Under hypnosis conscious activity is greatly reduced, and provided the conscience does not disapprove, the subconscious mind becomes receptive to suggestions. While hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness, the experience does not distort or block conscious thought. With the hyperawareness or concentrated attention, only the critical areas are subdued and the suggestion becomes paramount.

As the suggestion can never describe completely the complex detail of behavior that we want to become a habit, we make full use of our imagination to integrate the behaviorhabit-attitude patterns into our memory. This is the process: See yourself as you would like to be, not as you might think you are. The subconscious mind will always accept and respond to the images you give it, and habitchange is perhaps the most important instrument of hypnosis; for habit-change means behavior-change, and behavior change means attitude-change. We internalize the good and profitable adjustment to create and maintain constructive habit patterns or formations. While some habits can be established by a single suggestion, most habits require repetition, generally on successive days, to be come effective and permanent. This is largely caused by insufficient information for the imagination to completely structure the behavior required by the new habit. After experiencing a trial or experiment with the new visualized habit, again under hypnosis, we recycle the original suggestion, expand on the image, to more deeply instill the new habit. This process of trial and spaced repetition is to be continued until we find ourselves performing the more desirable habit we want.