http://science.howstuffworks.com/hypnosis.htm
While reading chapter 2 for the class, I noticed that hypnosis was brought up so I decided to look up information about it. This website gives a lot of good information as to what hypnosis is and how it works. Hypnosis brings out our subconscious and tunes out everything else. I thought it was interesting how the website explained that we all practically hypnotize ourselves everyday by reading or watching tv. This can be called hypnosis because we tune everything out and sometimes can be completely unaware of our surroundings. This is what happens when people are hypnotized. Their subconscious is the only thing working at the moment so people are easily influenced. The reason psychiatrists use hypnosis is because it gives your conscious brain (the part that controls what you say and do, essentially) a break to allow the psychiatrist to work with the "real" brain.
I found all of this to be very interesting and a lot of my questions about hypnosis were answered. I can see now why hypnosis would be used and although it is still not completely understood, I think it should be done more in some situations.
As a performing mentalist I am highly skeptical of the claims of hypnosis and hypnotists. Although there is a lot of interesting scientific research done on the topic, it is important not to confuse stage-show hypnotists with the scientific field of anomolous cognition.
Most people have no idea about the inner workings of hypnotists in the performance arena so sometimes their claims are assumed to be just as researched as say, the example regarding day-dreaming on your way to work. Another problem is that stage-show hypnotists get more work the more people assume that what they are doing is legitimate, and since they are not scientists, who are they to say whether their powers are real or fake? So most, even when interviewed (especially when interviewed) will not hesitate to make the field of hypnosis seem more impressive than it has been scientifically validated to be.
That being said, there are interesting things going on along this line of research.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1174707,00.html
The above link, is to an article discussing some developments in the use of hypnosis as an alternative (or complement) to normal anesthesia. It is important to remember that the most conservative estimates say that only approx 60% of the population is subject to the effects of hypnosis, with an incredibly small percentage being highly susceptable to the effects of hypnosis.