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Following on from my previous post Hypnosis – common misconceptions (Part 1) (thank you for the comments I would like to outline some more examples where people get the wrong end of the stick regarding hypnosis.

A client becomes dependent on the hypnotist

This is quite a common misconception amongst those who work in the field of psychology, which can be traced all of the way back to Freud. It is true to say that clients depend on clinicians to help, to comfort, and to care. Psychotherapists, no matter which modalilty they practice, know that the ultimate goal if responsible treatment must be to help each client establish self-reliance whenever possible.

All people who offer care & support to others run the risk of finding people becoming dependent on them. That is not a quality of hypnosis, but a quality of the relationship that exists between therapist and client.

As a result, I often teach self-hypnosis to my clients. The reason being research has demonstrated that self-hypnosis can play an important role in self-reliance (Alman, 2001).

You can become “stuck” in hypnosis

This is my favorite! As hypnosis is an experience of focused attention, which is controlled by the subject, it is literally impossible to become “stuck”.

Think about this one for a moment, it might be difficult to tear yourself away from a good book or from the TV, but if there were a fire you’d be on your toes in no time. The idea that hypnotic trance, an experience that you allow yourself to enter, could last for days, or months, or years, isn’t particularly well thought through.

Hypnosis always involves a ritual of induction

This from Michael Yapko’s excellent 2003 book “Trancework”:

If a person’s attention is directed in an absorbing way, either to an external stimulus, or inwardly on some subjective experience, and that person is responsive to suggestions to alter their experience, they can reasonably said to be in hypnosis (Matthews, Lankton & Lankton, 1993; Zeig, 2001).

The “directing of attention in an absorbing way” can happen without a formal induction, for example TV Advertising. There is no need for any swinging watches, any hour-long progressive relaxation exercises, hypnosis can happen in an instant. Ever lost track whilst driving? Hypnosis, as evidenced by hypnotic phenomenon, can even be induced whilst a person undertakes physical activity, such as riding an exercise bike (Banyai & Hilgard, 1978).

Hypnosis is an everyday occurrence that can happen with, or without, a hypnotist present.

Hypnosis is simply relaxation/meditation

personally, I think meditation and hypnosis are closely related. I’ve not seen studied into whether hypnotic phenomena can be elicited from a person in a meditative state. I suspect probably not, because of the expectancy factor. Related? Possibly, yes. The same? Definitely not.

In terms of hypnosis being simple relaxation… Well – no one would simply complete a relaxation exercise (even a deeply relaxing one) and then expect to undergo surgery painlessly. If you would like to see more hypno-anesthesia (and you’re not squeamish) then click here. There is more to hypnosis than simple relax-o-therapy.

Whether hypnosis is a special state, a transactional outcome, a socio-cognitive experience, or all of the above and more, one thing is for certain: it is not just mere relaxation.

Hypnosis is the Devil’s work, or can lead to ESP

I am very tolerant of people’s religious beliefs. Such beliefs don’t always make sense to me, and I expect some of my beliefs wouldn’t make much sense to others. However, I do occasionally encounter the idea that hypnosis is somehow evil… It’s one thing I just can’t understand.

I accept that the experience of hypnosis is non-routine. However, as noted above, hypnotic phenomenon can be elicited whilst a person is in a state of focus, such as whilst riding an exercise bike. Hypnosis perhaps is psychological, or biological, but it simply has nothing to do with religion.

It seems to me that exercise bikes are far from esoteric, or evil! (Although that depends on whether you consider them to be instruments of torture or not!)

Hypnosis can be used to accurately recall the past

Lets be certain on this – research on memory makes it clear that the brain does not record experience accurately. Memories are based on perceptions, and so memories are subject to the same potential sensory distortions. Hypnosis does not increase the probability of accurate recall (Lynn & Nash, 1994).

One thing hypnosis can do, is help a person recover repressed material. However, understand that any memories recovered via hypnosis (or, frankly, just by lying in a warm bath and asking “What can I remember about my childhood that I’ve not thought about in years?”) will not be an accurate representation, but a subjective one.

This is an interesting topic. I once worked with a phobia sufferer who, using hypnosis, recalled an experience (relating to the phobia) that she felt certain hadn’t happened. I explained that she could very well have seen it on TV, or heard it in a story, but that she had fully identified with the event in question. As a result, it was possibly contributing to her phobic response. We worked on that basis, and the phobia was cleared up.

Some people naturally fear what memories might “come up” when delving into the past. People fear the worst (Trauma with a capital “T” – abuse and the like) but in my years of practicing I have never, ever seen this. Where that kind of Trauma exists, people know – even if the actual event has been repressed.

Our memories of the past have an effect on who we are in the present. Using hypnosis the past can be cleared up. Don’t expect hypnosis to help you accurately recall every little detail in your past, but don’t fear using hypnosis to look at the past through different eyes, either. The best thing about the past is that it’s over. It only exists as events encoded into the neurons in your brain. As such those memories are your posessions, and you are free to do with them what you will.

I hope you found the post interesting – let me know what you think!

Warm regards,

Adrian