Is Hypnosis Safe?
One might feel a little hesitant about hypnosis, especially with rumors or stories involving the use of hypnosis to do petty crimes such as theft or as a source of entertainment as performed by stage hypnotists. Others also fear that they might not be able to rouse back from the “deep-sleep” they are in. There are also those who fear that hypnosis might have long-term effect on them. These are a few reasons why people doubt the safeness of using hypnosis for clinical use.
Hypnosis had been used by psychologist and hypnotist for almost 200 years. And within this span of time, there had been no reported cases of long-term effect or injuries from the use of it.
During hypnosis, a person is being put in a trance-like state or a very deep sleep,” as most people associate it, wherein his subconscious mind is awakened. Though a person may be in “deep sleep” during hypnosis, he will always be conscious. The hypnotist will merely re-focus a person’s attention more on the feeling of relaxation and calmness, and the thoughts that he would like to instill in that person. And if in the middle of the session, the hypnotist pauses for a while, one must not fear that he might not be able to wake up from the hypnotic stage. What will happen is either he will wake-up or he will just fall asleep since the patient is already in that calm and relaxed state similar to what we feel just before we hit the sheets! Also, the patient will ALWAYS be in control. The hypnotist only feeds the patient with thoughts or ideas where he needs to absorb and focus on, and guides him throughout the process.
Since the patient is ALWAYS in control, one cannot be hypnotized against his will. Similarly, one will not do anything against his will while in a hypnotic stage. Though in a trance-like state and the hypnotist feeding the patient with thoughts and ideas, our mind still has a “filter” or a “conscience” wherein it still acts to what you feel is right or wrong. For instance, if a patient is asked to kill someone which he knows is wrong and is against his will, he will not do it no matter what the hypnotist tells him. Besides, doctor or medical practitioners would not do such. So it would also be best to go to a trained and professional hypnotist if one is planning to do hypnotherapy.
So as long as there will not be anyone who will use hypnosis to abuse others and cause distress, hypnosis will serve its purpose in medicine and self-development.
