If so, please describe it.
What I really want to know is, if the hypnotist had you visualize or re-live/re-vist something that happened during your life, how would you describe the affect? Did you really feel like you were actually there, again?
I LOVED IT.
IT WAS BETTER THAN CATS.
I’M GOING TO SEE IT AGAIN AND AGAIN…
I LOVED IT.
IT WAS BETTER THAN CATS.
I’M GOING TO SEE IT AGAIN AND AGAIN…
(Old SNL reference, in case you were wondering.)
Um, well, I went to this dude for hypnosis when I first started dealing craps. I would be a complete nervous wreck if I had more than about one person on the game. He had this deal where if it didn’t take the first time, you got a second session for free.
I was a tough case. He told my mother (who came along for the ride) that I was the hardest person he ever tried to work with (I had a psycotherapist comment that I have a “fast idle”- most people think I’m pretty mellow, but in reality, my little spring is wound waaaayyyyy too tight). Anyhoo, I did go back for the second, free session. That time he managed to put me under, but he did tell me that in thirty years of practicing clinical hypnosis, I was the first person he couldn’t hypnotize on the first try. And, yes, it did work. I followed the program of relaxation techniques and visualizations he gave me, and in about two weeks, I could handle myself on a busy game and enjoy the adrenaline rush without getting totally freaked out.
Hell, after having it done to me once, I discovered I can do it to myself.
Great relaxation technique.
I have never been hypnotized, but WAAAAY back in 1960, my mom was pregnant with my little sister. She did childbirth through hypnosis. Absolutely pain-free. They even stuck needles in her face, and she didn’t feel anything. Very cool, and very progressive.
Wow! Go EchoKittyMama! How come THAT never caught on?
My coworker was hypnotized to stop smoking. He says it worked.
I was so drunk once I fell asleep standing in the shower for more than an hour and woke up feeling very refreshed.
Does that count? 
Yeah, AuntieEm…I don’t know why it didn’t take off, but she was really impressed with the whole thing. I would have tried it if it was offered. Unfortunately, I was on the economy plan and didn’t even get a SITS BATH, fercrissakes!
I went to a hypnotist to quit smoking. I didn’t quit, but I was hypnotized. It was weird, I was aware of what was going on around me, but I couldn’t move. I remember sitting in the chair and trying to move my arms, but I couldn’t. It was like being asleep, but hearing everything around, and being aware of things around me - but i couldn’t move, and I felt like I was very powerless. It wasn’t a visit-a-previous-time-in-my-life type visit, and I didn’t have to do any talking, unlike what you see in the movies. It was a bizarre experience, and I’m glad I tried it (just for the weirdness factor) even if I didn’t quit smoking.
A friend of mine’s father is a dentist, and also a hypnotist. She and all her siblings have never had any anesthesia for dental work–their dad just hypnotizes them. No joke.
Now me, once a friend of mine needed subjects for a Psych. research thing she was working on, so a bunch of us took a few personality inventory things, and were hypnotized by her so she could have some data. It was an interesting experience. She started out telling me I couldn’t move my arm, and what do you know, I couldn’t! That was odd. But then she told me I wouldn’t be able to smell anything, and stuck something under my nose and asked me what did I smell? It smelled very faint and sweet. Afterwards, she showed me what it was–it was a cottonball absolutely soaked in the most sickly sweet perfume–it should have choked me. But nothing else worked. She tried regression, tried to convince me there was a fly in the room, tried to leave a post-hypnotic suggestion. No dice. She told us afterwards that they’d been looking for correlations between personality type and hypnotizability, and the things she went through were a sort of scale from hardly hypnotized to very deep under. I guess I’m sort of hypnotizable, but not very. But it was a very interesting experience.
I’ve been hypnotized a half-dozen times and performed it on my students in the classes I taught. (Search for my old posts, mostly in GQ, if you want to read more about hypnosis.) I didn’t do the experience-reliving on them, but when I did it it was similar to having a very clear dream about being there. The biggest difference, of course, was that I had complete control over the memory. I couldn’t “remember” things that never happened, nor could I remember clearly details that had been fuzzy before.
Hypnosis is a relaxation method, and it’s possible to remember things better in a relaxed state, but it’s not guaranteed that you will. In my experience, reliving a past event was only interesting in that I’d thought of something I hadn’t really thought about in a while, and it was nice to relive those memories.
Most interesting! Is it still done with a pendulum?
And in the hypnotic state, do your brain waves change frequency?
Oh come on, they always tell you “When I snap my fingers, you will remember nothing!”
Pendulums are not necessary-- it’s all done verbally, and in fact many times, I, my fellow teachers, and our students went through the process with our eyes closed (and no, our eyeballs don’t turn all spirally ;)).
Don’t know about brain wave changes, but I imagine they’d be similar to the brain waves you’d exhibit while relaxing in a grassy field on a mild spring day, or resting quietly on a soft, fuzzy bed.
I had a guy try to hypnotize me and get me to remember something from a past life.
I really tried to keep and open mind and cooperate, but I wasn’t able to shut off the voice in my head that said “this guy’s a loon”.
I don’t believe that I was actually hypnotized. There wasn’t any sort of change in my consciousness and he didn’t try the usual tests like telling me I couldn’t move my arm, etc.
I’d be interesting in trying again. Just the hypnosis, not the past life bizness.
What kind of training & education/requirements are needed for hypnotherapy training?
Link or cites, please?
I’m curious.