Letting God Take Control Part 17

[Dawn of Hope]

PH,
I know a bit about hypnosis because two of my friends are certified hypnotherapists and they have hypnotized me a couple of times, and it has definitely helped. I think a lot of people have beliefs about hypnosis that are incorrect; I know I did.

I would say that hypnosis is basically all about helping you get out of your own way. Also, it is my understanding that you cannot be hypnotized to do something that you believe to be fundamentally wrong (such as murder, or whatever), or that you don't really want to do (for example, if a person gets hypnotized to quit smoking, and they are doing it just because someone else wants them to quit, but they really haven't decided for themselves that they truly want to quit, it won't work for them). I know that sometimes when people get hypnotized on stage, they can be made to do things that are kind of embarrassing, but the hypnotist wouldn't be able to get them to do those things if they weren't okay with it on some level. The whole mental rejection thing with hypnosis is sort of like if a person swallows something that the body can't use, digest, or do anything with (like a coin or a marble, for example); the object just gets kicked out of the system after passing through, and the body continues about its business.

As for the belief thing, I would guess that it's possible that some hypnotists out there have some sort of philosophical baggage attached to their practice of hypnosis, but to my knowledge, it's a relatively belief-neutral arena at worst, and again, anything they might say, even while hypnotizing you, that you feel to be fundamentally wrong, your brain will just reject. I think if you deal with someone who is properly certified, you don't have too much to worry about. There are certain things that help hypnosis to work better, like making sure you phrase what you want positively (for example, "I feed my body healthy food" rather than "I don't eat junk food"), but the hypnotherapist will explain all of that. I know that when my friend hypnotized me for the first time, when she was still in training for her certification, we tried to work on (change) too many things about my life in one session, so only one of them really "took" at the time. She learned that it works better if you are more focused, which I'm sure she would have learned at some point during her training regardless.

I was amazed when I learned about all the things hypnosis works on, if a person is suitably motivated to change. I do believe hypnosis can be extremely helpful if you work with someone who knows what they are doing, and it is my impression that the worst-case scenario would be that you don't see any improvement. I doubt it would be harmful in any case. Also, I didn't know until I went through it myself, but when you go farther under hypnosis, it is the most incredibly relaxing experience!!

I learned a self-hypnosis technique from my friends the hypnotists, and it does help me--the first thing I noticed was that I no longer had any trouble falling asleep! (Although that failed me when I was recovering from the bomb, and I didn't sleep for the better part of two weeks...but up to that point, it worked like a charm!)

I'm certainly no expert, but I think hypnosis is a great thing (and no negative side effects, either!), and there are a lot of misconceptions about it, in my opinion.

I hope that helps!

Peace,
Dawn