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FACTS AND FALLACIES ABOUT HYPNOSIS

 

Around the subject of hypnosis has accumulated a mass of misinformation.. Here are some of the most common fallacies concerning hypnosis and the facts based on the best medical and psychological authorities and many years of study and practical experience.

FALLACY: When Hypnotised – you always tell the truth

FACT: The Subconscious will ALWAYS protect the individual – and can repeat the lie (though there is no truth or lie to the subconscious). However at deeper levels, we believe, – tapping into ‘higher’ levels of mind that are more connected to – lets call it – the source of all energy – truth will be revealed

FALLACY: Hypnotism is of the occult or supernatural

FACT: Hypnotism is scientific. It is not supernatural or of the occult, but a purely natural manifestation of the powers of the mind. People enter hypnosis many times a day, awake or asleep, watching TV, driving, reading or day dreaming.

FALLACY: A hypnotist, with the use of soothing words and soft music -simply lulls clients off to sleep.

FACT: In the state of hypnosis the conscious mind is completely relaxed and rested but not asleep. Whereas in sleep the conscious mind is to some extent tense and alert.

FALLACY: It’s unnatural

FACT: Hypnotism occurs in all humans at all times. The word ‘hypnosis’ means, in lay terms, when you change your state of mind, or consciousness. You don’t change your condition, you change your state. When you are happy, sad, aroused, sad, frightened, tired, hyper alert – all of these are different states of awareness or consciousness. All of these are forms of hypnosis. Hypnotherapy is where hypnosis is used deliberately – either by a practitioner Hypnotist, or by yourself to deliberately use the state change to get a desired result

FALLACY: Weak-willed people make the best clients.

FACT: The best hypnotic clients are people with strong wills and above average intelligence. Hypnosis actually has nothing to do with the will: it depends upon imagination, a faculty that is vastly stronger than the will. Therefore bright imaginative people make by far the best clients.

FALLACY: Only a small portion of the population can be hypnotized.

FACT: 90-95% of adults can be hypnotized to some degree. Some people respond more rapidly than others. In an average group, enjoying their first experience with hypnosis, about 1 in 5 will promptly enter a deep enough trance to get used by a stage hypnotist. There are two classes of people who cannot be hypnotized 1) the insane and 2) infants that are too young to understand the words of the operator.

FALLACY: Very few people can hypnotize.

FACT: Any normally intelligent person can learn to hypnotize. BUT this does not mean that everyone should. Just as some make better doctors than others, or better golfers, so some make better hypnotists. Moreover, success in this skill, as in any other, demands intense study and practice. 

FALLACY: The essence of hypnotism is that the operator’s will “dominates” that of the client.

FACT: There is no “domination” or “submission’ in hypnosis. The hypnotist actually helps the client to release and express his or her own latent or hidden abilities. E.G. A man unaccustomed to speaking in public can when hypnotized, speak fluently to an audience of thousands. He already had the ability to do this, but suppressed it with his own doubts and fears; and the hypnotist releases that ability. A teacher of elocution could do the same, but would take months to do it. Hypnosis produces a desired result quickly.

FALLACY: A person can be hypnotized against his will.

FACT: For all practical purposes, a person must consent to do this before he can be induced to enter the state. However, the spoken word does not always indicate the real desire. A skeptic, loudly denying the possibility of hypnosis might have an unspoken wish to experience it, or vice versa. {We who trained at the meridian Institute have signed an oath of human dignity and privacy and are required to ask permission to hypnotize.}

FALLACY: The hypnotist has absolute control over the client’s mind and body.

FACT: This is the most absurd and injurious of all the fallacies concerning hypnosis. NO hypnotist can make anyone do or say anything contrary to their deep-rooted principles. A girl who perhaps would not normally be seen on the dance floor, in hypnosis, may cast off her inhibitions and dance a vigorous twist. But a normally modest girl certainly could not be made to disrobe completely in front of any person, including the hypnotist. Any suggestion that arouses sincere moral indignation or repugnance immediately causes the client to break the trance, by coming out of it. Thus hypnosis is not an anaesthetic that renders the person helpless. It is a means of releasing and intensifying a person’s own powers and abilities.

FALLACY: Hypnotherapy requires a deep trance.

FACT: Hypnosis has many therapeutic uses, but results do not depend on the depth of trance. Some nervous disorders may be completely cured in the lightest state of trance while another client with the same complaint may need a deeper level of trance to receive the same benefits.

FALLACY: A client may not awaken after hypnosis.

FACT: There is not the slightest danger of this. If the client were left to himself, he would fall into an ordinary sleep and awaken normally.

FALLACY: Hypnosis is dangerous.

FACT: An automobile is not in itself dangerous, food is not dangerous, and tranquilizers are not dangerous. But if misused those things can all be dangerous. Hypnotism in the hands of an amateur can be dangerous, but when used properly, by a properly trained practitioner is perfectly safe.

FALLACY: A person knows nothing when he is hypnotized.

FACT: In light and medium levels of hypnosis the client is fully aware of what is being said and done. He may actually deny that he was hypnotized at all. Even in deep trance you are able to hear all that is happening.

FALLACY: Orthodox medicine condemns hypnotism.

FACT: The American (June 1958) and Canadian and British ((April 23, 1955) Medical associations accepted the therapeutic value of hypnosis. Hypnosis is used in dentistry and by surgeons to produce a drugless state of anesthesia without anxiety or suffering by the client. Many orthodox psychologists and psychiatrists use hypnosis today. The Mayo clinic has been using hypnosis as an adjunct to anesthesia and has a result have never had a death attributed to the anesthetic.

FALLACY: Hypnotherapy requires many lengthy sessions.

FACT: With many patients, complete relief can be obtained in a very short time. On some occasions only a couple of sessions are needed, most require several.

FALLACY: Hypnotism is a new age cult thing, like crystals and pyramids and all that.

FACT: Hypnotism has been around since humans have had a conscious (and therefore unconscious mind). It has been used deliberately as a therapy of one sort or another since before written history