HYPNOSIS MISCONCEPTIONS
MISCONCEPTION: HYPNOSIS IS CAUSED BY THE POWER OF THE HYPNOTIST
In the clinical context, the hypnotist is able to use his or her skills in communication to make acceptance of suggestions by the client more likely, but there is no control over the client other than whatever degree of control the client gives to the hypnotist. If you allow someone to guide you through a suggested experience, who is in control? The hypnotist may direct the client's experience, but only to the degree that the client permits it. It is clearly a relationship of mutual responsiveness (Gilligan, 1987; Stanton, 1985).
MISCONCEPTION: ONLY CERTAIN KINDS OF PEOPLE CAN BE HYPNOTIZED
In practice, there are definitely some people more difficult to induce hypnosis in than others. Such persons are not usually less capable than others, but they are less responsive for any of a wide range of reasons, such as: they fear losing control, they have a hard time distinguishing ambiguous (for them) internal states such as tension or relaxation, they fear impending changes, they're aware of negative situational factors, and so forth. When the nature of the resistance is identified and resolved, the 'difficult' person can often be transformed from a poor hypnotic subject into a reasonably good one (Araoz, 1985; Barber, 1980).
MISCONCEPTION: ANYONE WHO CAN BE HYPNOTIZED MUST BE WEAK-MINDED
Since virtually all people enter spontaneous, informal hypnotic states regularly, the ability to be hypnotized is not reliably correlated with specific personality traits. This particular misconception refers to the Svengali image of the all-powerful hypnotist, and is based on the belief that in order for a hypnotist to control someone, the individual just have little or no will of his or her own (Weitzenhoffer, 1989).
MISCONCEPTION: ONCE ONE HAS BEEN HYPNOTIZED, ONE CAN NO LONGER RESIST
This misconception refers to the idea that a hypnotist controls the will of his or her subject, and that once you "succumb to the power" of the hypnotist, you are forever at his or her mercy. Of course, nothing is farther from the truth, since the hypnotic process is a clinical interaction based on mutual power, shared in order to attain some desirable therapeutic outcome. If a client chooses not to go into hypnosis for whatever reason, then he or she will not. The nature of the hypnotic process is always context-determined. Even the most responsive clients can refuse to follow the suggestion of a hypnotist if they choose to. Prior experience with hypnosis, good or bad, is not the sole determining factor of whether hypnosis is accomplished or not. The communication and relationship factors of the particular context where hypnosis is performed are the key variables that will help determine the outcome (Barber, 1991; Diamond, 1987).
MISCONCEPTION: ONE CAN BE HYPNOTIZED TO SAY OR DO SOMETHING AGAINST ONE'S WILL
This is one of the most hotly debated issues in the entire field of hypnosis. The capacity to influence people to do things against their will exists. There is little room for doubt that people can be manipulated negatively to do things seemingly inconsistent with the person's prior beliefs and attitudes. To put it simply, brainwashing and other untoward influences exist. However, the conditions necessary to affect such powerful influence do not typically surface in the therapeutic context. In other words, controlling a person is possible under certain conditions, but those conditions are not in and of themselves hypnosis and they are quite far removed from the ethical and sensitive applications of hypnosis promoted in this book (Weitzenhoffer, 2989).
MISCONCEPTION: BEING HYPNOTIZED CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH
This misconception is a strong one in raising people's fears. In fact, here is legitimate basis for concern about the use of hypnosis, but the concern should not be about the experience of hypnosis harming anyone. Rather, the concern should be about who practices hypnosis and how it is practiced. Hypnosis itself is not harmful, but an incompetent or unethical practitioner can do some damage through sheer ignorance about the complexity of each person's mind or through a lack of respect for the integrity of each human being (Frauman. Lynn & Brentar, 1993; Kleinhauz & Eli, 1987; MacHovec, 1986).
In terms of potential emotional harm, it is not hypnosis itself that may cause damage; difficulties may arise due to either the content of a session or the clinician's inability to effectively guide the client. The same conditions exist, of course, in any helping relationship where one person is in distress, vulnerable, and seeking relief. An inexperienced or uneducated helper may inadvertently (rarely. if ever, is it intentional) offer poor advice, state misinformation as fact, make grandiose promises, misdiagnose a problem or its dynamics, or do nothing at all and simply waste the client's time and money.
The flipside of this issue and the reason for developing skills in hypnotic techniques is the considerable emotional good that effective hypnosis can generate. Through its ability to increase people's feelings of self-control and, thus, their self-confidence, hypnosis can be a powerful means for resolving emotional problems and enhancing emotional well-being. It is essential that the clinician have enough knowledge and skill to use it toward that end, for it is evident that anything that has an ability to help has an ability to hurt.
MISCONCEPTION: ONE INEVITABLY BECOMES DEPENDENT ON THE HYPNOTIST
Hypnosis as a therapeutic tool does not in and of itself foster dependency of any kind any more than other clinical tools such as a behavioral contract, analytical free association, or an intelligence test can. Dependency is a need, a reliance, which everyone has to some degree. To a greater or lesser extent, we all depend on others for things we feel are important to our well-being, in the helping professions, especially, people are seeking help at a time they are hurting and vulnerable. They depend on the clinician to help, to comfort, and to care. The clinician knows that one ultimate goal of treatment must be to help that person establish self-reliance and independence. Rather than foster dependence by indirectly encouraging the client to view the clinician as the source of answers to all of life's woes, hypnosis used properly can help the person in distress turn inwards in order to make use of the many experiences the person has acquired over his or her lifetime that can be used therapeutically. Consistent with the goal of self-reliance and use of personal power to help oneself is the teaching of self-hypnosis to those you work with (Alman & Lambrou, 1992; Fromm & Kahn, 1990; Sanders, 1991; Simpkins & Simpkins, 1991).
There is an old saying, "If you give a man a fish, you have given him a meal. If you teach him how to fish, you have given him a livelihood." Teaching self-hypnosis can allow for the emergence of a self-correcting mechanism that can assure those you work with that they do have greater control over their lives. It gives you an assurance that you have done your work well.
MISCONCEPTION: ONE CAN BECOME "STUCK" IN HYPNOSIS
Hypnosis is a state of focused attention, either inwardly or outwardly directed. It is controlled by the client, who can initiate or terminate the experience any time he or she chooses (Kirsch, Lynn & Kline, 1993; Watkins, 1986)
MISCONCEPTION: ONE IS ASLEEP OR UNCONSCIOUS WHEN HYPNOSIS
Hypnosis is not sleep! The experience of formally induced hypnosis resembles sleep from a physical standpoint (decreased activity, muscular relaxation, slowed breathing, etc.), but from a mental standpoint the client is relaxed yet alert. Ever-present is some level of awareness of current goings-on, even when the individual is in deeper states of hypnosis (Weitzenhoffer, 1989). In the case of informal, spontaneous hypnotic states, awareness is even more marked since physical relaxation need not be present.
Since hypnosis is not sleep, and even the client in deep hypnosis is oriented to external reality to some degree, the use of archaic phrases like "sleep deeply" are not relevant to the client's experience, and so should not be used.
MISCONCEPTION: HYPNOSIS ALWAYS INVOLVES A MONOTONOUS RITUAL OF INDUCTION
When you consider the communication aspects of hypnosis, you can appreciate that hypnosis occurs to some degree whenever someone turns his or her attention to and focuses on the ideas and feelings triggered by the communications of the guide. For as long as your attention is directed in an absorbing way, either inwardly on some subjective experience or outwardly on some external stimulus (which, in turn, creates an internal experience), you are in hypnosis to some degree.
Hypnosis does not have to be formally induced to occur. Likewise, the various classical hypnotic phenomena can (and do) occur routinely outside of formal hypnotic experience (Kirsch & Council, 1992). Communication has conditioning properties, and whether used in the form of a monotonous ritual induction or in the form of an off hand remark, it has the capacity to influence others' experience, and thus be hypnotic in effect.
MISCONCEPTION: ONE MUST BE RELAXED IN ORDER TO BE IN HYPNOSIS
Hypnosis has been described as a state of concentrated attention, one that varies in intensity according to individual and contextual characteristics. Also mentioned earlier was the idea that hypnosis can spontaneously develop while you are conversing, reading, and in countless other instances where your attention becomes fixed. You can be anxious, even in deep suspense, and still be focused, as in "glued to a mystery." Thus, physical relaxation is not a necessary prerequisite for hypnosis to occur (Banyai, Zseni & Tury, 1993; Malott, 1984).
MISCONCEPTION: HYPNOSIS IS A THERAPY
Hypnosis is not a therapy. Rather, it is a therapeutic tool that can be used in an infinite variety of ways. Hypnosis is not aligned with any one theoretical or practical orientation. In a larger sense, hypnosis is a part of every psychotherapy, and for that matter, a part of every interaction in which one person engages and influences another (Kirsch, Lynn & Rhue, 1993; Lankton, 1982).
MISCONCEPTION: HYPNOSIS MAY BE USED TO ACCURATELY RECALL EVERYTHING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU
There is a great need for clinicians to understand how memory works in order to best address this most important aspect of the individual. Some have compared the mind to a computer in which every memory is accurately stored and available for eventual retrieval. The computer metaphor is an inaccurate one, however. The mind does not simply take in experience and store it in exact form for accurate recall later. In fact, many of the same distortions are perceptions. People can "remember" things that did not actually happen, they can remember selected fragments of an experience, and they can take bits and pieces of multiple memories and combine them into one false memory (McConkey, 1992; Orne, 1984; Yapko, 1994). This topic is at the heart of a raging debate now bitterly dividing the mental health profession.
CLOSURE ON MISCONCEPTIONS
How you conceptualize hypnosis and the mind will determine almost entirely what limits you place on your use of hypnosis, as well as what limits you will place on your clients. You are urged to give careful thought to the ways in which you think about hypnosis as a tool in treatment, and to review the literature available to help you clarify your beliefs.
MISCONCEPTION: HYPNOSIS IS CAUSED BY THE POWER OF THE HYPNOTIST
In the clinical context, the hypnotist is able to use his or her skills in communication to make acceptance of suggestions by the client more likely, but there is no control over the client other than whatever degree of control the client gives to the hypnotist. If you allow someone to guide you through a suggested experience, who is in control? The hypnotist may direct the client's experience, but only to the degree that the client permits it. It is clearly a relationship of mutual responsiveness (Gilligan, 1987; Stanton, 1985).
MISCONCEPTION: ONLY CERTAIN KINDS OF PEOPLE CAN BE HYPNOTIZED
In practice, there are definitely some people more difficult to induce hypnosis in than others. Such persons are not usually less capable than others, but they are less responsive for any of a wide range of reasons, such as: they fear losing control, they have a hard time distinguishing ambiguous (for them) internal states such as tension or relaxation, they fear impending changes, they're aware of negative situational factors, and so forth. When the nature of the resistance is identified and resolved, the 'difficult' person can often be transformed from a poor hypnotic subject into a reasonably good one (Araoz, 1985; Barber, 1980).
MISCONCEPTION: ANYONE WHO CAN BE HYPNOTIZED MUST BE WEAK-MINDED
Since virtually all people enter spontaneous, informal hypnotic states regularly, the ability to be hypnotized is not reliably correlated with specific personality traits. This particular misconception refers to the Svengali image of the all-powerful hypnotist, and is based on the belief that in order for a hypnotist to control someone, the individual just have little or no will of his or her own (Weitzenhoffer, 1989).
MISCONCEPTION: ONCE ONE HAS BEEN HYPNOTIZED, ONE CAN NO LONGER RESIST
This misconception refers to the idea that a hypnotist controls the will of his or her subject, and that once you "succumb to the power" of the hypnotist, you are forever at his or her mercy. Of course, nothing is farther from the truth, since the hypnotic process is a clinical interaction based on mutual power, shared in order to attain some desirable therapeutic outcome. If a client chooses not to go into hypnosis for whatever reason, then he or she will not. The nature of the hypnotic process is always context-determined. Even the most responsive clients can refuse to follow the suggestion of a hypnotist if they choose to. Prior experience with hypnosis, good or bad, is not the sole determining factor of whether hypnosis is accomplished or not. The communication and relationship factors of the particular context where hypnosis is performed are the key variables that will help determine the outcome (Barber, 1991; Diamond, 1987).
MISCONCEPTION: ONE CAN BE HYPNOTIZED TO SAY OR DO SOMETHING AGAINST ONE'S WILL
This is one of the most hotly debated issues in the entire field of hypnosis. The capacity to influence people to do things against their will exists. There is little room for doubt that people can be manipulated negatively to do things seemingly inconsistent with the person's prior beliefs and attitudes. To put it simply, brainwashing and other untoward influences exist. However, the conditions necessary to affect such powerful influence do not typically surface in the therapeutic context. In other words, controlling a person is possible under certain conditions, but those conditions are not in and of themselves hypnosis and they are quite far removed from the ethical and sensitive applications of hypnosis promoted in this book (Weitzenhoffer, 2989).
MISCONCEPTION: BEING HYPNOTIZED CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH
This misconception is a strong one in raising people's fears. In fact, here is legitimate basis for concern about the use of hypnosis, but the concern should not be about the experience of hypnosis harming anyone. Rather, the concern should be about who practices hypnosis and how it is practiced. Hypnosis itself is not harmful, but an incompetent or unethical practitioner can do some damage through sheer ignorance about the complexity of each person's mind or through a lack of respect for the integrity of each human being (Frauman. Lynn & Brentar, 1993; Kleinhauz & Eli, 1987; MacHovec, 1986).
In terms of potential emotional harm, it is not hypnosis itself that may cause damage; difficulties may arise due to either the content of a session or the clinician's inability to effectively guide the client. The same conditions exist, of course, in any helping relationship where one person is in distress, vulnerable, and seeking relief. An inexperienced or uneducated helper may inadvertently (rarely. if ever, is it intentional) offer poor advice, state misinformation as fact, make grandiose promises, misdiagnose a problem or its dynamics, or do nothing at all and simply waste the client's time and money.
The flipside of this issue and the reason for developing skills in hypnotic techniques is the considerable emotional good that effective hypnosis can generate. Through its ability to increase people's feelings of self-control and, thus, their self-confidence, hypnosis can be a powerful means for resolving emotional problems and enhancing emotional well-being. It is essential that the clinician have enough knowledge and skill to use it toward that end, for it is evident that anything that has an ability to help has an ability to hurt.
MISCONCEPTION: ONE INEVITABLY BECOMES DEPENDENT ON THE HYPNOTIST
Hypnosis as a therapeutic tool does not in and of itself foster dependency of any kind any more than other clinical tools such as a behavioral contract, analytical free association, or an intelligence test can. Dependency is a need, a reliance, which everyone has to some degree. To a greater or lesser extent, we all depend on others for things we feel are important to our well-being, in the helping professions, especially, people are seeking help at a time they are hurting and vulnerable. They depend on the clinician to help, to comfort, and to care. The clinician knows that one ultimate goal of treatment must be to help that person establish self-reliance and independence. Rather than foster dependence by indirectly encouraging the client to view the clinician as the source of answers to all of life's woes, hypnosis used properly can help the person in distress turn inwards in order to make use of the many experiences the person has acquired over his or her lifetime that can be used therapeutically. Consistent with the goal of self-reliance and use of personal power to help oneself is the teaching of self-hypnosis to those you work with (Alman & Lambrou, 1992; Fromm & Kahn, 1990; Sanders, 1991; Simpkins & Simpkins, 1991).
There is an old saying, "If you give a man a fish, you have given him a meal. If you teach him how to fish, you have given him a livelihood." Teaching self-hypnosis can allow for the emergence of a self-correcting mechanism that can assure those you work with that they do have greater control over their lives. It gives you an assurance that you have done your work well.
MISCONCEPTION: ONE CAN BECOME "STUCK" IN HYPNOSIS
Hypnosis is a state of focused attention, either inwardly or outwardly directed. It is controlled by the client, who can initiate or terminate the experience any time he or she chooses (Kirsch, Lynn & Kline, 1993; Watkins, 1986)
MISCONCEPTION: ONE IS ASLEEP OR UNCONSCIOUS WHEN HYPNOSIS
Hypnosis is not sleep! The experience of formally induced hypnosis resembles sleep from a physical standpoint (decreased activity, muscular relaxation, slowed breathing, etc.), but from a mental standpoint the client is relaxed yet alert. Ever-present is some level of awareness of current goings-on, even when the individual is in deeper states of hypnosis (Weitzenhoffer, 1989). In the case of informal, spontaneous hypnotic states, awareness is even more marked since physical relaxation need not be present.
Since hypnosis is not sleep, and even the client in deep hypnosis is oriented to external reality to some degree, the use of archaic phrases like "sleep deeply" are not relevant to the client's experience, and so should not be used.
MISCONCEPTION: HYPNOSIS ALWAYS INVOLVES A MONOTONOUS RITUAL OF INDUCTION
When you consider the communication aspects of hypnosis, you can appreciate that hypnosis occurs to some degree whenever someone turns his or her attention to and focuses on the ideas and feelings triggered by the communications of the guide. For as long as your attention is directed in an absorbing way, either inwardly on some subjective experience or outwardly on some external stimulus (which, in turn, creates an internal experience), you are in hypnosis to some degree.
Hypnosis does not have to be formally induced to occur. Likewise, the various classical hypnotic phenomena can (and do) occur routinely outside of formal hypnotic experience (Kirsch & Council, 1992). Communication has conditioning properties, and whether used in the form of a monotonous ritual induction or in the form of an off hand remark, it has the capacity to influence others' experience, and thus be hypnotic in effect.
MISCONCEPTION: ONE MUST BE RELAXED IN ORDER TO BE IN HYPNOSIS
Hypnosis has been described as a state of concentrated attention, one that varies in intensity according to individual and contextual characteristics. Also mentioned earlier was the idea that hypnosis can spontaneously develop while you are conversing, reading, and in countless other instances where your attention becomes fixed. You can be anxious, even in deep suspense, and still be focused, as in "glued to a mystery." Thus, physical relaxation is not a necessary prerequisite for hypnosis to occur (Banyai, Zseni & Tury, 1993; Malott, 1984).
MISCONCEPTION: HYPNOSIS IS A THERAPY
Hypnosis is not a therapy. Rather, it is a therapeutic tool that can be used in an infinite variety of ways. Hypnosis is not aligned with any one theoretical or practical orientation. In a larger sense, hypnosis is a part of every psychotherapy, and for that matter, a part of every interaction in which one person engages and influences another (Kirsch, Lynn & Rhue, 1993; Lankton, 1982).
MISCONCEPTION: HYPNOSIS MAY BE USED TO ACCURATELY RECALL EVERYTHING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU
There is a great need for clinicians to understand how memory works in order to best address this most important aspect of the individual. Some have compared the mind to a computer in which every memory is accurately stored and available for eventual retrieval. The computer metaphor is an inaccurate one, however. The mind does not simply take in experience and store it in exact form for accurate recall later. In fact, many of the same distortions are perceptions. People can "remember" things that did not actually happen, they can remember selected fragments of an experience, and they can take bits and pieces of multiple memories and combine them into one false memory (McConkey, 1992; Orne, 1984; Yapko, 1994). This topic is at the heart of a raging debate now bitterly dividing the mental health profession.
CLOSURE ON MISCONCEPTIONS
How you conceptualize hypnosis and the mind will determine almost entirely what limits you place on your use of hypnosis, as well as what limits you will place on your clients. You are urged to give careful thought to the ways in which you think about hypnosis as a tool in treatment, and to review the literature available to help you clarify your beliefs.
QUESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE ABOUT HYPNOSIS
1. EXACTLY WHAT IS HYPNOSIS?
Hypnosis is a state of altered consciousness that occurs normally in every person just before he enters into a sleep state. In therapeutic hypnosis we prolong this brief interlude so that we can work within its bounds.
2. CAN EVERYBODY BE HYPNOTIZED?
Yes, because it is a normal state that everybody passes through before going to sleep. However, it is possible to resist hypnosis like it is possible to resist going to sleep. But even if one resists hypnosis, with practice the resistance can be overcome.
3. WHAT IS THE VALUE OF HYPNOSIS?
There is no magic in hypnosis. There are some conditions in which it is useful and others in which no great benefit is derived. It is employed in medicine to reduce tension and pain, which accompany various physical problems, and to aid certain rehabilitative procedures. In psychiatric practice it is helpful in short-term therapy, and also, in some cases, in long term treatment where obstinate resistance has been encountered.
4. WHO CAN DO HYPNOSIS?
Only a qualified professional person should decide whether one needs hypnosis or could benefit from it. The professional person requires special training in the techniques and uses of hypnosis before he can be considered qualified, and should be certified in Hypnotherapy.
5. WHY DO SOME PEOPLE HAVE DOUBTS ABOUT HYPNOSIS?
Hypnosis is a much-misunderstood phenomenon. For centuries it has been affiliated with spiritualism, witchcraft and various kinds of mumbo jumbo. The exaggerated claims made for it by undisciplined persons have turned some people against it. Some doctors and psychiatrists too doubt the value of hypnosis, because Freud gave it up eighty years ago, and because they themselves have not had much experience with its modern uses.
6. CAN'T HYPNOSIS BE DANGEROUS?
The hypnotic state is no more dangerous than a sleep state. But unskilled operators may give subjects foolish suggestions, such as one often witnesses in stage hypnosis, where the trance is exploited for entertainment purposes. A delicately balanced and sensitive person exposed to unwise and humiliating suggestions may respond with anxiety. On the whole, there are no dangers in hypnosis when practiced by ethical and qualified practitioners.
7. I AM AFRAID I CAN'T BE HYPNOTIZED.
All people go through a state akin to hypnosis before falling asleep. There is no reason why you should not be able to enter a hypnotic state.
8. WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE TO BE HYPNOTIZED?
The answer to this is extremely important because it may determine whether or not you can benefit from hypnosis. Some people give up hypnosis after a few sessions because they are disappointed in their reactions, believing that they are not suitable subjects. The average person has the idea that he will go through something different, new and spectacular in the hypnotic state. Often he equates being hypnotized with being anaesthetized, or being asleep, or being unconscious. When in hypnosis he finds that his mind is active; that he can hear every sound in the room; that he can resist suggestions if he so desires; that his attention keeps wandering, his thoughts racing around; that he has not fallen asleep, and that he remembers everything that has happened when he opens his eyes. He believes himself to have failed. He imagines then that he is a poor subject, and he is apt to abandon hypnotic treatment. The experience of being hypnotized is no different from the experience of relaxing and of starting to fall asleep. Because this experience is so familiar to you, and because you may expect something startlingly different in hypnosis, you may get discouraged when a trance is induced. Remember that you are not anaesthetized, you are not unconscious, and you are not asleep. Your mind is active, your thoughts are under your control, you perceive all stimuli, and you are in complete communication with the therapist. The only unique thing you may experience is a feeling of heaviness in your arms, and tingling in your hands and fingers. If you are habitually a deep sleeper, you may doze momentarily. If you are a light sleeper, you may have a feeling you are completely awake.
9. HOW DEEP DO I HAVE TO GO TO GET BENEFITS FROM HYPNOSIS?
If you can conceive of hypnosis as a spectrum of awareness that stretches from waking to sleep, you will realize that some aspects are close to the waking state, and share the phenomena of waking; and some aspects are close to sleep, and participate in the phenomena of light sleep. But over the entire spectrum, suggestibility is increased; and this is what makes hypnosis potentially beneficial, provided we put the suggestibility to a constructive use. The depth of hypnosis does not always correlate with the degree of suggestibility. In other words, even if you go no deeper than the lightest stages of hypnosis and are merely mildly relaxed, you will still be able to benefit from its therapeutic effects. It so happens that with practice you should be able to go deeper, but this really is not too important in the great majority of cases.
10. HOW DOES HYPNOSIS WORK?
The human mind is extremely suggestible and is being bombarded constantly with suggestive stimuli from the outside and suggestive thoughts and ideas from the inside. A good deal of suffering is the consequence of "negative" thoughts and impulses invading one's mind from subconscious recesses. Unfortunately, past experiences, guilt feelings, and repudiated impulses and desires are incessantly pushing themselves into awareness, directly or in disguised forms, sabotaging one's happiness, health and efficiency. By the time one has reached adulthood, he has built up "negative" modes of thinking, feeling and acting which persist like bad habits. And like any habits they are heard to break.
In hypnosis, we attempt to replace these "negative" attitudes with "positive" ones. But it takes time to disintegrate old habit patterns: so do not be discouraged if there is no immediate effect. If you continue to practice the principles that your therapist taught you will eventually notice change. Even though there may be no apparent alterations on the surface, a restructuring is going on underneath. An analogy may make this clear. If you hold a batch of white blotters above the level of your eyes so that you see the bottom blotter, and if you dribble drops of ink onto the top blotter, you will observe nothing different for a while until sufficient ink has been poured to soak through the entire thickness. Eventually the ink will come down. During this period while nothing seemingly was happening, penetrations were occurring. Had the process been stopped before enough ink had been poured, we would be tempted to consider the process a failure. Suggestions in hypnosis are like ink poured on layers of resistance; one must keep repeating them before they come through to influence old destructive patterns.
11. HOW CAN I HELP IN THE TREATMENT PROCESS?
It is important to mention to your therapist your reactions to treatment and to him, no matter how unfounded, unfair or ridiculous these reactions may seem. If for any reason you believe you should interrupt therapy, mention your desire to do so to your therapist. Important clues may be derived from your reactions, dreams and resistance that will provide an understanding of your inner conflicts, and help in your treatment.
12. WHAT ABOUT SELF-HYPNOSIS?
"Relaxing exercises"; "self-hypnosis" and "auto-hypnosis" are interchangeable terms for a reinforcing process that may be valuable in helping your therapist help you. If this adjunct is necessary, it will be employed. The technique is simple and safe.
1. EXACTLY WHAT IS HYPNOSIS?
Hypnosis is a state of altered consciousness that occurs normally in every person just before he enters into a sleep state. In therapeutic hypnosis we prolong this brief interlude so that we can work within its bounds.
2. CAN EVERYBODY BE HYPNOTIZED?
Yes, because it is a normal state that everybody passes through before going to sleep. However, it is possible to resist hypnosis like it is possible to resist going to sleep. But even if one resists hypnosis, with practice the resistance can be overcome.
3. WHAT IS THE VALUE OF HYPNOSIS?
There is no magic in hypnosis. There are some conditions in which it is useful and others in which no great benefit is derived. It is employed in medicine to reduce tension and pain, which accompany various physical problems, and to aid certain rehabilitative procedures. In psychiatric practice it is helpful in short-term therapy, and also, in some cases, in long term treatment where obstinate resistance has been encountered.
4. WHO CAN DO HYPNOSIS?
Only a qualified professional person should decide whether one needs hypnosis or could benefit from it. The professional person requires special training in the techniques and uses of hypnosis before he can be considered qualified, and should be certified in Hypnotherapy.
5. WHY DO SOME PEOPLE HAVE DOUBTS ABOUT HYPNOSIS?
Hypnosis is a much-misunderstood phenomenon. For centuries it has been affiliated with spiritualism, witchcraft and various kinds of mumbo jumbo. The exaggerated claims made for it by undisciplined persons have turned some people against it. Some doctors and psychiatrists too doubt the value of hypnosis, because Freud gave it up eighty years ago, and because they themselves have not had much experience with its modern uses.
6. CAN'T HYPNOSIS BE DANGEROUS?
The hypnotic state is no more dangerous than a sleep state. But unskilled operators may give subjects foolish suggestions, such as one often witnesses in stage hypnosis, where the trance is exploited for entertainment purposes. A delicately balanced and sensitive person exposed to unwise and humiliating suggestions may respond with anxiety. On the whole, there are no dangers in hypnosis when practiced by ethical and qualified practitioners.
7. I AM AFRAID I CAN'T BE HYPNOTIZED.
All people go through a state akin to hypnosis before falling asleep. There is no reason why you should not be able to enter a hypnotic state.
8. WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE TO BE HYPNOTIZED?
The answer to this is extremely important because it may determine whether or not you can benefit from hypnosis. Some people give up hypnosis after a few sessions because they are disappointed in their reactions, believing that they are not suitable subjects. The average person has the idea that he will go through something different, new and spectacular in the hypnotic state. Often he equates being hypnotized with being anaesthetized, or being asleep, or being unconscious. When in hypnosis he finds that his mind is active; that he can hear every sound in the room; that he can resist suggestions if he so desires; that his attention keeps wandering, his thoughts racing around; that he has not fallen asleep, and that he remembers everything that has happened when he opens his eyes. He believes himself to have failed. He imagines then that he is a poor subject, and he is apt to abandon hypnotic treatment. The experience of being hypnotized is no different from the experience of relaxing and of starting to fall asleep. Because this experience is so familiar to you, and because you may expect something startlingly different in hypnosis, you may get discouraged when a trance is induced. Remember that you are not anaesthetized, you are not unconscious, and you are not asleep. Your mind is active, your thoughts are under your control, you perceive all stimuli, and you are in complete communication with the therapist. The only unique thing you may experience is a feeling of heaviness in your arms, and tingling in your hands and fingers. If you are habitually a deep sleeper, you may doze momentarily. If you are a light sleeper, you may have a feeling you are completely awake.
9. HOW DEEP DO I HAVE TO GO TO GET BENEFITS FROM HYPNOSIS?
If you can conceive of hypnosis as a spectrum of awareness that stretches from waking to sleep, you will realize that some aspects are close to the waking state, and share the phenomena of waking; and some aspects are close to sleep, and participate in the phenomena of light sleep. But over the entire spectrum, suggestibility is increased; and this is what makes hypnosis potentially beneficial, provided we put the suggestibility to a constructive use. The depth of hypnosis does not always correlate with the degree of suggestibility. In other words, even if you go no deeper than the lightest stages of hypnosis and are merely mildly relaxed, you will still be able to benefit from its therapeutic effects. It so happens that with practice you should be able to go deeper, but this really is not too important in the great majority of cases.
10. HOW DOES HYPNOSIS WORK?
The human mind is extremely suggestible and is being bombarded constantly with suggestive stimuli from the outside and suggestive thoughts and ideas from the inside. A good deal of suffering is the consequence of "negative" thoughts and impulses invading one's mind from subconscious recesses. Unfortunately, past experiences, guilt feelings, and repudiated impulses and desires are incessantly pushing themselves into awareness, directly or in disguised forms, sabotaging one's happiness, health and efficiency. By the time one has reached adulthood, he has built up "negative" modes of thinking, feeling and acting which persist like bad habits. And like any habits they are heard to break.
In hypnosis, we attempt to replace these "negative" attitudes with "positive" ones. But it takes time to disintegrate old habit patterns: so do not be discouraged if there is no immediate effect. If you continue to practice the principles that your therapist taught you will eventually notice change. Even though there may be no apparent alterations on the surface, a restructuring is going on underneath. An analogy may make this clear. If you hold a batch of white blotters above the level of your eyes so that you see the bottom blotter, and if you dribble drops of ink onto the top blotter, you will observe nothing different for a while until sufficient ink has been poured to soak through the entire thickness. Eventually the ink will come down. During this period while nothing seemingly was happening, penetrations were occurring. Had the process been stopped before enough ink had been poured, we would be tempted to consider the process a failure. Suggestions in hypnosis are like ink poured on layers of resistance; one must keep repeating them before they come through to influence old destructive patterns.
11. HOW CAN I HELP IN THE TREATMENT PROCESS?
It is important to mention to your therapist your reactions to treatment and to him, no matter how unfounded, unfair or ridiculous these reactions may seem. If for any reason you believe you should interrupt therapy, mention your desire to do so to your therapist. Important clues may be derived from your reactions, dreams and resistance that will provide an understanding of your inner conflicts, and help in your treatment.
12. WHAT ABOUT SELF-HYPNOSIS?
"Relaxing exercises"; "self-hypnosis" and "auto-hypnosis" are interchangeable terms for a reinforcing process that may be valuable in helping your therapist help you. If this adjunct is necessary, it will be employed. The technique is simple and safe.
HISTORY OF HYPNOSIS
"It hath oft appeared, while I have been soothing my patient as if there were some strange property in my hands to pull and draw away from the afflicted parts aches and diverse impurities, by laying my hand upon the place, and by extending my fingers toward it. It is thus known to the learned that health may be impressed on the sick by certain movements and by contact, just as some diseases may be communicated from one to another."
Hypocrites
(Reported by Tacitus)
EARLY HISTORY:
1. Primitive people: induction of trance by rhythm-drums, chanting, etc.
2. Hindus: Vashikaran Vidya, Samhoini Vidya
3. Egyptians and Greeks: Sleep Temples
4. Decline of hypnosis with the advent of Christianity
MODERN HISTORY:
1. Franz Anton Mesmer (1733 - 1815), Austria--"Baquet" in Paris--"Animal Magnetism;" committee's report to Louis XVI.
2. Marquis de Puysegur (1751 - 1825) Experimented with "Mesmerism;� Somnambulistic state instead of "grand crisis".
3. Abbe Faria, Goa, India--in 1814 in Paris experimentally concluded that hypnosis was rooted in suggestion--Authored De La Cause du Sommeil Lucide.
4. Dr. James Braid (1795 - 1860), Scottish physician--used the term "Hypnotism" in 1841 - 42.
5. Dr. John Elliotson (1791 - 1868) suggested the use of the phenomenon in anesthesia; in 1846 he started the first journal on hypnotism.
6. Dr. James Esdaile (1808 - 1859) reported the use of hypnosis in major operations in Calcutta, India.
7. 1891--favorable report on hypnosis by British Medical Association.
8. A. A. Liebeault (1832 - 1904) Father of Modern Hypnotism--Nancy School--use of hypnosis in therapy.
9. Dr. Josep Breuer (1842 - 1925), Austria, responsible for trying to get at the cause rather than remove symptoms by suggestions. Freud, was influenced by Breuer, especially In the case of "Anna O.� who relieved her trauma and experienced catharsis under hypnosis.
10. Professor Hippolyte Bernheim (1837 - 1919) also at Nancy, France--published two books: De la Suggestion, and La Therapeutique Suggestive, that established hypnosis as an important psychotherapeutic method.
11. Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot (1825 - 1893), Paris--regarded as the founder of clinical neurology--led Salp�tri�re school of thought in the field of hypnosis--hypnosis hypnotized--his theory was demolished by Bernheim of Nancy School.
12. Dr. Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939), Vienna--attended Charcot's demonstrations of hypnosis in 1885-86-used hypnosis in his practice and later developed the method of free association between 1892 - 1895 that became a cornerstone of psychoanalysis.
13. World War I: revival of hypnosis due to many cases of psychogenic origin and scarcity of psychiatrists--hypnosis widely used in the treatment of battle neurosis such as shell-shock--Hadfield coined the term "hypno-analysis," a method used successfully during World War II.
14. In 1950 J.L. Moreno and J. M. Enneis publish Hypnodrama and Psychodrama, explaining hypnodrama is a synthesis of psychodrama and hypnosis.
15. In 1953 British Medical Association officially recognized hypnosis as a therapeutic technique and endorsed its use in medicine.
16. In 1958 American Medical Association officially approved hypnosis in medicine and dentistry.
17. First college credit course in hypnosis in Canada designed and taught by Rooshikumar Pandya, John Abbot College, and Montreal in 1972.
18. First formal course in hypnosis in India taught by Rooshikumar Pandya in 1973 under the auspices of the Indo-American Society, Bombay, India.
19. Institutions engaged in teaching and doing experimental and clinical work in hypnosis in U.S.A. includes: The American Institute of Hypnosis, The American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, The Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, Association to Advance Ethical Hypnosis, American Psychological Association (Division Thirty).
Please Call (901)685-5491 for Questions, Concerns or Appointments.
Most Insurance Accepted.
"It hath oft appeared, while I have been soothing my patient as if there were some strange property in my hands to pull and draw away from the afflicted parts aches and diverse impurities, by laying my hand upon the place, and by extending my fingers toward it. It is thus known to the learned that health may be impressed on the sick by certain movements and by contact, just as some diseases may be communicated from one to another."
Hypocrites
(Reported by Tacitus)
EARLY HISTORY:
1. Primitive people: induction of trance by rhythm-drums, chanting, etc.
2. Hindus: Vashikaran Vidya, Samhoini Vidya
3. Egyptians and Greeks: Sleep Temples
4. Decline of hypnosis with the advent of Christianity
MODERN HISTORY:
1. Franz Anton Mesmer (1733 - 1815), Austria--"Baquet" in Paris--"Animal Magnetism;" committee's report to Louis XVI.
2. Marquis de Puysegur (1751 - 1825) Experimented with "Mesmerism;� Somnambulistic state instead of "grand crisis".
3. Abbe Faria, Goa, India--in 1814 in Paris experimentally concluded that hypnosis was rooted in suggestion--Authored De La Cause du Sommeil Lucide.
4. Dr. James Braid (1795 - 1860), Scottish physician--used the term "Hypnotism" in 1841 - 42.
5. Dr. John Elliotson (1791 - 1868) suggested the use of the phenomenon in anesthesia; in 1846 he started the first journal on hypnotism.
6. Dr. James Esdaile (1808 - 1859) reported the use of hypnosis in major operations in Calcutta, India.
7. 1891--favorable report on hypnosis by British Medical Association.
8. A. A. Liebeault (1832 - 1904) Father of Modern Hypnotism--Nancy School--use of hypnosis in therapy.
9. Dr. Josep Breuer (1842 - 1925), Austria, responsible for trying to get at the cause rather than remove symptoms by suggestions. Freud, was influenced by Breuer, especially In the case of "Anna O.� who relieved her trauma and experienced catharsis under hypnosis.
10. Professor Hippolyte Bernheim (1837 - 1919) also at Nancy, France--published two books: De la Suggestion, and La Therapeutique Suggestive, that established hypnosis as an important psychotherapeutic method.
11. Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot (1825 - 1893), Paris--regarded as the founder of clinical neurology--led Salp�tri�re school of thought in the field of hypnosis--hypnosis hypnotized--his theory was demolished by Bernheim of Nancy School.
12. Dr. Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939), Vienna--attended Charcot's demonstrations of hypnosis in 1885-86-used hypnosis in his practice and later developed the method of free association between 1892 - 1895 that became a cornerstone of psychoanalysis.
13. World War I: revival of hypnosis due to many cases of psychogenic origin and scarcity of psychiatrists--hypnosis widely used in the treatment of battle neurosis such as shell-shock--Hadfield coined the term "hypno-analysis," a method used successfully during World War II.
14. In 1950 J.L. Moreno and J. M. Enneis publish Hypnodrama and Psychodrama, explaining hypnodrama is a synthesis of psychodrama and hypnosis.
15. In 1953 British Medical Association officially recognized hypnosis as a therapeutic technique and endorsed its use in medicine.
16. In 1958 American Medical Association officially approved hypnosis in medicine and dentistry.
17. First college credit course in hypnosis in Canada designed and taught by Rooshikumar Pandya, John Abbot College, and Montreal in 1972.
18. First formal course in hypnosis in India taught by Rooshikumar Pandya in 1973 under the auspices of the Indo-American Society, Bombay, India.
19. Institutions engaged in teaching and doing experimental and clinical work in hypnosis in U.S.A. includes: The American Institute of Hypnosis, The American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, The Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, Association to Advance Ethical Hypnosis, American Psychological Association (Division Thirty).
Please Call (901)685-5491 for Questions, Concerns or Appointments.
Most Insurance Accepted.