Hypnosis is described as an altered state of consciousness where the person under hypnosis is more relaxed and that allows the unconscious and subconscious areas of the mind to be more readily accessed and investigated. Should the person be suppressing problems, hypnotherapy is claimed to provide a method to get at those problems and solve them once and for all. A person under hypnosis is usually guided by an hypnotherapist.
Skeptical Perspective
Hypnosis can be successful with certain people. When under hypnosis the mind is in a state of vulnerability. The high level of suggestibility of the mind - perhaps the same state that allows one to believe dreams when asleep and hallucinations when under the influence of drugs and alcohol - can be abused very easily. Because there is no clear and foolproof guidelines employed by hypnotherapists nor any significant regulation on their practice, it is common for patients to be adversely affected by hypnosis. There is also no evidence for the claims that through hypnosis real and actual repressed problems exist and can be accessed and solved. Long-term side effects are also unknown. Several harmful examples of hypnosis are recorded including cases where hypnosis was used as a form of mind-control, a method of implanting memories and suggesting problems and occurrences that didn't exist before the hypnosis (such as alien abductions) and so on. Skeptics are concerned at the ease to which hypnosis can and is being abused and the lack of adequate regulation and monitoring of hypnotherapists. |
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