Every once in a while I find a hypnosis article full of misinformation. Worse yet, when it comes from someone claiming to be an authority who appears to know little or nothing about how it works or even what the science says. Today is one of those days. So I thought in this edition of Hypnotic News we’d examine one of these articles and I would provide my rebuttal on the Uses & Abuses of Hypnosis
Uses & Abuse of Hypnosis
The Human givens institute is a psychological education and member group. They have their own way of doing therapy. I have no beef with that. However, I do have a beef with the misinformation in this particular article. While I love the field of psychology (I even have a degree in it), I often find that psychologists information and practice of hypnosis is incorrect or flawed in some way.
This post is going to get deep and go into the nitty gritty. The things that can go wrong and I will address why they tend to go wrong. After reading their article I’m very concerned about the nature of the hypnosis they employ with clients. It may just be a dark portrayal of the worst things they have learned or experienced as a group, or it could be that they are missing a piece of the puzzle to really understand what they are doing.
While I have no disolution that hypnosis can be used ineffectively, without integrity, or even unintentionally for harm, their concerns and dark perspective, in many cases, goes against all the experience of our practice as a whole. All my personal experiences with hypnosis as well. And that concerns me which is why I chose to addrss these issues here.
If as hypnotists we do not stand up when misconceptions are bieng laid out by other professions, professionals, or uneducated individuals, then we do our field no service.
Hypnosis As A Tool
HUMAN givens therapists, with good intentions, are no doubt accustomed to viewing hypnosis, however we might term it, as a force for good. Using this procedure can, indeed, lead to powerful therapeutic results but it can also be powerfully harmful, depending upon the ideas absorbed by the person in trance. Therefore, it is important that it is always used judiciously.
I entirely agree with the initial premise. Hypnosis is a powerful tool for change. And it is often used for good. It can be used to harm when the hypnotist is not well trained or if they lack integrity. And the suggestions that we choose in trance are definitely important. These are things where people are capable of making mistakes, but this is a part of the reason why I always advise you choose your hypnotist carefully.
And there are hypnotist who act without integrity. Just as there are others in any field that are not as honest as we would like. Sometimes a hypnotist without ethics will attach this mysticism to what we do. That is not to say that for some people hypnosis and trance cannot be spiritual in nature, but here we are talking about those who make it sound more like magic than a budding field of science.
In many cases this adds to the misconceptions that are currently floating about regarding hypnosis. Despite over 200 years of research. If you look the word up on the internet you get a variety of ntions broadly divided into a ton of different theories. Some implying that hypnosis is sleep, which we know to not be true. While others are more accurate, but still miss key concepts that have been discovered by recent scientific studies.
Definitions Matter
My biggest complaint with this article is the definition of hypnosis it gives us. The Humans Given Institute does not believe that hypnosis is a natural state of consciousness. They define it as an artificial means of accessing the REM state. Though I do agree with their assertion that hypnosis is a process separate from the trance state that it induces. The trance is a phenomena of trance. But hypnosis is not a means of accessing REM. There is no evidence that this is the case.
Nor can we really say that hypnosis itself is an artificial process. What we can say is that it is artificial when it is induced using self hypnosis, audio files, or a hypnotist. But the process itself is naturally occurring. So saying that it is artificial is misleading, to say the least.
It is true that our attention is focused and locked in hypnosis, and that does limit our viewpoint depending on that focus. But I would content that the danger only occurs if that focus is something that would be harmful, which I do not believe any of us would do intentionally. This is a part of the reason why our thoughts positive or negative affect us so deeply. When we focus on things that are bad for us, we harm ourselves, but the opposite is true as well. So it is deifnitely important to make sure that our hypnotic focus is something beneficial and ultimately positive in experience, rather than negative.
Intentionality
Which is part of the reason some individuals need a hypnotist over self hypnosis. Sometimes we cannot see past our conditioned belief systems. That is true. We all have things we are not willing or able to let go of without drastically changing our mindset. In fact, trance (a phenomena of hypnosis) can be induced during any number of activities. We induce trance in ourselves when we get absorbed in a skill, or find our flow, during prayer, sexual activity, reflection, and during strong emotions (to name a few).
It comes down to using hypnosis intentionally for a positive purpose. There will be those that do and those who cannot see that their purpose will harm them. There will also be people, just as with any tool, who use it against others who are susceptible. Again this boils down to reasoning and choosing those you work with carefully.
The Deepest Trance Of All
Another misconception from this famous institute is that the deepest form of trance is dreaming. This is completely untrue. Science currently posits that dreaming is a state in which our unconscious processes information. While we are suggestible in this state the brain scans comparing the two are dramatically different. They have similar phenomenological mechanisms, but are physiologically different. Which makes their premise inherently scientifically incorrect.
They base this on Joe Griffin’s theory of dreams, but this is a logical fallacy. As is their premise that trance is the REM state. They claim that there are physiological similarities, but as you can see from the link above it isn’t actually the case. EEG of those sleeping and in hypnosis are not alike at all. They also claim that the use of guided imagery proves their point, another fallacy. Guided imagery is used in a number of states that do not mimic the brain function seen in scans of trance or sleep.
The actual deepest form of trance is the Esdale state. Which is characterized by incredibly slow response to suggestion. It almost as if the person is encased in molasses with slow, slightly jerky movements. It is not a state we use often.
Confusing Half Truths
A half-truth is just as dangerous as a lie, even if offered with the best of intentions. Unfortunately a great many half-truths are spouted about hypnosis, and practitioners need to be careful not to promulgate them.
-Human Givens Institute
The statement above is completely true. Half truths are dangerous. They misinform us. And it is unfortunate when a group claiming to know the different propagates half truths themselves. The following are a number of half truths the Humans Givens Institute claims non Givens hypnotist perpetuate.
Definition
Hypnosis is an artificial means of accessing the REM state, which can even be done violently by capturing attention with a sudden loud noise or startling movement.
Hypnosis is a naturally occurring state that is not associated with REM as stated above. While it can be artificially induced, it is not an artificial process or related to REM. It bothers me that with all the science proporting otherwise, a psychological institute would perpetuate this not even half truth, but flat out falsehood.
While it is true that hypnosis can be done by violently capturing attention, that does not make it the same as REM.
Safety
It is far from safe. It is an extremely powerful process and anything powerful can be used to do harm as well as good. Some people feel dizzy or uneasy, even after a relaxing session. They may feel psychologically unnerved about being ‘out of control’, particularly if they didn’t like the suggestions that were made to them. The literature is full of unpleasant or even dangerous effects that have been experienced after hypnosis. They include extreme fatigue; antisocial acting out; anxiety; panic attacks; attention deficit; body/self-image distortions; comprehension/concentration loss; confusion; impaired coping skills; delusional thinking; depression; depersonalisation; dizziness; fearfulness; headache; insomnia; irritability; impaired or distorted memory; nausea and vomiting; uncontrolled weeping and many, many more.
Hypnosis is safe. I’ve yet to have anyone have unpleasant side effect from hypnosis. I cannot even imagine what someone would have to do to produce any of these. The only potential issue I have ever encountered is someone being afraid of being out of control. But that is not an unpleasant side effect of hypnosis that is a symptom of something else entirely unrelated. This conflation is both confusing and misleading to me.
Abreactions & Training
Now, ab-reactions are possible, but those are negative reactions to particular suggestions and are incredibly rare. In all our time of practice between the two of us, we can name a handful of instances. This is out of somewhere between 500 and 1000 clients at this point. Which means that it has occurred in less than 1 percent of the people we’ve seen. Nor have we ever let someone leave without fixing whatever caused the reaction.
This to me indicates that the hypnotist may have needed more training. I have never heard of someone coming out of trance and expeiencing depression, depersonalize, fear, vomiting, or uncontrolled weeping from hypnosis. I have had people cry in session, but it was a cathartic healing cry from healing a past trauma and now something detrimental. The point is that this again is a highly misleading distortion of the facts.
Awareness
Sometimes that is the case when someone is in a light trance but very often it is not, and that again parallels with dreaming since we don’t remember most of our dreams. When people go into a deep trance, they often have no memory of what the therapist said. That is not to say that they didn’t register it, but they cannot consciously recall it.
Human givens implies with this statement that awareness only occurs in a light trance, but I’ve had people in Esdale, the deepest form of trance and had them come out fully aware of every suggestion given. Heck, I’ve been put in the Esdale state and remembered the directions given. Generally, someone only has no memory of the suggestions if they have chosen to or have been suggested to have no memory.
In our practice if we are doing deep change work we will give the client the option. Some people choose to not remember specific suggestions and others do. But even with that suggestion, I’ve only had a few ever make the unconscious (or conscious choice) to not remember a particular suggestion. If they are experiencing this phenomena it may be due to poor wording or the way they conducted those particular sessions, because I’ve never had that issue. Or any complaints of that nature. I can definitively say this more false than misleading.
Influence
A hypnotist can influence people to do things against their will.
This one is tricky because it isn’t exactly false, but isn’t exactly true either. Human givens claims that there are a number of hypnotic indicents suggesting that people have succumbed to unwanted influence including hypnotized cashiers handing over money and the like. And while I cannot say that it is impossible, it is highly unlikely and would take a lot of work and time. Something your average robber would not have the time to do in the heat of the moment.
In a suggestible state someone won’t do something they would be morally opposed to. For example, any time you go to the mall and you get conned into talking to a sales person in the middle of the isle, they may be using sales hypnosis. If you are susceptible, you may buy something, but you likely won’t buy it if it isn’t something you might consider buying already. I’m in the fairly highly suggestible category myself and the only time I’ve succumbed was if it was something I was already likely to buy.
Examples
Darren Brown, a UK hypnotist did a few videos on this and had to find the most susceptible candidate to even make it work. Others have made similar claims but as Harvey Zarren was quoted in Fox News theft through hypnosis usually takes place over a period of time or through a religious cult. Not during brief encounters. This may be an attempt for people to save face when they failed to stand up for themselves in this situation. Not hypnosis. Adam Eason (another famous hypnotist) also addresses this in his blog.
Because hypnosis is collaborative. It’s a cognitive skill. You have to actively participate for it to work. It’s not passive. Even in their description, they say it is not passive. For this to be true it would be have to be passive. It’s not done to you or on you. In fact, there are much better (and easier ways) to get people to do things they do not want to do. Most thieves use fear and threats of violence to take money from shops.
Moral Codes
There is no evidence that people can be relied upon not to do things against their own best interests and masses of evidence that they do so all the time. People’s moral codes are as flexible and changeable as the climate.
The truth is that a persons moral code will protect someone from doing things against their will, though not necessarily protect them from doing something against their best self interests. And not everyone’s moral code is flexible or changeable as the climate. We’ve all met that person that cannot be bought or will not change their mind in a given instance. That statement may be true of some people with loose moral codes, but cannot be generalized to the population as a whole.
I feel like this a project or self fulfilling prophecy of the author or hypnotist’s own cognitive limitations. Which is far more likely. If someone believes something to be true their brain will begin to act as it is. This is what causes the negative cognitive patterns that we seek to treat with hypnosis.
Unconscious
The unconscious is very wise
I actually have to somewhat agree with this misconception. The unconscious can be wise, but it is only as wise as it is informed. I know that some hypnotist say this, but I feel that in this case, to some extent, it is being taken out of context. The unconscious mind is often wiser than our conscious mind, but that is because it has more information.
Our unconscious takes in everything we see and hear only providing the conscious mind with what it feels we need at the moment. Sensations that are always there such as the sound of the lights get droned out by other stimuli we actually need to be aware of.
This does not mean that the unconscious is perfect however. It can only work with the information it has. If it’s information is flawed, then its reasoning and solutions will also be flawed. I think of something Richard Bandler often says in his books on NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming) that the map is not the territory.
Let Me Explain
Think back to early maps. At the time, we had no way to topographically survey the world and make a map. Maps were drawn by hand and often imperfect. The information in our minds is similar. A missing piece of information could be just like a missing path on a map. It may be that the person didn’t know that path was there. It may also be that the path was not there when they originally surveyed the area. The same is true of information.
Our brains work with the best information we have at the moment. Part of the hypnotists job is to help the unconscious work with a better data set for better results.
The Dark Side Of Hypnosis
There is a dark side to hypnosis. There are those who take advantage of it. Just like any tool. There are therapist who take advantage of their clients in every field. This is why I spend a good deal of time advocating for our clients and those who read these articles to be very choosy when picking someone to work with in hypnosis. But while some of Human Given’s assertions in this section are partially accurate, they are once again muddied with a lack of understanding of hypnosis itself which only perpetuates more misconception.
Volition
We all need to feel a sense of control over our own lives. And I completely agree that as hypnotist or therapist we should never assume what someone needs. And again I agree that it is imperative that the hypnotist only work on things that the client has clearly asked for before the session. But I fail to see where hypnosis has ever taken a client’s volition away from them unless it were being used unethically.
Our goal is always to give tools so that a client can cope on their own past our sessions. Anyone making a client dependent on them, is acting unethically. Which is more a product of the individual than hypnosis.
Many of these claims are like claiming that tool in and of itself is bad. Which is ridiculous. A weapon is not a weapon without someone to wield it. We would not say a chair is bad if someone sat in it or if they did something violent with it. The problem is with an unethical handler of the skill or tool, not the tool itself. Anyone using hypnosis as clinically taught, should not have this problem. Client or hypnotist.
Muddied Intention
Intention is another reason why it is important to choose your hypnotist carefully. I agree with the sentiment here, but not where they take it. They continue to on say:
Ego can present a particular pitfall for some who use hypnotherapy, as they have discovered that it is easy to put people into trance, whereas, to most people, it seems a mysterious process. They might even have convinced themselves that it requires immense skill and specific shenanigans involving arm levitation and so on, so their egos puff up and that is hugely damaging to patients. (One of the reasons that we encourage practitioners to use the term guided imagery rather than hypnosis is to prevent misconceptions on the part of both therapist and client.)
While I agree Ego and human nature can muddy intent and this should be recognized when looking for a hypnotist, I take offense when they claim that hypnosis done correctly does not involve a good deal of skill. A good hypnotist knows a variety of inductions. They have specific information regarding modalities and how to determine and indivdual’s language patterns. The best hypnotist learn a great deal of NLP and patter. They learn numerous different ways to do the same intervention. There is a lot of inforamtion.
My Concern
I question their use of hypnosis in their practice if they do not realize this. Or have not gone through the effort. Anyone can learn to put someone into hypnosis. But if you look at many hypnotist you will quickly find they often specialize in one or two things. Some may not even take clients outside of those one or two things because they have not learned interventions to do so. A good hypnosis can cover a variety of problems. Just look at our service page (LINK). We have had clients for each of those and had success with them.
Sometimes its similar interventions with different suggestions. Other times its interventions specific to that particular problem. It may be a matter of wording it so that it works within that client’s way of thinking. Hypnosis is easy, the ability to intervene and enact change is not necessarily so. My partner and I continue to seek out training yearly to hone our skills and learn new innovative interventions. It takes time and effort. To demean this is to not understand hypnosis on the whole.
False Memories
I have to agree with this one. A poorly trained hypnotist can definitely create false memories. This is why many schools of hypnosis do not recommend regression therapy as a front line solution. In fact, false memories are a big part of the reason why hypnosis is not admissible in many states as evidence. Extensive training is required to ensure that someone doing regression therapy does not lead the client to an answer that is not real. Leading questions can create false memories even in talk therapy. If a hypnotist suggests doing regression, you should ask what their training is.
Hallucinations & Mental Illness
Positive and negative hallucinations are a phenomenon of hypnosis. And while it is appropriate to use for intervention, it is not appropriate in the case of anyone with certain mental disorders. This is why the National Guild of Hypnotist recommends that you screen for those being treated for Schizophrenia and Bipolar, as well as significant deep seated psychosis and mental illness.
This is why, in our paperwork, we ask about past mental health as well as current medications. And we would not work with someone in this instance without the cooperation of their psychologist or possibly psychiatrist. Someone with these conditions has a more difficult time (especially if they have psychosis) distinguishing reality from the hypnotic state (which is not a dream state despite Human’s claims).
Conditioning
One theory of hypnosis is that it is a quick version of conditioning. This may be true to some extent. But it is not conditioning that can happen without at least some agreement from the unconscious. Which is different from classical conditioning where time breaks down and changes behaviors. Again they conflate hypnosis with the REM state. While both are conducive to learning, again, these are NOT the same state.
I am unsure that I can agree that hypnosis is used by all cults and political leaders. It think it may be more accurate to say that they all innately use NLP, because that is a trait of charismatic leaders. But not necessarily trance. I am sure that some have intentionally done so, but I feel its disingenuous to claim that all do.
There is a danger in hypnosis with an untrained practitioner of using loose language. And it is definitely important to note what role this may play in many misconceptions of hypnosis. I have seen many lay hypnotist give a poor direction only to create a problem.
Example
Let me give you an example. If a lay hypnotist gave something akin to the direction “Enjoy yourself as if you were a teenager.” This may be fine if the individual had a normal childhood with well distinguished boundaries. Not so great if their childhood or teen years contained trauma. Without knowledge of the past history of that person, they could create a bad reaction because they did not do their due diligence and find out that person’s history before giving a suggestion.
Human Givens implies that everything needs to be concrete to be effective without muddying the waters and with emotions that simply isn’t possible. While we must be clear in what we are assisting the client in conditioning within themselves, feelings and emotions are abstract and not concrete by nature.
Transference & Boundaries
This next section implies that hypnosis is the only field that suffers from transference. The process by which boundaries in the client/proffessional relationship become blurred. This is definitely possible, but not just in hypnosis. We see it all the time in psychology. The stories of therapist who fall in love or cross lines with their clients. It is something to be aware of existing, but most hypnotist can retain good ethical boundaries. This almost feels to me like unnecessarily worrying hypnosis participants of something that even in the world outside of hypnosis is not overly common.
Human givens describes it as unwanted telepathy between the client and the hypnotist. I think this goes back to the misconception about hypnosis and mysticism. If that sensation is occurring it is far more likely due to the hypnotist, who will often go into a light trance with the client, noting more information about them due to their increased focus on them. What I highly disagree with here is that this is inherently bad. That recognition makes us better able to help the client reach their goals by noting when something is not working quite how they or we had hoped.
Soul Damage
Human Givens refers to this as damaging a person’s essence. I’ve also heard it be called soul damage by psychologist and mystics within the hypnotic community. It’s the idea that we are tapping into the individual’s unique essence when we do hypnosis. While I do agree we are tapping into one of the deepest parts of a person when we do change work, even as a highly spiritual person, I have trouble with this concept.
Nor can I agree that a normal hypnosis session is a form of trespassing within someone’s souls or essence. Or that repeated hypnosis weakens a person. I have personally found it strengthened my resolve and ability in life to cope and survive. Any instance where the individual has not wanted change, I’ve not gotten them down into that state to enact change. They were highly resistant.
Example 1
I had a client once who was afraid of facing their emotions from childhood and reprieved life trauma. They said they wanted to change, but every time we regressed or intervened their unconscious essentially told us no. We tried several sessions. Ultimately, the individual realized that they were not ready to change or face those things. And what little good we did them, only made them realize how much futher they needed to go before they were ready to face those things. And that’s okay. We don’t have to be ready to face all our inner demons right now. There is a time and a place. A season for all things.
Part of the reason I left psychology was due to this idea that everything can (and should) be fixed right now. While I agree that intervention should be brief, I do not believe that we have the right to assume that everything should be fixed on the therapists schedule, because they think it should be fixed then. We do not all fit in a cookie cutter cure as modern medicine would like us to believe. It takes different treatments for different people.
A Personal Example
Let me give another example, one I don’t share lightly. I was sexually abused as a child by my brother. I went through massive amounts of therapy through the years with people trying to force my hand to deal with it then. Often causing more damage than good. I went through phases where I thought I had made it up. I even managed to block out the memories entirely until one day I had an abreaction to an innocuous induction. You may have heard me tell part of this story before.
Something said in that induction gave my mind the indication that it was finally time for me to deal with that trauma. Yes I had an abreaction to hypnosis. But it was my mind taking an instruction and giving me a signal. It was not an entirely bad thing. It was my cue to finally address what had happened. My mind would not have allowed me access to the memory again if I was not able to handle it. It was not forced out of me before I was ready, as sometimes happens when therapist decide it is time to treat something now, on their time table. To me, that is far more damaging.
Their Anaology
“Think of the mind like a team of wild horses, and rather than controlling them through muscular strength and taking hold of the reins, you ask another to hit them on the head to stun them into a submissive state for a short period of time. Each time another stuns the horses into submission the person loses an amount of their own mental energy. From continued regular sessions of hypnosis from another person, entering into this docile state, instead of gaining power and better control, the mind can become a shapeless powerless mass eventually leading to the mental asylum.”
What I think they are poorly trying to express with this concept of soul damage is that we have to teach someone to cope on their own rather than rely on someone else. With that I agree. One hypnotist I studied under once told the class that it is better to teach a man to fish than to fish for him. That is what we should be doing in practice as well. We should be assisting in learning coping skills rather than fixing everything without their help. I agree with that. I also agree that the careless use of words can damage someone, we have all seen that and felt that.
However, I do find what they are taking about to be very melodramatic. Especially at the end of the passage when they refer to it as psychic murder. As far as I am concerned, regardless of state regulation or anything else, it is my first duty to do no harm. I feel that way about my life. Not just my practice. To leave the world and those around me better off than I left them. Sure you can do what they claim with careless words, but if you are doing real intervention and are trained, that is not how we intervene with hypnosis. All the more reason to check credentials and where someone trained.
Using Hypnosis Effectively
I cannot say that I disagree with much else in the article, aside from their continued use of hypnosis as REM state. Hypnosis does occur in a fashion similar to what they describe. We induce someone into hypnosis, we relax them by getting them into trance. Then we assist them in updating their mental map and guide them to new and better coping skills based on their needs. In many cases, not even needing to know all the details of the events to do so. Hypnosis merely creates a hyper focus on this goal that we have intentionally and mindfully chosen. All the way along letting the client find the solution, only guiding, not taking control. Which may be my only disagreement with their states. Because I don’t feel that effective and well done hypnosis ever takes away control from the client.
First, Do No Harm
This final section I agree with. All of these are things that as hypnotist we need to be concerned about. We need to be aware of. Whether trance work does harm or not depends on many factors including:
- The Integrity of the hypnotist.
- Their sincerity and intelligence.
- Their level of skill.
- The level of mastery they have over language skills, especially metaphor.
- The quality and amount of knowledge they have regarding hypnosis itself, interventions, and psychological knowledge. Not that I think this means that all hypnotist need to have a psychology degree only that they should know their limitations in that knowledge set.
- Ability to put their ego aside.
- Recognition of what the client wants vs. what the hypnotist thinks they need.
- The quality of the suggestions supplied to the subject by the hypnotist.
Hypnosis Vs Psychology
Hypnosis is a powerful tool for change. It is no more dangerous or dark than any other therapy. Ultimately it is a tool. A tool that like any other can be misused. Which is why, again, I advocate that you make sure the hypnotist you work with is an ethical person who is in line with what you want as the client.
Humans Given Institute is not the only institute using hypnosis that gives me pause as to their understanding of the practice as a whole. I find that many schools teaching hypnosis under the heading of a psychology degree do not always cover as much of a variety of interventions and practices as they should. If a clinician really wants to learn hypnosis they need to look to the best practitioners out there. People like Mike Mandel, Mark Cunningham, Melisa Tiers, and others like them. They are the people who really understand what all goes into an hypnotic intervetion.
I would argue that many psychology practitioners I meet who use hypnosis do not use it effectively either. Many of them use PMRs (progressive muscle relaxation) which is the least effective version of induction. Others insist that your entire session needs to be scripted or ran off the same script for each problem, which does not account for individual modality or specified issues that may occur within a session. They advocate for a cookie cutter solution, which as we all know, often does not work for every person every time.
This is a part of the reason research for hypnosis is difficult as well. If you use the same induction, deepener, and intervention on twenty people you may see consistent upticks. But not as consistent as if we tailor a session to each individual.
For more information about hypnosis and how it works, check out All About Hypnosis you epicenter of hypnotic news and information.
