Mike, Why does hypnosis seem like such a mystery to people?
Hypnosis has a rather bizarre history replete with "magnetism" and occultic overtones that have done much to corrupt its image as a legitimate psychotherapeutic modality. And let's not forget that hypnosis can look rather strange. Someone performing the suggested antics of a stage hypnotist or sitting in a chair with his or her hand floating in the air in a clinical setting does not resemble "normal" behaviour.
What is the history of hypnosis and what is it really?
Hypnosis is as old as mankind, insofar that trance is a naturally occuring phenomenon. Watching television, listening to a lecture, reading a novel with a rich and compelling story, driving a long distance at night: all of these are natural trance inductions.
Formalized hypnosis goes back to Franz Anton Mesmer. Mesmer was a medical doctor from Vienna who studied the effects of suggestion in the mid to late 1700's. He began by passing magnets over his patients to cure sicknesses and facilitate the clotting of blood. He coined the term "animal magnetism". Later, he drew the conclusion that the magnets were not the source of power; he was. His prestige was facilitating the induction of hypnosis and patients were by and large, accepting his suggestions.
Over time, and through the studious work of some of the giants of hypnosis, including Bernheim, Pusseguyr, Braid, and, of course, Milton Erickson, we have come to a scientific understanding of trance and its creation.
Why do some people get nervous when they hear the word hypnosis?
Part of the hypnotic mythology comes from the idea of a Svengali/Trilby relationship, where the hypnotist is controlling the mind of the subject and is able to cause him to obey his every command. Some people think the subject will perform dangerous or immoral acts at the hypnotist's command.
This, of course, is absolute nonsense. A person never gives up control of his mind while in a trance. He is actually in greater control than in a "normal" waking state. He will never violate his moral code in a trance state, despite what the urban myths tell us. If given an unacceptable command or instruction, the subject will either refuse to comply or simply awaken from trance.
There have been some remarkable claims about the power of hypnosis: in one session people quit smoking, people diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder are cured without symptom substitution, migraines seem to go away, people can manage pain. Are they all true?
Are they all true? What an incredible generalization .... Hypnosis is a remarkable psychotherapeutic modality that can access unconscious resources and facilitate dramatic healing and personal change, often in one session and usually without the more dursative carryings on that one often sees in "talk therapy".
Under hypnosis, the subject has access to the vast realms of resource and possibility that are stored in the unconscious mind. By accessing these resources and then installing them (like a computer programme), the client is able to make startling change, usually very quickly. Symptom substitution is completely bypassed when the unconscious mind does the work.
How does hypnosis work? What's the process people go through? Some people say it is a physiological state and others say it's a process: which is it?
The question that often arises in learned circles is the following: Is hypnosis a state? (is it something one is in)? Or is trance a process (something one does)? My view, based on over a quarter century of study and practice is...Yes. Hypnosis is a state maintained by a process, which in turn produces a state...
Other Resources on Hypnosis
Click this link to visit our squidoo page on hypnotic inductions and watch video of Milton Erickson.
Click here for an article on building focused agreement using Ericksonian communication.
Click here for an article on hypnosis and innovation.