Misconceptions about Hypnosis

Hello, it’s Dan here. I hope you’re good today. And today I just want to say a few words about misconceptions around hypnosis. There still is an element of society that still thinks that hypnosis involves being controlled in some way, being zapped, Kapow! by some hypnotist to make changes that you might not be aware of, and you might not know what’s going on, and you’re being controlled, and the hypnotist is all powerful, lightning bolts come from their fingers and all that kind of stuff, it’s talking to some strange thing called the unconscious mind, and you’re not going to know what’s going on, it’s all going to be weird, and magical and trancy and all that kind of stuff.

All that stuff I’ve just mentioned is complete nonsense, not part of hypnosis in any way or any form. Pretty much all that stuff, and it’s perpetuated in the media, it still goes on in films, the number of times I’ve cringed watching some drama that started quite well and suddenly they introduce a hypnotist and a whole load of nonsense happens essentially. Most of those things I’ve just mentioned as misconceptions probably go back to the time of Mesmer, and mesmerism and animal magnetism and all those kinds of things which very much did involve the power of the mesmerist doing something to someone, making something happen, being all powerful, controlling the other person and elements around that. But certainly hypnosis was set up, or recognised, by James Braid in opposition to that, it was set up as a separate thing to separate it from mesmerism based along normal, ordinary psychological processes.

There’s been some confusion along the way because we get this thing called the unconscious mind, can’t find it in any anatomy book, but apparently it goes on there. But we do do things non-consciously, we do things seemingly unconsciously in the sense that we have patterns and habits and stuff that we find difficult to just change because of how our minds work. There is no thing as the unconscious mind. We want to aim to help you to be in control of the kind of stuff going on in your mind. We want to use ordinary psychological processes and certainly we want you to be active in that, to be mentally active, to make stuff happen in your own life, to take control of the kinds of thoughts you’re thinking about, whether anxiousness, stressful stuff, those other things, we want to help you, and job’s to help you to be able to take control over what you’re doing inside of your own head so you’re not controlled by all the unwanted things, and you’re in control and doing the kind of stuff the you want to be doing.

That means you’re in control, that means I’m just aiding you to do that, that means you know what’s going on, that means you can put things in place, both when we’re doing hypnosis and in sessions, but afterwards as well. You have those skills, you develop them and you can use them for ever more if you want to. So we really want to put you back in control, but really it’s important to bear in mind it’s normal psychological stuff, beliefs, thoughts, expectations, the kind of things you think to yourself, the kind of stuff you imagine, the kind of things that you anticipate and expect to happen, your beliefs, how you perceive yourself, how you perceive the world, all those things you’re using in every aspect of your life, we’re just harnessing that, directing it, moving it towards a goal and  getting you to where you want to be but certainly there’s no element of being controlled in any way, of being zapped, there’s no element of me climbing inside your head and having a play around while you’re oblivious to what’s going on, or afterwards just wondering what happened there.

You know what’s going on, you want to be engaged in it, you want to take control, view it as a positive thing, you want to develop those capabilities, to invest time, effort, your imagination, your thoughts, your focus, your expectations into achieving the goals that you want to achieve for you. So that’s where hypnosis comes in, all those old misconceptions, honestly, ditch them, ditch them, let’s ditch them now. And let’s move forward and use this psychological tool. I’ve got countless testimonials from people, and people haven’t written testimonials, clients I’ve worked with, people I’ve helped, people in research, people around the world have found that benefit but, of course,  there are people who are stopped by those misconceptions that, like I say, date back to Mesmer and were largely debunked then, but somehow endured.

Hypnosis was set up in opposition to it to use normal psychological processes and to achieve similar, or even better, results without needing all that kind of mystical, being controlled kind of stuff around it. So if you are struggling with anxiety, or you want more confidence, or there are things going on in your thoughts, your feelings, your behaviours that you are not happy with right now, then certainly hypnosis can help you with that. Certainly, get in touch, let’s have a chat and you can make a decision from there. I’ll try to get full sentences out when we meet.

Until then, please keep in mind that stuff is just nonsense, please keep in mind we’re talking about normal psychological stuff, powerful stuff, useful stuff, but you’re in control, you direct the stuff, you decide what you want, you have that awareness, without your mental engagement nothing happens. So keep that in mind. Please if you’re struggling with mental health issues, find help, talk to people, put things in place, make changes, and find yourself feeling happier and feeling better. That’s all I want for my clients. Hope you have a wonderful rest of the day and I will speak to you very soon.  You take care now.