Would you be able to relax if this guy were trying to hypnotize YOU?
So how did hypnosis get such a bad rep? (weird Stage Show Hypnotists aside…)
The unfortunate truth is the main reason hypnosis has had a bad reputation in the past is because of opinion of only ONE rather (in)famous psychiatrist: Dr. Sigmund Freud.
You remember Freud, right? The Doc who theorized about Freudian slips & anal retentiveness while writing articles proposing that cocaine was a cure for many mental and physical problems?
The guy best known for his theories that sexual drives are the basis of all human motivation?
I mean, yeah, sex is powerful. But so is money, love, and contribution to the greater good.
You see, way back in 1885…
Freud tried to use hypnosis on a handful of his “neurotic sexual female” patients.(1) And it didn’t work.
So he gave hypnosis a bad rep (or is that “rap’?) …and started practicing “talk therapy” instead.
I don’t know about you, but the idea of Freud hypnotizing me wouldn’t make me feel comfortable…especially if I were one of his “neurotic sexual” FEMALE clients.
Eeww!
Is it any wonder hypnosis had such a bad reputation?
That was until the 1950′s…
…and the arrival on the psychiatric scene of Dr. Milton Erickson.
Dr. Erickson was a soft spoken man, confined to a wheelchair due to having had polio as a child. And while the combination was probably perfect suited for helping people feel safe enough to relax into a trance. Erickson was also an amazingly talented and tirelessly dedicated therapist.
While working as a psychiatrist Erickson discovered trance states occurred naturally and frequently in people, and so he began exploiting trance states therapeutically to see if he could use them to help clients recover.
And it worked. Really really well.
Milton Erickson also developed many techniques which increased the likelihood that a hypnotic trance state would occur in a person…the same hypnotic techniques that are used today both in my work as well as the work of many (but not all) hypnotherapists.
Now 50+ years later in these even more modern times…
Using modern machines (such as Function MRI) to probe the mysteries of the mind’s workings countless researchers, doctors, and scientists now agree that hypnosis may be the number one most powerful tool you can use to create change in your mind.
Here’s a link to one of many articles published in Scientific America alone in the past few years called “The Truth and Hype About Hypnosis” which leads with the line:
“Though often denigrated as fakery or wishful thinking, hypnosis has been shown to be a real phenomenon with a variety of therapeutic uses.”
Or how about this quote regarding the effectiveness of weight loss hypnosis from The Journal for Nurse Practitioners in 2009:
“Dr. Stephen Gurgevich notes that hypnosis reinforces motivation, self-discipline, and willpower necessary for weight loss. Cautioning that hypnosis is no silver bullet, he claims that the suggestions offered during hypnosis can help people change their behavior and attitudes about eating, physical activity, shopping for food, and restaurant dining. According to Gurgevich, hypnosis can “remove psychological obstacles to weight loss and strengthen the ego, as well as encourage changes in body image, metabolism, and the body’s set point.”
So maybe now in it’s time to set aside Freud’s failed attempts at getting his neurotic sexual female clients to relax for him and put some modern hypnotherapy practices to the test?
Like Dr. David Spiegel, professor of psychiatry, Stanford University, says:
“Even though hypnosis has been controversial since the beginning… the power of trance can no longer be disputed… Now we just have to use it.”
If you haven’t tried hypnosis for yourself maybe now would be a good time to see just how powerfully it may be able to help you create the life you desire?
Curious? Want to try some hypnosis for free? Get access to my free 5-day hypnosis audio e-course “Does Hypnosis Work for Me” when you sign up for blog updates.
It’s free so you can see just how well hypnosis may work for you too.