Common misconceptions that people have about hypnosis

When you are hypnotised you are not aware of anything that is happening and you won’t remember anything from your hypnosis session.

This is completely false! You are aware of what is happening when in hypnosis and you will remember everything from your hypnosis session. If you remember everything from your session it will be a more successful session!

If you are hypnotised you can be “stuck” in hypnosis.

This misconception is based on the notion that once you are hypnotised, you are no longer in control of yourself. Actually, you can pull yourself out of hypnosis any time you want! And if someone were hypnotised and had the hypnotist just walk away from him he would only stay in hypnosis for a short time. It would be like being left alone to take a short nap. You would awaken and go about your business.

When you are hypnotised you lose control of yourself.

Again, you can pull yourself out of hypnosis any time you want. People stay in hypnosis during a hypnosis session because they want the hypnotist to help them achieve some goal and/or simply because it feels so good! Hypnosis produces a very pleasant, floaty feeling. It’s hard to describe actually, but it feels really nice!

A hypnotist can make you bark like a dog or quack like a duck.

This misconception comes from comedy stage shows that some hypnotists do for entertainment purposes. What you must remember is that the people volunteering for such a show are doing so with the clear understanding that the whole purpose is entertainment.

So they go onto the stage with that mindset. No one on the stage is going up there to become a non-smoker. They know that the whole atmosphere is to make everyone laugh. And with that in mind, they may be made to do some ridiculous things, but no one ever pulls himself out of hypnosis. So the point is: if the hypnotist tells you to quack like a duck and you don’t want to do it, you won’t. It’s that simple.

A hypnotist can make you divulge personal information.

This misconception primarily comes from movies and television. If a hypnotist were to give you the suggestion that you would give him your social security number, you simply wouldn’t do it. You are still in control of your own faculties under hypnosis, and you simply would not follow the suggestion, and in fact, you may likely even pull yourself out of hypnosis!

If you are hypnotised you can go into and out of hypnosis over and over again without realizing it.

No, this just won’t happen. If you want to go into hypnosis, you will go into hypnosis. If you don’t want to, you will not.

A hypnotist can make you do something illegal.

Again, this is another misconception from movies and TV. I remember an old episode of Gunsmoke where a doctor had come into Dodge and hypnotised Festus to load some gold into a wagon so that the doctor could steal it. The reality, however, is that Festus would never do it because it would be against his moral code to do that. No one is going to do anything that is against his own sense of right and wrong, his own moral code, because a hypnotist suggested it.