Myth: Some people cannot be hypnotized.
Facts: You have most likely been in a “trance” many times. If you have ever “lost yourself” in a movie, book or TV show, you have been in a trance. Young children are often “entranced” by their play. All a hypnotist really does is teach you to achieve a trance state when you want. Hypnosis is, however, dependent on cooperation; while anyone CAN be hypnotized, it is always possible to resist hypnosis. No one can hypnotize you against your will.
Myth: Hypnosis is a form of mind-control. The hypnotist can make me do things I don’t want to do.
Facts: A common trope in fiction is the evil hypnotist who forces people to commit crimes, harm themselves, etc. This is frankly silly. If hypnotists really had that kind of power, I suppose we would be running the world — or at least be rich. The hypnotists who seem most skilled at this are the carnival or stage magicians, who “make” people bark like dogs or cluck like chickens. These are essentially stage magicians. What they do is based on misdirection and a high level of suggestibility, but also on a very simple fact. The people who volunteer to go up on stage WANT to do those silly things!
Myth: Certification in hypnosis (or anything else) ensures professional competency.
Facts: If you enter “hypnosis certification” into any Internet search engine, it will return dozens of pages of results. Many of these lead to online training programs, most of which result in some kind of certification. Some are legitimate; many are not. One, for example, Fully Accredited Master Hypnotherapist Course, consists of ONE hour of on-demand video, THREE brief articles, ONE “supplementary resource,” and — of course — a very official looking Certificate of Completion. Though the ad states “This course is aimed at those who are already qualified or have an understanding of Hypnosis & traditional Suggestion Therapy,” it also says “the great thing is that absolutely no pre-requirements are needed before taking this course, other than an internet connection, a pen and paper for your notes.” Wow! For only $23, you, too, can “Market yourself as a Master Hypnotherapist” after only a few hours in front of your computer!
It is also possible to obtain very prestigious sounding credentials, including “board certification” with little or no training or experience. In fact, one doesn’t even have to be human!
Certification is the same as licensure.
Facts: Counselors, Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists and Psychologists are all licensed as professionals in the states or countries in which they practice. They have met stringent standards, including advanced degrees, years of supervised experience, and passage of rigorous examinations. These requirements are established to protect the public from charlatans, and include codes of conduct and Licensing Boards. That means that patients have someone to whom to complain if one of these professionals does them wrong. These boards are empowered to take disciplinary action against licensees, including fines, suspensions and loss of license, but have no authority over unlicensed people — including “lay hypnotherapists.”
None of this is true of certification, which simply means that on a particular day and time, the individual did something. Once that pretty piece of paper has been awarded, it can never be taken back. As you saw above, sometimes the requirements for certification are so minimal as to be silly. In fact, if is not even necessary to be human to earn some lay hypnotherapy certifications!
Myth: Hypnosis is magical, supernatural, demonic, etc.
Facts: This myth is based on the idea that one gives over control to the hypnotist — or to demons or other supernatural entities. As discussed above, the patient retains control throughout a hypnotic session; in fact, it can be argued that the patient has MORE control once he or she has learned the skills of hypnosis. All hypnosis is, after all, SELF-hypnosis!
Myth: It is possible to reliably recover “repressed memories” using hypnosis.
Facts: The mind cannot distinguish between the “real” and the imaginary. Imaging studies have shown that exactly the same parts of the brain “light up” when we look at a real object as when we imagine that object. Most adults also realise that our memories are unreliable. Every time we “re-member” an event, that memory is modified or “contaminated” by everything we have learned and experienced since. It is increasingly well accepted in law-enforcement circles that eyewitness testimony is unreliable for these and other reasons. Simply put, memories can be very useful therapeutically, but memories are not reliable! There is a significant danger that hypnosis might “recover” memories of events that never actually happened, or didn’t happen the way they are remembered. Because of these dangers, I will not use hypnosis in this way.
Myth: Hypnosis can be used to facilitate contact with “spirit guides” or other supernatural figures, or to recover memories of past lives or incarnations.
Facts: These ideas are not amenable to scientific study, because they are not “falsifiable.” That is, they can be neither proven nor disproven. I have the utmost respect for the rights of individuals to believe what they choose to believe, but I do not provide “past life regression therapy” or other practices that might fall under the heading of “new age” or “spiritualism.” It’s not that I’m dismissive of such beliefs; they are just outside my scope of practice as a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor.