Hypnosis is a natural, spontaneous phenomenon that we use every day without realizing it. Surprising, isn’t it? Not really. This hypnotic state happens, for example, when we drive on a familiar route and think about something else entirely without it affecting our ability to control the vehicle. It also happens when we watch a movie and the characters’ emotions carry us into our own thoughts, transporting us to imaginary worlds that have nothing to do with the present moment.

In an adult, this hypnotic state occurs about 10 to 12 times a day.

So there’s no point fighting it, since it’s already within us and, who knows, it might even be useful to us. We call this a hypnotic state or an altered state of consciousness.

Hypnosis remains a mystery to many people, who see it as magic or trickery. In fact, hypnosis is simply a technique that has been known since ancient times. The earliest description of a hypnosis session was found in Egypt, on a stele more than 3000 years old. Ramses II is said to have used hypnosis to motivate his soldiers before battle... So none of this is new.

We might even think that hypnosis appeared alongside language itself, in the form of rites, tales, fables, simple conversations... much like in therapy today.

Over the centuries, hypnosis would indeed come to be used in medical care and in psychology.

In the 18th century, a German physician, Franz Anton Mesmer (no relation to today’s stage hypnotists), developed a therapy based on “animal magnetism,” a fluid he believed every human being possessed. He carried out group experiments that drew large crowds.

In the 19th century, James Braid, a Scottish surgeon, developed hypnosis to achieve anesthesia in surgery, with success.

A little later, in France, neurologist Jean Martin Charcot experimented with hypnosis in connection with his research on hysteria. One of his students, the famous Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, would carry this work forward, focusing on repressed traumatic memories.

Today, hypnosis has become a therapeutic tool in its own right, thanks in part to the work of Milton Erickson, the famous American psychiatrist who pioneered a modern, permissive form of hypnosis that places the patient at the center of their own change.

You don’t need any special powers or particular fluid to practice hypnosis. It’s a technique that can be learned and is within everyone’s reach. By speaking to someone in a certain way, you help them enter a hypnotic state. That’s when imagination takes over and absorbs the person’s full attention, until they finally let go and relax completely.

With the Méthode Dolfino you’ll learn to move faster and become an expert at guiding a hypnotic trance*.

the word trance often scares people, when in fact it’s just a transport between the waking state and the hypnotic state.

In Greek mythology, “Hypnos” is the god of sleep. So do we actually sleep when we’re in hypnosis?

Well, no, we don’t sleep when we’re in a state of hypnosis. It’s a state of dissociation between a conscious part and an unconscious part of our mind that allows our unconscious to be available to make the desired changes in a state of hypervigilance.

So even though stage hypnotists use the word “sleep” to put spectators into trance, hypnosis is not sleep. If that isn’t confusing…

So in the end, do you lose control in a state of hypnosis? Actually, you can remain aware of what’s happening, even during the deepest hypnotic trance. You can remember everything, move if you feel like it. Hypnosis is a natural state that is artificially reproduced for a therapeutic purpose.

You have to remember that the hypnotic state is produced by the person who wants to enter it. The hypnotist is only there to help you get there. They don’t hypnotize anyone. They help the person who wants it to enter a state of hypnosis at the depth needed to make the desired changes.

As far as we know, there’s no international contest, video evidence included, for the best chicken impression under hypnosis. In stage hypnosis shows, the spectators who go along with all sorts of antics under hypnosis do so first and foremost because they want to and know they’re going to have fun. You should also know that highly suggestible people, those likely to fall into hypnosis instantly, represent about 15% of the population. So you may not be about to eat grain unless you like eating popcorn at the movies…

Now that we’ve made this clear and we’re on the same wavelength, we invite you to discover Méthode Dolfino® hypnosis.

Dolfino is a hypnosis academy founded in Quebec by Catherine Dupuis, naturopath, hypnotherapist, creative chemist passionate about human beings, and by Éric Chagnon, engineer, entrepreneur, traveler with a joyful pen. Together, they love sharing their knowledge in a scientific, simple, and fun way. They laid the foundations of Méthode Dolfino®. They were later joined by Lou Ken, a teacher specialized in adolescent psychopathology, actor and hypnotherapist, who enhanced the pedagogical side of the Method.

Today Dolfino is a major player in the world of hypnosis training in North America and Europe.