There are so many wrong ideas attached, and the most fundamental is that the hypnotist has the power to hypnotize you. That is absolutely wrong. The hypnotist has the technique, not the power. Nobody can hypnotize you against yourself, unless you are willing. Unless you are ready to go into the unknown, untraveled darkness, no hypnotist can manage to hypnotize you.

In fact hypnotists don’t deny that they have the power. On the contrary, they claim that they have the power to hypnotize people. Nobody has the power to hypnotize anyone. Only you have the power to hypnotize yourself or to be hypnotized by somebody else – the power is yours. But when you are hypnotized by somebody else it can be misused.

The process is very simple, the technique, is very simple. The hypnotist hangs a crystal from a chain just over your eyes, and tells you, “Don’t close your eyes until you cannot keep them open. Fight to the last! Keep your eyes open!” And the crystal shines in your eyes. Naturally, the eyes have to blink continuously to keep themselves from getting dry. They are the most delicate part of your body. You blink your eyes because your eyelids function like windshield wipers on a car. They bring liquid to your eyes and they clean your eyes of any dust, or anything that may have entered. They keep your eyes fresh and are always showering.

The hypnotist says, “Stop blinking: just stare at something shiny!” – shiny because anything shiny will soon make your eyes tired. If you are told to look at a powerful enough electric bulb hanging just above your head, naturally your eyes will get utterly tired. And you are told that you are not to close them, unless you feel they are closing by themselves.

This is one part. The other part is that the hypnotist is continuously saying that your eyes are becoming very heavy, your eyelids seem to be utterly tired…. Just by your side he is repeating these words continuously: that your eyes are becoming tired, the lids want to close – and to you just the opposite direction has been given so that you are to go on fighting to the last. But how long can you fight?

It takes no longer than three minutes at the most, because a double process is going on. You are focused on the light that is tiring your eyes, and the hypnotist goes on repeating like a parrot, in a very sleepy voice, that sleep is coming over you. You cannot resist; it is impossible now to keep your eyes open.

Now these suggestions…and the person is fighting, he knows that his eyes are becoming tired, and the eyelids are becoming heavy, burdened. A point comes within three minutes, not more than that, when he cannot resist the temptation to let them close. The moment the eyes are closed, the man starts repeating, “You are going into deep sleep, and you will be able only to hear my voice and nothing else. I will remain your only contact.”