Dr. David Spiegel

You know, you see it, you feel the cool breeze.

That intense absorption in what you're thinking about will change what you are perceiving.

Well, thank you, Sanjay.

You put it beautifully.

People ask me, what's the worst misconception about hypnosis?

And it's that it's a loss of control.

It's an increase in control.

Just the way you said it, you're learning to take more control of your brain and use it to your advantage.

And so it's a way of enhancing your ability to control how you feel and what you do.

People surprise themselves.

That's one of my favorite times in my work, Sanjay, is I see people are surprised that they can do this.

They can feel less pain.

They can stop smoking.

They can reduce their anxiety.

They can interrupt their asthma attacks.

I just love watching people surprise themselves at how much control they have.

It is.

It is.

When I'm just counseling people about their lives, there are things we control and things we don't control.

And ironically, the thing we control the least is actually the thing we control the most, and that's our body if we do it right.