talkmagic.co.uk

I'm a hypnotherapist and often use "suggestibility tests" as part of mentalism performances. That's as far as I'm prepared to go, though - I don't use anything that could look like real hypnosis, mainly for insurance reasons, but also because my professional body takes a dim view of stage hypnosis.

Barry

Many years ago before I had any knowledge of hypnosis I went to a therapist to try hypnosis to give up smoking. It was a complete failure. I took an early dislike to the therapist, he made a couple of comments that managed to really irritate me. Before the actual hypnosis he asked me a bunch of questions, one of them was if I got much exercise. I was honest and said not much apart from a few games of golf a week. He assured me that golf wasn't exercise and I should walk every day like he did. My problem with this was that he was about 25 stone and sweating profusely. He then told me that I was obviously lonely because I only mentioned a few family members when he asked me who I cared about. I assured him I wasn't but I was in fact a man and not prone to crying about how much I cared about my friends.
These things seem petty but they maybe distracted me throughout the hypnosis. I realise it's common to say this but at no point did I feel he acheived any state of hypnosis, or even managed to relax me. After he "brought me back" the first thing he asked was if I felt like smoking again. I said yes. He asked me if I had any cigarrettes with me and if so did i feel like throwing them away. I said I did and I didn't as I wanted to smoke them. He then questioned me as to why I had cigarettes with me, telling me that he didn't think I actually wanted to give up and if I did I wouldn't have brought any with me. I pointed out to him that I wasn't known for spending £300 on something I didn't want to do and the reason I had cigarettes on me was because I was looking forward to the moment when I would throw them away and never want to smoke again. He shook his head in disbelief, told me he had never had a failure before and that was it.
I would love someone to prove to me that I was just unfortunate in choosing a therapist I wanted to kill within moments of meeting him and not that it's all a crock but I'm not willing to shell out another £300 to find out.

ed crawford wrote:Many years ago before I had any knowledge of hypnosis I went to a therapist to try hypnosis to give up smoking. It was a complete failure. I took an early dislike to the therapist, he made a couple of comments that managed to really irritate me. Before the actual hypnosis he asked me a bunch of questions, one of them was if I got much exercise. I was honest and said not much apart from a few games of golf a week. He assured me that golf wasn't exercise and I should walk every day like he did. My problem with this was that he was about 25 stone and sweating profusely. He then told me that I was obviously lonely because I only mentioned a few family members when he asked me who I cared about. I assured him I wasn't but I was in fact a man and not prone to crying about how much I cared about my friends.
These things seem petty but they maybe distracted me throughout the hypnosis. I realise it's common to say this but at no point did I feel he acheived any state of hypnosis, or even managed to relax me. After he "brought me back" the first thing he asked was if I felt like smoking again. I said yes. He asked me if I had any cigarrettes with me and if so did i feel like throwing them away. I said I did and I didn't as I wanted to smoke them. He then questioned me as to why I had cigarettes with me, telling me that he didn't think I actually wanted to give up and if I did I wouldn't have brought any with me. I pointed out to him that I wasn't known for spending £300 on something I didn't want to do and the reason I had cigarettes on me was because I was looking forward to the moment when I would throw them away and never want to smoke again. He shook his head in disbelief, told me he had never had a failure before and that was it.
I would love someone to prove to me that I was just unfortunate in choosing a therapist I wanted to kill within moments of meeting him and not that it's all a crock but I'm not willing to shell out another £300 to find out.

A lot of therapy relies on the fact that the patient has spent a huge amount of money on the "session". Not wanting to have wasted such huge amounts of money is a great insentive to stop smoking, lose weight etc.

Bloody hell! I only charge $120 for a stop smoking session. And I usually cure them on the first go. I must put my prices up. 300 quid sounds far more rewarding.

I went with the theory that the most expensive would be the best. I'm a little bit stupid with money!

Actually I think he sounds like an awful therapist. I wasn't there of course but he sounds utterly terrible. I should try again if I were you with another hypnotherapist. Make sure it is someone good though. Check them out though and get recommendations if possible. Hypnosis works very well with smokers.

In the meantime there is a wonderful book called "The Easy Way to Stop Smoking" by Allen Carr. It is a UK publication so you should be able to find it. I believe that will help you and it is a hell of a lot cheaper than 300 quid!

^^^^^
The guy who had the bad expensive experience with a hypnotherapist, please dont judge a whole industry by one person. As far as i know there is no license required officially to be a hypnotherapist so anybody can pretend to be one or try to be one after receiving limited / bad training.

Hypnotherapy can produce great results and changes in somebodies life.


As for the "does hypnosis exist" argument... first please define hypnosis.

Is it something magical that allows you control over another mind? No its not, thats a misconception


They now teach hypnotherapy at Sheffield UNI and most likely in many UNI's around the world. It does exist.. there is no doubt about that. There is just lots of misconceptions about what it is.


From my own education and experience a hypnotist is like a sat nav in a car. It will tell you / your mind where to go. It cannot ever force you to do anything you dont want to do consciously or subconsciously. That is a hollywood misconception promoted by stage hypnotists to make their shows more appealing.


So yes hypnosis does exist, but no its nothing magical, but yes its very effective in helping people improve their lives when done properly. Its all about the training the hypnotist has, dont judge a whole industry by the actions of a few idiots. You get them every where.


Also avoid hypnosis tapes, they are not effective at all. They are also time consuming.



If you want to learn about hypnosis check out Gerald Kein. The guy has been working with hypnosis since he was 16 years old. And has been teaching it since the 80s (atleast). I personally trust him and his work, and have no idea what the general hypnosis community thinks of him. Keep in mind people will never agree on anything, they love to debate and will argue all day to prove their opinion to be correct. Pointless really.

mark lewis wrote:Hypnosis works very well with smokers.

There was a review of studies that shows there isn't much evidence that hypnosis works well for smoking cessation, but the review also noted that the methods of treatment involved varied wildly from study to study. I don't doubt for a moment that certain techniques are effective, whatever the mechanic might be, but I'd recommend trying to find your hypnotherapist through word-of-mouth from people who have had success with particular individuals.

Mr_Grue wrote:

mark lewis wrote:Hypnosis works very well with smokers.

There was a review of studies that shows there isn't much evidence that hypnosis works well for smoking cessation, but the review also noted that the methods of treatment involved varied wildly from study to study. I don't doubt for a moment that certain techniques are effective, whatever the mechanic might be, but I'd recommend trying to find your hypnotherapist through word-of-mouth from people who have had success with particular individuals.

Yeah it all depends on the methods used. Hypnosis is not the same kind of treatment as say a pill. The pill would be the same every time no matter who took it, the ingredients for the pill would stay the same.

Whereas hypnosis has many methods of trying to accomplish the same goal, some people will be using bad methods. The only way we can actually discover the best methods (and gain evidence to back them up) is through scientific studies to be done and published. Then maybe one day we can make it so hypnotists have to be licensed to do therapy. That way we know they are using the right methods instead of old outdated ideas which are proven to be ineffective.

This is an area i plan on spending my life. Been a man of science and somebody who is fascinated by hypnosis it seems right for me to dedicate my time to do studies which will help prove what works and what does not work.

alter28 wrote:As for the "does hypnosis exist" argument... first please define hypnosis.

This. I can understand the nature of the debate in terms of compliance and special state, but am always amused by the "does not exist" camp. It clearly does exist in as much as people the world over have clucked like chickens and danced with floor mops. Hypnosis exists, we're just not sure yet what it actually is.

alter28 wrote:They now teach hypnotherapy at Sheffield UNI and most likely in many UNI's around the world.

This is true, and I don't mean this to be a slur on hypnotherapy, rather just the quality of this sentence as a piece of evidence. Sadly the provision of university courses can no longer be taken as a stamp of academic authority. An increasing number of universities are offering degrees ("science" degrees, no less!) in homeopathy and other fields of complimentary or alternative medicine. Now, say what you like about homeopathy, but science it's not!

I can only speak from experience here. I had one session of hypnotherapy to stop smoking and it worked. The guy who had a bad experience - your session sounds very familiar to mine, however, when i was been asked the questions he never questioned the answers just simply wrote them down. He did also ask me who i cared about etc, but didnt pass any sort of judgement.

This was before the smoking ban and i went out straight after the session and got thoroughly drunk, and didnt even feel like i wanted one, it was truly astonishing. I really dont think it was a placebo effect.

The thing is, im smoking again now, it lasted around a year, then i started the odd one and it escalated again..i suppose thats my own fault, tho ive heard since the refresher sessions are sometimes necessary.

Hypnosis does NOT exist! I, Mark Lewis have said so and naturally anything I say should be taken as gospel.

And I DO know what it is. It is a load of old cobblers.

However if you want a slightly more scientific explanation it is a bunch of daft people conning themselves that they have been hypnotised. In other words self delusion.

I saw on some silly sceptics site a lot of ignorant statements that Hypnotism was "social compliance" at least on stage. That is only part of it. The other part of it on stage at any rate is a lot of exhibitionists playing along. That is not social compliance. That is a bunch of idiots showing off. However your best subjects are the ones who delude themselves that something is happening to them. These are the equally daft people who believe in horoscopes that they read in the paper.

Now if you want to call this self delusion "hypnosis" I won't argue with you. You may wish to argue semantics but I am far too important a person to bother. I prefer to state that it is what it is. A bunch of silly people who have scammed themselves that they have been "hypnotised."

One of the greatest stage hypnotists of the twentieth century told me in confidence that the whole thing was a load of claptrap. He told me that I should take up stage hypnosis and I did. He said to me "You have the chudspah" That last word means audacity.

I can confirm that after "hypnotising" thousands of subjects that I am convinced that nobody is "hypnotised" in the first place. I am quite prepared to agree however that a lot of the subjects THINK they are in trance but then there are lots of daft people in the world thanks be to the Gods.

mark lewis wrote:Now if you want to call this self delusion "hypnosis" I won't argue with you.

Praise be. You are such a sweety.

mark lewis wrote:Hypnosis does NOT exist! I, Mark Lewis have said so and naturally anything I say should be taken as gospel.

And I DO know what it is. It is a load of old cobblers.

However if you want a slightly more scientific explanation it is a bunch of daft people conning themselves that they have been hypnotised. In other words self delusion.

There's hypnosis and there's hypnosis - it's not all the same. I'm not qualified to comment on stage hypnotism (which appears to be what you're talking about here) but hypnotherapy certainly works.

Barry

Im with barry on this one ....

Im not too sure on stage hypnotism either ..... i just dont buy it personally ...
but like Barry said hypnotherapy is another matter and even if as the reverened lewis puts it "a state of self delusion" if it is real in the persons own mind - then it is real. Like depression for example - just because you dont have a pshysical injury to your brain doesnt mean the signs and symptoms are not there....

F x