A friend tells you she discovered hypnosis and that it changed her life: has your friend suddenly gone into a hippie-paranormal frenzy, or is she a victim of a new form of pyramid scam?
Hypnosis is not just the scam you see on television. Widely romanticized by the media and trendy gothic stories featuring mediums in frantic loss of control, hypnosis is a genuine therapeutic process with concrete medical effects, such as teaching you how to fall asleep.
What is hypnosis?
Hypnosis comes from the Greek word hýpnos, which means sleep. Being hypnotized is being in a modified state of consciousness (MSC), a highly suggestible trance state similar to meditation or drowsiness. It is neither a state of sleep nor a state of wakefulness.
How does it work?
When we are conscious, we are governed by a list of social and psychological prohibitions. But when we are hypnotized, consciousness is relegated to the background. In its place, the subconscious (or the unconscious, depending on whether you refer to Freud or Janet) is listening.
You can suggest to the subconscious things it wants to do but cannot do when the conscious mind is in control. It's a kind of psychological boost that removes blockages.
A 2009 study from the University of Liège showed that when a person is placed in a state of hypnosis, their perception of stimuli (painful or not) was reduced.
The usefulness of hypnosis
Now that you are reassured, what are the disorders where hypnosis can help you? You should consult a therapist for more details, but broadly speaking, there are several situations where hypnosis should be able to do something for you.
- To fall asleep
If you have chronic insomnia due to stress problems, hypnosis can help calm these worries. It can be practiced with a therapist or at home through self-hypnosis, using metaphors and suggestions to calm the intellectual hyperactivity that keeps you awake and can even reduce physical pains that prevent you from sleeping.
- For pain
Hypnoanalgesia and hypnosedation can complement anesthetic care for chronic pain, dental surgery, but also for childbirth (for example).
- For digestive disorders
Some digestive disorders (notably due to stress) can be helped by a hypnosis session, especially diarrhea or ulcers.
- For weight problems
To cure bulimia, anorexia, but also simply to have the determination needed to exercise and stick to dietary requirements.
- To quit smoking
If you want to quit smoking (whether tobacco or cannabis), you are on the right path, but you may have difficulties with withdrawal symptoms. Hypnosis can help you get through it, especially knowing there is an 80% success rate!
- For psychological or psychosomatic disorders
We first think of stress, but there is more: phobias, anxieties, memory or shyness problems, impotence or frigidity, but also eczema (often found in young children who cannot express their distress), asthma, etc.
Be careful, however, not to depend on hypnosis for serious illnesses that are unrelated: you might end up like Steve Jobs (who tried to cure his pancreatic cancer with fruit) and Bob Marley (who decided to ignore the gangrene in his toe using cannabis). For hard drug withdrawal, serious psychological illnesses (schizophrenia, among others), and deadly diseases (all kinds of cancers), you cannot do without conventional treatments.
Categories of hypnosis
- Traditional hypnosis: this technique centers around the hypnotist, who gives direct orders and suggestions. The hypnotized person is passive and lets themselves be guided.
- Semi-traditional hypnosis: like traditional hypnosis, the hypnotist gives direct suggestions, but can also use metaphors and indirect suggestions.
- Ericksonian hypnosis: this technique relies on the use of metaphors and verbal stimuli. The hypnotist acts as a guide so that the subject finds the solution to their problems by themselves.
- New hypnosis: this technique is based on the exchange between the hypnotist and the hypnotized and explores the patient's dreams.
Who can be hypnotized? Who can hypnotize?
The answer to these two questions is the same: everyone. Some people find it easier to reach the EMC, but everyone has the potential to achieve it if they are in the right conditions... and if they agree to be hypnotized! According to a study from Stanford University, 5% of the population is resistant to hypnosis, and 10% can reach a trance state more quickly.
You can learn hypnosis techniques from a book or through medical and psychology studies, but you can also self-hypnotize using guides or audio recordings.
Is it dangerous?
Hypnosis is absolutely safe.
The subconscious is an honest entity: it contains the true personality of the subject and cannot be made to do what it does not want to do. That is why hypnosis never causes loss of self-control. If the hypnotized person receives a suggestion against their deep moral values (or even if, simply, they really do not want to), they will immediately come out of their trance. It will be all the more difficult (if not impossible) to re-hypnotize this person, as they will have lost all trust in their hypnotist.
To date, no adverse effects that can be indisputably attributed to hypnosis exist in the scientific literature. There is as little danger in being hypnotized or self-hypnotizing as there is in taking a nap!
The stages of hypnosis
- Induction
Also called a “controlled confusion,” it is the first step of hypnosis. It consists of dissociating the hypnotized person from their immediate environment to allow them to abstract themselves and be carried away by their imagination.
- Dissociation
Through visual, auditory, and kinesthetic elements, the hypnotized person is provided with components to build an imaginary world in which they will feel safe enough to let go. They can then take stock of their mind and become lucid enough to find a solution to their problem.
- Anchoring
The hypnotist can associate the trance entry with a word, gesture, or sound, to facilitate and speed up the subject's trance entry during subsequent sessions.
- Paradoxical wakefulness
In this phase, the patient normally manages to reconcile with their problem by counteracting it with their abilities, which they examined during dissociation.
- The awakening
Upon emerging from hypnosis, the hypnotized person becomes fully lucid and conscious again.
Hoom Band: immersive stories to fall asleep... inspired by hypnosis
Hypnosis helps to interrupt thoughts and creates an ideal state for falling asleep well. That is why we launched the Hoom project, a library of immersive hypnotic stories and relaxing atmospheres available on a mobile app, to be listened to with the Hoom Band audio headband, specially designed for sleep.
We have brought together hypnotherapists, sophrologists, sleep doctors, and other specialists to design and record this unique audio content, to listen to for falling asleep!
You can discover the HoomBand: Hypnosis for Sleeping project in our Livlab store!
And to get a preview of the stories, you can listen exclusively on YouTube to our “Journey into Space” right here:
Oda and the Wonderful Sleep: a solution for children with insomnia
As a harmless and completely natural technique based on the power of imagination, hypnosis seems to be a technique of choice for treating children's sleep onset problems. That is why we created Oda and the Wonderful Dodo, a book based on the work of Swedish psychologist Carl-Johan Forssén Ehrlin, to help you put your children to sleep.
In the book, induction is represented by descending the long staircase. It is a metaphor for descending into the depths of the unconscious — metaphors are one of the key tools of hypnosis that provide a guiding thread for a session while helping the patient visualize.
Visual and auditory illustrations help children imagine a sleep-friendly environment in their bedroom. Throughout the adventure, specific adjectives are repeated to suggest to the child great tiredness and an imminent need to sleep.
Suggestions, metaphors, and injunctions — all these tools are used to relax your child and allow them to gently guide themselves safely to sleep. You can download it here!
On the same topic:
Discover the effects of sleep deprivation
Sleep and children, a special relationship
5 positions for a good night's sleep
