: The key to successfully inducing hypnosis—a state of hyper-attention and hyper-awareness—is to be mentally relaxed and absolutely absorbed in the task at end. It should feel as if it every action is effortless.

When you first learn how to hypnotize someone, it could help to follow the Jacobsen Progressive Relaxation procedure. To do this, ask your subject to sit or lie down in a comfortable position. Find an environment with few distractions. Slowly and quietly, ask them to tense each major muscle group. Then, relax. Begin with their feet and progress all the way to the top of their head.

* Enter into a deeper state: The best way to learn how to hypnotize someone is to count backwards from 20. With each count, remind your subject to relax deeply and completely. If distracting thoughts arise, encourage them to brush them aside.

* Auto Suggestion: Now comes the fun part. Ask your friend questions about an issue or goal agreed to prior to the session. Try to enlist his or her subconscious in the problem-solving process.

* Count to three: to end the session, given them a warning before counting to three.

Want to lose weight or quit smoking? Hypnosis is an effective tool that you may want to put to use, although it isn’t for everybody. Through the development of Stanfard Hypnotic Susceptibility Scales, which measure the ease with which you could be hypnotized on a scale from 0 (not at all susceptible) to 12 (responds to all suggestions), scientists have found that five percent of the population cannot be hypnotized. Still, that leaves 95 percent of the population open to hypnosis and most of us fall somewhere between five and seven on the scale. If you are interested in giving this technique a try, this article will teach you step-by-step how to do self hypnosis.

Relax

The key to successfully inducing hypnosis—a state of hyper-attention and hyper-awareness—is to be mentally relaxed and absolutely absorbed in the task at end. It should feel as if it would take little or no effort to make a decision or perform any action, like lifting your hand or throwing your cigarettes in the garbage. For many of us, learning to relax is the most difficult part of learning how to do self hypnosis. At the beginning, it could take you half-an-hour or longer to fully relax. With practice, it may take just a few seconds.

When learning how to do self hypnosis, you may find it easier to follow the Jacobsen Progressive Relaxation procedure. To do this, sit or lie down in a comfortable position. Find an environment with few distractions. Slowly, tense each major muscle group. Hold it for a few seconds. Then, relax. Begin with your feet and progress all the way to the top of your head.

Enter into a deeper state

The next stage in learning how to do self hypnosis is learning how to relax more deeply, which will bring about a hypnotic state. Too often, we try to watch for that magic moment when we are hypnotized. “Aha,” we say, proud that we could pinpoint the moment when we achieved this sought-after state. Unfortunately, we cannot enter into hypnosis unless we are completely relaxed, which requires us to let our guard down and just engage with the practice. This, admittedly, makes it hard to say for certain whether or not we’ve actually been hypnotized. Continue practicing, however, and soon you will begin to recognize what it feels when you have entered a hypnotic state.

Hollywood likes to show hypnotists counting down. In truth, this is an effective way to deepen your relaxation. Begin counting down from 100. With each number, feel yourself falling more deeply into a trance. As distracting thoughts arise, brush them aside. (This will be familiar to anyone who has ever tried meditation.) As you practice more frequently, you can try counting for a lower number like 20 to see what works best for you. When learning how to do self hypnosis you may also wish to explore other techniques for deepening your relaxation, including the use of a swinging metronome.

Auto Suggestion

At this point in learning how to do self hypnosis, your conscious mind should be in a hyper-responsive state, with your subconscious mind more open to suggestion than usual. Prior to beginning the session, you should develop a short, powerful statement that reflects what you wish to achieve. For example,  “I no longer desire or enjoy cigarettes”. You may also rely on an image, instead of a statement. For example, picture yourself in peak physical fitness, climbing a mountain or lounging on the beach in a bikini. The key to making this work is practicing regularly. You cannot expect immediate results.

Ending the session

Although it may be tempting to do so, don’t fall asleep or leap right up from your session. Set a clear boundary between hypnosis and the next activity, especially when you are first learning how to do self hypnosis. This can be easily achieved by telling yourself that you will be fully alert and awake on the count of three: one-two-three!

Despite popular (and completely wrong) opinion, the hypnotic state is not a form of mind control. It is not a dangerous, trance inducing ability that will strip an individual of his or her free will and cause them to act against their moral code. If that description sounded a bit dramatic, we apologize but, the truth is, people tend to have an exaggerated view about the hypnotic mind. They believe what films and television have presented and, rather than knowing the history and science behind this method, they see it as something bordering on the supernatural. This is a mistake.

The hypnotic mental state is a scientifically proven form of consciousness. It is not a form of mind control, as so many think it. It has been around for ages, being recorded as far back as ancient Egyptian times, and has been used for every imaginable purpose. While some, of course, were failed attempts, that was less the fault of the hypnotic state and more so of the times. Today's misconceptions are also those of the past. The idea of being mesmerized into some unholy state has plagued this science since it was used enough to become known to the public. Again, we apologize for the dramatic wording but that is the unfortunate stereotype.

In reality, reaching the hypnotic mind state can be as simple as falling asleep (the two are actually quite similar and the very origin of the name came from James Braid when he incorrectly dubbed the procedure neuro-hypnosis, and thought it to be a nervous sleep). This is a level of relaxation and awareness that allows the individual to examine themselves without dealing with distraction. Some have compared the hypnotic mental state to the practice of yoga but, again, that is not quite correct. You do not fall asleep and you do not try to push out all thoughts entirely. Instead, the hypnotic state allows for suggestions to appear.

Don't start protesting the "mind control" issue now; this is not the same thing. By suggestion, we simply mean that you are more apt to hear suggestions and implement them. You will not change into a completely different person and you will not lose your established morality. But perhaps you could learn to give up smoking? Reaching a hypnotic state could easily help you become more aware of the dangers of smoking, without other thoughts to keep you from really hearing it.

If that sounds impossible, it isn't. People have used this idea to help solve a wide range of issues and problems. They all say that reaching this state of mind helps them think and get past what they need. And, while some may say this is merely a form of relaxation, there is a medical precedent behind it. You can be hypnotized, if you are willing enough. You just can't buy into the massive misconceptions that surround the idea.

This is not the occult; it is merely a way to block out everything unnecessary and think about what you need to.