In order to understand hypnosis, it is necessary to dis-embarrass ourselves of what we know about it from watching movies and television. Hypnosis is not a means of forcing someone to obey commands delivered by the hypnotist while the subject is under hypnosis, for example. Instead, it is merely a state in which the subject is more suggestible (Holroyd, 2003, p. 110). The notion that the hypnotized individual is completely and utterly controlled by the hypnotist is fiction, and many people after being hypnotized insist that they were not hypnotized because they remember what happened, were in complete control, and could stop at any time (Kelly & Kelly, 2000, pp. 3, 11). Moreover, night club acts in which patrons appear unable to rise from their seats, undergo age transformations, or follow a posthypnotic suggestion to leap on top of a table and shout "The British are coming!" are-according to Kelly and Kelly (2003, p. 4), nothing more than "theatricality."
According to Weitzenhoffer (2002, as cited in Holroyd, 2003, p. 110), the word "hypnosis" means "altered state," and the act of hypnotism is "giving suggestions after you think a person is in the state of hypnosis." Thus, the impact of hypnosis on a person's subsequent actions is dependent upon how suggestible that particular individual happens to be, a quality that can differ markedly from one person to the next. Thomsitt (2005) identifies hypnosis as "the sleep of the nervous system," noting that during hypnosis the respiration rate decreases and the circulation and brain waves slow down.
During hypnosis, the person notes a lessening of thinking, emotional reaction and perception of bodily sensations, coupled with a feeling of peacefulness (Holroyd, 2003, p. 118). These changes are associated with neurophysiological changes in the frontal areas of the brain, where choice and executive control are diminished (Holroyd, 2003, p. 118
...