arket today, but
they should not be necessary for anyone who has acquired self-hypnosis.
If you have learned to visualize yourself (visual-imagery) in different
situations, you will have no trouble in picturing yourself having a
slim, attractive figure, exactly as you were when you felt you looked
your best. Keep this figure ever in mind and use it along with
conditioning yourself against certain fatty and starchy foods. A trick
used by some hypnotherapists is to have the subject purchase a dress or
suit several sizes too small and then work toward being able to wear it.
This actually has worked in many cases because it adds the element of
competitiveness to the procedure.

Not all people overeat because of emotional problems. Some come from
families where "licking the platter clean" was the rule because food was
scarce. Others come from rich families where overeating by the parents
established a habit pattern in the children. Certain races and
nationalities look on fat as a badge of wealth and prestige, and
children in such an environment are likely to be deliberately overfed.
Regardless of the reason for overweight, however, the use of
self-hypnosis is one of the answers to the problem.

Simple headaches, arthritis, neuritis and other painful symptoms yield
readily to hypnotic suggestion. If physicians have given up on the
problem and placed a subject on a maintenance drug dosage for pain,
hypnosis can potentiate the drugs or even obviate them.

Two of the major uses of hypnosis are in childbirth and for intractable
pain of cancer or some other incurable diseases. Although patients
usually start with hetero-hypnosis, they are put on self-hypnosis as
soon as possible, and there are many cases of women waiting too long and
having their babies at home painlessly through self-hypnosis. The father
invariably is the only one excited in such cases. The mother knows that
she is an excellent subject and has been instructed in prenatal classes
about every contingency that could arise. Inasmuch as stopping the birth
pangs is similar to stopping other pain, the method should be learned so
that it can be accomplished in a minimum of time.

The best way to stop pain is to let your right arm slowly rise while you
are under hypnotic suggestion. Do not help it. If the suggestions are
strong enough, it will "float" up. As soon as the arm is straight
overhead, you should give yourself the suggestion that it is as rigid
and unbending