Hypnotherapy – The Simple Facts Uncovered

Does hypnotherapy ever fail? Once it starts working, will it keep working? Who make the best candidates for hypnotherapy? There are a lot of misnomers about hypnotherapy. This article will give you the straight scoop.

THE DEFINITION OF HYPNOSIS: Self-Hypnosis is a condition of hyper-suggestibility where the consciousness and the subconscious mind dissociate. It is a state of consciousness where the hypnotized person is more likely to believe the Hypnotherapist’s suggestions.

You have been in the hypnotic state many times in your life without even realizing it. If you’ve ever seen a sad T.V. show and reacted with a tear in your eye, you have been in a state of hypnosis. You entered a state of amplified suggestibility where you uncritically received the suggestion of grief on the TV screen and reacted with a sad emotion, your tear. To put it into different words, your reasoning ability, which is controlled by your conscious mind, was bypassed. You did not reason that the show was just a play; you accepted the action as being real. So you reacted with real passion and shed a tear.

WHO CAN BE HYPNOTIZED? Hypnotists have discovered that all normal people are hypnotizable to a greater or lesser extent. Subjects with the I.Q. of the moron level of intelligence or less generally cannot be hypnotized. People who are actively psychotic usually cannot be hypnotized. Senile people are by and large difficult or impossible to hypnotize. I have found in my own private professional practice dealing with many retired people up to 85 years of age, that hypnotism is a effective and beneficial system for most people. A person’s personal motivation is the key to his or her success.

DO I HAVE TO BE A “DEEP” HYPNOTIC SUBJECT TO BE SUCCESSFUL? For the therapeutic applications of hypnotism we most often deal with, hypnotic depth of any kind isn’t required. One can be the lightest possible subject and still receive all of the benefits from hypnotism that the deepest subjects will obtain. I believe that over the years, far too much importance has been placed on how deep a subject can go. If the client is deep, it could be beneficial. This however, is not necessarily the case. Actually, with the latest hypnotic techniques like Ericksonian hypnotism and state of the art “NLP” (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), depth is one of the least essential aspects, which create success.

ARE THERE ANY DANGERS IN HYPNOSIS? There are essentially no dangers to the practice of hypnotism. It is impossible to “get stuck” in hypnotism. The most terrible thing that could happen while a patient is in the hypnotic state is that she might fall into a natural state of sleep for twenty or thirty minutes. She would awaken rested and out of a state of self hypnosis.

MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT HYPNOTISM: There are many misnomers about hypnotism. Most of them are due to stage and television acts. Paradoxically, it’s on account of the fact that the television can hypnotize you that these misnomers are so strongly entrenched in people’s minds.

IS HYPNOSIS A STATE OF SLEEP? The largest misconception about hypnotism is that it’s a state of sleep. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you are asleep, you are unconscious. If you are unconscious, you cannot hear anything. If you cannot hear anything, then the hypnotist cannot help you. Hypnosis is a state of keen awareness. The subject is wide-awake and aware of everything around her. This misconception comes from the stage Hypnotist’s use of the word “sleep” as corresponding to the hypnotic state. When the old time hypnotist swung a watch in front of the subject’s face, he told the subject that she was getting “sleepy.” He then told the subject to “go to sleep.” What he meant was to go into a hypnotic sleep, not a natural sleep.

IS THERE A HYPNOTIZED FEELING? The second largest misconception about self-hypnosis is that there is a hypnotized feeling. There is no hypnotized feeling. I repeat there is no hypnotized feeling. Most people feel very relaxed when in hypnosis, as relaxation seems to be the essence of self hypnosis. Some people feel heavy. Some people feel light. Some people have other sensations and feelings. Other people have absolutely no feeling that they are in hypnosis, and believe they haven’t been hypnotized when they most definitely have.

CAN THE HYPNOTHERAPIST CONTROL ME? NO! A hypnotist cannot force you to do anything against your will. There is always an observing ego state. Should the therapist make an offensive suggestion; this observing ego state would reject the suggestion. Additionally, you will probably come out of self hypnosis if the therapist makes an offensive suggestion to you.

CAN THE THERAPIST FORCE ME TO DIVULGE MY SECRETS? You won’t divulge any secrets while in the hypnotic state unless you want to do so. The hypnotherapist doesn’t have any control over the subject. Quite the contrary, the subject has more control over herself since at this time she can directly communicate with her own subconscious mind. The subject can easily decline any suggestion the hypnotherapist makes, no matter how simple or complicated the suggestion might be. The subject can open her eyes, emerge from the state of hypnosis, and exit the room at any time she chooses.

MUST PEOPLE TELL THE TRUTH WHEN IN THE HYPNOTIC STATE? NO! People can lie when in self-hypnosis.

DO HYPNOTISTS HAVE SUPER NATURAL POWERS AND VIBRATIONS? This is a common misconception. The hypnotherapist doesn’t have any special powers, nor does he have any special vibrations with which to hypnotize you into the state of hypnosis. Actually, all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. The hypnotherapist leads the subject into a state of self hypnosis. In other words, the ability of hypnosis is within the subject.

WHY DO PEOPLE FAIL TO REACH THEIR GOALS USING HYPNOSIS? Perhaps the principal reason for the inability to reach one’s goals through self-hypnosis is an inadequate amount of practice where self-hypnosis is concerned.

The greatest reason for the return of a symptom or “relapse” is the early discontinuance of hypnotism with the Hypno-therapist or recorded program. While self-hypnosis is important, it is generally the hetero-hypnosis with the hypnotherapist or hypnosis recording which has the greatest impact upon the subconscious mind.

This is because of the training and experience that the hypnotherapist has vs. the lack of training and experience of the client. Some people are penny wise and pound-foolish. They mentally set an amount of time that they are willing to spend for help. And then they prematurely cut off their sessions because; “I didn’t lose 50 Lbs. in two days, so it isn’t working.”

If a therapeutic method is really helping one to make their desired changes, then it is invaluable and it should be continued. For this reason it is wise to have follow up hypnotherapy sessions, even after a symptom seems to have disappeared completely. Self-hypnosis should be an ongoing affair on a daily basis. Ultimately, YOUR SUCCESS IS UP TO YOU!

WILL I BE BETTER OFF HIRING A HYPNOTIST, OR WILL PURCHASING A RECORDED PROGRAM WORK BETTER? That is an excellent question. Normally I would recommend that you utilize the services of a reputable hypnotherapist. The reason is that by meeting with you, a good hypnotherapist / NLP’er will be able to customize his approach to your personality and your favored representational system — the way you favor taking in information through the senses to make sense out of it and react to it.

In my opinion, 99% of the recorded hypnotherapy programs available at this time are based on Traditional Hypnosis, and are made up of only one or maybe two sessions of it at that. Traditional Hypnosis is nothing more than a set of direct post-hypnotic commands: “If you eat a brownie you’ll throw up.” “You won’t have cravings,” and so forth. This technology has a very poor track record of success because everyone of our generation has been trained to question everything they are told. That’s why you, your friends, and your kids usually do the opposite of what they are told to do. This is called a polarity response.

That being said, having private sessions with any hypnotherapist / NLP’er who has enough experience to be able to actually help you can be very expensive. There are some hypnotic programs available on the Internet that are based on Ericksonian Hypnosis and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) that have overcome those shortcomings. They’ve accomplished this by using a mix of NLP, Traditional Hypnosis, Ericksonian Hypnosis, And the highly regarded Video Hypnosis technology.

These are all technologies that are designed to eliminate the resistance factor. In fact, Video Hypnosis and the NLP technology that it’s based on do not utilize post-hypnotic suggestions at all. These methods rely on using the thought processes that have created a problem, to eliminate it!

Look for vendors who offer these technologies in multi-session products. These are programs that generally have six to eight different hypnosis sessions, so you are exposed to a broad variety of technologies. It takes a lot of work to make this type of program, but the high success rates achieved are well worth the effort.

Stay away from the “one size fits all” — “do-or-die” hypnotism CDs and downloads. Many are attracted to these programs because they are cheap, usually under $10.00. But is it cheap if it just wastes your valuable time and does not work?

If you try a program and it does not work, then you get distrustful and start to expect the next approach to fail. And you get what you expect. Do you really think that the same exact post-hypnotic commands will work for everyone? Do you think that they will work for you? Do you usually do exactly as you are told? Or do you generally feel a strong desire to do the opposite of what you are told?

Alan B. Densky, CH is certified by the NGH He’s authored four books and dozens of articles on hypnotherapy and NLP. He is the developer of the Video Self Hypnosis Technology, which is perfected for weight loss & smoking control. Visit his Neuro-VISION Video Hypnosis website for FREE Hypnosis newsletters, articles, & MP3s.

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