FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Facts & Misconceptions
of Hypnosis

Here you will find the answer's to most of your frequently asked questions including the facts and misconceptions about hypnosis.

Even though hypnosis has been widely used for thousands of years it is still shrouded in mystery and false conclusions. These misconceptions about hypnosis often empower a hypnotist, but more often than not, misconceptions put much fear within an individual preventing the person from seeking help. The most prominent issue often found is that of control. Everyone has some amount of fear related to either being in someone else’s control, or losing one’s own self-control. Asking a client about his or her own previous experience with, or knowledge of hypnosis is the most direct manner for a hypnotherapist to learn what he is up against. Once a client’s knowledge of hypnosis is learned then any fears associated can be easily cleared, and knowledge that she has choice in her own hypnotherapy is provided. This offering of new knowledge eliminates further troubles that might arise in the form of some power struggle.

Below are a number of these misconceptions about hypnosis:
a) Hypnosis is caused by The Power Of The Hypnotist.
This belief has grown ever since the beginning of the history of hypnosis. Also known as the “power of mesmerism”, hypnotists have been looked at as powerful magicians. In actuality we all know now that “all hypnosis is self hypnosis”.
In my own experience, I have found that Mr. Charles Tebbetts opening line before any hypnotic induction, clarifies this misconception and provides the information that the client actually holds the power to be hypnotized or not. Mr. Tebbetts suggested opening line before hypnotic induction reads as follows: “Are you ready to be hypnotized? All hypnosis is self hypnosis. If you follow my simple instructions, no power on earth can stop you from being hypnotized. You can resist if you want to, but that is not why you are here. Just follow my simple instructions, and you are about to enjoy a very pleasant, relaxing, experience”. (Roy Hunter, “The Art of Hypnosis, 1994, pg. 76)

b) Loss of Consciousness.
The most common misconception about hypnosis is that the subject is asleep, unconscious, or in a “knocked-out” state. Most lay blame upon the stage hypnotist, but I have also found that others such as Freud can also take responsibility for spreading the widely held notion that hypnosis is a “sleeplike”, or “out-of-this-world” state. Contrary to this strongly held belief, the hypnotic subject will be more awake. All levels of hypnosis, including the deeper stages are characterized by increased attention to the hypnotist’s suggestions, and that this profound level of concentration is achieved and characteristically heightened throughout the deeper levels of hypnosis. The reader might find it of further interest to have a look at our definition of hypnosis page.

c) Surrender of Will.
Another misconception is that the subject “surrenders his will” to the all-powerful hypnotist. Unfortunately, the “Svengali-Trilby” novel, comic strips, and television programs have perpetuated this myth. Since the capacity to be hypnotized is a subjective experience, nothing could be further from the truth. Many patients state, “I always thought that under hypnosis I could be made to do anything against my wishes.”
It is helpful to emphasize that hypnotic subjects are not dominated by the will of the hypnotist; they are fully capable of making decisions at all times.

Within “The Collected Papers of Milton H. Erickson on Hypnosis” Vol. I, (1980), pg. 504 – 530, there are many transcripts of experimental proceedings to test the possible antisocial uses of hypnosis. Experiments involving the physical or mental injury of the self, damage or loss of personal property, the giving of adverse information, the violation of the subject’s moral or conventional codes, the violation of personal privacy, commitment of offenses to property and others, just to name a few.
“To summarize this investigation one may state briefly that a great variety of experimental procedures was employed upon a large number of well-trained hypnotic subjects to induce them, in trance states or in response to commands and suggestions given during trance states, to perform acts of an unconventional, harmful, antisocial, and even criminal nature, these acts to involve aggressions against both the self and others, as well as to permit direct abuse of the hypnotic subject by the hypnotist. Every effort was made to meet the need for control investigations covering the possibilities of waking behavior, for realism in the experimental situation, and for adequate and varied techniques of hypnotic suggestion. The findings disclosed consistently the failure of all experimental measures to induce hypnotic subjects, in response to hypnotic suggestion, to perform act of an objectionable character, even though many of the suggested acts were acceptable to them under circumstances of waking consciousness. Instead of blind, submissive, automatic, unthinking obedience and acquiescence to the hypnotist and the acceptance of carefully given suggestions and commands, the subjects demonstrated a full capacity and ability for self-protection, ready and complete understanding with critical judgment, avoidance, evasion, or complete rejection of commands, resentment and objection to instrumentalization by the hypnotist, and for aggression and retaliation, direct and immediate, against the hypnotist for his objectionable suggestions and commands. In addition, many demonstrated a full capacity to take over control of the hypnotic situation and actually did so by compelling the experimenter to make amends for his unacceptable suggestions.”

d) Only certain kinds of people can be Hypnotized.
Here again, we have a very old misconception. Everyone alive is suggestible to some degree, and that degree of suggestibility is forever changing along with every circumstance of suggestion from the time of day, through the level of rapport with whomever or whatever the suggestion is coming from. Along this same line is one’s level of hypnotizability, it fluctuates. Unfortunately, different studies put out suggest that certain percentages of the population are not hypnotizable of which I know not to be true. Everyone is hypnotizable if he/she wants to be, and every human being enters in and out of trance levels every day.
The one thing that surprises me about all these “scientific hypnotizability tests” is this. I have never heard of a test in which just as many different hypnotists, or at least a number of different hypnotists had been tried with each subject in order to scientifically evaluate how many hypnotists succeed using the same measure with each subject. If such a study were developed, I am sure that most scientific studies would have to be re-written, and that a study of how one presents himself and his language structure would be more at the forefront of scientific study.

e) Anyone who can be hypnotized must be weak-minded.
This belief probably came across from the early days of Mesmer. It seems he most often worked with women and those of little education. Studies have shown that intelligence has no bearing on that of hypnotizability, but therapist's have nonetheless began stating that the more intelligent one is, the easier they can be hypnotized. I agree that one’s intelligence will have something to do with one’s ability to direct their focus of attention which is important for hypnosis, but that’s all. Being strong minded, or overly intelligent also causes one to be over-analytical at times, which hampers trancework, and prevents one from letting go of the conscious thought process in order to reach deeper levels of trance.

f) Once one has been hypnotized, one can no longer resist it.
Firstly, I would have to state that although hypnosis is a natural phenomenon which people experience daily, the ability to consciously decide to enter trance and actually accomplish it is something one learns with practice. Secondly, I must state that one’s belief factor would have a great deal to add to this belief, because if someone truly believes that a certain someone can hypnotize her, then the mere presence of the specific hypnotist could possibly induce trance all on its own. Outside of these facts even with the implementation of a post hypnotic cue to enter hypnosis, the choice to do as such is always in the hands of the subject provided there is an understanding of who holds the power.

g) Being hypnotized can be hazardous to your health.
On the contrary to this misconception, hypnosis is extremely beneficial for everyone, and I do not believe that humanity would have survived without it. What is a known fact is that there are a number of ways to implant suggestions, and these are ever present in society, and any of these hypnotic suggestions, whether direct or indirect hypnotic suggestion are often harmful, such as those directed at the public by alcohol, tobacco, and other consumable industries.

h) One inevitably becomes dependent on the hypnotist.
I am actually surprised that this misconception actually exists as a true fear. The reason for my surprise is because I have never heard of a hypnotherapist being able to retire on the income from a single client although I have heard of many psychotherapists and psychiatrists doing just that.
The common practice within hypnotherapy is to teach our clients self-empowerment, whereas in other fields of therapy it seems the structure of the therapy is more so, to have the client return on a routine basis, for analyzation rather than helping them get better. Freud himself is quoted as stating that his route of therapy is not one for a poor man, but one which will cost thousands of dollars. I guess people just believed that if they must constantly pay through the nose, there must be extreme value. Maybe in order to better our wallets, hypnotherapists should adopt some of the routine psychiatric practices.

i) One can become “stuck" in trance.
Trance is a matter of choice for anyone in such a state, and the choice to remain in or leave, the state of hypnosis always remains with the subject. At times some subjects have refused to come out of the state once requested by the hypnotist, but that is often simply because the state is so enjoyable, so the person does not desire to end it. At times the person might fall asleep, but once the period of rest is over the hypnotic subject will awaken normally.

j) Hypnosis always involves a monotonous ritual of hypnotic induction.
In the old days of mesmeric passes, or that of staring into a watch, this misconception might have been thought of as true. Today we know that everyone does things differently and so different measures are taken for different individuals.
I would have to say that monotony does lead to boredom, which often leads to daydreaming in turn achieving the state of trance, but even strenuous activity has been known to cause a form of trance, including certain phenomenon opften labeled hypnotic phenomena such as amnesia. For instance, quite often when a fighter enters the right, a change of state occurs, and if questioned about his fight afterwards, he doesn’t remember a thing other than walking into the ring.

k) One must be relaxed in order to be in trance.
Relaxation is in essence a part of the hypnotherapeutic process but is not at all necessary for hypnosis. In fact, the suggested recommendation for inducing hypnosis in a subject with some kind of intense pain is having the presumed subject focus on the different aspects of the pain. Beyond that, as I mentioned in “j” above, being in a position of extreme activity often results in a specific trance state.

l) Hypnosis is therapy.
Hypnosis is a tool which can be used for therapy, learning, and all too often amusement. Hypnotherapy, on the other hand, is therapy using the tool of hypnosis which is often used in other therapies under different names such as visualization techniques, or meditation.

m) Hypnosis may be used to accurately recall everything that has happened to you.
Therapists most specifically, and I believe everyone, should have a better understanding of how memory works.
Memory is extremely volatile, and changes with perception, mood, information, and new beliefs, so the reader is referred to our page on hypnosis and false memories. Throughout the nineties, there were many lawsuits filed against therapists due to the creation of false beliefs. Hypnosis is not necessary to create a false memory, only a little knowledge of how memory works is required, the scope of which is beyond that of this briefing, but provide me the question and I will elaborate further.
One can retrieve forgotten, long-term memories, under the relaxed state of hypnosis, but the hypnotist must be very cautious with his language so as not to offer any form of language that might suggest a change in that memory.


So unfortunately due to the lack of public education, or it would probably be more correct to state miseducation, through the media and entertainment industry, misconceptions such as weak-mindedness, the revelation of secrets, fears of not being dehypnotized and so on remain strongly held.

I find it quite humorous also that in hypnosis training seminars and books, that even though it is suggested that the hypnotist educate his clients, it is still recommended that if a client refuses to arise from a deep hypnosis that we should threaten himor her with a hypnotic programming that they would never be able to enter that state again. Leaves a nice catch 22 in the client’s mind – “Can he program my mind?” Only experience will tell, won't it." This threat was suggested in one of my hypnosis trainings, and can also be found in Calvin D. Banyan’s new book “Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy” on pg. 100 under the “Coma threat”.

email: dr_frank@hypnoticadvancements.com

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Dr. Frank Valente Ph.D.(c)
Hypnotic Advancements
3126 McCarthy Court
Mississauga , ON
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© 2004, Dr. Frank Valente Ph.D.(c)

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