Hypnosis Myths Debunked

You Can Get Stuck In Hypnosis

No one has ever been stuck in a hypnotic trance before. Even if you were to be hypnotized and the hypnotist dies in the middle of the session, like in the comedy film Office Space, either the commotion would awaken you or you would simply awaken all on your own. Trance is a completely natural state that you enter all the time completely naturally such as when you daydream, get so caught up in a good book that you don’t even realize hours have passed, or when you listen to a song and have to play it back because you missed your favorite part.

Only Weak Minded People Can Be Hypnotized

Hypnosis is about concentration and imagination so the better you are at those skills the better you’ll be at entering hypnosis. All hypnosis is also self-hypnosis so while the hypnotist is the guide or navigator, you are actually the one facilitating the trance. Hypnosis has less to do with intelligence or willpower than it does with the simple ability to follow directions and allow yourself to have the experience. 

You Lose Control

You are in control the entire time. “While most people fear losing control in hypnosis, it is in fact a means of enhancing mind-body control,” Psychiatrist Dr. Spiegel says. Instead of allowing pain, anxiety or other unhelpful states to run the show, hypnosis helps people to exert more control over their thoughts and perceptions. While under hypnosis you are hyper-aware, a state of being in control of your surroundings without consciously thinking about it, which makes it easy to focus on the desired goal of the session and achieve greater results.

You’ll Do Something Crazy Or Reveal All Of Your Secrets

As stated earlier, you are completely in control during hypnosis which means you cannot be hypnotized to do anything you do not want to do or say anything you do not want to say. If you have ever seen a stage hypnosis show then you might have noticed that sometimes a volunteer will not respond to a certain suggestion or even fully come out of trance. That’s most likely because they either didn’t feel comfortable with the suggestion from the hypnotist or they didn’t fully understand it. The only place where hypnosis is all-powerful is Hollywood. 

Hypnosis Is Like Sleep

While hypnosis may look like sleep due to the deep relaxation, it’s actually quite the opposite. During hypnosis, you are completely awake and alert and at no point during hypnosis are you asleep or unconscious. Like we talked about earlier, hypnosis is an increased attention and focus, and it’s this heightened concentration that increases your receptivity to suggestion.