The Hypnosis Curse
When you hear the word "hypnosis," what comes to mind?
I did a search on?hypnosis images?and this is the first graphic that popped up, besides a bunch of swirly circles and swinging watches.
That image ticks me off for so many reasons.
First, it suggests that male predators use hypnosis to take advantage of weak-minded females who have no power to resist them.
It's flat-out false!
I know hundreds of male hypnotists and none of them act that way.
Nor can hypnosis force you to do anything against your will.
Just ask the military and CIA.
They tried developing a Manchurian candidate who would turn into an assassin just by hearing a hypnosis "trigger" word, but they gave up the project because it didn't work.
After interviewing those who did act in homicidal ways, they found that those few men would act the same way with or without the hypnotic suggestion.
Hypnosis stage (entertainment) shows kept the profession alive in the 1930s-1950s. The most famous hypnosis stage performer back then was a gentleman by the name of Ormond McGill.
The National Guild of Hypnotists, the largest hypnosis association in the world, called Ormond McGill the?Dean of American Hypnotists.
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They even created a prestigious award for?Best Of The Best?Hypnotists, named after him. I actually was given that award (a fancy chair) about 14 years ago.
Yet, because of the popularity of those stage hypnosis shows and antics in Las Vegas, on daytime television, and at high schools, most people associate hypnosis with "clucking like a chicken."
Plus, Hollywood filmmakers started shooting films where monsters like Dracula were using hypnosis to trap their victims.
The last movie I saw that used the same concept was?Get Out!
(Spoiler alert) A white female hypnotist was tapping a teacup that somehow put black men into such a deep trance that they became her slaves.
What a wonderful message to send out into the world.
I've been in the hypnosis industry for over 30 years and have never heard of the "teacup trance method." Why? Because it's bullshit.
But, because people are very suggestible, it just created more fear around a field that has done incredible amounts of good in our world.
The second problem I have with hypnosis has to do with hypnotists themselves.
I'll share the rest of my thoughts on that with you in the next article. Please Subscribe to this Linkedin newsletter so I can notify you when it's released!
:) Tim Shurr
PS, If you read my emails all the way to the end, regardless of how long they are...you are my favorite reader! ??
Executive Director at The International Hypnosis Research Institute, LLC
3 年Interesting. I wonder how long those who practice "hypnotherapy" will have to continue apologizing and giving such explanation. My cardiologist doesn't when it comes to his craft. Although I plan to continue using the words hypnosis and hypnotherapy, perhaps we should start deprecating those words as relics of the 19th century. Suggestion and imagination are alive and well. Of course, until the "art of suggestion" becomes mainstream in accredited post-secondary instittutions, we'll start getting the cultural authority that is warranted. But there is way too much invested in the way things are done now for change to actually occur. Ironically, hypnosis is all about change. Look forward to your articles.