Under the suggestion refers to such an impact on the psyche, in which words begin to be perceived “on faith”, almost without question. As if bypassing logic. So, a person sitting on a chair in a room can be inspired that he is in the forest. But to convince him of this using logic is impossible. This is where the suggestion differs from the conviction, in which one person always relies on logical proofs of the correctness of his point of view in order to convince the other.

Suggestion and persuasion are two processes affecting the psyche,   – very often intertwined. And sometimes it is difficult to discern what in this case had a stronger effect – the first or the second.

If a person is instilled something when he is awake, then such an effect is called a waking suggestion or a waking suggestion . When, before a session of suggestion, the doctor plunges a person into a kind of sleep, the suggestion is called hypnotic or hypnosis . Here we will talk only about hypnotic suggestion.

We will understand what is hypnosis. This is such a verbal impact on a person, as a result of which he plunges into a kind of sleep, and his brain becomes more susceptible to the words of suggestion and related mental images.

Banal example. If a person has acute toothache, and there is no dipyrone on hand and far from the pharmacy or dentist, the doctor, who is hypnotic suggestive, can plunge the sick person into a special dream and say: “The pain in the tooth decreases … the mental notion that pain has arisen in his dormant consciousness that pain is really released for some time from it.

But maybe this impact is harmful? Maybe it (as some think) leads to an excessive expenditure of nervous energy? If it leads, then, firstly, not to the excessive, and secondly, only to the one who conducts hypnotic suggestion. But the one to whom it is directed only acquires the ability to use all his powers, psychologically and physically, with the utmost efficiency.

This effectiveness is based on the following. After a directed hypnotic effect, all human organs and systems begin to function in a mode that is optimal for achieving the set goal. It is in this –in the achievement of an optimal mental state – that the meaning and benefits of hypnotic suggestion lie.

For all hypnologists, there has long been a truth: with the help of hypnotic suggestion it is impossible to force a person to do what he really does not want.

However, despite all the above, it is not possible to recommend hypnotic suggestion as the main method of regulation of the mental state. There are several reasons for this.

First of all, a purely organizational moment: hypnological doctors who are able to provide the necessary help, a few.

Secondly (and this is important), the hypnotic suggestion puts a person in a certain dependence on the doctor. And, having achieved success after hypnosis sessions, he often begins to rely only on such help and becomes dependent on a hypnologist. And this is highly undesirable! For there is nothing more reliable than confident independence.

So, we will make a conclusion. Hypnotic suggestion is a useful and powerful method. But to recommend hypnosis as the main method of regulation of the mental state is not worth it. It is better to use it not as a hypnotic effect, exerted by, but as self-hypnosis , that is, as a self-suggestion .