Hypnosis for Beginners: Reach New Levels of Awareness and Achievement (For Beginners (Llewellyn's))

The author then gives no real explanation of the theory of hypnosis and just launches into a single script designed to hypnotise the subject. It didn't take into account different variations in people at all.

After that he starts to describe how to help people with their problems in the most rudimentry manner. Once they are in a trance he simply tells them how they should think and feel that might work on somepeople but is no means a catch all solution.

And on a personal note the stuff about trances and astral projection was so out of left field that I felt it seriously damaged the credability of author.

All in all disapointing


Hypnosis For Beginners...   September 27, 2005
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

This is a GOOD book. William Hewitt was a rather unique and somewhat spiritually minded therapist who's induction techniques mix a variety of styles. If you're just curious about hypnosis and would like to learn a set method of self hypnosis then this book is a very good buy... Hewitt's scripts are well set out and make a good starting point for learning yourself the art of self hypnosis. If however you're a therapist (or trainee therapist) you probably won't find much use for it. Hewitt doesn't really explain his scripts, which is fine if you just want to use them for personal use, but not if you're hoping for a comprehensive introduction to hypnosis as a whole... In conclusion, this is a GOOD book if your only intention is to learn the very basics of hypnosis. Spiritually open-minded folks like myself should enjoy the chapter on past-life regression and may even wish to further their awareness on such things by reading Hewitt's other works...


Good in parts... but flawed in others   January 24, 2005
 23 out of 25 found this review helpful

Oh dear.
The first thing to say is that there is useful material in this book. Really. However, it's surrounded by an awful lot of tedious nonsense which at times makes it hard to know what to take seriously and what to ignore.
The author is one of those who freely mixes hypnotism in with "psychic abilities" and "past-life regression". In amongst the somewhat patronizing instructions on how to run your own hypnotism business (for that's what this is; a how-to book) you'll find believable case histories mixed with the downright charlatanesque (apparently it's possible to heal wounds with self-hypnotism).
There's almost nothing for the rational or scientifically-minded reader looking for information on how and why hypnotism works. The "explanation" of brainwave rhythms reads as though the author once saw a brief article that mentioned stages of sleep and worked up an entire theory based on little or no understanding of actual physiology.
The tone of the book is like listening to a rather self-important uncle who feels that he's in the position of teaching a Young Nephew how to succeed in life. At times hectoring, at others dull, Hewitt tell you how you too can succeed as a freelance hypnotherapist without (apparently) requiring any qualifications or experience. However, he does at times let it slip that he earned most of his living as a technical writer.
So what is useful? Well, the majority of the book is made up of hypnotic scripts which, if you like to copy-and-paste without understanding, can serve as a very useful and comprehensive set of reference material. But jeez, it's hard going at times if you have any sort of sceptical mind.