Reddit mentions of Hypnosis for Beginners: Reach New Levels of Awareness & Achievement (For Beginners (Llewellyn's))

I recommend reading as a good start. The two best books for beginners IMHO are: Hypnosis for Beginner's by Hewitt and The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Muprhy. The first is a great intro to all things hypnosis, the second is all about the subconscious which is what hypnosis taps into, just avoid the religious undertones if that isn't your thing.

I think I will do an edit up top and explain how hypnosis works because there are a few people that have asked already and this AMA is still young.
It works best with people who are creative and have great imaginations, the better your imagination the more likely you will be able to be hypnotized and get to deeper levels.

As far as not working well, you have to want to be hypnotized for it to be successful. There are lots of "tricks" for people who are resistant to it, but if you sit down in my chair and say, "I bet you can't hyponotize me, go ahead, try" then I will not be able to hypnotize you. It is also much harder for very analytical people and paranoid people because the ability to let go and relax is very important.

Hypnosis is surprisingly easy to learn and it is something that you can teach yourself virtually right away. The first time I learned about hypnosis, I ordered http://www.amazon.com/Look-Into-My-Eyes-Hypnosis/dp/1440449864/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1345509335&sr=8-2&keywords=look+into+my+eyes and http://www.amazon.com/Hypnosis-Beginners-Awareness-Achievement-Llewellyns/dp/156718359X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345509321&sr=8-1&keywords=hypnosis+for+beginners after seeing some suggestions by hypnotists on reddit from an AMA about 2 years ago (I believe it was reddit anyways).

Hypnosis for beginners offers direct scripts that you can read from (my sister with absolutely no idea how hypnosis works was able to hypnotize someone her first time trying it by reading the first script in the book) and the other one is more about ideas and how you can use it with a partner. Truthfully, I barely read either of the books because you realize quickly that you can wing it and improvise the hypnosis sessions yourself and that is what I have always done.

The biggest factor in hypnosis in confidence. You are leading someone into a state of deep relaxation and the way you speak must reflect a certain combination of calm and relaxing as well as confidence and authority. Whenever I start a session, I use a certain hypnosis voice (it is talked about a little bit in the look into my eyes book) and the voice is both commanding and very "flowy". You do not want anything to happen during the session to bring the person out of hypnosis so everything must flow very well.

The other big factor with hypnosis is trust. The more that the person trusts to be vulnerable with you, the far easier it is to successfully hypnotize someone. This is why hypnosis works very well with SO's and honestly it is by far the most fun (you can get VERY creative). I don't think I'd be able to run any sort of course or anything on hypnosis but I can certainly try to answer questions and get you to the point where you can do it yourself.

Why thank you!

The issue is there are loads of super in depth clinical books (which deal with stuff you will never need to know in this line of work) or the utter rubbish stuff that says it can make your boobs turn into alpacas or whatever. However, once you filter that there are lots of good books out there. Here are a few I suggest:

• Hypnosis for Beginners: Reach New Levels of Awareness & Achievement (Llewellyn's Beginners Series)
  
• A Guide to Trance Land: A Practical Handbook of Ericksonian and Solution-Oriented Hypnosis
  
• Handbook of Hypnotic Suggestions and Metaphors
  -The Art of Hypnosis: Mastering Basic Techniques
  
• My Voice Will Go with You: The Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erickson
  -Essentials Of Hypnosis (Basic Principles Into Practice)
  
  Also the ASCH Bibliogrpahy has some good article links for you to check out.
  
  And I should plug our very own /r/erotichypnosis while a load of it is pretty advanced it often has some great tips.
  
  Also if there is a group near you go check them out, the people tend to be nice it lets you get personalized advice.
  
  For the follow on, I don't self-hypnotize intentionally. However, I did recently realize how often I trance when doing stuff. When I study or present in front of people I tend to trance out and I recently spotted I do it when I am stressed. I guess its because I have been under so much my brain is just used to it and knows that a trance state is useful for my work and stress levels so just drops me into one as needed.
  
  It is very real and I know a lot of people who use it to great effects, I have just never got into myself, however, that is just personal preference.

http://www.amazon.com/Hypnosis-Beginners-Awareness-Achievement-Llewellyns/dp/156718359X

I haven't gotten around to trying it, but in the book Hypnosis for Beginners, by Wiiliam W Hewitt, there is a large section on past life regression and self-regression. I am far from being convinced that past lives are real, but I believe our subconscious can make up some pretty wild and believable stories that may be of use to us.