Andrew Leonard operates the Center for Self-Improvement. His wife, Judith, is his assistant.

Leonard used her to illustrate the power of hypnosis. Before their marriage, Judith Leonard went to other hypnotists for various personal problems, finding the solution each time.

When Leonard hypnotized her Tuesday, it was a demonstration. She sat in a special chair with speakers on either side of the headrest, listening to the soft music in a dimly lit room.

Leonard held his fingers over her and asked her to follow them as they dropped. He counted down from five to one, and Judith Leonard was in the first stages of sleep when he reached the number one.

Leonard took her deeper into sleep, then suggested that her hand was surrounded by red balloons.

"You feel as though your hand is being lifted," he said. "It's lighter and lighter and lighter and it's getting closer and closer to your face. When it touches your face, it will drop into your lap."

Judith Leonard's hand rose slowly to her face, touched it, and fell. Her husband caught it.

At the end of the demonstration, he woke her up, and she stretched and yawned as though awaking from a long sleep.

Tim Morgan, a certified hypnotherapist who operates the Cape Girardeau Institute of Hypnosis, uses a different approach. For example, if a client wants to stop smoking, he asks the client how long he has smoked and how many packs a day he smokes. He asks if he is ready to get into the chair where everyone stops smoking.

When the client is in a reclined position, Morgan taps on his feet with a pencil and tells him to concentrate on sinking his back muscles into the chair. He tells him to relax, mentioning each muscle group from his feet to his head.

When the client reaches the third stage of sleep, the level where he hears what's going on around him but doesn't care, Morgan begins delivering suggestions that the client stop smoking.

"Getting into the trance isn't the end of it," he said. "It's the suggestions that are the copyright material of the hypnotherapist."

Hypnotherapists say the process works if the client wants it to. Traditional counselors say the process shouldn't be viewed as a cure-all for any problem.