Different Styles of Hypnosis and
Hypnotherapy
DLScott CH.t. / CDP
Hypnosis has been around for a long time, and during that time it has gone through phases, changes and styles that match the needs and beliefs of the time.
Since ancient times it has been associated with Shamanism, religion, healing, magic, and in ancient Egypt it is believed that it was used in “sleep chambers” for the very reasons I mentioned above.
In ancient Egypt, China, Jewish rituals, and Hindu ceremonies, the Trance phenomenon was used to help elicit cures and changes in people. This style of hypnosis continued for many years. The common man thought of hypnosis in terms of faith healing, prayer work, and supernatural powers that were attributed to holy men, or medicine men, The Shamans of the community.
Ancient Far Eastern practices such as Buddhism, martial arts, and meditation, were teaching people to induce trances through forms of self hypnosis, and guided imagery, while Western philosophies were relying on forms of Prayer Work to induce the state.
It was later found that Native American practices relied on types of Prayer, sweat lodges, and even certain herbs and plants to induce altered states which we now know as the Alpha brain wave state.
The father of modern medicine, Hippocrates, did write about “incidences of hypnotic types of trance, but primarily it remained in the hands of the spiritual leaders of the tribes.
Throughout the ages there were military leaders and madmen who seemed to grasp the ability to utilize certain words and phrases that would incite people, actually manipulate them into a form of mass hypnosis.
Due to the work and research of such people of Anton Mesmer; from whom we get the term mesmerism; people like Janet Bramwell, Roger Bacon, Emile Coue, and noted father of psychology Sigmund Freud, Hypnosis has slowly been brought into the modern times.
Most people have received their knowledge of hypnosis, and hypnotherapy through the entertainment field, stage hypnotist, movies, television, and books, and generally when clients come to see me for the first time, or call me to ask questions about the process, their questions are usually based on what they have seen or heard through the field of entertainment.
One other little discussed field of hypnosis, (in the clinic field of hypnosis that is), is erotic hypnosis which is primarily concerned with such things as fetishes, animal training, submission, and sexual fantasies.
Many people are not aware that the modern day movement known as New Thought Spirituality was actually started by a man named Phinneas Parkhurst Quimby, a hypnotist who lived in the later part of the 19th century and the earlier part of the 20th century. Phinneas was a talented hypnotized who deduced that many spiritual healings were actually accomplished through hypnotic trance. He went on to train such people as Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of The Church of Christian Science, and his trainings influenced Ernest Holmes, the Founder of The Church of Religious Science and Charles and Myrtle Philmore, who founded The Unity Church. Each of these churches teaches a variation of a technique called Scientific Mind Treatment. Scientific Mind Treatment usually includes having the person close their eyes, focuses on their breathing, and use some form of words or guided images which help to induce and deepen the trance phenomenon.
One of the more recent avenues of interest when it comes to New Thought Spirituality is the idea of The Law of Attraction. The basic idea of The Law of Attraction is that we attract into our lives, that which we focus our attention on. There are many people and groups that have capitalized on this belief and claiming that just by using guided imagery, meditation, and specific forms of self hypnosis, you can alter or change your life by producing the physical manifestation of anything that you concentrate on in your mind. While the idea is being shown to be true through such fields of research as Quantum Physics, the popularizing of the effect is being thrown at the general public without including such important factors such as gaining control of your feelings, emotions, and thoughts, through such things as Emotional Release Therapy, of The Law of Conscious Attention. All of these factors and ideas are utilized and taught through hypnosis, self hypnosis, and such techniques as EMDR.
In the late sixties a man named Jose Silva developed a wildly successful program called Silva Mind Control. While Mr. Silva said that his program was deferent than hypnosis, it actually trained the participant in a form of meditation or self hypnosis, and allowed the participant to lower their brain waves patterns into the Alpha brain wave state. While in this state, Mr. Silva used guided imagery to create all manner of effects that produce physical healings, allow weight loss, smoking cessation, and produce an increase in desired events and activities. All of these same effects are documented and recorded in people who utilize hypnosis and self hypnosis.
More recently there has been resurgence in the practice of Buddhism, and the more modern version in our culture, Mindfulness. Mindfulness is being taught, through programs at such places as the University of Washington, to patients in an effort to help manage their cravings to substances such as alcohol, and other chemical substances.
In any case hypnosis utilizes specific techniques that access the incredible potential and power of the conscious and subconscious mind.
In my own practice I teach clients to use Emotional Release Therapy, self hypnosis, and specific mindfulness techniques to help them release, manage, and eliminate beliefs and behaviors that have caused them to remain stuck in problems and issues that they have not been able to deal with through any other form of therapy.
My clients will come seeking magic, a type of treatment that will put them to sleep and when they wake up there problems will be gone. What they find is a way to access an incredible power that they have had all along, the power to use the energy of their subconscious mind to cure themselves. They are taught to take control of their thoughts and emotions, to learn how to become the Master of their lives, instead of the victims of their circumstances. Call Foundations Hypnosis Seattle ~ Everett, NOW at (206) 417-4900. Everett counseling therapist and North Seattle Hypnotherapy