The British Medical Association and the American Medical Association has called it 'a temporary condition of altered attention in the subject that may be induced by another person,' (Compton's Multimedia Encyclopedia) but there is still much about hypnosis that is not understood. Because it resembles normal sleep, it was studied and was found that the brain waves of hypnotized people are more similar to the patterns of deep relaxation than anything else. Rather than …showed first 75 words of 1458 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1458 total…such as those that help a person to stop smoking, eat less, or fight specific fears, such as fear of heights. It is unclear, however, if such procedures have any positive long-term effects. Hypnosis has also been used during police interviews to help the witnesses with their memory. Regardless of the application, hypnosis should be left to those who are properly trained. When used by untrained persons it may have undesirable and even dangerous effects.