The short answer is: hypnosis works if you want it to. All Hypnosis is ultimately self hypnosis so its efficacy depends on whether you are adopting the hypnotic mindset and are motivated to change.

Anyone who wants to be can be hypnotised. All hypnosis is self-induced. The hypnotist is merely your guide.

It is useful to remember the following: 

• Trance is a state people enter when they are sick, endangered or frightened or as a result of long-distance running, dancing, repetitive chanting, spinning and when remembering events or reviewing dreams.
• Hypnosis cannot make you do something against your moral values.
• It would impossible for hypnosis to make you do anything you didn't want to
• Anybody who is hypnotised  retains total control of their own actions and healing process.

Whether a professional hypnotises you or you do it yourself, the results are the same: every muscle in your body becomes pleasantly relaxed and all tension disappears.

 You feel this relaxation in various degrees from one hypnotic experience to another until it becomes an entrenched pattern. Eventually you are able to completely relax in ten to thirty seconds.

After your nerves and muscles relax, your mind also lets go, and although you can remain aware of the noises and activity around you, they do not disturb your tranquil, relaxed mood in any way.

You are able to think if you desire to do so, but only an emergency triggers such a desire because you prefer to continue enjoying the pleasant relaxed feeling of complete security and contentment.

 It almost feels like being awake while sleeping, or watching yourself sleep ” in your mind’s eye”. You need not “pass out” or become unconscious, although you can if you want. In fact most people don’t believe they have been hypnotized.

They say they enjoyed the experience immensely but they expected something much different. You may remain conscious of where you are and what you are doing but generally feel too relaxed and comfortable to want to think about it.

You can come back to complete conscious awareness at any time you choose. For instance, if the telephone rings, you can discard the trance and answer the phone without remaining in hypnosis.

After the conversation you may re-hypnotize yourself if you wish. No one has ever been unable to come out of hypnosis and the sensational stories you hear about people you “can’t get back out of it” are completely unfounded.

A few neurotics have been known to enjoy the pleasant, relaxed state so much they refuse to awaken at another’s command, but they can do so at any time they wish.

 If they refuse to return to the normal state of consciousness, they eventually go into normal sleep, and awaken as usual when rested, often wanting to be re-hypnotized.

If you wish you can be your own alarm clock and decide upon the time you want to return to normal awareness before you hypnotize yourself. You will always come out of it at exactly the time you specify.

During the ten- or fifteen minute trance, both your body and mind become revitalized, and you awaken feeling physically refreshed and emotionally serene. You will have renewed energy without tension, and you will find much easier to cope with the frustrations of daily living.

You will look forward to your next hypnotic experience with pleasure. One reason people have difficulty learning self-hypnosis is that they don’t know when they are hypnotized. Because they expect something much different, they believe they have failed when they have not.

There are various depth of trance which can be achieved, usually classified as the light trance, which is the feeling described above, the medium trance necessary for anaesthesia and age regression, and the deep trance which appears to be, but is not, deep slumber.

 The light trance is easily achieved by self-hypnosis, and it is sufficient for reaching and planting suggestions in the subconscious.

The medium  trance naturally follows with regular practice, and since it is a matter of degrees, you will find yourself in different depths during different sessions until you have been conditioned to the point where you are able to choose. With practice you can go into the depth you desire in ten to thirty seconds.

Here are some of the sensations you may experience while in hypnosis: your arms or legs may seem to float a few inches above the floor, or they may feel heavy, as though they were sinking into the floor.

They may seem to be in a different position than they actually are. YOU may lose conscious awareness of parts of your body, or all of it, and be conscious only of your mind.

You may see strange visions or beautifully coloured patterns of light. None of these sensations are harmful, and they are usually very pleasant.

Not long ago the medical profession was still practically unanimous in denying the possibility of mental healing. Then the doctors began to admit that such methods might occasionally relieve a few nervous and functional disorders. 

Today many begin to acknowledge that even stubborn organic ailments such as cancer are sometimes cured by mental means without the use of drugs or surgery.

If sometimes, why not always? The honest answer to this is that there are certain rules by which mental powers are to be used. Some are understood, some are yet to be discovered.

Obviously the most important of them is to do with mental attitude. Subconsciousness is always easy to manage and never resists our efforts to control it. 

The reason why sometimes it seems stubborn or resistant is that whenever you think of it as stubborn or resistant you are giving yourself the suggestion that it is and of course it immediately plays up to your suggestion until you give yourself a strong and definite counter suggestion.

The same can be said for expressing doubts regarding the effectiveness of hypnosis and of your suggestions.

To be in doubt , to be anxious about results, to indulge in many repetitions of your suggestions is to express a pattern of your fears instead of a pattern of your expectations. 

So take care to always express perfect confidence in the powers of subconsciousness and to never try to “put it to the test”, for if you do you are bound to fail.

A positive mental expectation, positive thinking, and faith are all good ways of making sure you are going to make hypnotherapy work.

There is nothing supernatural or magical about hypnotism, and there is not one documented case of harm coming to anyone as a result of its therapeutic use.

Although its benefits are well established, it remains a misunderstood and often-dreaded subject in the minds of the general public.

This resistance stems from our natural fear of any powerful force we do not understand. Ironically, there is a much greater danger in not understanding it. 

This force does not come from the hypnotist, but from your own subconscious mind, and if you do not control it, it controls you.

Most of our physical ailments and mental depressions are the result of this uncontrolled power working against us when we could easily be using it to our advantage.

Hypnotism is neither metaphysics nor religion, although it does explain the miraculous cures effected by sincere faith healers. It is not contrary to the teachings of any major religions, and is in fact, used in most of them.

 Any thought or idea repeated at length in solemn surroundings deepens faith by subconscious affirmation, and this is hypnosis.

You are hypnotized to some degree every day of your life. While reading an interesting book, while watching TV, or any time when your conscious mind is absorbed, your subconscious is more vulnerable.

Fear of hypnotism is gradually giving way to acceptance by a more enlightened society. Doctors are finally accepting it as a valuable therapy in the treatment of the symptoms of psychosomatic diseases.

 Psychiatrists are supplementing psychotherapy with hypnotherapy, often reducing the therapeutic process to less than one eight of the time formerly needed for similar results.

Since most doctors do not have time to teach self-hypnosis to their patients, they utilize qualified hypnotherapists to do the job.

Dentists who use hypnosis to relax apprehensive patients find they need little or no anaesthetic for painless drilling or extraction.