Snap Hypnosis (article) by DrFahey PhD on AuthorsDen

Can you be hypnotized to do something against your will? No! Can you be hypnotized against your knowledge? Yes! You owe it to yourself to discover the difference and to experience hypnosis.

I have been for a moment today thinking back on all things nostalgic. Once upon a time, nearly 50 years ago I became a hypnosis teacher. Like being in a trance, much time has somehow instantly vanished and still the topic of hypnosis remains a mystery for so many, and for some the work of the devil. I marvel at how even with these small timeless persistent distractions I survived teaching hypnosis to surgeons and other medical doctors, chiropractors, psychologists, nurses, lawyers, accountants, business owners and many other professionals at all levels of training without one incidence of unhelpfulness. My hypnosis teachings, lectures, demonstrations and training workshops always did include and continues to consist of knowledge on how to safely and correctly apply hypnosis and how to use hypnosis to keep fit. Whenever I was doing my hypnosis work, I was always calmly aware of what was going on around me. Similar to having another channel on TV, I witnessed and sometimes even had the pleasure of experiencing a few strongly held considerations and opinions of what others thought about hypnosis. If fact, one memorable moment was when I was told by a person of faith that God did not want me to teach hypnosis, and that because I had been doing it for some time, there was no hope for me, I was going straight to hell. The only comeback I could offer was to say to the caller that according to her, my faith was airtight and all because God must have forgotten to tell me not to become a hypnosis teacher.

What I enjoy most about being a hypnosis teacher is being able to help others live a more positive and blissful life. For nearly five decades, thank you cards, letters and now because of the internet, I get email messages daily from old and new clients. Yes, I continue my work and even as I write these words, my attention has been positively diverted a couple of times by several LinkedIn and Facebook chat messages from soon-to-be clients who want me to teach hypnosis to them. Before I respond, I want to let you know something.

After much time has gone by, I do have what you might call a knowing about hypnosis. That is, I know hypnosis heals the mind, body, and spirit because I have personally experienced it. And with this "knowing," comes a kind of wisdom no one can take away. I also know that regardless of the intense research and study completed on hypnosis, discussions will continue about whether hypnosis works, if we all can be hypnotized, and no matter what light shines on the evidence there will always be someone who will claim the entire hypnotic frame of mind and experience boils down to one thing - being fake. Why is this? Perhaps because of certain misunderstandings about hypnosis that includes the hypnotist being in control of someone’s mind, or perhaps it is fear of the unknown, or because of being involved in a hypnosis process without knowing exactly what hypnosis is and how hypnosis works. Yet, I can easily see all this slowly changing and with positive acceptance.

A newly performed search on LinkedIn after typing in the word hypnosis produced immediately over 42,000 results. On Google, 29,800,000. Naturally, the growing interest in hypnosis continues. Even so, what will most likely stay for years to come is a concern on how to properly explain hypnosis, and with this dilemma an endless stream of creative bits and pieces of information about hypnosis by people with a voice driven by religion, experience or education to define hypnosis – that is in a way they see how it should be described, prescribed, applied, or not. A common question beyond its definition for the believers who think hypnosis works is will hypnosis work for them?

In my opinion, hypnosis will work for anyone. I am aware of the research that tells us there is a certain percentage of people who are refractory to hypnosis. That is, who will not go into hypnosis, but that is because of the client’s reasons. Think about that for a moment. You see, I have never had a problem hypnotizing anyone in nearly 50 years. However, I have seen other hypnotists have difficulties hypnotizing people and from experience, I would have to confess that after all this time in practice, I am convinced that in certain cases the more ready a person is to change something in their life, the better chance hypnosis will work for them. There are other important factors to consider when questioning whether hypnosis will work for you. Let me explain.

I once had a client who came to see me about being able to stop smoking through hypnosis. As he introduced himself he said, “Oh, by the way, I should let you know, I have already been to see 9 other hypnotists.” I became suddenly silent. Then, the client said something I have never forgotten. He said, “I believe hypnosis works. I just haven’t found the right hypnotist to help me.” This was a valuable lesson as there has to be a good rapport between the hypnotist and client for hypnosis to work. Getting hypnotized by a hypnotist is about having good communication skills and a solid collaborative agreement between two parties. I call this the rapport x-factor in hypnosis.

This relationship x-factor helps make hypnosis work, or not and reminds me of another client who I had seen for a number of sessions when on one occasion I did not have time to change into my business suit. I immediately tried giving an apology for my appearance when the client raised her right hand up high signaling me to stopped talking saying with a strong voice tone, “Dr. Fahey, I really don’t care about your background, education, what you call yourself, or how you look. What matters to me is whether you and I get along here. Otherwise, I won’t stay.” Well, right then and there I learned a good lesson in doctor client bedside manners. And she was absolutely right. Again, I do agree that getting along helps make hypnosis work. Do you know that some people will only allow a woman to hypnotize them? Others must have a certain look about them, or educational degree, or according to the client, the hypnotist must have had a similar experience they are going through before they allow themselves to be helped through hypnosis. Then, there are less fascinating reasons a person selects a certain hypnotist.

Do you believe it? I had a client that came to see me only because of my last name. “Fahey, right? You must be Irish” the client said. “That’s what I am looking for in a hypnotist.” True story. As you can see, being hypnotized by the right hypnotist can be complicated. In fact, if you, the reader of this report already have an education about hypnosis, by now you may be thinking before some of these people see a hypnotist, they must be in some way already be hypnotized. And you would be right. Here is one more personal experience about defining the question of whether hypnosis works or better yet, will work for you.

First, keep in mind I still get asked is hypnosis real? To help better relate to the workings of hypnosis, I include things we all experience and use every day that no one can define or prove. Hypnosis is a special mindset, but one that is similar to when we daydream. In fact, daydreaming can be considered a form of hypnosis. You may agree that we all sort of go with the flow in a daydream. When you daydream, you know you are not asleep and if someone were to call out your name, you may not hear it the first time, but you do the second. When you are done daydreaming, you may not remember everything that went through your mind, but you can certainly recall the gist of it. Welcome to what it is like to be in a partial realm of hypnosis. Now when you are in hypnosis, you would hear your name the first time it was called out and not only that, be able to recall a lot more.

Have you ever caught yourself while driving long unbroken stretches of highway, going into a sort of deeper trance similar to daydreaming? We all do it. I have and once my mind was so deep in thought that if you were to ever ask if I remember a certain part of the driving trip, I would have to say sorry I have no idea. That is, I was not fully paying attention to just the road. I was thinking of other things. However, would this be accurate? Not really because when a person goes into even a light stage of hypnosis, the five senses: smell, taste, hearing, touch and sight increase almost a thousand percent. Perhaps this is why you can at times be in deep thought and yet travel at upwards of 70 miles per hour, while still listening to the radio. Maybe when this happens you are in a kind of super subconscious hypnotic state of mind.

The next case in point will hopefully make you see only the positive beneficial side of hypnosis. Being in hypnosis is similar to being in love. That’s right. Think about it for a moment. People in love become memorized by the sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, of someone or something. I think you will agree with me that the feelings of love are real and undeniable. However, just as it is hard to define what hypnosis is, you cannot define love. No one can. You cannot prove your love for someone. You can certainly try to prove your love by telling others how you feel about them, but of course, there is a slight chance you could be lying. There is also this notion that people can prove love by what they do. That is by telling how much they show their love by doing things. Still, people do lots of things for lots of reasons. What it all comes down to is a “knowing.” You just know you love someone or something. I remember when I was young and learning about new things, I had on occasion the confidence to ask how I would know when I was in love. The same response came from everyone. “Oh, you will know.” All I could think about was, what will I know? The point is when your mind and body moved to a special place and you have an experience, you develop an irrefutable personal “knowing” about love, or you know you are daydreaming, and this also happens when you allow yourself to go into hypnosis. Everyone experiences love differently. Everyone experiences daydreaming differently. Everyone experiences hypnosis differently and depending on many factors each person will express their differences.

Proving hypnosis is real can be difficult and no different than trying to prove you had a dream. Imagine this. All people dream at least three to five dreams every night. We usually remember the last one. Now, I have noticed some people who tell a story about how they never remember their dreams, but that does not mean they do not have them. They do, and more important they have to dream or else a number of psychological issues would take place. We all remember having a dream with some recalling recurring dreams and even nightmares that seem so real that some chance telling others about them. However, can you prove it? That is, you really had the dream? Nope. Now imagine telling someone you had a dream and they labeled you a faker. What would you do? This happens a lot who experience hypnosis and when they try to tell others about their experience. So many don’t bother. Some do and get happy positive feedback.

Today, when I ponder how hard defining hypnosis is, I also think about how no one still has any idea what electricity is, and yet we know how to positively use it for useful purposes.

Similar to people today still trying to define electricity, that they had a dream, or have feelings of love for someone, I believe one hundred years from now many will still be asking what hypnosis is, does it work, and will it work for them. After all this time of teaching hypnosis, there is still a large population who continue to have little or no idea about what hypnosis is, how it works and yet cast their vote trying to influence what others think, say, and do about hypnosis. Of course, by doing so, believe it or not, they are practicing hypnosis.

So I am convinced in my lifetime, there will always be those who think of hypnosis as fake, a scam, is for only the weak minded, impressionable, and call it pseudoscience. Yes. There seems to always be in place a new generation who continue to automatically accept old ideas and traditions, and sometimes when having no hypnosis experience, or idea about what hypnosis is, its practical applications and benefits dismiss its potential benefits to experience positive human energy management.

Thus, because life is short, I make real certain any new client is more than ready to invest in themselves and my time. Finally, let me say if you have even the smallest doubt about hypnosis, or that it is possibly fake, does not work, is not real, or prefer to seek hypnotic guarantees, please do yourself a favor and do not apply for any hypnosis work. At least until you get more wisdom about the science of hypnosis. Why? We all know that nothing in medicine works a 100 percent of the time, and this is also true with everything in life including hypnosis. For example, many people risk thinking if they seek out a counselor, psychologist, or marriage counselor, doctor or nurse practitioner, or chiropractor for help that everything will be made perfect again. And yet, because of individual differences, client commitment and participation result various from person to person. This fact holds true with all other helping and healing agents. Your thoughts alone make much of life what it is, and this is so true regardless of any type of help given including through hypnosis. Hypnosis can be something great, but you help make it so. Try it, and experience hypnosis for yourself. Make up your own mind and live to be 100.

I also wrote:

Credentials: Robert Fahey, Ph.D. is a highly internationally recognized educational training and human performance management specialist, evidential spirit mediumship researcher, author, speaker, and presenter who also has more than 45 years of experience as a professional counselor and wellness life coach. He helps people and companies improve decision-making processes using behavioral approaches and focused intuition. His new free report is about reducing stress in relationships and in the workplace: Making a Good Life Great.

PRODUCERS: Dr. Fahey can quickly give psychic answers to psychic questions

AVAILABILITY: New England, South Florida, and nationwide by arrangement and via telephone; available for last minute lectures and interviews

CONTACT: Dr. Fahey 239.244.1262 (MA/FL) USA

Check out my free hypnosis book of personal and professional advice, Making a Good Life Great. (PDF version here).