Produced by Michael Ciesielski, Annika Feilbach and the booksmiths at http://www.eBookForge.net A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO SELF-HYPNOSIS by Melvin Powers Published by Melvin Powers WILSHIRE BOOK COMPANY 12015 Sherman Road No. Hollywood, California 91605 Telephone: (213) 875-1711 Copyright 1961 Wilshire Book Company Printed by HAL LEIGHTON PRINTING COMPANY P.O. Box 3952 North Hollywood, California 91605 Telephone: (213) 983-1105 All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 61-10664 Printed in the United States of America ISBN-0-87980-122-0 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE 1. WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT SELF-HYPNOSIS 11 2. WHAT ABOUT THE DANGERS OF HYPNOSIS? 21 3. IS HYPNOSIS THE ANSWER? 29 4. HOW DOES SELF-HYPNOSIS WORK? 37 5. HOW TO AROUSE YOURSELF FROM THE SELF-HYPNOTIC STATE 45 6. HOW TO ATTAIN SELF-HYPNOSIS 49 7. DEEPENING THE SELF-HYPNOTIC STATE 57 8. WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT BECOMING AN EXCELLENT SUBJECT 67 9. TECHNIQUES FOR REACHING THE SOMNAMBULISTIC STATE 79 10. A NEW APPROACH TO SELF-HYPNOSIS WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS 91 11. PSYCHOLOGICAL AIDS AND THEIR FUNCTION 103 12. THE NATURE OF HYPNOSIS 113 13. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF SELF-HYPNOSIS 119 FOREWORD All of us like to think that our actions and reactions are a result of logical thought processes, but the fact is that suggestion influences our thinking a great deal more than logic. Consciously or unconsciously, our feelings about almost everything are largely molded by ready-made opinions and attitudes fostered by our mass methods of communication. We cannot buy a bar of soap or a filtered cigarette without paying tribute to the impact of suggestion. Right or wrong, most of us place more confidence in what "they" say than we do in our own powers of reason. This is the basic reason why psychiatrists are in short supply. We distrust our own mental processes and want an expert to tell us what to think and feel. Despite this tendency to adopt our attitudes from others, man has always been dimly aware that he can influence his own destiny by directing his thoughts and actions into constructive channels. He has always, to some extent, known that his mind exerts a powerful influence on his body, and that thoughts can have harmful or helpful effects on his emotional and physical health. The ancient Egyptian sleep temples and the attempts by early physicians to drive evil spirits out of the body were both attempts to influence the body through the mind.