COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT HYPNOSIS

Public exhibitions by stage hypnotists and the portrayal of hypnosis in the entertainment and media industries have contributed to wide misunderstanding of the true nature of hypnosis.  The following section will address some of the more widely held misconceptions:
 

“Hypnosis is a state in which an individual is asleep or unconscious.”

This is the most common misconception about hypnosis.  A person under hypnosis never loses his or her full sense of awareness or falls asleep.  Rather, he or she is more fully awake.  Hypnosis is characterized by increased attention, and it is this heightened concentration that facilitates receptivity to suggestion. 

Along these lines, there is no such thing as a "hypnotized feeling" so the client doesn’t actually feel hypnotized at all.  In fact, what is most likely is a feeling of deep calmness and relaxation.
 

“A person can be made to do things he or she does not want to do while under hypnosis.”

Most stage hypnotists are skilled at creating the illusion that they possess a magical and mysterious power over other people.  There is, in fact, no such thing as a hypnotist’s "power."  The only control the hypnotist has over the client is the control the client allows the hypnotist to have.  A person in hypnosis is fully capable of making decisions at all times and cannot be made to do anything that he or she would find objectionable.
 

“Only weak-minded and gullible people can be hypnotized.”

Susceptibility to hypnosis should not be confused with gullibility.  There is no known correlation between weak-mindedness or low intelligence and the ability to be hypnotized.  In fact, studies suggest that intelligent individuals make the best subjects.
 

“A person under hypnosis might reveal his or her deepest secrets.”

The psychological law of self-preservation that keeps a person from revealing intimate material in his or her waking state is also operative under hypnosis.  A hypnotized person does not lose control or reveal personal secrets unless he or she wishes to do so.
 

“The client will not remember anything that happened to him or her while under hypnosis.”

Actually, a client will be aware of everything while hypnotized and afterward, unless specific amnesia is suggested for a therapeutic purpose.

“A person can get stuck in a trance forever.”

This is really quite impossible.  Hypnosis is a natural and normal state that every person enters and exits throughout each day.  The task of the hypnotherapist is to guide that inherent process and use it for therapeutic gain.  Hypnosis is induced by the client’s own convictions, and he or she can be dehypnotized in a split second, if necessary.
 

“Hypnosis is contradictory to religion.”

Some people may have bought into the image of the “evil hypnotist” who is out to control people’s minds against their wills, but this is just an image perpetuated by the entertainment industry and has no scientific basis in fact.

The only major religious groups objecting to hypnosis are the Christian Scientists and the Seventh-Day Adventists. Pope Pius XII approved clinical hypnosis as a valid tool for healing in 1956. Most religious objections are based on the idea that hypnosis deprives humans of freedom of the will.  This is an outdated view of hypnosis formed when hypnotic phenomena were still in their earliest stages of understanding.  Today we know that hypnosis is not surrender of the will at all.
 

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