There are many other misconceptions surrounding hypnosis. Let’s look at some of the common ones:

Myth 1: Once hypnotised, you might reveal all your secrets

Fact: No one can control your mind. Hypnosis is simply a focussed state of mind in which the therapist only helps you to focus your thoughts on issues you choose. Contrary to popular belief, a therapist cannot put anything in your mind against your will. So you can decide what you want to reveal and what you don’t. In fact, under a hypnotic trance people can become quite creative with the truth, implying that you are in full control of your thoughts. That is why courts do not accept the testimony of a person under hypnosis.

Myth 2: You could be made to do undesirable things such as bark like a dog, kill someone, rob a bank etc.

Fact: During hypnosis, your conscious mind is always awake. If you hear a suggestion that you don’t agree with or don’t understand, you can simply reject it. Remember, stage hypnosis and clinical hypnosis are two different disciplines and this misconception may be stemming from the performance of stage hypnotists. In fact, no one else can hypnotise you; it’s something that you do to yourself with the help of a therapist. The therapist can only guide you to your aware state of mind with the help of suggestions.

Myth 3: What if I stay in the hypnotized state forever?

Fact: Nobody stays stuck in a hypnotic state. Think of hypnosis as guided meditation: the moment you open your eyes, you are out of it. Often, because it’s very calming, people drift off to sleep. And they wake up in a while, feeling refreshed.

Myth 4: Hypnosis is a special state of mind

Fact: Hypnosis is just a trance state of mind. Everybody experiences it at least twice daily: once, before we just fall asleep and the other when we wake up from sleep, just before stepping out of your bed. We often even go into a trance when we are deeply involved in watching TV or while engrossed with work.

Myth 5: I am too strong-headed to be hypnotized

Fact: Hypnosis has nothing to do with a weak or strong mind; willingness of the person is all that matters. However, I have observed that one must be relatively intelligent in order to engage in the hypnosis process. Using Dr John Kappas’s Suggestibility Test, we can determine the suggestibility of a person and then appropriate techniques are used for hypnosis. Because the person has an intention to be hypnotised, he can use the guidance and reach the hypnotic state. Remember, all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. If you really want it to work, and you co-operate, it will work for you. So just loosen up and let go.

Myth 6: Hypnotherapy gets you instant results

Fact: Hypnotherapy works on your subconscious mind, which takes time to change. It’s is not a miracle cure and many issues often require more than one session. You will notice subtle changes in the beginning such as you will feel calmer and clearer. As your perception changes, everything around you also begins to change. Of course, everyone makes progress at his or her own pace. The experience can be different for different people; it can even vary from one session to another for the same person.

Myth 7: The sub-conscious mind records everything like a video

Fact: Your mind stores a particular event based on how you perceived it. That may or may not be the complete and unbiased picture. We store information based on how we interpret it, rather than simply recording the actual events.

Myth 8: Hypnosis is akin to black magic or voodoo

Fact: Far from being voodoo, hypnosis is a natural state, as established by several scientific studies. Many stalwart psychologists such as Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and Milton Erickson carried out significant amout of clinical research on the subject. A variety of medical and scientific organisations such as the American Medical Association, American Psychological Association, British Medical Association and British Psychological Society have independently endorsed hypnotherapy as a valid form of treatment.

Myth 9: You are unconscious or asleep when in hypnosis

Fact: While in hypnosis, your conscious mind is awake such that you are constantly aware of what is going on around you. But yes, each individual experiences it differently. How we remember things is unique for each of us. For example, not everyone can recollect all the details of a movie after watching it.

It’s true that you may drift off to sleep during your session. But if the therapist feels that you need to be woken up, she will do so during the course of your session.

Myth 10: You are not hypnotised, if you can hear the hypnotist

Fact: Each person is different. Some people consciously hear the therapist, whereas others don’t. A few individuals simply cannot resist allowing their minds to drift away, as they gain so much relaxation from it. But this has no effects on the success of the session.

When you are armed with the facts, hypnotherapy doesn’t seem magical or mysterious. It’s is a scientific process of using techniques to help your mind focus, to facilitate the unconscious mind to absorb pre-agreed suggestions, to bring about change. I urge you to try hypnosis once. If you don’t find it useful, you can simply discard it. But if it helps, it can open a whole new world of possibilities for your personal growth.

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All our beliefs of life itself have been created by two powerful techniques of hypnosis—repetition and overloading. It is interesting to understand that as much as 88 per cent of our mind is unconscious and only 12 per cent is conscious. The unconscious is a huge storehouse of all our conditioning, beliefs and patterns. From here arise our reactions and behaviour. Unfortunately, we have little access to this control room. Metaphorically speaking, a large iron gate called ‘the critical mind’ guards the secrets of this control room. This gate holds us back from simply walking in and pressing the reset button.

Becoming a better ‘you’

We would love to master our own emotions, performance and behaviour. And not being able to do it makes us feel helpless, hopeless and often depressed.

We do not want to get as angry as we do, we do not want to eat and drink as much as we do. We would like to handle difficult situations with poise and confidence. We look at others who are able to do so and feel guilty about being who we are. We make several resolutions which ultimately fail. All this and more because the control room is locked.

Hypnotherapy is a powerful tool to get in beyond this locked door and re-programme the undesirable and non-productive patterns. Hypnosis happens in day-to-day life many times but when we add the word ‘therapy’ to it, the connotation changes. It implies that an expert does a particular procedure in a safe environment for therapeutic reasons with the consent of the individual.

Though the word hypnotherapy conjures up images of a pendulum, concentric circles and a couch, it is much more than that. There is also a myth that the therapist can control the client or patient. Genuine authentic hypnotherapy that is done with sound scientific knowledge and an intention to heal couldn’t be more different and completely debunks that myth.

The basic principle of hypnotherapy is overloading the conscious mind with message units so that the gate—the critical mind—opens, and reconditioning can be carried out with complete consent and cooperation of the client. This is done with the help of methodical techniques. No equipment needs to be used and guided imagery and suggestions are the backbone of this procedure.

Find someone you trust

The charisma of the therapist also plays a vital role. We may have heard stories of an alcoholic joining AA [Alcoholics Anonymous] and instantly be reformed because he was profoundly influenced by a particular guide. Students, whose life course is changed by a teacher, are also examples of the charisma of a guide or leader bringing about informal hypnotherapy.

Rapport and trust between the therapist and client is of prime importance and time must be spent to build an understanding and answer all queries. Once that is done and the client is assured that they will be in complete control at all times during the procedure, the process begins. The client sits comfortably in an easy chair and, through a relaxation process, is brought into a trance-like stage—a state between sleeping and being awake. Now the unconscious opens up and powerful suggestions can be implanted, which are jointly decided by the therapist and client prior to the session. It must be remembered that hypnotherapy is an adjuvant and not a replacement for medical treatment and when dealing with a medical problem, it is imperative that you take consent from the treating physician.

We need a helping hand

The journey into the unconscious is a fascinating one and brings about an alignment of the unconscious and conscious. When this happens, the overall personality starts glowing and energy levels increase. Ultimately, this alignment results in maximizing potential and making the human experience a fulfilled one. Such a person not only makes his own life a joy but obviously contributes to those of others.

A powerful leader moves nations but a true master touches many lives and contributes to evolution. It is all about alignment. He himself is aligned and has the charisma, which brings about natural hypnosis in the people he comes in contact with. However, few are blessed with an inherent knowledge to bring about this alignment. The rest of us can accomplish far more than we are doing now by going to a good therapist and entering our control room.

Remember, till now, you have only scratched the surface of your true potential. The rest of it is just waiting to be tapped into. And once you do, there is no limit to the extent of personal growth you can achieve.

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Similarly, when we wake up and aren’t fully aware of our surroundings, we are in a natural hypnotic state. This is when the control is gradually returning to the conscious mind.

Often, we are so absorbed in watching TV that we are unaware of our surroundings and our responses are totally with the programme, this too is a state when the mind is under hypnosis.

Thus, hypnosis is nothing esoteric, but a state that occurs naturally many times a day—a time when our mind is narrowly focused on a single stimulus such that all the other stimuli fade off. Our minds are, therefore, accustomed to it.

In clinical hypnotherapy, the hypnotherapist inducts the subject into a hypnotic trance with the help of suggestions. Under trance, the frequency of our mind increases from beta to alpha, theta, delta and even deeper states.

In the state of consciousness, logical and analytical thinking is muted. The vibration increases and you get connected with your sub-conscious memories, which resonate at these higher frequencies—depths of your mind that are essential to reach for therapeutic results.

Research shows that the conscious mind accepts signals up to 16 bits per second, whereas, the sub-conscious receives 11 million bits per second.

Hence, a hypnotic trance is an opportune condition to look for the source of problems in the sub-conscious and clear negative emotions attached to them such as fears, phobias and other emotions that disrupt your life. Thus, in many ways, hypnotherapy is like meditation.

However, people are scared of trying out hypnotherapy as they don’t know what it really is. They have false ideas about it in their mind that inhibit them from taking advantage of hypnotherapy, which can be life-transforming. Here, I’d like to discuss some of the common misconceptions I have encountered as a qualified hypnotherapist.

11 Myths about hypnotherapy

1. Hypnosis can be forced on a person or cast like a spell against her will

No one can be hypnotised or made to follow any suggestion that contradicts with the person’s values in any way against her will. A client relaxes herself with the help of the therapist’s suggestions.

The therapist does not do it alone, but you do it yourself by co-operating with the therapist. A therapist merely navigates you through a hypnotic trance through guided imagery, trance music and direct or indirect suggestions.

You are expected to have complete faith in the therapy and the therapist to allow a relaxed state to build and follow suggestions. Resistance caused due to wrong notions, doubts, fears, challenges, conscious analysis, sub-conscious triggers and apprehensions, inhibit the trance state from being induced.

Discussing the myths and fears with the therapist during the consultation, prior to the therapy session, helps eliminate them.

2. Hypnotherapy is unsafe and can harm a person’s mind. A hypnotherapist can brainwash anyone

Hypnotherapy is totally harmless. It is not the same as brainwashing or mind control, which are done without consent. It is a therapeutic technique, which allows removal of negativity in a safe manner.

When your sub-conscious mind is being addressed and the source of the problem rooted there is being traced, a fair amount of control is with your conscious mind as well. The analytical part of your conscious mind still allows you to think and judge.

Therefore, you are still in-charge of yourself and your abilities. Your secrets can never be probed into against your desire. Your mind is wakeful and alert enough not to receive and act on any suggestion that doesn’t agree with you. At any stage of the session, you are so much in control that you can interrupt the session if required and return home.

3. You are forced to sit in one position for long, so you feel tired later

In deep hypnosis, your body goes limp, loose and numb. You are so relaxed [just like in sleep] that you lose the desire to toss and turn.

However, whenever necessary, the therapist gives a suggestion to move and turn to maintain the level of consciousness you have achieved. With another appropriate suggestion, you can even drink water or answer a nature’s call.

As for feeling tired, the moment your mind rises beyond the beta state, it starts relaxing and your body feels energised. Some people even feel euphoric after a session.

4. Hypnosis is an occult and esoteric art. It has no scientific basis

Hypnosis is neither a supernatural nor a magical art. It neither falls under any esoteric and occult phenomena nor does it make you follow religious, spiritual or any other belief systems or doctrine.

It is a therapeutic tool recognised and approved by The British Medical Association, The American Medical Association, and courts of law in India and abroad.

5. The trance is induced with the help of medication

Consciousness is altered with the help of guided imagery, direct and indirect suggestions or trance music like isochronic and binaural sounds, chants and mantras. These methods increase the frequency of the mind, taking it beyond beta into alpha, theta, delta or even deeper states.

There is no need of using medication. Drugs are used in narco tests/narcosynthesis/narcoanalysis to bypass conscious resistance and unwillingness of the person. This technique does not fall under the category of a therapeutic procedure and instead is considered an illegal torture.

6. A person can get stuck in a hypnotic state

To reiterate, under hypnosis you are consciously alert to a great degree and can enter or exit the hypnotic state any time you desire and allow yourself to be guided through it. A human mind, in any case, is accustomed to naturally going in and coming out of a trance.

Therefore, you cannot get stuck or lose your mind in hypnosis at any stage. Throughout the session, you are in conversation with the therapist and not left on your own. After the session, you have complete recall of the experiences you had during hypnosis.

7. Hypnotherapy can only help cure mental illness

The root cause of every physical, mental or emotional problem is in the sub-conscious or super-conscious mind. With the help of hypnotherapy, a therapist is able to help a client tap into these areas and address the condition completely and successfully.

Hypnotherapy can successfully address and eliminate physical ailments as well. Many well-known medical practitioners are even using it to cure acute and chronic ailments.

8. Hypnotherapy helps dull the effect of pain but doesn’t cure anything

Hypnotherapy not only addresses pain, but also eliminates the problem. It allows access to that area in the mind where all types of conditions are rooted.

Thus, with the help of this therapeutic modality, one can successfully address and eliminate the cause and its manifested physical, mental and emotional effect and not just the pain alone.

9. Only chronic cases require hypnotherapy

The words acute and chronic merely indicate passage of time. Irrespective of how much time the illness has prevailed, it still has its roots in the same place—the sub-conscious. And that’s where hypnotherapy helps you reach. In fact, if you try hypnotherapy when the problem is acute, you’ll be free of it soon.

10. Hypnosis should not be used in cases of severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia

Like in other conditions, the root cause of both schizophrenia and bipolar disorders also lies in the person’s mind. These conditions manifest due to certain causes in the sub-conscious as well as the super-conscious zones.

Medicines are unable to reach these places and only keep the symptoms suppressed. With the help of hypnotherapy and its applied branches, a therapist is able to even tap these areas and release the causes.

Hypnotherapy has been successfully used in treating schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, manic depression and multiple personality syndrome.

11. In a hypnotic state, you become unconscious

In hypnosis, your awareness gets heightened. Since your conscious mind is still wakeful, you are alert and conscious throughout the hypnotic state, and not asleep or unconscious. You are fully conscious of your self, your surroundings and are oriented to people, place and time.

Hypnotherapy has been successful in almost all areas of physical, mental and emotional conditions the world over. It takes into its fold the body and mind of a person and much more.

It is complete in all ways as it goes into the areas of the person’s zone no medical doctor would even consider looking into—the conscious, sub-conscious as well as the super-conscious mind. Now that you know facts about it, approach it with an open mind.

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