I continued to present that same idea in several different ways, and then waited while Sam and John did their own unconscious work. After about fifteen minutes, I suggested that they open their eyes and return to their normal waking state of consciousness. It's a little scary, so I pulled myself back out of it a little. Half the time I just tuned out your voice somehow. And at a certain point I realized that I wanted to work on something entirely different than the dread as I approach the boathouse, and I did find a solution.
Hypnosis can be scary to some people.
It evokes fears that someone will take control over my will, or I will become like a robot responding to things that I was programmed to respond to. This is a valid conclusion if one remembers only the work of stage hypnotists. Hypnotherapy, trance, or self hypnosis, however, is designed purely to allow a person to gain greater access to the resources of his or her unconscious mind. The unconscious mind is assumed to be creative and to contain your potentials. In a trance, it is freed from the critical, logically conscious mind which places limits on what you can do rather than discovering novel solutions.