A post-hypnotic suggestion invites you to do or experience something after hypnosis.
You hear or give yourself the suggestion during a session, with a later moment in mind. The wording can connect an everyday cue with a chosen response. The cue names the moment to recognize; the response says what you would like to do then.
The point is to choose your response before the familiar moment arrives. Here you'll find the main uses, six common questions and 24 practical pointers:
- 12 writing and practice steps
- Seven wording rules
- Five mistakes to avoid
The one-page printable has a fill-in template, all 24 pointers and a worked example. Intropi makes hypnosis sessions, so we'll also look at five exact lines from our recordings.
The named examples are fictional. Start by noticing which moment you want your sentence to meet.
Table of Contents
Where post-hypnotic suggestions are used
What is a post-hypnotic suggestion?
How post-hypnotic suggestions work
What does a post-hypnotic response feel like?
Do post-hypnotic suggestions work, and for how long?
Are post-hypnotic suggestions safe, and can you refuse one?
How do stage hypnosis, therapy and self-hypnosis differ?
How to write your own post-hypnotic suggestion
- 1. Choose the moment you want to meet differently
- 2. Pick a response you can make yourself
- 3. Give the moment a cue you will recognize
- 4. Decide what a useful attempt would look like
- 5. Put the cue and response into one sentence
- 6. Decide where the practice belongs and when to stop
- 7. Read the sentence in your own voice
- 8. Choose how you will use the sentence
- 9. Picture the cue and your chosen response
- 10. Try the response at the next suitable occasion
- 11. Record the cue, your action and one adjustment
- 12. Keep, revise or drop the sentence
Five lines from our sessions
The wording rules
- 1. Name what you want to do
- 2. Use words you would actually say
- 3. Make the response believable
- 4. Make the timing clear
- 5. Give the sentence one job
- 6. Use a tone you would welcome
- 7. Choose a direct action or an image that fits
Common mistakes
- 1. Replace a borrowed goal with your own
- 2. Retire drafts that compete for the same cue
- 3. Let yourself remember the suggestion
- 4. Treat a missed cue as information
- 5. Fix the practical obstacle as well
What the research says
Frequently asked questions
Conclusion
Where post-hypnotic suggestions are used
Stage hypnosis. A performer gives the suggestions for a show. A later cue can be part of the performance: the wording asks a volunteer to respond when that cue appears. Before taking part, ask what you're being invited to do and decide whether you want to join in.
Therapy and clinical hypnosis. You and a practitioner agree the aim within professional care. The practitioner may suggest a response to use after the appointment. In Jensen and colleagues' program, a breath cue was included for later self-hypnosis; the research box explains the study.
Self-hypnosis. You guide your own practice, perhaps using a method a practitioner has taught you. You choose the aim and the wording for a later occasion. The tutorial below helps you write that sentence and decide where to use it.
Recorded sessions and apps. A narrator supplies wording prepared in advance. You choose a session whose subject and suggestions you want to work with, and you can pause or stop listening. Our five session examples show how recordings connect a later cue with a response.
What is a post-hypnotic suggestion?
A suggestion offered during hypnosis can invite you to do or experience something afterward. Post names that later moment.
Example A breath now or a pause later
An invitation to notice your breathing during a session concerns what's happening now. An invitation to pause at tomorrow's checkout points beyond the session. That's the distinction to look for when you read a script.
Example Sarah at the checkout
Sarah's sentence will ask for one breath when the cart total appears. Written in her notebook, that's a personal plan. Offered during hypnosis for the later checkout, the sentence becomes a post-hypnotic suggestion.
Remembering the words doesn't disqualify them. Forgetting isn't part of the definition.
Lynn and Green describe this later activity in the American Psychological Association chapter on clinical hypnosis.
How post-hypnotic suggestions work
The sentence connects a later occasion with a response you're invited to make. A cue tells you which moment the wording is about.
Example Sarah recognizes her cue
For Sarah, the cue is the cart total appearing. The response is taking one breath before deciding. The real checkout provides the occasion to try it.
A cue can be an ordinary event you recognize. Choose a familiar moment that gives you a clear place to begin.
Preparing to focus during hypnosis and giving a suggestion are different parts of a session. The preparation brings attention to the practice; the suggestion describes the experience or action being invited.
That explains the wording's job. The brain science asks a further question: what changes while someone responds?
In the color-word study by Raz and colleagues, a suggestion changed task performance and brain activity among highly responsive participants.
What does a post-hypnotic response feel like?
A response can feel as though it comes readily, without taking away your ability to object.
Example Sarah notices a pause
Sarah notices the planned pause at checkout before she has talked herself through the sentence. She takes a breath and looks at the cart. She might have little to describe beyond what she did.
You might also notice little, or remember the sentence and deliberately decide to try it. Pay attention to the response you make, even if it feels ordinary.
Describe your own experience. There's no need to borrow somebody else's account of how a response ought to feel.
Lynn and Green distinguish feeling an automatic response from being unable to oppose a suggestion.
Do post-hypnotic suggestions work, and for how long?
Post-hypnotic responses have been observed during tasks and after sessions. For your own sentence, look at what happens when the chosen occasion arrives.
One listener may respond more readily than another. Read Santarcangelo's discussion of responsiveness to hypnosis on PubMed for more on these differences.
For your own draft, choose something modest enough to try and notice. Did you recognize the occasion? Did you make the response you wanted? Those questions give you more to work with than waiting to discover whether you've become a different person.
Review the attempt you actually made. Your options include:
- Keep useful wording
- Change a cue you missed
- Decide that an ordinary reminder suits you better
No single duration is established, and responses vary. The postcard experiments in the research box show what researchers observed over time. Use your own notes to decide whether your sentence deserves another try.
Are post-hypnotic suggestions safe, and can you refuse one?
You can oppose a suggestion and stop a practice. Choose wording you welcome and a setting where you can give the session your attention.
If a recording becomes unwelcome, pause it. Open your eyes if they're closed. Look around the room. Turn your attention to what's around you.
Choose the goal yourself and keep the freedom to change your mind. Agreeing to begin doesn't oblige you to finish. You don't have to demonstrate cooperation by accepting wording you dislike.
Keep this exercise to voluntary everyday practice. Listen seated somewhere suitable, away from driving or jobs that need your attention. A session can wait until you've finished cooking.
Social pressure matters too. Someone insisting that refusal means you're doing hypnosis wrong is giving you a reason to pause the arrangement.
Speak with a qualified healthcare professional if you have:
- A health concern
- Distress that continues
- Uncertainty about whether hypnosis suits you
Lynn and Green reject the belief that people cannot resist suggestions.
How do stage hypnosis, therapy and self-hypnosis differ?
Their purposes differ:
- A performance for an audience
- An agreed concern within professional care
- Practice you choose for yourself
Start with what the session is for and who is guiding it. The comparison gives you a useful question to ask in each setting.
| Setting | Purpose | Who guides it | What to ask |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stage | A performance for an audience | A performer | What am I being invited to do, and do I want to? |
| Therapy | An agreed concern within professional care | A practitioner | What is the plan, and who is qualified to help with my concern? |
| Self-hypnosis | A practice you choose for yourself | You, possibly following a recording | Is this a goal and setting I have chosen? |
The setting tells you who chooses the words and why. Keep your own aim in view, whether someone guides you in person or you choose a recording.
How to write your own post-hypnotic suggestion
Take one ordinary occasion through these 12 steps. You'll finish with a sentence to use in a suitable practice and something specific to notice afterward.
1 Choose the moment you want to meet differently
Example Sarah chooses a checkout moment
Sarah could write "Be sensible with money" at the top of a page. By bedtime, the page would contain a lecture and no clear place to begin.
She chooses the online checkout after a tiring day. That's a moment she can picture:
- The cart on screen
- The total underneath
- The temptation to get the decision over with
Try this: Write one sentence naming an everyday occasion you'd like to handle differently and where it happens.
You don't have to tackle your whole relationship with spending. Give the first draft a place to arrive.
2 Pick a response you can make yourself
Example James after a handoff
James comes out of a tense handoff wishing his colleague would explain the job properly. Fair enough. His colleague's behavior is also a poor assignment for James's sentence.
Try this: Choose a response you can make yourself. James can ask one clear question before beginning. He writes, "When the handoff ends, I ask which task needs doing first."
Look at the response you're considering. Could you attempt it yourself? If it requires a partner to apologize or a manager to become reasonable, bring the wording back to your next action.
3 Give the moment a cue you will recognize
Example Emma opens her study notebook
Emma means to get on with studying "when I feel distracted". Unfortunately, distraction tends to be busy doing something else when that announcement is due.
She chooses opening her study notebook as the cue to read the first question. The notebook gives the plan a beginning she can recognize.
Try this: Write one cue you will recognize.
Opening the book is clearer than "when the time is right".
You can use an inner experience too, if you recognize it. For a first draft, an event you can see or hear may be easier to describe.
Emma's line is, "When I open my study notebook, I read the first question." Now she knows what counts as the start.
4 Decide what a useful attempt would look like
Example Lucy at a residents' meeting
Lucy wants to speak at a residents' meeting. If success means sounding completely confident, she could ask a good question and go home convinced she'd failed.
Try this: Decide beforehand what action would count as a useful attempt. Lucy chooses asking the question she prepared. A shaky voice can come along; the question gets asked anyway.
Occasion: Residents' meeting
Useful attempt: Ask the prepared question
Not required: Sound completely confident
Give the attempt a fair test. Choose an action you can describe afterward without guessing what everyone thought of you. You might notice whether you asked for the detail you needed.
5 Put the cue and response into one sentence
Try this: Put your cue and response into the template below. You can edit a sentence you can see; a promising idea in your head is harder to pin down.
Use the template to separate the occasion from the response. The central sentence is the suggestion. These lines are notes to help you use it:
- Setting
- Choice
- Review
My moment: [ONE EVERYDAY OCCASION]
My cue: [WHAT I WILL NOTICE]
My chosen response: [ONE SMALL ACTION OR EXPERIENCE]
When [CUE] during [OCCASION], I [CHOSEN RESPONSE].
This is for [SETTING]; I can leave it aside when [EXCEPTION].
I choose whether to continue.
Afterward: [CUE NOTICED] | [WHAT I DID] | [NEXT ADJUSTMENT]
The sentence beginning “When” is your suggestion. The setting, choice and review lines are notes for you; you needn't memorize the whole sheet.
Example: Sarah's checkout sentence
When the cart total appears at checkout, I take one breath before deciding.
The cart total is the cue. One breath is the action. Sarah makes the buying decision.
Example Sarah fills in the sentence
Sarah writes: "When the cart total appears at checkout, I take one breath before deciding."
She's named the moment and given herself a manageable action. Buying or leaving the cart remains her decision.
Read your own line once. Can you find both parts without explaining what you meant? The wording rules help you edit; the session examples show other ways to join them.
6 Decide where the practice belongs and when to stop
Example Kate finishes cooking first
Kate wants a settling exercise for sitting quietly at home. She doesn't want to turn inward while cycling through traffic or watching a pan on the stove.
Try this: Write down where your practice belongs and when you'll leave it aside. Make the exception as concrete as the setting.
For: sitting quietly at home.
Leave aside: while traveling or using equipment.
I can stop whenever I choose.
Kate's note says, "For sitting at home after the cooking is finished. I can stop whenever I choose." The kitchen gets her attention while she's using it.
Keep the choice to stop in the plan. You don't need to finish a recording because you pressed play, or continue a sentence because you spent time writing it.
7 Read the sentence in your own voice
Example Lucy prepares for a family call
Lucy reads, "Before the family call, I cultivate equanimity." She can't get to the end without hearing a person she has never met.
Try this: Say your draft aloud in your ordinary voice.
Lucy tries, "Before I answer the family call, I give myself a moment." She can hear what she means now.
Listen for a phrase you stumble over. Keep the pace comfortable enough to catch the words. If a sentence needs an elaborate delivery to make sense, shorten it before practicing it.
Read the revision once more. Does it sound like help you'd accept from yourself on an ordinary evening?
8 Choose how you will use the sentence
Try this: Write one question about where you would use your sentence.
Discuss your question with a suitable practitioner to work out where the sentence fits in a hypnosis practice you know.
Example Ben asks about his practice
Ben writes, "When I open my work notebook, I read today's first task." He takes it to a practitioner and asks, "Where would this sentence fit in the self-hypnosis practice you've taught me?"
If he chooses an existing recording instead, he listens for that recording's wording. Writing his own sentence doesn't mean the recording will say it back to him.
If self-hypnosis is new to you, keep the sentence as an ordinary personal plan while you seek suitable guidance. There's no need to improvise a full session from a paragraph.
Choose a format you understand well enough to use comfortably.
9 Picture the cue and your chosen response
Example Tom opens a difficult letter
Tom imagines opening a difficult letter at his kitchen table. The table has yesterday's newspaper on it. His phone is beside the envelope. Give the scene its ordinary furniture.
Try this: Within your chosen practice, picture the cue and the response you want to make. Tom sees himself opening the letter, then reading the first paragraph before reaching for his phone.
He doesn't need to rehearse the entire afternoon or imagine the letter containing good news. His sentence is, "When I open the letter, I read the first paragraph before reaching for my phone."
10 Try the response at the next suitable occasion
Example Sarah tries the pause
The next time Sarah reaches an online checkout, she notices the cart total. She takes one breath before deciding what to do with the purchase.
That's the occasion she prepared for. She doesn't need to open a shopping site especially to test herself, or make a purchase she wasn't considering.
Try this: Write when and where you expect to meet your cue next.
When your cue comes along in a suitable setting, attempt the response you chose. Remembering your sentence and deciding to use it is allowed.
Sarah can buy the contents of the cart or leave them.
If you miss your cue, leave the verdict until you've looked at what happened. For now, notice the occasion and what you actually did next.
11 Record the cue, your action and one adjustment
Example Emma at violin rehearsal
Emma meant opening the music stand to cue tuning her violin. At rehearsal, the stand was already open. She tuned anyway, then wondered what to put in her notes.
Try this: Write what happened before deciding what it means. Three short entries are enough:
- The cue you met or missed
- The action you made
- One adjustment for next time
| Cue | What I did | Next adjustment |
|---|---|---|
| Stand already open | Tuned the violin | Use picking up the bow |
Emma notes that the stand was already open and that she tuned the violin. Tomorrow she'll use picking up the bow as her cue, because that's a moment she does herself.
A mark out of ten wouldn't have caught the problem with the stand. A plain account did.
12 Keep, revise or drop the sentence
Example James changes his lunch cue
James's shift changes and lunch moves to a different time. The sentence he wrote around his old break no longer fits the day he has.
Try this: Read your note and decide whether to keep, revise or drop the sentence. Keep wording that suits you. Change the part that doesn't. Drop the sentence if you no longer want the practice.
James changes "When the clock reaches noon, I eat the first mouthful before opening my messages" to "When I put my lunch on the table, I eat the first mouthful before opening my messages."
Save the version you want to try next, where you can find it without sorting through every previous draft.
A draft has to earn another day. Keep it because it fits the life you have now.
Five lines from our sessions
These five exact Intropi excerpts show each script's invitation. Read for the moment the line names and the response it invites.
Example A craving becomes a wave
In Sugar Cravings, an urge becomes the occasion to picture a wave. The image gives the listener something specific to imagine.
Choose a subject and compare its cue with yours. Look for the occasion, then the response.
Sugar Cravings
Whenever you feel a craving start,... you simply picture it as a wave on the ocean.
The craving is the cue and picturing a wave is the response. The wording gives you a specific image to try when the urge arrives.
From our Sugar Cravings session.
Study Focus
Each time you begin a new section or a new problem,... you carry the same deep, calm focus with you.
Beginning a section or problem is the cue for calm focus. Naming that starting point makes the occasion easy to recognize.
From our Study Focus session.
Self-Confidence
Each time you enter a space,... you carry yourself with a quiet assurance that speaks volumes.
Entering a space is the cue for carrying yourself with quiet assurance. The wording ties the response to an arrival, giving the suggestion a clear beginning.
From our Self-Confidence session.
Overspending
The next time you feel the impulse to spend, you will find that pause is already there, waiting for you.
The impulse to spend is the cue and a pause is the response. Naming the next impulse places that pause at a moment when you can choose what to do.
From our Overspending session.
Partner Appreciation
The next time you feel a flicker of irritation, you will notice it without being consumed by it.
Irritation is the cue for noticing the feeling without being consumed by it. The wording gives you a response to try and asks nothing of your partner.
From our Partner Appreciation session.
Get the suggestion sheet
Keep the template, all 24 pointers and Sarah's example together on the suggestion sheet. Leave space for your own attempt.
A sentence for the moment
Choose a wanted response. You can change or stop the practice.
When [CUE] during [OCCASION], I [CHOSEN RESPONSE].
Notice what happened. Keep, revise or drop the sentence.
The wording rules
Use these seven edits when your draft feels awkward or vague. Choose clear words you mean, rather than trying to find a special hypnotic grammar.
1 Name what you want to do
Example Tom lets his sister finish
Tom has written, "Do not interrupt." He knows what he's trying to stop. The sentence hasn't told him what to do while his sister finishes speaking.
Try this: Name the action you want to take, not only what you want to stop. Tom changes the line to, "I let her finish before I answer."
First draft: Do not interrupt.
Try: I let her finish before I answer.
The useful change is the instruction he can follow. When he's itching to explain his side, he can listen to the end of her sentence and then speak.
Look at your draft for a similar gap. If you've written only what to avoid, add the response you'd welcome in its place.
Leave room for your own opinion after listening. Tom can disagree with his sister once he's heard what she was trying to say.
2 Use words you would actually say
Example Kate asks for a deadline
"I radiate limitless confidence," Kate writes, before remembering that what she needs is the date the job must be finished.
Try this: Replace grand phrases with words you would use on a busy day. Kate tries, "I ask for the detail I need before agreeing to a job."
Her actual question might be, "When do you need this finished?" She now has something to say when the request arrives.
This edit is about vocabulary and meaning. You can read a sentence beautifully and find that the words belong to someone else's idea of a good life.
Cross out language you'd never choose in conversation. Keep the part that tells you what you want to do. Kate needs a deadline before she offers her time; radiance can wait.
3 Make the response believable
Example Ben starts a phone call
Ben is about to make a phone call and has promised to be effortlessly brilliant. The note beside the phone contains the opening sentence, which would be a more useful promise to keep.
Try, "When the call connects, I read the first line of my note."
Ben can picture that action. A nervous voice doesn't prevent it, and one awkward answer from the other person doesn't make the whole sentence false.
Watch for "always" and "never" when they turn an ordinary goal into a claim about every future day.
Try this: Rewrite the response as an action small enough to attempt.
4 Make the timing clear
Example James chooses the timing
James gets stuck choosing between "I pause" and "I will pause". Meanwhile, neither version says where the pause belongs.
Try this: Put the occasion back in the sentence. Both of these versions give James a moment to recognize at the register.
When the register shows the total, I pause.
Next time I reach the register, I will pause.
Choose the one that reads naturally to you. The first describes a recurring occasion; the second looks toward the next one. Neither needs a grammar lecture before James can use it.
The Overspending line in our session examples uses future tense. You can hear how directly it points ahead.
Spend your editing time on a more useful question: if this sentence came to mind during an ordinary day, would you know when to try the response?
5 Give the sentence one job
Example Emma puts her keys away
Emma's sentence began with putting her keys in the bowl. By the third draft, arriving home had acquired a small management role.
She'd added:
- Planning dinner
- Answering messages
- Tidying the kitchen
Try this: Cut the sentence back to one job: "When I come through the front door, I put my keys in the bowl."
Let one cue carry one clear response. The other jobs can have their own place in the evening. Emma removes the instruction to plan dinner when she comes home.
Read your draft for a string of "and then" instructions. Keep the action that matters at this occasion and move the rest out of the sentence.
6 Use a tone you would welcome
Example Lucy finds her place in a book
Lucy loses her place in a book and tells herself to stop being useless. The insult offers no clue about which paragraph she last read.
Try, "When I lose my place, I return to the last line I remember."
That sentence gives Lucy somewhere to go. She can turn back a page without first winning an argument about her own competence.
Try this: Read your wording as though a friend had said it to you. Would you hear an invitation you could use, or a threat to behave better?
Remove the insult and keep the direction. Kind wording doesn't need to be sugary or full of praise. Lucy hasn't declared herself an exceptional reader. She's found her place and can carry on with the book.
7 Choose a direct action or an image that fits
Example Dan picks up a pencil
Dan wants to loosen his grip before sketching. "When I pick up the pencil, I unclench my hand" says what he means. The pencil doesn't need to become a golden key.
Example Kate pictures an urge passing
Kate prefers an image when an urge interrupts her evening: "When I notice the urge, I picture a wave passing."
Try this: Choose a direct action or an image that gives you something clear to try. A direct sentence suits an action you can name. An image suits an experience you find easier to imagine that way.
The Sugar Cravings example shows a real session using a wave. Look at how the image follows its cue.
You don't have to make your writing sound mysterious. If you spend more time explaining the metaphor than recognizing the response, try the plain version.
Common mistakes
If practice disappoints, check what you asked of it. A clumsy sentence or a badly chosen occasion gives you something to change.
1 Replace a borrowed goal with your own
Example Lucy chooses her own goal
Lucy's friend thinks she should become more outgoing. Lucy enjoys quiet evenings and has no wish to make every gathering a performance.
Try this: Before polishing someone else's suggestion, ask whether you want the change it describes. Agreement shouldn't be smuggled in with the wording.
Lucy would like to ask a question when she's curious. She writes, "When someone mentions a subject I want to hear about, I ask them one question."
That fits her interest without asking her to become her friend's preferred version of sociable.
2 Retire drafts that compete for the same cue
Example Ben separates work from home
Ben once used a phone sound as a reminder to wind down at home. A new job means that sound now arrives throughout a busy shift. The old wording keeps turning up on the page alongside a newer plan to check work messages.
Try this: Cross out the retired version in your notes.
Ben moves the settling exercise to a separate moment: "When I sit in my armchair after work, I let my shoulders drop."
The work phone can keep its work purpose. There's no need to attach another instruction to the same sound.
Make the current plan easy to find. Keep the sentence you intend to practice clearly marked in your notes.
3 Let yourself remember the suggestion
Example Emma remembers her sentence
Emma arrives at choir rehearsal and remembers every word of the sentence: "When I open my music folder, I pause before joining the conversation."
The pause happens. Then Emma wonders whether remembering the plan has somehow spoiled the attempt.
Try this: Mark whether your chosen response happened, whether or not you remembered the wording.
A suggestion about what to do later and a suggestion about forgetting are separate requests. This exercise asks for a response at a chosen occasion; a blank memory isn't on the list.
You might deliberately bring the sentence to mind. That gives you no reason to dismiss a useful pause.
Let the action count. Emma opens the folder, takes the moment and then asks which piece the choir is starting with.
4 Treat a missed cue as information
Example Kate misses a handoff cue
Kate planned to pause during a handoff. With two conversations happening beside her and someone searching for the keys, the moment went past unnoticed.
Try this: Write one observation about what made your cue hard to notice.
Kate changes her line to, "When I sit down with the handoff notes, I read the first entry before answering messages." That gives her a quieter beginning she can identify.
A missed cue doesn't need ten compulsory repetitions as punishment. Change what made the attempt difficult.
Keep the next try modest enough that you can learn something from it. Kate wants to read the notes; she doesn't need to prove that no noisy room will ever distract her again.
5 Fix the practical obstacle as well
Example Dan brings his pencils downstairs
Dan wants to draw after supper. His sentence is ready. His pencils, unfortunately, are in a box in the attic.
Try this: Put the thing you need where your chosen response will happen.
Try, "When I clear my plate, I open the sketchbook on the table." Now the response has a chance to fit the room Dan is actually in.
Do the ordinary job the situation needs. Wording can't carry the pencils downstairs for you.
Dan brings down the box and puts it beside the table. Tomorrow's sentence can begin with a sketchbook he can open, instead of an expedition he keeps postponing.
What the research says
Three studies, with the useful finding beside the catch. Start with the question each study asked.
Compare:
- Who took part
- What they did
- What the researchers found
| Study | Who | What was measured | What was found | The limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barnier and McConkey, 1998 | Experiment 1: 16 students who responded readily to hypnotic suggestions. Experiment 2: 58 students across three groups. One received hypnosis. Another was asked to pretend to be hypnotized. The comparison group received an ordinary request to return postcards without hypnosis. | Postcards returned over observation windows of 16 weeks and eight weeks respectively. | Returns varied and declined; ordinary social requests matched or exceeded hypnotic suggestions. | A postcard task in selected students. The observation periods are not an expiration date or a promise of lasting change. |
| Raz, Fan and Posner, 2005 | 16 healthy adults aged 20 to 35: eight high and eight low responders, rated by how readily they responded to hypnotic suggestions. Electrical recording tested the high responders only. | How much a mismatched word slowed naming its ink color, such as the word "red" printed in blue. Participants were given a suggestion to experience words as nonsense. Scans measured brain activity; sensors on the scalp recorded the brain's electrical responses to the words. | Among high responders, the slowdown from mismatched words fell during brain scanning and disappeared during electrical recording. | An immediate laboratory task in a small selected sample. The study does not establish lasting habits or permanent brain change. |
| Jensen and colleagues, 2020 | 173 adults with chronic pain across four active programs; 43 were assigned hypnosis alone. | Changes in pain and its effects on daily life after four sessions, with follow-up through 12 months; the hypnosis program included a later breath cue. | All groups improved. Comparing all groups together did not show a clear difference beyond what chance could explain. That does not mean the programs worked equally well. Some comparisons between individual programs, chosen before the results were known, favored hypnosis combined with help changing unhelpful thoughts about pain. | The whole programs were compared, so this cannot identify what the later cue contributed. The trial did not study Intropi. |
Lynn and Green explain that a response can feel automatic while leaving you able to refuse. That does not establish that every setting or practitioner is safe; social pressure matters.
Together, these sources don't establish:
- A universal duration
- A required number of practice sessions
- A method for instantly erasing a cue
They also don't measure benefits from Intropi's recordings. The session excerpts above show the wording people are invited to respond to.
Frequently asked questions
Start with the question you came with. The answers return to the same distinction: a sentence can invite a response while leaving you a choice.
How long does a post-hypnotic suggestion last?
No single duration is established, and responses vary. The research box covers the findings on duration. For your own sentence, check what happened at the occasion you chose. Use that experience to decide whether to keep the sentence or change it.
Can you give me an example of a post-hypnotic suggestion?
Example: A checkout pause
"When the cart total appears at checkout, I take one breath before deciding." The total is the cue; the breath is the response. Offered during hypnosis for later use, it is a post-hypnotic suggestion. Written by itself, it is an ordinary plan.
How to break hypnosis triggers?
You can stop practicing an unwanted cue or stop listening to a recording. If the experience keeps troubling you, speak with a qualified healthcare professional rather than trying to handle it alone.
What are three types of triggers?
Your cue could be:
- A phrase
- An everyday action
- An inner experience
Pick something you can recognize at the occasion you want to use your suggestion.
Must a suggestion use present tense?
There is no single right tense. Make the later occasion clear. Our Overspending excerpt uses future tense, while the checkout example uses present tense. Read your sentence back: can you tell when you mean to try the response?
Must I forget the suggestion for it to work?
Forgetting is not part of the definition. A suggestion about doing something later and a suggestion about forgetting something are different requests. You can remember what you planned; a blank memory is not the test to set yourself.
Conclusion
Example Sarah makes her choice
Sarah's cart is on the screen. She has taken a breath and can choose to buy or leave it. The sentence has a modest job: giving that familiar moment a response she chose beforehand.
Choose the next ordinary occasion you'd like to meet differently. Put a manageable response beside it, in words you can recognize as your own.
You can attempt the sentence. You can revise it. You can also put it aside. You don't owe the exercise a new personality.
Keep the suggestion sheet nearby. Begin with the moment you can picture.
Get the suggestion sheet
Take the template, all 24 pointers and the checkout example with you. Add your sentence and one note about what happened.
A sentence for the moment
Choose a wanted response. You can change or stop the practice.
When [CUE] during [OCCASION], I [CHOSEN RESPONSE].
Notice what happened. Keep, revise or drop the sentence.
The photographs are AI-generated illustrations of fictional moments.
The photographs in this article are AI-generated illustrations of fictional moments.
Sources
Research register checked on 12 October 2026.
- Steven Jay Lynn; Joseph P. Green, 2023, In Leonard S. Milling (Ed.), Evidence-Based Practice in Clinical Hypnosis, American Psychological Association, chapter 1. An Introduction to the Practice of Clinical Hypnosis
- Amanda J. Barnier; Kevin M. McConkey, 1998, Psychological Science, 9(4), 256-262. Posthypnotic Responding Away from the Hypnotic Setting
- Enrica L. Santarcangelo, 2014, Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 8, 224; Opinion article. New views of hypnotizability
- Amir Raz; Jin Fan; Michael I. Posner, 2005, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102(28), 9978-9983. Hypnotic suggestion reduces conflict in the human brain
- Mark P. Jensen and colleagues, 2020, Pain, 161(10), 2284-2298. Effects of hypnosis, cognitive therapy, hypnotic cognitive therapy, and pain education in adults with chronic pain: a randomized clinical trial