HYPNOSIS FAQ’s
COMMON QUESTIONS
Most Popular Questions.
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.
Most mainstream religious communities approve of the use of hypnosis by their members, for therapy and self-help.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It is a suggestion given during a hypnotic trance, designed to be carried out in the subsequent waking state.
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.
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.
Any person of normal intelligence can be hypnotized. This mental state exists, and you can definitely learn to achieve it.
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.
No. Men and women are equally hypnotizable.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
No. A person under hypnosis is not an automaton and will not violate any religious, ethical, moral, or political values.
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.
No. The hypnotist must have the cooperation of the client in order to induce a state of hypnosis.
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. Aweak-minded person who resists suggestions is an ineffective responder. A strong-minded person who cooperates is aneffective responder.
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.
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.