I am currently reading the book Three Magic Words by U.S. Andersen. I came across the following section that talks about hypnosis. The sentence (I put in bold type) in the third paragraph is what made me want to ask this question.

TECHNIQUES OF HYPNOSIS

Now, you may ask, why is it that a perfect stranger can tell your Subconscious when you are under hypnosis that you have no feeling in your arm and forth with you have no feeling in your arm, while if you, yourself, in a normally conscious state say that you have no feeling in your arm, the feeling is just as lively as ever?

You are not able to accomplish this cessation of feeling because you think as well as speak. You are not simply telling your Subconscious that you have no feeling in your arm. You are forming the words in your mind or speaking them aloud, but this thought is accompanied by a dozen others, such as "This is silly, I know it won't work," "This, of course, is impossible," "I have normal feeling in my arm because I am aware of feeling now." In other words, you have so accustomed yourself to having feeling in your right arm that even when you say, "I have no feeling in my arm," a dozen others of your own thoughts are directed to your Subconscious to assure that you still actually have feeling there.

There is positively no other explanation for the fact that the hypnotist can accomplish what you can't. The very primary fact that he must put your Conscious Mind out of the way is all the proof we need. The Conscious Mind then, being asleep, cannot say "don't" or "it isn't possible." The Conscious Mind can do nothing. And the Subconscious Mind seizes on the suggestion of the hypnotist and attempts to turn it into truth.

All three paragraphs (especially the bold sentence) really made me wonder if indeed a hypnotist or hypnotherapist is the human physical equivalent to the processes that we call releasing resistance or letting go.

They take the physical conscious mind out of the way that opens up the door to the universal subconscious mind. When that door is opened, we pretty much believe anything that comes through it. In my opinion that sounds a whole lot like what we strive to do everyday to better our lives and that is to let go of resistance.

So do you think a hypnotist in the "physical solid earthly sense" could be compared to the concept of releasing resistance in the "non-physical sense?"

Could we literally slap a shirt on these people that says "I am a master of helping people let go of resistance, I can help you accomplish anything that you desire in your life with ease?"

Now I understand hypnosis may not work the same way for everyone but this question is geared more towards the overall general concept of how therapeutic and stage hypnosis works.