Relax. Allow yourself to lapse into a serene, peaceful place in your mind as you are consumed with an aura of sheer comfort and tranquility. You find yourself slipping out of consciousness and into a calm, deep slumber. Now hold that thought. Let the stress spill out of your body as you become comfortable and at ease with the world around you.

The power of suggestive words, translating into the power of the subconscious, is a formidable skill, perhaps more so than people may think. Planting a hint of an idea is the basis of hypnotism, an evocative yet mysterious talent that induces unconscious thoughts and actions.

“It’s nothing more than the power of suggestion directed toward a receptive person,” said Steve Marino, nationally acclaimed stage hypnotist. “So you give someone a suggestion, and they react to it. And that’s very simplistic.”

Marino comes to the University every year to put on his hypnosis comedy shows. This year, he arrived on Jan. 21 and hypnotized a handful of students on stage in front of an upbeat crowd, often drawing fits of laughter from the audience.

But there is much more to hypnosis than just the theatrics. It has a real basis, not only in hypnotherapy — quitting smoking, losing weight and even alleviating childbirth — but also in daily life.

“When you are in a state of profound, deep relaxation, you become in contact with your subconscious mind, and that’s where your imagination is,” Marino said. “When someone is hypnotized in a deep, long relaxation, if you give them suggestions or things to imagine, subconsciously they think these are real.”

This would be equivalent of telling someone not to think about cupcakes and then immediately asking what is on their mind. Without a doubt, thoughts of mini frosted treats will begin to emerge in their head simply because it was suggested to them.

As strange as it may seem, everyone hypnotizes themselves every day.

Any time you zone out in the middle of class, as you are driving or even in the midst of a rather dull conversation, you were just hypnotized. While you are still physically and mentally present, a part of your mind has taken a little vacation for a few seconds.

Grasping and utilizing this mental vacation, practitioners in hypnotism can allow you to engineer your own mind. While they are the ones bringing you into a hypnotic state, it is actually your own psyche that is subconsciously interpreting the messages.

“The social cognitive view is that (hypnosis) is a type of placebo effect, and it works almost exactly the way a placebo drug would work,” said Judith Pintar, professor of Slavic languages and literature and author of a handful of publications about the history of hypnotism. “It manipulates people’s expectancies, so if people expect a pill to make them feel better, they will feel better.”

Transcending cultures and time periods, the practice of hypnotism as an “ethical placebo” has lasted many hundreds of years in some shape or form. It even plays a part in nontraditional medical practices, Pintar said. It allows the individual to imbibe the idea of healing within their mind.

“It’s not a magic wand,” said Dr. Dwight Damon, president of the National Guild of Hypnotists, or NGH. “People say, ‘Well, I’m going to go to a hypnotist to stop smoking or to lose weight.’ If they don’t really want to (believe it), they might as well save time and money and not go. If they have the desire, then it simply is a great aid in strengthening that desire and helping to program them positively.”

The NGH has been around since 1950 and is the most prominent national hypnotism organization. At its conception, 90 percent of its members were stage hypnotists, and about 10 percent were psychologists; today it is the exact opposite.

The Guild operates in 73 nations around the world, issues two publications and hosts the world’s largest hypnosis convention in Massachusetts in August. Hypnotist connoisseurs flock there from around the world — but they are regular people, and surely not all of them carry a mysterious, beguiling pocket watch.

“Most people have a misconception of what hypnosis really is because of movies, television, books and so forth,” Damon said. “Nobody has any control over you when you’re hypnotized. If somebody suggests something to you that’s against your morals … you just don’t do it. This is a time when somebody can help you to program yourself in a positive way.”

Whether you are daydreaming in class, zoning out in the car or trying to relieve stress, hypnotism is craftily sneaking itself into your mind, whether you know it or not.