Thread: How does one improve their "suggestive power"...

Thor, great post!

wow; thanks for the replies everyone (but Thor's post was particularly great)

I will try to remove 'tenses' next time I mild; and I will combine it with more visualisation than usual.

Do you think when I imagine myself checking reality; that doing so in a 'past dream' is better than just a random scene?

And thor...are you hinting that self-hypnosis may be a good thing to try? is it difficult?

Originally Posted by james_jlc

Do you think when I imagine myself checking reality; that doing so in a 'past dream' is better than just a random scene?

Personally, I don't think it should matter. The important thing is that you see yourself remembering to do a reality check.

And thor...are you hinting that self-hypnosis may be a good thing to try? is it difficult?

Yes, if you want to use autosuggestion to the fullest effect, self-hypnosis is the way to go. And as I said, hypnosis is not particularly difficult to achieve. In a typical textbook on hypnotism, maybe only 5-10% of the text is spent on how to get into a hypnotic state. The rest is usually spent on formulating and using suggestions, and on examples of suggestions for specific goals. Some books I recommend are:

• Self-Hypnosis for the Life You Want by Charles Henderson. This is easily the most comprehensive text on self-hypnosis I've read. As far as I know, you can order it only from Charles Henderson's web site.
• Self-Hypnosis and Other Mind Expanding Techniques by Charles Tebbetts. For being only 140 pages this book covers a lot of ground.
• Self-Hypnotism by Leslie LeCron. Old, but pretty good. I think it's out of print now.
• Self-Hypnosis - The Complete Manual for Health and Self-Change by Brian Alman and Peter Lambrou. More than half of this book is a catalog of suggestions for particular goals (but unfortunately none for lucid dreaming).

Getting into a hypnotic state is a skill, and it will probably take a little time to learn. The most efficient approach is to get a hypnotherapist to hypnotize you first. A competent professional should be able to hypnotize almost anyone. Then, when you have learned how hypnosis feels, it will be easier to hypnotize yourself. If you don't have access to a hypnotherapist, the next best thing is to use an induction recorded by a professional. And if you don't even have that you can try practicing the inductions found in textbooks.

Recordings that you can buy or get for free on the net are of highly variable quality. If you want to try a recording to see what it's like, I recommend this free recording by Paul McKenna, which is of outstanding quality.