Hypno comes from the Greek hupnos, meaning 'sleep'. A hypnotic trance though is not exactly your sleeping state, but it is a deeply relaxed, dreamlike state, a twilight between waking and sleeping. You experience this hypnagogic state before you go to sleep.

In this dreamlike position you feel extreme relaxation and comfort as you shift from deep relaxation to waking, or vice versa, and you may become aware of the two dimensions of conscious awareness known as the conscious and sub-conscious mind. As a matter of fact, the colour combinations on this page already induce a hypnotic trance. Your mind has to concentrate more due to the reflective light/colours chosen. Hypnosis and trance are about concentration - the shutting out of other context occurring about you. You can always pull out of a trance state - it is as easy as moving the muscle you have willed yourself not to move.

Your conscious mind, your daily focus, occupies approximately 10% of your brain function: analyzing, thinking, planning and short-term memory.

The sub-conscious mind deasl with about 90% of your brain function. That includes long-term memory, emotions, feelings, habitual and relationship patterns, addictions, involuntary bodily function, development stages, spiritual connections and intuition.

In a directed hypnotic state, placed in a hypnotic trance by a professional therapist, you can access both your conscious and sub-conscious world. From that vantage point phenomenal change can be induced.

Have you ever noticed yourself doing something you instinctively know is not in your best interest but you cannot seem to stop? Take smoking for example...

Or do say things which are not beneficial to you or others? You can credit your instilled beliefs as the primary reason for engaging in any activity: those you are proud of and those which are less endearing. Most of the time, you are not conscious of these influencing values: your belief-system.

Every day we are bombarded by opinions and ideologies. Everyone has a viewpoint. Every day these messages are compounded. Since birth, and even in the womb, you are being influenced by the world around you. These messages are received directly and indirectly by you and find their way into your sub-conscious, forming positive and negative patterns in your life and continuously influence your beliefs.

Therapists work with the client on the conscious level, the information is often buried deep within the subconscious and must be dragged into the conscious mind for evaluation, understanding and release. This can be of great benefit to the client, but it is also a long, slow process with demonstrated limitations.

When used as a therapeutic tool, hypnosis is termed hypnotherapy. Both hypnosis and hypnotherapy seek to bypass the limitations of the focused conscious mind and to communicate directly with either the sub-conscious mind or the superconscious spirit of the client. It is in the sub-conscious mind that we are able to move beyond physical or mental symptoms of dis-ease to discover the root causes and unlock the secrets for permanent healing.

Hypnotherapy can take you back to the beginning . . . it can unspool your life film and restage the places and moments where your beliefs were formed into a new set. Hypnotherapy lets you edit and re-direct your life script and the actions that take place in it.

Negative values and patterns can be discarded, positive stances can be reinforced, and a new philosophy for and outlook on life can be yours to pursue.