Answers
How old is
hypnotism?
Since the beginning of recorded history,
hypnotism has been used across all cultures, under a variety of
names and guises, to affect healing and change. In the 19th
century, hypnosis emerged as a science, becoming the first
western form of mental therapy. Hypnotism was crucial to the
work of Sigmund Freud, Ivan Pavlov and numerous other figures in
the history of western psychology and medicine.
Is
the use of hypnosis approved by my religion?
Most
mainstream religious communities approve of the use of hypnosis
by their members, for therapy and self-help.
Is hypnosis
supernatural or magical?
Often the results obtained
by hypnotherapy are little short of miraculous. While hypnosis
often works like magic, it is not. It is a science with a
well-documented history.
Does a
hypnotherapist have special powers?
The
hypnotherapist does not hypnotize you. You hypnotize yourself
through his or her direction. The hypnotist is the steering
wheel to the client's motor. In hypnosis, all the power is
within the client.
I don't believe in hypnosis. Will it still work on me?
Modern scientific hypnotism is a recognized and respected
science. Hypnosis is an indisputable and self-evident fact of
the human mind. The science of hypnotism is universally
recognized throughout the civilized world. Much documentation
and explaination of its use and success is widely available for
you to explore.
What is hypnosis?
Hypnosis is a natural state of
mind with special identifying characteristics. They are: 1.) An
extraordinary mental and physical relaxation. 2.) Heightened and
selective attention. 3.) Temporary passivity of the analytical
part of the mind. 4.) An intense and emotionalized desire to
satisfy the suggested behavior.
What does the
subconscious mind do?
The subconscious is the
largest and most dominant part of the mind-the level you are
generally unaware. It is the seat of our memories, dreams,
emotions, and habits; and it automatically regulates all of the
functions of the body.
What is a suggestion?
A suggestion is simply an idea that reaches the mind and can
originate from within or outside the individual. A hypnotic
suggestion is a suggestion offered by the hypnotist to the
client's subconscious mind for acceptance.
What is a
post-hypnotic suggestion?
It is a suggestion given
during a hypnotic trance, designed to be carried out in the
subsequent waking state.
Does
"suggestibility" mean gullibility?
Suggestibility is
not gullibility. It is the measure of intensity with which the
brain and nervous system accept and respond to incoming ideas.
In hypnosis, both body and mind are more suggestible.
What is a
hypnotic induction?
Induction is the procedure the
hypnotist uses to induce hypnosis. It is used to relax the
client's body and clear his or her mind, preparing it for the
hypnotic suggestions.
Can everybody be
hypnotized?
Any person of normal intelligence can be
hypnotized. This mental state exists, and you can definitely
learn to achieve it.
I don't think I
can be hypnotized.
Most people don't think they can
be hypnotized, but once they try, they find it very easy. Any
normal person willing to be hypnotized and wanting the results
will be an ideal hypnotic subject.
Are women
more hypnotizable than men?
No. Men and women are
equally hypnotizable.
Can hypnotherapy be used effectively with children?
Yes. Once children have acquired the ability to use and
understand spoken language, they can benefit from its use.
Children generally make excellent hypnotic subjects.
Hypnotherapy can be used safely and effectively with many
childhood problems including- but not limited to - bedwetting,
sleepwalking, fear, problems with school and/or studying, pain,
and nervous habits.
Is hypnosis rare?
No. Hypnosis is just as
natural a state of mind as sleep or wakefulness. Most people go
into and out of this natural state of mind several times a day
without recognizing they are doing so or knowing how to harness
and use it.
Is
hypnosis approved by the medical community?
Yes, in
1958, the American Medical Association approved the use of
hypnosis. Physicians, dentists and psychologists have referred
many of their patients to us for prescription hypnosis.
Is hypnotherapy a substitute for my doctor's care?
No. While clinical hypnosis is intrinsically safe and often
recommended as the approach of choice for many types of
problems, it is not meant to substitute for standard health
care, but to supplement it.
Will I be asleep?
You
wouldn't be able to hear your instructions if you were asleep.
You are not asleep during hypnosis your body and mind are lulled
into an extremely relaxed and passive state, allowing the power
of your subconscious mind to take charge and to achieve the
results you find difficult during ordinary states of
consciousness. The feeling of hypnosis is very similar to the
way you feel just prior to sleep. You will hear your hypnotist's
voice, finding it very easy to do what his voice suggests.
Does hypnosis weaken the will making you a slave to the
hypnotist?
Just the opposite. The purpose of the
hypnosis is to help you to have greater, rather than less,
control. The idea that one can be made a slave to the hypnotist
is a common myth popularized by late-show movies and novels.
Do
you lose control when you go into hypnosis?
No. In
hypnosis, you can't be made to say or do anything against your
wishes. However, if you have a sincere desire to change, your
subconscious motivations can be activated and enhanced to
support, rather than hinder, your goals.
Can a hypnotized person be made to commit anti-social acts?
No. A person under hypnosis is not an automaton and will not
violate any religious, ethical, moral, or political values.
Can hypnosis be used as a "truth serum"?
People do
not say things in hypnosis that they do not want to say. A part
of the hypnotized person's mind is always in contact with
reality. When confronted with an embarrassing or incriminating
question the subject will either refrain from answering the
question or awaken.
Can
people be hypnotized against their wills?
No. The
hypnotist must have the cooperation of the client in order to
induce a state of hypnosis.
Is being able to be hypnotized a sign of a weak mind?
No. Most people who don't go into a state of hypnosis are those
who have the mistaken notion that hypnosis will hurt them.
Weak-mindedness and strong-mindedness have nothing to do with
the ability to experience hypnosis. A weak-minded person who
resists suggestions is an ineffective responder. A strong-minded
person who cooperates is an effective responder.
Are persons in a trance physically defenseless and dependent
upon the hypnotist?
In hypnosis, there is no
impairment of mental discrimination or the ability to detect
threatening stimuli. The instinct of self-preservation does not
leave the hypnotized person. If a fire broke out or some other
threat developed while the person was in the hypnotic state, his
or her reactions would be similar to those prior to the trance,
and he or she would do the utmost to save himself or herself.
Can a person get "stuck" in hypnosis?
It is
impossible to get stuck in hypnosis. A person can come out of
hypnosis anytime he or she wishes. Have you ever seen a credible
news story or article where someone got "stuck" in hypnosis?
This is becuase it has never happened.
Will I be groggy or drowsy after being hypnotized?
No. Hypnosis provides you with a period of rest and relaxation.
You will leave the hypnotist's office rested, refreshed, and
fully alert and aware ready to do whatever comes next.
What must I do to be hypnotized and respond successfully?
To become hypnotized there are only three things you need to do:
Concentrate your mind, relax your body, and imagine what the
hypnotist suggests to you is absolutely true. Hypnosis is
primarily a learning experience: learning how to let go and let
the suggestions take hold without any conscious effort to help
or to hinder them.
What if my mind occasionally wanders during hypnosis? Will
this affect the results?
No. Even if your mind
wanders occasionally during hypnosis, it is only your conscious
mind that is wandering. You will continue subconciously to hear,
understand and accept the suggestions of the hypnotist.
How do I
know if I'm hypnotized?
The hypnotherapist can
recognize whether you are hypnotized because he has been trained
to recognize the signs a person gives off when hypnotized.
Initially, be content to simply feel pleasantly relaxed. At
first, you may not be aware conciously of the changes that take
place when you go into hypnosis at first. Please do not be
preoccupied about whether or not you are hypnotized. If you
follow your hypnotherapist's simple instructions you'll achieve
the desired results. That is really the only important thing to
remember.
Will I
remember the hypnotic session?
Some of the time you
may remember, the remaining time you may experience amnesia
either spontaneously or in response to a suggestion to do so.
Amnesia is a natural phenomenon of hypnosis and it is a sign of
a deep hypnotic state. Be thankful if you experience it. No
matter how little or how much you forget consciously, your
results will be equally beneficial.
I want to overcome a bad habit but I don't have any
willpower. Will it work?
Hypnosis works even if you
think you don't have any willpower. If you were able to use
willpower, you wouldn't need the hypnosis. Most people
consciously accept the need for change. However, their
subconscious mind, the source of automatic habits, continues old
ways despite their best conscious efforts to change them.
Hypnosis is a way to reach the subconscious so it can be
directed to work for, instead of against, your conscious
objectives. As a result, the need for conscious willpower is
greatly reduced or eliminated entirely. You change naturally and
easily without struggling with the issue of willpower.
What is clinical
hypnosis?
Clinical hypnosis is hypnosis that is done
for the purpose of resolving problems or for the purpose of
helping achieve goals.
What does the
hypnotherapist do?
The hypnotherapist first consults
with the client to determine the nature of the problem or goal.
Next, he prepares the client to enter hypnosis and tests the
client to determine the pattern and degree of the client's
suggestibility. The therapist induces the hypnotic state, then
utilizes it to alter behavior patterns or bodily sensations, or
to increase motivation, depending upon the purpose of the
therapy. The hypnotherapist may also train the client in
self-hypnosis.
Why
use hypnosis?
We know from direct observation that
all people function on at least two levels of awareness: the
conscious and subconscious. These two levels of awareness are
complimentary and operate simultaneously. The conscious mind is
the analytical mind, the seat of our critical faculty that
filters and analyzes incoming ideas to determine their truth
content. The subconscious is the part of your mind you are
generally unaware of. It automatically controls most of our
activities, emotions, feelings, sensations, and habits. In
comparison to the conscious level of mind, the subconscious has
limited reasoning capabilities. It believes what it is told and
proceeds to act upon it as if it were true.
When the
analytic conscious mind is inactive and is not filtering
incoming ideas, suggestions bypass the conscious mind and
register in the subconscious as true. Believing the idea, the
subconscious acts spontaneously and automatically through the
brain and nervous system to fulfill the suggested idea in
thought and action.
Hypnosis induces a temporary
passivity of the critical faculty to allow suggestions, to
bypass it and go directly to the subconscious. However, hypnosis
is not the only way ideas can bypass the critical faculty to
reach and influence the subconscious.
The critical
faculty of the conscious mind goes into abeyance during moments
of strong emotion, confusion, physical pain, trauma, and
unconscious states. Childhood is another condition that allows
ideas to reach the subconscious without being filtered through
the critical faculty. Difficulties can arise from false,
misleading, or harmful ideas subconsciously accepted as true.
Whatever has been subconsciously accepted as truth becomes the
critical faculty's basis for judging all other future incoming
ideas. Information to the contrary is rejected or ignored, while
data that supports preexisting subconsciously held beliefs is
recognized and accepted.
This is why it is seldom
possible to modify deeply-held subconscious beliefs by appeals
to conscious reason and logic. Harmful, false ideas
subconsciously accepted as truths result in problems that occur
in life over and over affecting health, happiness, or level of
accomplishment, often without the person consciously recognizing
what is causing the problem. Hypnotherapy is a safe, rapid and
highly effective way to locate and permanently remove the
negative subconscious programming that has been causing
suffering and artificial limitations.
Does it really work?
Yes! Scientific research has solidly documented the
effectiveness of clinical hypnotherapy. Hypnotherapy works
directly on the source of the difficulty to permanently resolve
it. This is why hypnosis is highly effective with many problems
that have stubbornly resisted all other helping approaches.
Why does
hypnosis work?
Hypnotherapists are clinicians
interested in getting results. While many theories exist about
how hypnosis functions, the clinical hypnotherapist has no need
to know why hypnotism works, only how to use it for maximum
effectiveness.
Because I know somebody who tried hypnosis unsuccessfully, I
don't think it will work for me.
It is true that
hypnotherapy does not work for everyone, but it does work for
most people. The people, the times, the places, the
circumstances and the hypnotherapists are all different, so in
all likelihood the outcome will also be different for each
client and treatment.
Do the changes brought about through hypnotherapy last?
Yes, because hypnotherapy involves retraining and reeducation.
When new positive habits of thought and behavior are firmly
established they tend to be self continuing and self reinforcing
just as the unwanted patterns were.
What is your success
rate?
Although our success rate varies with
different people depending upon their individual circumstances
and motivation, our success rate with people completing their
hypnotherapy program as recommended is approximately 85%.
Why
use hypnosis for habit control?
Once the conscious
mind has mastered new learning, the subconscious comes into
play, allowing us to perform particular tasks without conscious
effort; freeing our conscious mind to attend to, and learn,
other habits. Habits are, for the most part, useful to us. In
doing many things automatically, we save a great deal of time
and effort. However, occasionally we find ourselves with a habit
pattern that we would like to modify of eliminate. We may try to
change on a conscious level. However, our subconscious mind, the
source that governs our automatic habit patterns, may cause the
habit to persist, despite our best conscious efforts to change.
Hypnosis is a way to reach the subconscious so it can be
directed to work for, instead of against, your conscious
objectives. Hypnosis works directly on the source of the
problem, with little or no need for the use of conscious
willpower.
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