[seraphic]

You know when I used to try hypnosis for any reason id always be "hearing" things in the background.. so while I was listening to it trying to concentrate my mind would be going "why didn't he choose a quieter room, I can hear cars in the background" or "his bloody fridge is humming I can hear it" or "have a sip of water later dude I can hear you swallowing!"..

I had a hypnosis session once years ago out of this ladies home, anyway partway through while I was lying on the couch and she was working on me, her huge cat pushed the sliding door open and came up to me smooching my legs and sniffing me lol I thought it was hilarious but the lady kept going like it was nothing, needless to say that hypnosis didn't work...

Haha. I used to be the same! Hypnosis did not work for me, I was too acutely tuned into the little things going on (like you mentioned, background noise, the person swallowing, breathing, etc) and little things would just get on my nerves so I couldn't enter a state for induction. I've had so many sessions where I spent the entire time wanting it to be over because it just wasn't working. But something changed somewhat recently for me, and I decided that I really wanted it to work. You have to give it permission and power to do it. Still sensitive to the outside world and can come out of the relaxed state easily, but I allow myself to go back to that relaxed state and it isn't a big issue.

My mind will still try to rebell: "You can't make me do anything! ha!!" or "This is really stupid, I'm completely lucid" every time a hypnotist tells me to do something or claims that I am under their influence, but that's why they're called "suggestions." You can't really control someone (unless they want to be controlled), but you can make suggestions and the person will choose to follow them because they want to.

That said, I *really* want these subliminals to work for me...so even if it is placebo effect, it's still doing something!