Articles

WHO CAN HYPNOTIZE?

However incomplete our knowledge may be regarding the exact nature of hypnosis, we do know much more about the practical side of the subject.  First there is the question which is often asked:  “Can anyone learn to hypnotize, or is it a special gift?”

Unfortunately popular entertainment and the imagination it produces, has pictured the Hypnotherapist as a Svengali-like person with dark piercing eyes and some mysterious power with which he is able to subject most ordinary people to his will.  The actual truth is, anybody can learn to hypnotize, just as they can learn any other scientific subject; or maybe the scientists didn’t want you to know that.  Everybody can hypnotize someone, and everyone can be hypnotized by somebody.  People often accuse me of hypnotizing my wife, simply because she is 25 years my junior.  Hmmm.

Hypnotism is dubbed a science, but the practice of it is truly an art.  Everybody can learn to play a musical instrument after a fashion, but there are few outstanding performers.  It’s the same way with hypnosis.  It’s easy to gain a slight insight into the subject and then, perhaps hypnotize a few of the more susceptible subjects: but, to use hypnotism safely as it should only be used, demands considerable patience and hypnotic skill, in addition to further exposure to psychological and medical knowledge.

Unfortunately, those subjects who sleep deeply are the easiest to hypnotize and could be thrown into a trance by almost anyone who happens to have even the most elementary knowledge of hypnosis.  These subjects could unfortunately also possibly suffer considerable mental and physical harm in the hands of an enthusiastic amateur hypnotist.  And in this category we must at least consider the professional stage hypnotist as an amateur, because no matter what his ability to hypnotize may be, he usually has no real idea of what to do in a clinical sense; he’s there for entertainment.  When you get right down to it, amateurs and many stage professionals who dabble in the clinical side of Hypnotherapy are a positive menace.  Usually having no real medical or psychological knowledge, they are unable to diagnose physical or mental disease, and content themselves with treating symptoms— which can usually resolve itself by suggesting the disappearance of pain.  Since the the only people they can place into trance deeply and quickly are the easiest and most susceptible, they are sometimes able to achieve apparently great results, while not properly addressing the subject’s problem. 

Pain, however, is often a warning symptom.  A headache, for example, may be simple, due to nerves; or more complex, such as some organic disease like high blood pressure, or kidney disease; or, it may even be a sign of a cerebral tumor.  An amateur could consider the problem solved by removing the pain in the short term, without a necessary referral to a medical doctor.  Hypnosis could remove the pain, but it would be nothing short of criminal to remove the pain and allow the disease to progress unchecked and unsuspected until it killed the subject.

It is this dabbling in medicine without a proper understanding of the subject, which constitutes one of the major dangers of the amateur hypnotist.  And, of course, the current craze for psychology has played right into their hands.  Reading a few cheap and popular books on psychology no more qualifies a person to treat the mind than reading a book on surgery would enable him to perform an operation.

Furthermore, there is no one foolproof method of hypnosis which will suit everybody.  The Hypnotherapist must learn to judge which method will suit the particular client best; and only considerable practical experience will enable the Hypnotherapist to gain this knowledge.  Beware: There are too many “mills”, grinding out Hypnotherapy Certifications without requiring clinical internship and attendant learnings.  The successful Hypnotherapist must have complete confidence in himself, with boundless enthusiasm for his subject, and considerable patience.  A single word, look, tone of voice or gesture is many times sufficient to turn the scale and decide whether hypnosis will be successfully achieved or not.  The Hypnotherapist who wishes to specialize in this work needs considerable talent for invention and improvisation.  Any doubt or mistrust in his own ability will reflect itself in his voice and manner, and will effectively prevent hypnosis.

No two clients are the same.  Some want to be dominated, some like to be coaxed, and others like to think they are doing it all themselves.  In essence, they are: all hypnosis is really self-hypnosis, when laid bare.

Any Hypnotherapist who attempts to work by a rule-of-thumb method in an automatic sort of way will achieve only a small proportion of successes.  Stage hypnotists invariably have a stereotyped technique; but as they deal only with the easiest and most susceptible cases who could be hypnotized by virtually anyone and any method, this doesn’t matter a great deal.  Again, it’s entertainment, after all.  Just keep them on stage.

Hopefully, enough has been said to show that although anyone can pick up a rudimentary knowledge of the theory and technique of hypnosis quite easily and even bring about a few successes, if one wishes to achieve consistently good results in a high proportion of cases, then considerable experience is absolutely necessary.  Unlike massage or electro-therapy, hypnosis is not a suitable science or art to be delegated to the “weekend warrior.”