Just imagine: Your significant other strides through the front door and announces, "Honey, forget Must-See TV. Tonight, I want to worship your body, massage you head to heel, make love to you on a higher spiritual plane and help you reach a whole new pleasure plateau."

Probably, you'd think either you were dreaming or your guy had temporarily lost touch with reality. How could he find your overweight body enticing? You resolve once-and-for-all to buy that weight-loss hypnosis tape your friends are raving about. But there's a problem: you don't trust it: hypnosis is for the Las Vegas stage shows, you say. What if I start clucking like a chicken or bark like a dog?

My first exposure to hypnosis occurred when I was watching “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?” as a boy. It was an episode where an evil circus clown went around with a shiny pocket watch, hypnotizing the Scooby gang into unwillingly doing all sorts of bizarre and dangerous things. Of course, that cartoon was all just fiction, but it illustrates how a person’s silly ideas about hypnosis are often based--on works of dramatic storytelling, like the stuff we see in movies and in cartoons. Here are six of the biggest misperceptions about hypnosis and my misconception-busting explanations:

Misperception #1: Hypnosis is mind control. No, actually, hypnosis is all about you being in full control at all times. The hypnotherapist is simply your partner in that process. You accept or reject any suggestion made to you. You won't be turned into some sort of automaton. In fact, your active willpower is crucial to effective results. Hypnotized stage-participants are not controlled by the hypnotist either. They are aware and in control of their own actions, even though it doesn’t appear so. They comply with suggestions to have fun, but they won’t go along with dangerous suggestions.

Misperception #2: Hypnosis is sleep. The truth is that during clinical hypnosis, you are wide awake. When your eyes are closed during the process, your body is generally still, so it would look as if you were asleep. Some subjects do accidentally drift off during a session, but when they do, they are no longer absorbing the hypnotic suggestions and they'll benefit very little from the process. The hypnosis-is-sleep idea is often perpetuated by hypnotists who use the words “sleep” or “sleep” during their sessions: “You are getting very sleepy.” But the hypnotist is really only suggesting the deep relaxation that comes with the proper hypnotic state.

Misperception #3: Hypnosis creates amnesia. The uninitiated sometimes believe that when they are brought out of hypnosis they won't remember what went on. While that’s possible, it’s rare. Most people fully remember everything said to them during hypnosis. Remember that stage show? Most stage hypnosis subjects just don't go deeply enough into hypnosis to account for post-hypnotic amnesia. The stage hypnotist is counting on widespread misconceptions about hypnosis to amaze the audience, even if entertainment wins out over truth. And the stage participants are co-conspirators to this lie by pretending not to remember their own antics on stage.

Misperception #4: Hypnosis is a supernatural practice. Hypnosis is not a product of the occult or the New Age movement. For many decades, the American Medical Association has recognized hypnosis as a therapeutic tool that can be used for a broad variety of mental health solutions. It is true that hypnosis has been utilized toward spiritual ends, but there is nothing particularly “spiritual” about hypnosis and certainly nothing Scooby-Doo spooky about it.

Misperception #5: It’s difficult to awaken from hypnosis. Do you worry that when you go to sleep at night you may not wake up in the morning? Probably not. Returning from hypnosis to everyday consciousness is even easier than waking from sleep. No one gets “stuck” in a state of hypnosis. You can rouse from it anytime you wish, because you are awake and always in control. Misperception #6: Hypnosis is for the weak-minded. Being hypnotized has nothing to do with being stupid or gullible or “weak.” The reality is that almost everybody is hypnotizable. The main prerequisites are a willingness to be hypnotized and the ability to follow simple directions.

So, the truths about hypnosis will allow the new hypnosis client to access her subconscious with fewer barriers and her hypnotherapist can then help her achieve her goals, whether they are weight loss, quitting smoking, reducing stress or any other challenge she wants to change for the better.

Forbes Robbins Blair is the author of the new book, “Instant Self Hypnosis: How to Hypnotize Yourself with Your Eyes Open” (Sourcebooks, 2004, $14.95). He is a Clinical hypnotherapist and dream analyst and has appeared on television and radio. For more info on his book, services and workshops, please visit www.forbesrobbinsblair.com