People have a lot of preconceived notions about Hypnosis.
A popular held myth about hypnosis is that in hypnosis you can be made to do things you don’t want to do. That is completely not true.
You can never be made to do things you don’t want to do, even in hypnosis.
What is Hypnosis
To talk about what can happen, or not happen, in hypnosis, let’s talk about what hypnosis is.
Hypnosis is where someone is in a state of focus, has a certain level of feeling safe and knows what to expect, and is accepting suggestions that they agreed upon before the hypnosis starts.
This is in order to make a change in their life, like quitting smoking.
Think about what is happening when we are watching a movie. We are generally watching a movie that we had some previous knowledge about. We might know what type, or genre it is; a comedy or a thriller or a documentary. We might have heard from a friend or read a review, or saw a trailer and decided that we want to give it a try. We have a certain expectation going in of what type of experience we are in for.
If it’s a good movie we let ourselves get caught up in the story.
We suspend disbelief, and allow ourselves to forget that we are even watching a movie. At some point we could realize that we are actually watching a movie. We are still aware of the plot, but we are not quite as attached to the story, because we now have a bigger awareness of what is actually happening.
When we are involved to the point of forgetting we are watching a movie, we are being hypnotized. When we realize it’s a movie, we have come out of the trance. If after watching what we expected to be a comedy for a number of minutes, and we suddenly realize that it’s a musical, we might come out of the trance, because we were not expecting it to be a musical.
If anything happens in hypnosis that we are not expecting, we come out of the trance and reject the suggestion that is being given to us.
If someone goes to a hypnotist for quitting smoking and instead, during the session, the hypnotist asks them to say what their password is to their bank account, the person will come out of the trance because the suggestion has nothing to do with quitting smoking.
People are awake and conscious during hypnosis.
Let me repeat that one. People are awake and conscious during hypnosis. Again, like watching a movie, people are awake and conscious. They forget that they are watching a movie and get lost in the story, but if a fire broke out in the theater, they would immediately realize that and act accordingly.
Another myth about hypnosis is that only gullible people can be hypnotized.
Which might also mean that if you can be hypnotized, you are somehow being conned. This is also completely false.
Think about anytime you daydream. You are lost in thought. You forget where you are and what you are doing.
This happens quite often when you are driving on a familiar road. Your unconscious mind is driving the car for you while your conscious mind is caught up in that conversation you had with your friend the other day. If a deer runs in front of you, your right foot would hit the brake even before your conscious mind knows what’s happening.
This is commonly referred to as highway hypnosis.
We go into trance all the time and get hypnotized by an interesting thought or radio show, or problem we are trying to solve. We are constantly hypnotized by whatever is grabbing our attention, and we often act upon those thoughts without even consciously thinking about it.
What would happen if we used the power of hypnosis to achieve something that our conscious mind has wanted for a long time but our unconscious mind has been obstructing?
Schedule a free consultation today to discover how hypnosis can help you quit smoking or vaping and create lasting change.
Andrew Rader, LAc, MS
415-488-0201
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