Does hypnosis really work?
Yes. Hypnosis is approved by medicine as an effective approach for many medical purposes, even including hypnotically anesthetized surgeries, labors/childbirths, and dental procedures for those with conditions for which anesthesia is contra-indicated. The Internet is full of information about the effective use of hypnosis for many applications.
Am I able to be hypnotized? I’ve tried hypnosis before, but it didn’t really seem to work.
Nearly everyone can be tranced, or hypnotized, barring brain injury or a serious mental health disorder. Some things that can interfere with an optimal hypnosis session are certain pharmaceutical and recreational drugs; alcohol; caffeine and other stimulants; bright lights, loud noises, or other significant distractions in the environment; or trying to use hypnosis while doing other things (trancing is a time to lie or sit down with your head supported and focus your attention onto the session).
Other reasons:
- Many professional and amateur hypnotists use very brief inductions, aware that merely relaxing will make the subject receptive to suggestions. While this can be true, in my many years of experience working with my subjects, taking the time to do a deeper induction than the current norm yields better results, and it’s far more enjoyable and relaxing, besides.
- Hypnosis takes practice! Some will be natural hypnotic subjects; most of us will experience more powerful effects with continued use. My hypnosis training induction makes this very easy, enjoyable, and effective.
- Sometimes you will trance and remain completely aware of your surroundings. This does not mean that it didn’t work. Sometimes you will have a “falling asleep” experience, and this doesn’t mean that the suggestions didn’t “take.” In fact, this usually means that you tranced more deeply. If you did in fact fall asleep, your subconscious mind still absorbed the suggestions.
- Not all suggestions are right for all people, so not all suggestions will be experienced as fully or at all. This is also discussed below; see: “Can you make me do things against my will?”
- Most hypnotic suggestions need at least some reinforcement, and this reinforcement should follow fairly soon after your initial session. Initially, daily sessions for at least a few days are recommended in most cases, then reducing to every other day for a few days, and then maintenance listening should continue 1-3 times per week, depending on the subject, thereafter, though some will find that revisiting a program a time or two per month is all that is needed, and for some people, suggestions quickly become permanent.
- If you tried hypnosis to achieve certain things, like overcoming an addiction like smoking, or doing other things that you are more or less committed to, hypnosis is NOT the most effective application for those things. (Neurofeedback is better for quitting smoking or other addictions.) No one methodology is a panacea. Acupuncture is not the way to go to fix a broken leg.
Can you make me do things against my will?
This is a common myth about hypnosis. But a subject will only do what is truly safe and morally right for him or her as a person. Volunteers at a stage hypnosis performance allow themselves to be made to cluck like a chicken only because they feel safe, and they have an excuse: “the hypnotist made me do it!” But if asked to, for example, rob a bank, then, unless this behavior is desired by a subject who is already highly motivated to act on such a suggestion, the subject will simply come out of trance and refuse. You are always in control.
Does being susceptible to hypnosis mean I’m weak or unintelligent?
Quite the contrary, achieving hypnosis requires intelligence, a good imagination, and a strong will to achieve powerful things that you as the subject desire. Think about a parent whose child is suddenly trapped under a car. Suddenly the parent accesses seeming super-human strength to lift the car and rescue his or her child. Under ordinary circumstances, you could not just choose to lift a car – not even if you’re offered a million dollars! But under special circumstances, you can achieve the extraordinary. In the same way, you can achieve the extraordinary with your mind. This is hypnosis.