Hypnosis and its derivative, hypnotherapy, have been the focus of a lot of misconceptions created by layman’s imagination. People either believe them to be falling in the domain of the occult, or don’t consider them to be genuine scientific endeavours. Some of the popular myths associated with hypnosis and the reality behind them are discussed here.
There is no practice of occult involved in hypnosis. Psychology and several other scientific disciplines have an important role to play in the hypnotic method, and it is very simple to imbibe and practice. The authenticity of hypnosis is suspected even by people who have seen it working on subjects. They say that hypnotised people allow practitioners to perform well in their art by not displaying enough mental strength to block the effect of their words. But nothing could be more distant from the truth. Even mentally strong people can fall under the charms of a specialist hypnosis practitioner.
Another myth is that hypnosis is an alternate state of consciousness, which again is a serious misconception. A hypnotized person is fully awake to what is going on around him. That person is just in a relaxed state where the concentration levels are very high and the person can receive new inputs easily.
Some scientific findings have claimed that only about 5% of humanity is capable of being hypnotized, which is the third myth on this list. The researchers are to some extent true in their own way, because they attempted hypnotising their subjects by the same hypnosis method without acknowledging individual differences in nature and disposition. People differ in their natures and personalities, and therefore there have to be different hypnosis techniques to suit the temperaments of different individuals.
People also tend to equate hypnosis to meditation. However, meditation is a purely personal feeling that has got nothing to do with communication, while communication is an integral part of any successful hypnosis. The state of trance is not a hypnotic state either. The individual doesn’t interact to achieve a state of trance, while hypnosis is impossible without communication.
Another misconception is that physical and behavioural changes in an individual are not attainable through hypnosis training or hypnotherapy. Hypnosis certainly cannot alter the body in unnatural ways. But by mentally conditioning a person to abandon addictive habits like eating too much and constant smoking, and by raising one’s inspiration levels, hypnosis can usher in significant physical alterations in an individual and ensure a healthier body.
Hypnosis, and specifically hypnotherapy, can have an important function to play in the well-being of a person, and not giving them a try just because of some misconceptions is a missed opportunity.
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