Misconceptions about Hypnosis
Sleep:
People believe that hypnosis is a type of sleep because when the client is very relaxed it looks to the untrained observer as if the client is sleeping. As well as misconceptions by the some early hypnotists who thought hypnosis was a special kind of sleep. The word hypnosis actually means nervous sleep
Control:
Many people believe that a hypnotist can control someone’s mind without them being able to resist the hypnotist’s power.
I believe this misconception was started after the book about a fictional character called Svengali in George du Maurier’s 1894 novel Trilby.
If a hypnotherapist could control people they would be the most powerful person in the world.
Relaxation:
Research has shown that relaxation is not needed for someone to go in to a trance state. This is called active alert hypnosis and is another theory about how hypnosis works.
Depth of trance:
In the 1950’s a lot of research was done to asses how people could be hypnotised and why some people could produce certain phenomena and others not.
From this research the conclusion was that at different depths of hypnosis certain phenomena could be produced and that only 20% of the population could reach these levels.
Since then all of the phenomena has been produce at lights state of trance and now most hypnotists believe the depth of hypnosis reach it not like IQ but can be improved with time.
I can’t be hypnotised:
Some people believe that they can be hypnotised but as we have already stated hypnosis Is a natural phenomena which everyone goes in and out of through out the day.
Weak minded:
Some people believe that you have to be weak minded to be hypnotised.
But research shows that the opposite is true and that the best hypnotic subjects are intelligent, imaginative, and creative.
