Hypnosis
 | As a hypnotist and hypnotherapist I am regularly asked the question does
hypnosis work? I have a series of simple hypnotic demonstrations I
always use when people ask: making someone fall backwards just with the
sound of my voice, preventing them from being able to lift up a light
object, preventing someone from being able to move and making someone's
face go numb. They are neat tricks that can be done in almost any
environment and are a far cry from large scale demonstration of making
people comply to more outrageous instructions.
Hypnosis Everyone I hypnotize like this says one thing: "I knew I could do the opposite of what you were telling me but at the same time I couldn't". Which begs the question "does hypnosis work for everyone?". To be honest it does not work for everyone. There are some people these hypnosis demonstrations don't work on. In most cases you can see it begin to work and the person becomes stubborn and refuses to participate in what is going on. Just like some people felt like they could do the opposite of what I was saying and let themselves play along, these people feel that they can do the opposite of what I'm saying and try their hardest to do so. My analysis of the people who it did not work for is that they were either stubborn or unimaginative. Some people refused to comply simply because they did not like me, others because they hated the idea of someone having 'power' over them and others who are very pragmatic and don't like "having their heads in the clouds" couldn't imagine the things I was telling them. Part of the power of being a good hypnotist is getting people to like you, getting people to want to play along and finally getting them to imagine something voluntarily. That is 'hypnosis'. We have all seen enough hypnotists performing stage shows that we can at the very least say it appears to work. Generally when people ask me the question, "does hypnosis work?" what they really want to know is does hypnotherapy work. It's all well and good to get someone into a trance and tell them about making some great change in their lives, but does it actually do anything? And finally are the effects of hypnosis permanent? Well first of all I have to tell you that for most people the effects of hypnosis are about as permanent as eating. Sure it does fill you up at the time, but it does not last and you do have to repeat it. That does not necessarily mean having regular hypnosis sessions. Let us take the example of a smoker trying to use hypnosis to quit. They might feel incredibly positive about no longer being a smoker immediately after a hypnosis or self-hypnosis session but they have to carry on this positive energy beyond the session. If 10 minutes later they think to themselves "well that did nothing, I'm going to go have a smoke" then they are as stubborn as the person who refuses to let a hypnotist have 'power' over them. If they go to the bus stop and have to wait 15 minutes for a bus where they start thinking "oh I use to smoke here... what am I supposed to do now?" then they really want to use smoking as a crutch in their lives - they smoke when they're bored, stressed, upset, etc., and that's not likely to stop now. Someone has to go into the hypnosis session actually wanting to quit and they have to carry that positive energy with them beyond the hypnosis session. One of the phrases I use when hypnotizing someone to stop smoking is "feel how you have now become a non-smoker". It's a phrase I repeat throughout the session and I want them to leave the session realising that it has become true. So if they are at the bus stop and bored they can say "no I won't smoke, I am a non-smoker now". It's this willingness to change in combination with regular reinforcement from the hypnotherapist that can lead to powerful effects. |
