Myths & Truths About Hypnosis

[Gail Raborn]

MYTHS & TRUTHS ABOUT HYPNOSIS

By Gail Raborn, CHT.

“You’re under my power. When I snap my fingers you’ll flap your arms and cluck like a chicken.” Is this your fear when you think about going to a hypnotherapist? That you’ll be under their power and subject to possibly dangerous or embarrassing suggestions or programming? Then relax. Nothing could be further from the truth, for this is just one of the myths about hypnosis. Stage hypnotists have damaged the credibility of professional hypnotherapists for years through the use of “plants” in the audience or eager volunteers willing to make fools of themselves in order to entertain their friends. The truth is that there’s a part of your subconscious mind that will stop you from accepting suggestions that seem dangerous, foolish, or morally wrong.

What about “The Manchurian Candidate, a movie showing a person supposedly under hypnotic orders to kill the President of the USA when he gets the signal? Sheer balderdash. If you receive a suggestion that violates your ethics or morality while in trance, you’ll simply awaken immediately, and probably get up and leave that unscrupulous hypnotherapists office!

Another myth about hypnosis is that you’re unconscious while in trance. Not true. You’re always aware of where you are and what’s happening, even when you’re deeply exploring your subconscious mind for buried memories, to heal your body, or any other reason. As for the myth that hypnosis is an “unnatural” state: the truth is that we go in and out of trance frequently during the day. It’s totally natural. When you space out and miss a turn during driving, or lose track of time while reading a book or painting a picture, you’re in hypnosis. When you are daydreaming, and lose track of time, you’re in hypnosis.

One of the biggest myths about hypnosis is that your hypnotherapist will solve your problems for you while you lie passively in trance. Actually, hypnotherapy is an interactive process that requires involvement by the client during their hypnotherapy sessions and later, so they can put their new decisions, insights, and knowledge into action. Although it can be faster to resolve your difficulty through hypnotherapy than through traditional forms of counseling or therapy, it’s not a magic pill you can swallow. For complete healing, you have to be committed and involved with your healing process. You must also resolve the root of your problem, not just change the surface symptom (like your smoking habit). Otherwise, your tobacco addiction might disappear only to reemerge as an eating disorder.

But - what exactly is hypnosis? Hypnosis is a state of focused inner awareness that includes deep physical and mental relaxation, connection with the subconscious mind, a heightened state of suggestibility, and a heightened ability to both access and re-live memories. There are different levels of trance, ranging from daydreaming to such deep trance that surgery can be conducted without anesthesia. In all hypnosis sessions, the client is ultimately in charge. In fact, hypnosis is really self-hypnosis, with the hypnotherapist as the skillful guide who knows how to direct you on your inner journey to gain the results you want.

Hypnosis is a powerful tool for healing both physical and emotional problems, since it can take you past your rational understanding to ferret out and heal the underlying causes. Shaman, medicine people and healers of all kinds have used hypnosis for pain and emotional relief for centuries. Even during the Civil War, hypnosis was used during amputations to reduce or even eliminate pain. And in India, in the mid-1800’s, a Scottish physician, Dr. James Esdaile, performed more than 300 major surgeries using only a form of hypnosis for anesthesia. The recovery rate without infection was amazing, much higher than normal.

Medical studies abound that document the healing power of hypnosis. In a 2007 article in the Journal of National Cancer Institute, Dr. Guy H Montgomery (a leading researcher at Mount Sinai School of Medicine) wrote that pre-surgical hypnosis reduced patients’ post-surgical pain, nausea, fatigue and discomfort and shortened their time in surgery. Plus, these patients needed less anesthesia. Another 2007 study in the magazine, “Rehabilitation Psychology”, showed that hypnosis reduced pain in burn victims. A long-term study by the Society of Gastroenterology of the effectiveness of hypnotherapy for Irritable Bowel Syndrome showed that 71% of people treated through hypnosis were free of symptoms.

But there’s more! Dr. J. Stewart of the Mayo Clinic wrote an extensive article in 2005 called “Hypnosis in Contemporary Medicine”. His studies show that hypnosis had benefits in treating high blood pressure, pain relief, eczema, obesity, wound healing, reducing nausea and vomiting in chemotherapy treatments, and reducing symptoms of IBS, fibromyalgia and impotence.

David Quigley, certified hypnotherapist and director of the Alchemy Institute of Hypnosis in Santa Rosa, CA tells the story of healing himself of rheumatoid arthritis in l984 through self-hypnosis; he says he’s been free of symptoms ever since.

Some years ago, I regressed a client to the unknown source of his severe abdominal pain, which he had endured for 20 years following a series of operations. While in trance, he remembered the surgeon saying during his first surgery (while he was fully unconscious) “This pain will never go away,” even though his ulcer had been perfectly repaired surgically. But his subconscious mind believed the doctor, resulting in continuing agony. Upon leaving trance after working with me, and after releasing enormous rage at his surgeon for programming him to be in pain, the pain was totally gone - never to return.

In another case, one of my clients was able to stop smoking after he resolved his hatred of his abusive father. During regression, he realized that when he was thirteen years old, he decided to punish his father through becoming a smoker, which his dad had forbidden. With this awareness, he chose to work to heal his hatred of his father, drop his need for revenge, and finally let go of his smoking habit.

Another client found she was able to stop smoking after facing and healing the pain caused by her mother prostituted her, starting as a small child. It took a lot of work and time for her to face the terrible impact of this emotional wound, yet through hypnotherapy, she did heal.

Through hypnotherapy, I’ve seen chemo patients keep their hair and be free of nausea through hypnotherapy. Recently, I used hypnotherapy to help a cancer patient not only shrink her cancer to nearly nothing, but actually change it from a life-threatening rare cancer to a more benign variety, which negated any need for surgery. But I was just her guide: she did all the work.

At 78 years of age, my mother needed bladder surgery. She was told by her doctor to expect several blood transfusions, for blood loss was usual in this type of surgery, plus expect severe pain post-surgically. And mom was told she’d need to stay five days in the hospital. Yet when her surgeon brought in several students to see her the day after her bladder surgery, he was amazed! For she needed neither blood transfusions nor pain medications, and she was healing so fast she was slated for release that day. When he asked how she could do all this, my mother told him it was because of pre-surgical hypnosis. Her subconscious mind had been programmed to expect freedom from pain and blood loss, and to heal rapidly. Her surgeon’s reply? “I want to hire a hypnotherapist to work in my surgical ward!”

In my own life, I’ve healed myself of a large suspicious tumor on my right ovary, healed from hypothyroidism, and healed my hypertension through self-hypnosis. A disclaimer: hypnotherapy is no guarantee that you will heal perfectly! But it can harness the inner powers of your mind, body and spirit to make your healing and personal growth more rapid, effective, and likely.

If you decide to work with a hypnotherapist, choose a person you both like and trust. Don’t choose on the basis of reputation alone. Ask lots of questions before you make an appointment. Be sure this hypnotherapist is well trained with years of experience, and that they have a history of success working with the kinds of challenges you’re facing. If you need to heal emotional issues, choose a hypnotherapist who’s also trained as a counselor. Then enjoy the journey! For hypnotherapy can take you inside yourself to realms you never dreamed existed.

Gail Raborn CHT. Through my own brushes with death, major illness, suicidal feelings, deepest depression, crippling fear and great losses I’ve grown into a catalyst for helping others heal and grow. As a “Wounded Healer”, I pass on the wisdom, growth and healing I've experienced to my students and clients, plus many self-healing tools.

My training integrates medical and clinical hypnotherapy, Shamanic work, intuition, Interactive Guided Imagery, regression and past life therapies, spiritual guidance, Energy Medicine and Voice Dialogue.

My specialty is guiding healing from major illness, especially cancer. I’m offering six free sessions for cancer patients now.
You can work with me by telephone or in my office. Do call: no one turned away for lack of funds.

707-827-3615 www.telehealing.com [email protected]