When Hypnosis Doesn’t Work

Formerly must believe that only 30% of the population could be hypnotized. This idea spread by hypnotists quite serious and researchers, has proved remarkably persistent, even though we now know it is a myth. Hypnosis is a daily phenomenon, shared by all human beings. 

As we now know, the hypnotic trance state is simply a state focused attention. Therefore, we experience trance whenever we become absorbed in a television, a piece of music or a video game. We also experience a trance every time we look out the window, lost in thought, because our attention has become internally focused. Even if we never watched television or listened to music or dreaming, we would still experience the trance state, because our brain is naturally designed to focus inward every ninety minutes, that switches the electrical activity of the right hemisphere. This downtime natural is a chance for the brain to do the housework, and is known as the ultradian rhythm. In other words, while 100% of the population experiencing hypnotic trance on a daily basis. 

So where did the idea of 30% come from? Until the last decades of the 20th century, hypnosis is a practice very authoritarian. Patients were mostly ordered to go into a trance, after a series of suggestibility tests and ratings on a “scale hypnotisability. This is not wrong, necessarily, it was simply the prevailing orthodoxy of the time. It was very good – for 30% of the population who do not respond well to direct orders. 

For the remaining 70%, a more flexible approach is needed. It began to be developed by therapists such as Milton H. Erickson, who acknowledged that most people do not actively being told what to do. The style of hypnosis developed by Erickson and his successors is indirect, subtle and flexible, allowing people maximum freedom to interpret what is said in a way that is meaningful to them. 

This is very important. Hypnotic suggestions only work if they mean something to the person listening to them. If you went to a hypnotherapist and have made the hypnotic suggestion that you may feel as relaxed as you do on the day of a hot summer, it is quite possible that you may even hate the sun, in which case you have little chance to feel relaxed. The hypnotherapist will not know, of course, unless they ask. This raises the second important point – hypnosis tends to only work where there is a relation or mutual trust. To do this, you must feel you have been listened to and understood. If your hypnotherapist does not give you the chance to speak, deliberately misinterpreted what you say and jump directly into what they believe is good for you, chances are you will not get a lot out of the meeting hypnosis. 

The value of a more indirect approach is demonstrated by studies such as Practice Builders Study (2000). This study, with more than 300 smokers against the direct and indirect approaches to hypnosis. The first group received more traditional direct form of hypnosis. Of this group, 51% were still not smoking six months after receiving treatment, which is a pretty impressive figure. However, in the second group that received hypnosis indirect and individual, 95% were still non-smokers in the six month follow up. 

Hypnosis is not a panacea, and will not work for everyone all the time. However, the experience of trance everyone throughout their lives. Successful Hypnosis involves working with this natural ability. A style that is based on rapport, listening and genuine respect for you as a person gives the best chance for that to happen.