Hypnosis Myths
Anyone who hasn't experienced hypnosis tends to have concerns that have been fueled by movies and television, or stage hypnosis shows. My favorite hypnosis mis-information movie is Woody Allen's "The Jade Scorpion" where Woody is hypnotized and made to rob wealthy clients then have amnesia about it. I also like an old episode of the Three Stooges where a hypnotist named "Svengarlic" hypnotizes Moe, Larry and Curly and has them climb out of a tall building onto a flag pole. Neither of these plots could occur in hypnosis because you, the client, are always in control!
Things first time clients often fret over:
1. The hypnotist will control me
You can't be made to do anything you wouldn't want to do on your own. If you receive a suggestion that goes against your nature you will not act on it and you might just open your eyes and say "No way, Jose!," (if Jose is your hypnotist). You are always in control in hypnosis because all hypnosis is really self-hypnosis. The hypnotist helps you find your way to trance by suggesting relaxation. Once you are there, he can only give you suggestions. It is completely up to you if you accept them or not. In fact, once you have experienced hypnosis with a hypnotist, you will find it easy to go into trance whenever you want and reinforce or augment the results of your hypnosis session with your own suggestions in self-hypnosis!
2. I will tell all my secrets
We all have things we don't wish to disclose. Some things are nobody's business but our own. In hypnosis, you won't tell anything you don't want to tell. That's self-preservation in action. It is actually easier to get you to reveal a secret when you are not hypnotized than when hypnotized because in hypnosis your concentration is much greater than in your normal state of awareness. So, nothing gets by you in hypnosis!
3. I will have amnesia
A common fear is that the hypnotist will "do something" to you while you are hypnotized and you won't remember it when you are emerged from trance. While you may enjoy being so relaxed in trance that you don't care to remember what was said, everything that transpired will be part of your awareness. The amnesia you see in stage hypnosis shows is temporary and just shows the power of hypnosis to allow you diminish the emotional power of past experiences. The subconscious mind is the storehouse of your memories and the emotions and sensations that are anchored to them. You can't delete memories (they are hardwired in your neural networks), but you can minimize the power of the emotions that are attached to them which, in a sense, gives you "amnesia" (actually neutralizes their power over you).
4. I will get stuck in hypnosis
What if you don't wake up? Well, hypnosis is not sleep so there is nothing to "awaken" from. Hypnosis is relaxation with focused attention on the hypnotist's voice. Anything that requires focus is mentally tiring and, after a while, you won't be able to retain your focus and you will emerge naturally from trance. If your hypnotist dies during a session, you will emerge from trance after not hearing his voice for a few minutes (trance is maintained through hypnotist/client communication and cooperation - if either stops, so does your trance). If getting stuck in hypnosis were really a problem, hospitals would have a secret Hypnosis wings (perhaps like the one in the movie "Coma") to house the people stuck in hypnosis until a cure could be found -sounds silly now, doesn't it?
5. You can't hypnotize me, I'm too smart
Actually, the smarter you are, the easier you are to hypnotize, because you have a good imagination which responds well to suggestion and you can focus on the hypnotist's voice. Focus and concentration, key elements to hypnosis, require at least average intelligence and the smarter you are, generally, the greater your ability to connect the hypnotist's suggestions to rich experiences which helps facilitate trance and change.
You have probably already experienced hypnosis on a daily basis without being aware of it. If you've ever become totally absorbed watching a movie or zoned out and driven home without thinking about it, you have been in trance. You narrowed your focus of attention, eliminated outside stimuli, and concentrated on internal processes (such as enjoyment of the movie) - that's trance and it really is simple. The difference in a hypnotist's office is that you are using trance for a specific purpose and that requires some amount of work on the part of both the hypnotist and the client to get to a deeper level of trance where suggestions will have a lasting effect and to craft suggestions that will make you, the client, think "Yes, I know that suggestion will work for me!" If you don't like a suggestion and don't accept it with that very attitude, you won't get the change you want. You need to have a real desire to change and a willingness to accept suggestions for change in order to get the results you seek. The hypnotist can't force you to change, you need to come with an open mind and a willingness to follow instructions and you will be helped by hypnosis. Hypnosis can help with all problems because it gets to the root of the problem - your mind, which controls all aspects of your physical self.
After your first hypnosis session, these common fears and misconceptions will disappear because you will have experienced how relaxing and enjoyable hypnosis really is.