The imagery is as old as hypnotism itself.

An aged, bearded man swings his pocket watch before his dazed subject's eyes. "You are getting sleepier and sleepier," he says in a steady, mysterious voice.

Within moments, his patient has lost all self-control and is ready to follow the hypnotist's every command.

Certified hypnotherapist Andrew Leonard doesn't work that way.

"If they want watches, we'll give them watches, but you really don't need gadgets to go into a trance," he said. "A watch is sparkly, and following it back and forth creates a strain on the eyes, making them heavy. It works."

But today's hypnotherapist uses other methods. At the Center for Self-Improvement, Leonard has a special chair with speakers on either side of the headrest. The new age music that comes out of them also causes relaxing vibrations in different parts of the chair.

With a little effort, the chair's occupant is hypnotized.

Leonard, 51, became interested in the practice when he was 13. It bothered him that people were so bogged down in daily living they never reached their full potential. People reached a certain point and progress stopped.

He studied hypnotherapy, but went to Southeast for his master's degree in psychology.

"I wanted to make sure I understood all the ramifications of counseling so I could help my clients any way I could," Leonard said. "I just find that this is the quickest, most humane and most permanent way to make some changes."

Smokers can stop in one session, he said. People can lose weight after three or four sessions.

Others come to him for age regressions, where hypnotherapy is used to make a subject recall forgotten memories.

Anyone of average intelligence can be hypnotized, but only if they want to be, Leonard said. Once a subject is in a trance, a trained hypnotherapist makes suggestions to change certain behaviors. Any suggestion that goes against that person's morals, such as the infamous "take your clothes off" party trick, won't work.

"A trance is simply an altered state of consciousness," Leonard said. "The conscious mind is distracted so I can work with the subconscious mind."

Tim Morgan, a certified hypnotherapist who operates the Cape Girardeau Institute of Hypnosis, said almost everyone has been hypnotized at one time or another. For example, teen-agers learn about highway hypnosis in their driver's education classes. The repetition of the road and dividing line lulls drivers to sleep.

Morgan also pointed to the hypnotizing effect of television and movies. If someone calls a television viewer's name during an engrossing program, he may not hear it even if everyone else in the room does.

Success stories abound at Morgan's practice, he said. In one case, he treated an entire family from the Desloge area.

First, the mother came to him for relief from panic attacks and irritable bowel syndrome. Then he treated one daughter for panic attacks and another for extreme shyness. Finally, the husband came to him for anxiety disorder, weight loss and impotence.

From this family's word-of-mouth advertising, Morgan opened a second practice in Desloge and is in his office once a week.

While more traditional counselors decline to endorse a particular hypnotherapist, most believe there is some healing in hypnosis, said Mati Stone, clinical director of the Community Counseling Center.

"If you ask 100 therapists about it you would get 100 different answers, but I think it may be used to deal with anxiety, phobias, smoking and weight control," Stone said. "It isn't something I would turn to as a routine therapy."

She advised that those seeking help through hypnotherapy know the practitioner's credentials well and realize that it isn't a cure-all for disorders.