Myths of Hypnosis
Hypnosis is Caused by the Power of the Hypnotist
The hypnotist will use his or her communication and rapport building skills, making it more likely that you will accept guidance through a suggested experience, but only to the degree that you permit it. The hypnotist may direct your experience but this is, again, due to willingness and consent on your part. It is clearly a relationship of mutual responsiveness.
Only Certain Kinds of People Can Be Hypnotized
In practice, there are definitely some people more difficult to induce hypnosis in than others, but this does not mean that they are less capable of being hypnotized. It merely indicates their resistance for one of many possible reasons, (e.g., fear of losing control, difficulty in distinguishing internal states such as relaxation or tension, negative situational factors, fear of change, etc.) Once the nature of the resistance is identified and resolved, the person can become able to experience hypnosis satisfactorily.
Once You Have Been Hypnotized, You Can No Longer Resist It
This is, of course, not true. If you choose not to go into hypnosis, for whatever reason, then you will not. Prior experience with hypnosis, good or bad, is not the sole determining factor of whether hypnosis is accomplished or not. Even the most responsive subjects can refuse to follow the suggestion of a hypnotist if they choose to.
You Can be Hypnotized to Say or Do Something Against Your Will
Since you retain ultimate control of yourself, it is not possible to hypnotize you to do something against your values and beliefs. For example, if you do not already have anti-social behavior traits, it is not possible to induce antisocial behavior in hypnosis. It is true that brainwashing and other untoward influences exist. However, the conditions necessary to effect such a powerful influence do not typically surface in the therapeutic context, nor are those conditions in and of themselves hypnosis, and they are quite far removed from the ethical and sensitive applications of hypnosis promoted in hypnotherapy.
Hypnosis is a state of focused attention, either inwardly or outwardly directed. You can initiate or terminate the experience any time you choose and you are in complete control.
You Must Be Relaxed in Order to Be in Hypnosis
Since hypnosis is a state of concentrated attention, you can be anxious, even in deep suspense, and still be focused. Thus, physical relaxation is not a necessary prerequisite for hypnosis to occur.
You Are Asleep or Unconscious When in Hypnosis
Hypnosis is not sleep! Although physically there is decreased activity, muscle relaxation, slowed breathing, etc., you are relaxed yet alert mentally, with a level of awareness of what is going on around you. Even in deep hypnosis you remain aware of external reality to some degree.
Hypnosis May Be Used to Accurately Recall Everything That Has Ever Happened to You
The mind does not simply take in experience and store it in exact form for accurate recall later. In fact, memories are stored on the basis of perceptions; therefore, they are subject to many of the same distortions as perceptions. People can remember things that did not actually happen, they can remember selected fragments of an experience, and they can take bits and pieces of multiple memories and combine them into one false memory.
Hypnotized Persons Will Tell Secrets or Will Always Tell the Truth
Hypnosis will not compel a person to tell secrets or share any other information that they do not want to share. Persons under hypnosis can lie purposefully or recall information in a distorted manner as noted above.
Hypnosis is a Satanic Practice
Hypnosis and trance are perfectly natural occurrences and are neither good nor bad in and of themselves.
Hypnosis Will Not Work on Highly Intelligent Persons:
Innate characteristics of people, such as intelligence, do not have any effect on the ability of a person to be hypnotized. Any person can resist being hypnotized on demand, either actively or passively, regardless of their intellectual capacity.
Hypnosis is a Therapy
Hypnosis is not, in and of itself, a therapy. It is a specific state of mind which, to be useful in personal change, must be used within a psychotherapeutic context.
