Hypnosis Questions
Hypnosis is often misunderstood so we’re going to explain some of the misconceptions and answer some of the more frequent questions people ask.
The question asked most often is…
“Does hypnosis really work?”… and the answer is “Yes, it will work if the person being hypnotised really wants it to work.
Don’t try and make changes just because other people are nagging you to. Make them because you can see the benefit for yourself.
Another frequent question is “Can you make me do anything?” because people who have seen stage shows often find it difficult to believe that people can“be made” to do such ridiculous things. Well, they’re not actually being made to do anything. The person on stage is a willing volunteer and could actually stop taking part at any time they wanted to.
The volunteer is simply allowing their creative subconscious mind to just have some fun. We all behave in a way that seems out of character at times. If you’re a parent then you may have pretended to be a train or an animal with your children. It’s great fun playing with children because you can let go of all that grown up stuff and just have fun.
It’s the same with hypnosis.
That creative, fun loving part of your mind that is so often forced to be silent is always there and loves the opportunity to get out and play. Being with children gives you that opportunity and so too does day dreaming and hypnosis.
Another question that concerns a lot of people is “Under hypnosis will I lose control and tell you all my secrets?”… No, you won’t.
You are in control all the time. As stated earlier, a hypnotist can’t make you do anything. Of course it does help if the hypnotist has got an idea of what issue you want to address. The hypnotist does’nt have to know everything about it. Hypnotist’s have helped people to work through unpleasant memories and past experiences without knowing anything about those experiences.
And the amazing thing is that even in those cases the things that seemed so terrible before, suddenly lost their hold and just seemed to go into the past. Now some people have had hypnosis before and it didn’t work for them. If this has been your experience then there could be several reasons for this.
You might not have been in a receptive mood at the time.
You might have been nervous or worried about being hypnotised or maybe you felt uncomfortable with that particular hypnotist.
And that’s why a hypnotist explains what is going to happen beforehand so that clients aren’t spending all their time wondering what’s going to happen next.
Perhaps you weren’t really ready to make the change after all.
So the suggestions given by the hypnotist just weren’t accepted by your mind. Remember that the hypnotist can’t control you so if there’s a part of you that doesn’t want to change then that part has to be addressed first before you can have suggestions for how you would like things to be.
Maybe the environment was distracting. Or maybe the hypnotist didn’t use a technique that was effective for you.
It may happen that in group sessions a few people aren’t hypnotised but individually it is usually successful.
Some people won’t respond to the first technique used but when an alternative technique is used it invariably works.
Here is how one hypnotist puts it…
I remember I met someone at a party who had been told by a hypnotherapist “I can’t hypnotise you” and gave him his money back.
I hypnotised him in about 30 seconds at a busy party with a lot of people around. Quite a difference to your normal expectation of a quiet hypnosis room. One of the things I love to hear is somebody saying “Oh I can’t be hypnotised because I’ve got a strong mind!”. I love strong minded people because it makes my life so much easier.
Hypnosis is all about changing your thoughts and behaviours. If you’re strong minded then once you’ve decided to do things in a particular way you’re going to do it. It’s just a question of tapping into that part of your mind that knows how to do that.
Everyone has some strongly held beliefs, whether it’s a belief that you can do something or that you can’t do something. Both of those beliefs are as strong as each other, they just have a different emphasis. And so in hypnosis what is happening is changing the can’t into a can and changing the parts that are still doing things the way you don’t want them to be done into the way you do want them to be done.
So, if you’re strong minded, that’s great because hypnosis will work really well for you. Remember, it’s not about someone else controlling you. It’s about you using your mind to control yourself.
So, those are a few of the most common questions we have about hypnosis.
Resources…
Motivation Hypnosis
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