Book excerpt: Psychotherapy is a scientifically proven form of treatment, and neuroscience has justified hypnosis as a convenient method to train our minds to change our brains. However, hypnosis remains widely misunderstood. This volume clears up many misconceptions surrounding the practice by exploring it as a part of psychodynamic psychotherapy. In this context, hypnosis involves the activation of the patient's fantasy to create a new inner reality of the self, so that this reality can take the place of the old one for personal enrichment of the individual. Presenting new evidence from neuroscience and the ancient wisdom of Buddhism and detailing many short case studies, this work reveals the essence of hypnosis and demonstrates the benefits of this often misunderstood mind activity.