No. You keep control the whole way through, and you can open your eyes and stop the session at any second.
This is the question I get asked most, and the stage show is why. People picture someone slumped in a chair, taken over, made to cluck like a chicken. A stage show is a performance. Those volunteers walked up on stage because they already wanted to play along in front of an audience.
What you actually experience
You stay conscious for the entire session. You hear my voice, you hear the room around you, you know exactly where you are and what time it is.
Most people describe it as the state you drift into during a good film, or on a long drive where you suddenly arrive and barely remember the last few miles. Absorbed in one thing, relaxed about everything else.
Throughout the session you remain:
- Conscious
- Able to move or stop at any time
- Fully aligned with your values and intentions
Scratch your nose. Shift in your chair. Get up and answer the door. None of that breaks the session, and none of it means you were doing it wrong.
Your own values do the filtering
Hypnosis cannot make you do anything against your will or beliefs. Any suggestion that conflicts with your internal values gets rejected by the subconscious mind, the same way you would ignore a stranger telling you to hand over your wallet.
That filter runs the whole time, and it belongs to you. It is the reason a session works best when it points at something you genuinely want. Your subconscious cooperates because you and the suggestion are already pointing the same direction.
Directed focus
Think of hypnosis as directed focus. Your attention narrows, the usual mental chatter quietens, and the ideas you want to take root get a clearer run at you. You are steering the whole time, and I am holding the door open.
If you want the mechanics in more detail, here is how hypnosis actually works, and here is the safety side of it.
People also worry they will not go deep enough for anything to happen. A light trance is plenty, so you can relax about that one too. Browse the hypnosis sessions whenever you feel ready.