Hypnosis is one of those strange practices that many people have encountered on some level, either through personal experience or more often through television. It is also a somewhat controversial practice and is considered by most skeptics to be a branch of parapsychology. There is also a wide misunderstanding of what hypnotism is and what it can do, because of its rather obscene and incorrect portrayal on television by charlatans to con people. As a person who has been "hypnotized" I have an interest in the word and where it comes from, because the word hypnotized has been connected with being put in a trance state which is not coherent with the meaning of the word.
The word hypnosis is actually a combination of two words from the Greek, 'hypnos' meaning "sleep" and 'osis' meaning "condition." So hypnosis is actually a word literally meaning a "sleep condition" or according to some and more in line with the modern word "a condition like sleep." Many, but not all, hypnotists begin their "routine" by inducing a sleep like state on their participants which while not really sleep resembles it in that the participant is relaxed and usually has their eyes closed.
What it means to storytelling: While I am not eliminating hypnosis as a valid means of entertainment and "theoretical science" I think that putting our audiences into a sleep like state is generally a bad thing. Do not mistake a hypnotized person for a mesmerized or entranced person. Entrancing and mesmerizing our audiences can be a wonderful thing, but hypnotizing them will probably not get you asked back as a storyteller... well maybe at a nursing home ;v)
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