Top 10 Weird Facts with Hypnosis

Number One:

You can accidentally create FAKE memories and not just retrieve repressed ones

Hypnosis has been used to retrieve repressed memories, but it also runs the risk of fabricating memories inside the patient's mind. That is why using hypnosis on patients with mental dissociative orders is severely frowned upon.

According to this New York Times article from 1997, An Ohio State University Psychologist, Dr. Joseph Green, conducted a study. 48 Students who were susceptible to hypnosis were divided into two groups.

Ahead of hypnosis, 32 of them were warned that hypnosis could lead to false memories, the remaining 16 were not given this warning at all. The result showed that while not bulletproof, giving a mental conscious warning that your subconscious can fool you into having a fake memory does some preventative management.

Number Two:

It was not always recognized as a form of medical treatment

It wasn’t until 1892 that the British Medical Association formally recognized Hypnosis as a form of medical treatment. The treatments were reasonably limited to aiding in pain, sleep disorders, and "functional symptoms."

It took the American Medical Association over 50 years later to also formally recognize it in 1958.

Number Three:

It's over 4,000 years old

Methods of Hypnosis date back as far as 4000 years ago. Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome all explored the benefits of medical healing through hypnosis. These were done in places called “Sleep Temples”.

Patients had to be worthy to enter such temples by mentally preparing through purification and rituals. Priests and priestesses after placing the patient into a trance, would then interpret their dreams, or spiritually guide them to seek “God” to be healed. The phenomenon of Sleep Temples reached as far out as the UK, as in 1928 one was found and excavated.

Number Four:

Work of the Devil... well... until 1847 anyway

The Roman Catholic church recognized that hypnosis was a natural part of the body and not the work of the Devil in 1847.

A decree from the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office gave a statement:

Having removed all misconceptions, foretelling of the future, explicit or implicit invocation of the devil, the use of hypnosis is indeed merely an act of making use of physical media that are otherwise licit and hence it is not morally forbidden provided it does not tend toward an illicit end or toward anything depraved.

Number Five:

You can find Hypnosis weight loss videos on YouTube right now.

As strange as it may seem, these videos get hundreds of thousands of views a year across the internet. Hey, we don't judge if you give it a shot.

Number Six:

You experience hypnosis on you're own by accident - ALL THE TIME

You experience hypnosis at least two times every day! Hypnosis is NOT sleeping. You're very much awake. It’s a relaxed state of mind, allowing your subconscious to take over. Daydreaming almost.

We experience it during repetitive things like watching TV, going for a run, even during driving occasionally. Ever pass a stoplight on a drive home, but you literally cannot remember passing it as a memory... you've slipped into Hypnosis mode.

Number Seven:

Hypnosis will never make you do anything you would never do

Hypnosis cannot make you do anything you willingly would never do in your conscious state. Steve Mead is a comedy hypnotist that has been performing since 1994.

“I was performing my comedy hypnosis show for a group of high school students in Iowa. During the show, I gave my hypnotized subjects a command that when I snap my fingers, some wild dance music would start to play, and suddenly they would all think they are the worlds greatest dancers and stand up and start competing against each other in a dance contest.

During most hypnosis shows I have performed, when I get to this routine in the show, everyone will get up and dance. In this instance though, when I snapped my fingers on the count of three, and the music started playing, everyone got up and really started moving, except for one boy.

Now this boy had reacted to every previous hypnotic command I had already given him during the show, but when it got to dancing in front of a live audience, he simply sat in his chair and shook his head no. Seeing this reaction, I realized he just really did not want to dance, so I quickly gave him a hypnotic suggestion to be my dance contest judge, which he readily agreed to.”

-Steve Mead

Number Eight:

There are four stages to a Hypnotic Trance

Light Trance: This allows for more self-awareness of your inner working self. Still lost in daydreams or fantasy. Not uncommon when reading books, or watching tv.

Apparent Somnambulism: On par with Sleepwalking, rising up and performing tasks asked of them. Usually used for Comedy Hypnosis shows.

True Somnambulism: Mind and body totally relaxed. Used in much more serious and deeper therapy to induce suggestions like quitting smoking.

Coma State: Also known as the "Esdaile State". This is a very rare form of hypnosis that few people can achieve. It's so deep under any form of Somnambulism that you experience total bliss and euphoria, and even bring those feelings back with you as you wake up. It's basically the plot of the comedy Office Space (1999).

Number Nine:

Anyone can be a certified hypnotist!

There is a National Guild of Hypnotists organization you can join right now. They do require 100 hours of training minimum, and evidently, also enforce a thorough code of ethics. Probably a good thing.

Number Ten:

To be "Mesmerized" originates from an 18th-century dude

In the 18th century, there was a German Physician named Franz Anton Mesmer. He carried an interest in astronomy and hypnosis, even if it wasn't medically accepted yet.

He theorized the existence of a natural energy transference occurring between all animated and inanimate objects; this he called "animal magnetism", sometimes later referred to as mesmerism.

BONUS:

J.R.R Tolkien unearthed an ancient sleep temple

Remember in #3 that a temple was excavated in the UK in 1928?...

When J.R.R. Tolkien was a younger man, he participated in work that unearthed a Roman sleep temple at Lydney Park, Gloucestershire, in 1928. This event inspired attributes of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Specifically, Frodo's encounter with an evil wraith on the Barrow-Downs is reminiscent of the sleep temple ruins.