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One day you’re at the mall. A stage has been set up, and a hypnotist is asking for volunteers from the audience. He is going to put on a show. Soon, through the magic of hypnosis, some guy is convinced that he is JFK…“My fellow Americans”…Nice accent! Meanwhile, a woman is busy clucking like a chicken and flapping her elbows back and forth just off the stage. Wow! This is powerful stuff. All you want is some help quitting smoking, so you decide to look the hypnotist up in the yellow pages.
You make an appointment, but it turns out that the only thing this demented hypnotist does is play practical jokes and control your actions. He commands that after leaving your trance, every time you hear a phone ring, you will start singing “Another One Bites the Dust,” just like Freddie Mercury. This turns out to be problematic because you work at a funeral home. Could this nightmare really happen?
No, it is complete fiction that a hypnotist could ever force you to do anything you didn’t really want to do. You never lose your sense of values or safety or sensitivity during hypnosis. It just doesn’t work that way. If the experience is not consensual, then hypnosis cannot actually occur. It is possible (although unlikely) that the people imitating dead presidents and chickens were really under hypnosis and were, therefore, more suggestible. But, participants will never do anything they do not really want to do; they did intend to entertain you.
Hypnosis is nothing mystical or scary or dangerous. It is simply the combination of relaxation and focused attention. During hypnosis, you actually lose yourself in the moment or in an activity or even through seriously observing something. So, lots of activities are actually forms of hypnosis. This includes listening to music, reading, and watching television or movies. Similarly, driving or even mowing the lawn can be considered forms of hypnosis as well.
So, can hypnotism actually help solve peoples’ problems? Well, according to Neal Roese, Ph.D. and Associate Professor in the University of Illinois Department of Psychology, “psychologists use experimental methods to test the effectiveness of different treatments. Whatever ailment you look at, from quitting smoking to depression, there are several vastly more effective treatments available today than hypnosis. The published evidence for the effectiveness of hypnosis is remarkably weak, especially when placed alongside other kinds of treatments.”
Does hypnosis have any value at all? Certainly it does. Just like listening to a certain jazz album can really relax you after a long, stressful day (and may even help rid you of a headache,) hypnosis in any form, can be a valuable treatment for stress. Another valuable treatment for stress is watching hypnotist shows (whether they’re real or staged,) because they’re quite entertaining. I’ll never forget the one I saw as a kid at the mall. The guy really did sound like JFK.
